Pierre-Marc Bouchard will avoid arbitration, as he has signed a one-year deal with the Wild. 

The Isles have signed Mike Comrie. He'll be their No.1 center whether he's good enough or not. He won't be lining up with any superstars, so 70 points is out of reach for him yet again. I can see 65 though, same as Guerin.

The Sabres signed Jocelyn Thibault to be their backup goalie, and they also re-signed Michael Ryan and Andrew Peters. 

The Caps signed Kyle Wilson to a contract. The 22-year-old is ranked #134 on my fantasy prospects list and I had him on the Wild, but apparently he was a free agent. He was Hershey's rookie of the year last season with a point per game. He gets a small bump in my prospect rankings.

The Caps also signed Jame Pollock, a defenseman who led his German team in scoring last season. The Caps are fairly deep on the point with Poti, Pothier, Eminger, Morrissonn, Jurcina and Green already locks, but keep the 28-year-old on your distant radar.

Bill Guerin has signed a two-year deal with the Islanders worth $4.5 million. He could be good for 65 points here, as the the Isles need all the scoring help that they can and they have a great PP quarterback in Bergeron. The PP points will see to it that Guerin does reasonably well. At least for the first year of the contract. 

The Habs have reportedly signed Tomas Plekanec to a two-year deal. Meanwhile, the Avs have signed Marek Svatos to a one-year contract worth $1.2 million.

Lots of arbitration being avoided today.

The Islanders moved up about 25 spots in next summer's draft simply by trading Alan Rourke. The Oilers gave up a 2nd rounder for Rourke and a 3rd. 

Anders Eriksson has signed a two-year deal with Calgary.

The Pens have come to terms with Erik Christensen and Maxime Talbot. Talbot was for two years. They still need to lock in Colby Armstrong.

The Devils have signed Kevin Weekes to be the second Maytag repairman in the NHL, backing up Martin Brodeur. He'll get a few more starts than the usual backups get with Brodeur, likely in response to criticism that Brodeur was overworked last year. The criticism was incorrect…but it was out there. 

TSN is reporting that the Red Wings have come to a two-year contract agreement with Jiri Hudler. As well, the Rangers have re-signed Petr Prucha for an undisclosed amount and term. 

I have had several questions/comments in the forum and via email on this so I thought I would explain it here where all can see. Every July 1 or August 1 (depending on time) I do my predictions for the coming season. I take these new predictions and use them for my formula in my Rankings chart. Throughout the year, I tweak the predictions that are in the Rankings, but once a year I start from scratch. Think of it as an "audit" of sorts. So what you see in the latest Top 300 Rankings is my audited version. I feel that these rankings, once per year, are at their peak accuracy. This is why there are so many big changes – all the predictions have been well-researched and re-vamped. Hope this helps! 

So…Ruslan Fedotenko can make $2.9 million on an offense-starved team like the Islanders, but the Isles (or any GM for that matter) couldn't (or won't) come up with $3.5 million to bring the best offensive player not in the NHL over from Russia? I would have Morozov over here so fast it would make your head spin. Dobber for GM!

The Ducks were finally able to bring Maxim Kondratiev back over from Russia, signing him to a contract. With Niedermayer likely gone, he will likely be a No.4 or 5 guy with the team. But his minutes will still be minimal, as Beauchemin and Schneider will eat up a lot of them.

Teppo Numminen will remain with the Sabres after inking a one-year deal.

With the Oilers getting the shaft on the Michal Nylander deal, they are now sitting on a big pile of money. The Edmonton Journal is speculating on a couple of things. One, they could give Zach Parise or Tomas Vanek a big offer sheet. That would be smart. Two, they could trade for Glen Murray. That would be dumb. 

The Flames have signed Grant Stevenson and according to my depth chart, he should make the team as a third or fourth-line winger. If Keenan takes a liking to him, you could see 40 points, but I would put money on the low 20s.

The deadline for filing for arbitration is 5pm today. Here are some of the players who will file if they do not sign by then: Mike Ribeiro, Jussi Jokinen, Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and P-M Bouchard.

The Wild has come to an agreement with rearguard Sean Hill, but will not announce anything until they figure out if they are allowed to under the NHL/NHLPA drug plan. Hill still has 19 games left in his suspension. 

As you know, I was away last weekend and I thought I'd share with you some of the benefits of having constant kick-ass success in hockey pools…first off, here I am at a small out of the way town, which decided to honor me by changing their name:

Then it was off to relaxation with beer, hottub and hottie…

Stick with me – I'll bring you glory!