*

8:00PM EST update:

My brain is somewhat de-fried. Iginla to Boston. Again. A lot of coin… even with his proven production and such. 

Matt Cooke to… Minnesota? I know a few Wild fans (not really, but in theory) who will hate this. You won’t find a more vilified opposition player than Cooke in Minnesota. Three years and $7.5 million.

The Wild were busy, shipping out Devin Setoguchi to new division rival Winnipeg in exchange for a second round draft pick. Fantasy analysis on this deal will be up later.

Edmonton signed former Isles prospect Jesse Joenssu to a two-year deal. Missed this one earlier. A kind of interesting signing. Has a lot of talent, yet to put it together though.

*

5:30 PM EST update:

After four cups of coffee, close to 15,000 words written, and way too many tweets sent out, my brain and my fingers need a break. Back in a few – Angus.

 

*

4:30 PM EST update:

The Canucks have signed center Brad Richardson. Two year deal worth $1.15 million per season. This is the end of Max Lapierre in Vancouver. Richardson will likely center line three with Hansen and Booth or Higgins (as things stand right now).

Jeff Schultz signs a one-year deal with the Kings for $700k. The Kings losing Scuderi and replacing with Schultz is a huge downgrade defensively, but Scuderi wanted to return to Pittsburgh from what it sounds like.

*

4:00 PM update:

Yannick Weber to Vancouver – one year, one way, $650k. Good depth signing. He never really got a fair shake in Montreal, and was passed over on the depth chart by Nate Beaulieu.

Seven year extension for Travis Hamonic, at a shade under $4 million per. Great term and amount, but remember he is giving up four FA and three UFA years. So on the open market this equates to a much bigger contract. That being said, he is already arguably the most important defenseman on that roster. Monster upside – think of a more physical Brent Seabrook.

*

3:30PM EST update:

Bobby Ryan has been traded to Ottawa. More to come.

Dominic Moore to New York – one year and $1 million. Great pickup by the Rangers here. 

Anton Khudobin is off to Carolina to back up (or compete for the spot with Justin Peters) Cam Ward. One year, $800k.

Nystrom to the Preds – four years at $2.5 million per. SERIOUSLY? HOW MANY FORWARDS DO THEY NEED?

The Preds have signed Nystrom/Cullen/Stalbert/Hendricks for a combined $11 million per season.

*

3:05PM EST update:

Tampa with a lot of interest in Filppula according to Pierre LeBrun. He’d be a great fit as the 2C there.

According to RDS, there are some rumours of a Maxime Talbot-to-Montreal trade in the words. Would help alleviate Philly’s cap crunch a bit, and they have an extra center or two to deal with.

*

Nashville has signed goaltender Carter Hutton to back up Pekka Rinne in Nashville.

*

Some really good free agents out there still. Roy, Lombardi, Iginla, Morrow, Koivu, Filppula, Grabovski, Zidlicky, Antropov, and so on. Well not all of them are really good, but lots of talent left.

*

Dallas has their backup to Kari Lehtonen. Dan Ellis has signed a two-year deal. He’s one of the better backups in the league, and the Stars are definitely a team on the rise.

*

Some minor signings that have come through:

Mike Mottau one year in Florida. Depth on defense. Joey Crabb two years in Florida. Depth up front.

Peter Regin is back! My one-time sleeper of the year signed with the Islanders. An Ullstrom replacement on line three perhaps?

More on Regin coming later today.

Rusty Olesz, the one-time highly-touted Panthers prospect, has signed with the Devils. 

*

Michael Ryder is considering options from both Boston and New Jersey. A proven scorer, surprised he isn’t getting much attention. 

*

Detroit and Ottawa are now division rivals…

*

Love the Weiss contract. Great amount, fair term. $4.9 million per for five years.

*

Clarkson contract – too much and too long, but not as bad as I was expecting. He brings a needed element to the Leafs lineup. Bozak is back too. As I said below, the analysis is coming soon.

*

Chicago has re-signed both Michal Handzus and Michal Rozsival. One year for Handzus at $1 million. Solid signings – both were key vets on the team during their recent Stanley Cup win.

 

*

Some more tidbits to pass along:

The Sharks have confirmed that Brent Burns will be a forward on a full time basis this season.

Alex Stalock has been signed to back up Niemi next year.

*

Matt Cullen and Viktor Stalberg both heading to Nashville according to reports. Analysis up soon.

*

Detroit is closing in on Stephen Weiss to center line two.

*

Bozak is back in TO, and Clarkson is heading there to join him. Analysis on both of those signings coming soon.

*

Keith Aucoin to St. Louis. Really nice depth signing as a 13th forward. Very talented.

