Angus again with more Hamhuis-to-Vancouver stuff to chew on. According to Pierre Lebrun, Hamhuis would like to return to Canada to play (all things being equal, which means he still needs his money). Edmonton is probably not an ideal destination right now – Calgary is in cap hell, and both Toronto and Montreal have enough high-paid defensemen. Ottawa could be a fit.

Read my on-the-fly tweets for some Ellis/Price analysis. The fact his rights were traded for, as opposed to hitting the UFA scene, speaks volumes about his value. He’s the perfect mentor for Price because he’s mentally tough and is still young enough to be Price’s close friend. I love this move because Price will be able to watch and absorb a young veteran playing with maturity and a strong work ethic.

The Habs have traded Sergei Kostitsyn to Nashville for Dustin Boyd and Dan Ellis. I’ll analyze this later tonight or first thing tomorrow. But at first blush, those three players have found a great situation – and Carey Price gets his perfect backup/1B. All three players need to be signed.

Very interesting Tweet from CapGeek.com saying Flames’ deal with Henrik Karlsson is one-way. If so, it’s even more like Gustavsson 2.0 now. *And it is (thanks to Fzusher for confirming) a one-way deal on his profile page. His NHL salary is $500K. Great timing for School of Block.

My THN article is a must-read. I review my Top 20 forwards in this year’s draft (fantasy-wise) found in the Prospects Report, and I update them complete with reasoning. HERE

Angus here, just a quick thought – it’s pretty obvious to me that Dan Hamhuis wants to play in the West. When he didn’t sign with the Flyers, one of the best clubs in the league, people said it was because he wanted a bigger role. Well the Penguins, another great club, would probably put Hamhuis on their top pairing, and he still is balking.

Word is his contract demands aren’t insane (he is looking for at least four years and $4 million/season).

According to Bob McKenzie, the Oilers are going to waive Patrick O’Sullivan, Robert Nilsson, and Ethan Moreau today at noon. Edmonton’s forward group will be looking very different in 2010-11, as the three above probably won’t be returning, along with Marc Pouliot, Fernando Pisani, and Ryan Potulny.

So Marty Turco turned down an offer that was rumored to be around the $2 million mark from the Flyers. Naturally, that looks like a lowball offer and most fans/analysts respond as such. But not so fast – Turco is not what he used to be. In fact his numbers haven’t been that great since before the lockout, other than his wins and losses – which were carried by a strong team. He’s smart to walk away from that because he knows he’ll get north of $3.5 million and probably north of $4.5 million. All it takes is one dummy and boom you have your contract. The last time Turco’s save percentage topped 0.913 was in 2003. That threshold would have finished 17th this year. And he hasn’t beat it in seven years.

The Avs acquired Daniel Winnik from the Coyotes for a fourth rounder in 2012. That opens up a spot in the Phoenix lineup and shuts the door on one in the Colorado lineup. I don’t think the likes of Kevin Porter will be kept out of the league as a result though.

Lots of qualifying offers went out yesterday. Notable exceptions – I will try to list all that I dig up:

WILL BECOME UFA’S:

Dustin Boyd, Denis Grebeshkov, Peter Olvecky, NSH
Brad Cole, CGY
Brett Carson and Alex Picard, CAR
Shawn Weller, Bobby Bolt, JP Levasseur, ANA
Ryan Potulny, Slava Trukhno, Marc Pouliot, Josef Hrabal, Jeff Paukovich, EDM
Chad Denny, Rylan Kaip, Scott Lehman, Mark Siddall, ATL
Kevin Lalande, Dan Lacosta, CBJ
Daniel Rahimi, Matt Jones, Mike Vernace, SJ
Sean Bergenheim, Jeff Tambellini, Sean Bentivoglio, Bobby Hughes, NYI

Here is a list of players who have been placed on waivers and will likely be bought out, per Bob McKenzie:

Jonathan Cheechoo, OTT
Petteri Nokelainen, Jim Vandermeer, PHO
Ales Kotalik, CGY

Dallas has signed Krys Barch to a contract.

Don’t forget – Thursday is the Free Agent Frenzy. With Twitter now a part of life, there is no need to race to get the news up. We’ll still be fast…but our focus will be on getting a good, thorough analysis up quickly – each signing from a fantasy standpoint. Join us! We’ll even set up a live chat, (which will go more smoothly than the draft one)