The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Despite the uncertain labour environment in the National Hockey League for the upcoming season, business is booming on the free agent market. The average salary in the NHL was over $1.8 million U.S. last season and is climbing at an alarming rate, with no signs of ever slowing down or leveling off. Maybe when the new collective bargaining agreement is drawn up, new formulas will be used to decide the worth of a player, but for now, players will continue to test the free agent markets to play for the team of the highest bidder. Here is a look at some of the names that will be tossed around the tables of owners and general managers until the NHL resumes play, whenever that may be. The NHL released the names of players eligible for free agency on July 1, and each team has between 15 and 35 names on their list of players with contracts that have expired. As of Friday, 51 players had signed new contracts, the most notable being former Detroit Red Wing Dominic Hasek, who is now a member of the Ottawa Senators. There are a number of Senators that are not under contract yet, including Peter Bondra, Zdeno Chara and Martin Havlat. The Calgary Flames have been busy. Although they lost fan favourite Craig Conroy, they have resigned Chris Simon pry Byron Ritchie away from the Florida Panthers. The Flames have a long way to go, however, as Denis Gauthier, Jarome Iginla, Miikka Kiprusoff and Jordan Leopoldare all restricted free agents. Goaltender Ty Conklin is the only Edmonton Oiler to sign a new contract. Among the list of Oilers without a contract are Eric Brewer, Brad Isbister, Jason Smith, Petr Nedved and Adam Oates. Ron Francis, Trevor Kidd, Bryan McCabe, Bryan Marchment and goaltending prospect Mikael Tellqvist are some of the Toronto Maple Leafs looking for new deals. Dan Cloutier, Fedor Fedorov and the Sedin twins are some names on the free agent list of the Vancouver Canucks. The Montreal Canadiens have lost Darren Langdon to the New Jersey Devils, and still have Joe Juneau, Alex Kovalev, Yanic Perreault, Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder, Sheldon Souraym Niklas Sundstrom and Richard Zednik on the market. Other notables testing the water are Anson Carter, Jason Allison, Ziggy Palffy and Adam Deadmarsh of the L.A. Kings, Mariusz Czerkawski of the New York Islanders, Detroit's Brendan Shanahan, Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull, Colorado's Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, Boston's Glen Murray, Eric Lindros and Mark Messier of the New York Rangers and Alexei Zhamnov of the Philadephia Flyers. Mario Lemieux is also a free agent, but don't expect him to be switching uniforms any time soon, unless the Penguins move to Winnipeg or elsewhere.