*

Per RDS…

 

Renaud Lavoie @RenLavoieRDS
Roberto Luongo est toujours en reflexion. Il étudie toujours ses options. On ne sait pas encore s’il acceptera de retourner avec les Canucks

 

Any translators out there?

*

Gilbert Brule wants back in the NHL according to his agent. Will any team bite?

*

Rumours that Kris Russell is heading to Calgary for a draft pick. I thought he was on waviers the other day, so will follow up on this one. 

*

Rob Scuderi heading back to Pittsburgh, who now have a very solid defense corps.

*

Ryan Clowe signs with New Jersey and Pierre-Marc Bouchard is off to the Islanders.

*

Nathan Horton agrees to a seven-year deal with the Blue Jackets. Columbus has some decent pieces in place now with Horton, Gaborik, and Bobrovsky. 

*

Should the Canucks sign Matt Cullen?

*

Love the Boyd Gordon signing for Edmonton. Plays crazy tough minutes, wins faceoffs. Will make life MUCH easier for Nugent-Hopkins/Gagner, and company. Residual fantasy value at its finest here.

*

Mike Ribeiro reportedly signs with the Coyotes. I’m surprised there wasn’t more talk about him leading up to today. He’s averaged nearly 70 points a year over the last nine seasons and had over a point per game in 2013. 

 

*

Thomas Greiss heading to Phoenix on a one-year deal to backup Mike Smith. 

 

*

 

Angus here. My updates will be in black. Amato’s in blue.

 

Vancouver writer Jason Botchford with an interesting tweet – he expects Tortorella to reunite Kesler and Burrows on line two. The rest of the forward lines, according to Botchford:

 

Sedin-Sedin-Kassian

Burrows-Kesler-Higgins

Booth-???-Hansen

 

*

 

Another Senator on the move. Peter Regin inks a one-year deal with the Islanders.

 

*

 

Andrew Ference heading to Edmonton according to Sportsnet’s John Shannon. After drafting Darnell Nurse and this signing, the Oilers look to be finally starting to focus on defense. 

 

*

Clarkson will NOT be going to Edmonton, accorinding to Bob Stauffer.

*

Grabovski has cleared waivers and will be bought out.

Phoenix has re-signed 4th line center Kyle Chipchura. He had some interest from other teams. Big guy, decent skill, gritty. Boyd Gordon is likely gone from Phoenix.

*

Evgeni Nabokov owners rejoice – he’s back on Long Island. One year, $3.25 million.

*

Amato will be helping me (Angus) updating the ramblings with rumours, minor signings, and other news/notes to pass along throughout the day:

Ray Emery may be returning to Philadelphia.

The Oilers are looking at Jason LaBarbera as their backup to Dubnyk. Great news for Dubnyk owners, who had to be worried about Edmonton’s interest in Cory Schneider.

*

Lauri Korpikoski – four-year deal with Phoenix (re-signing) worth $10 million total. He’s a versatile and solid two-way forward. Good term, fair amount.

Dallas and Detroit are both in on Dan Cleary. Good second/third line winger. Jim Nill is obviously familiar with Cleary from his time in Detroit.

*

Some other updates:

Dreger: Look for Ryane Clowe to get a five-year term (sure earned it last year with his offensive numbers….)

The Leafs like Rob Scuderi – one of those guys with “residual” fantasy value.

Vancouver is looking for a bottom six center and depth defenseman. Not much cap space. This tells me that they will give one of the kids a shot at a top six spot (this is from LeBrun, and “kids” refers to Kassian and/or Jensen).

*

Darren Dreger: I firmly believe Daniel Alfredsson is leaving Ottawa.

According to Dreger, Detroit is the front runner.

*

About 90 minutes to do until free agency opens. David Clarkson should be prepared to see some significant contract offers headed his way if the rumours prove to be true….

 

*

Wrote a three part free agency primer for Canucks.com:

Part I – scoring depth

Part II – checking centers

Part III – depth defensemen

*

Stephen Weiss is the primary target in Detroit to replace Valtteri Filppula. Weiss is likely looking for at least $5 million on a long term deal. Will the Wings give that to him?

*

Daniel Alfredsson is down to Ottawa, Boston, and Detroit. I'm surprised more teams aren't in the mix, but I guess he picked those three as the finalists. He's a great player and an even better leader/teammate. It would be weird to see him in another sweater, though.

*

Mikhail Grabovski with some… er… choices words for his former coach.

Don't hold anything back, Grabo:

“I play in the [expletive] Russian KHL, I make lots of [expletive] points and what’s going to happen? He make me [expletive] play on the fourth line and he put me in the playoffs on the fourth line and third line again,” Grabovski spewed. “Yeah, I don’t score goals. I need to work more about that. I know that. But if you feel support from your coach [you’ll find success]. I don’t feel any support from this [expletive] idiot.”

Toronto waiving their best center (by far) was a very bizarre move, but I'll reserve full judgement until I see what Dave Nonis does this summer. Grabovski was overpaid at $5.5 million, but not by much.

*

Breaking news: 21-year-old millionaires likes to party. Seguin will mature – I know a lot of former players are glad that social media/camera phones weren't around back in the day.

*

Steve Yzerman's priority tomorrow – finding a number two center.

On if a No. 2 center is a priority: Yeah, (buying out Lecavalier) changes things a little bit, obviously. We'd like to have somebody in the middle there, preferably with some experience. … There's a hole there, and at the end of the day if we're not able to do it through free agency or trade, we've got players on our roster that are centermen who are playing the wing, and if we have to we'll move one of them back there and I think we'll be okay.

*

The Phoenix Coyotes will now be known as the Arizona Coyotes.

Not much else to say there really – kind of sick of writing about Coyote-related matters that don't involve actual hockey.

*

And this will get buried on the main page today, but a look back at the past free agent madness – from 2010 and 2011. It is always good to look back and reflect on past signings to see what worked, what didn't, and figure out how to use that information to better predict the future from today's events.

2010 best/worst signings of July 1

2011 best/worst signings of July 1

*

Claude Giroux's deal is done, and this one will sting for those of you in salary leagues. Eight years, $66.2 million ($8.2 per season). This also comes with a full no movement clause.

*

Keith Ballard is fantasy relevant again, even in a bottom pairing role.

In his last two seasons with Florida, here was his multi-category production.

2008-09:

8 goals

34 points

72 PIM

172 hits

136 blocked shots

2009-10:

8 goals

28 points

88 PIM

156 hits

201 blocked shots

*

Who will Garth Snow bring in to start for the Islanders this year?

The most impressive free agents left (Ilya Bryzgalov, Ray Emery, Tim Thomas) aren’t all that impressive. A few possible trade targets (Ryan Miller, Jonas Hiller, Jaroslav Halak) are all under contract for only one more season. If Snow was unwilling to trade Nino Niederreiter and the 15th overall pick for Schneider (as some have suggested), you’d surmise he wouldn’t be willing to meet the asking price for any of those goalies.

*

Rangers prospect winger Marek Hrivik is standing out at development camp. I mentioned him last summer as a guy to keep an eye on – free agent out of the QMJHL, a ton of talent, plays a pro game.

With Blue leading 2-0 in the first of two 25-minute periods, Hrivik sparked a two-goal rally in a manner of seconds. First, Hrivik, a strong contender to make the Rangers out of training camp with captain Ryan Callahan and Carl Hagelin sidelined at least the first month with separated shoulders, skated in from the left and roofed a sharp-angle shot to make it 2-1. Hrivik then won the ensuing faceoff, took the puck himself and skated deep into the offensive zone.

Going to the left, Hrivik found on Sergey Tolchinsky his right and Tolchinsky was able to tip in Hrivik's feed. In the second period, Hrivik, controlling the puck with his strength along the right boards, made a deft pass down low by tapping at the puck through his legs and the play set up Thomas Spelling for a goal.

*

Sticking with the Rangers – here is a closer look at defensive prospect Brady Skjei.

Skjei had a disappointing freshman campaign from an offensive standpoint, but all of the tools are there:

With his size at 6’2 and 200+ pounds you expect him to be physical, laying out forwards as they skate into the zone, crunching guys into the glass, or clearing them out from the front of the net. But he just doesn’t have that nastiness to his game.

When you watch him skate or handle the puck at times, you think he could be another Scott Niedermayer or Paul Coffey weaving through all five opponents on his way to a highlight reel goal or assist. But we’re yet to really see either of those things develop in his game, and this season should be a good barometer of whether we ever will.

*

Patrik Elias remains a Devil – three years and $16.5 million total. Good term and fair amount for a player that refuses to show any signs of aging.

*

Interesting note here – Corban Knight will wear #10 with Calgary. No random/high training camp number. He will be on the final roster, and depending on what the Flames do with the rest of their off-season, could be a prominent part of their offense this coming season.

*

A really interesting read – how to evaluate defensemen using on-ice shooting percentages.

Mike Colligan takes a look at Simon Despres "arrested development" for the Hockey Writers.

Marty Brodeur… prophet?

Who has two thumbs and will get a huge opportunity in Chicago next season? This guy.

Blake Geoffrion skated for the first time since suffering a serious head injury. Great news.

Expect more offense from Darnell Nurse this coming season in the OHL.

Should the Canucks – or any other team – sign Jonathan Blum?

*

Roberto Luongo with a nice gift for Cory Schneider:

*