Free Agency Preview

                        Tommorrow, the NHL will start it's annual Free Agency Period. Teams always battle out for the best players that are avalible. Some people consider this years free agents class to be weak compared to past years. The names that highlight the list are Zach Parise, Jamie Benn, Dustin Penner, Carey Price, P.K. Subban, Martin Brodeur, Nick Foligno, Jaromir Jagr, Shane Doan, T.J. Oshie, Mike Green, Alexander Semin, and Cory Schneider. Here's a list of all this years free agents.


ANAHEIM DUCKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Nick Bonino, Luca Caputi, Mathieu Carle, Marco Cousineau, Kyle Cumiskey

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Mark Bell, Jason Blake, Troy Bodie, Sheldon Brookbank, Dan Ellis, Niklas Hagman, Jean-Francois Jacques, George Parros, Rod Pelley, Teemu Selanne, Matt Smaby

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Ryan O'Marra, Sean Zimmerman

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sebastian Erixon (Contract bought out by the team), Riley Holzapfel, Dale Mitchell, Rick Schofield, Iiro Tarkki


BOSTON BRUINS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jamie Arniel, Matt Bartkowski, Andrew Bodnarchuk, Stefan Chaput, Adam Courchaine, Lane MacDermid

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Joe Corvo, Josh Hennessy, Nathan McIver, Zach McKelvie, Mike Mottau, Michel Ouellet, Brian Rolston, Marty Turco, Greg Zanon

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


BUFFALO SABRES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Alex Biega, T.J. Brennan, Tyler Ennis, Patrick Kaleta, Dennis Persson, Drew Schiestel, Paul Szczechchura

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brad Boyes, Jochen Hecht, Ales Kotalik, David Leggio, Drew MacIntyre, Shaone Morrisonn, Michael Ryan, Colin Stuart, Derek Whitmore

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Travis Turnbull

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


CALGARY FLAMES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Akim Aliu, Mikael Backlund, Paul Byron, Leland Irving

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Guillaume Desbiens, Scott Hannan, Raitis Ivanans, Olli Jokinen, Tom Kostopolous, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, David Moss

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brian Connelly, Stefan Meyer

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Ryley Grantham, Logan MacMillan


CAROLINA HURRICANES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Drayson Bowman, Zach Boychuk, Evgeni Dadonov, Mike Murphy, Justin Peters, Jerome Samson, Chris Terry, Jeremy Welsh

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Bryan Allen, Chris Durno, Mathieu Roy, Jaroslav Spacek

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Justin Soryal, Brett Sutter

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Cedric Lalonde-McNicoll, Kyle Lawson, Matthew Pistilli


CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Simon Danis-Pepin, Chris DiDomenico

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Andrew Brunette, Cristobal Huet, Sami Lepisto, Brett McLean, Brendan Morrison, Sean O'Donnell

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Jonathan Carlsson, Igor Makarov, Alexander Salak (Released)


COLORADO AVALANCHE

Group 2 (Restricted)
Trevor Cann, Zach Cohen, Jonas Holos, Erik Johnson, Jamie McGinn, Jake Newton, Mark Olver, Ryan O'Reilly

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
David Liffiton, Joakim Lindstrom, Greg Mauldin, Jay McClement, Danny Richmond, Patrick Rissmiller

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Evan Brophey, Cedrick Desjardins, Justin Mercier, Ryan Stoa

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Peter Mueller, Kevin Porter


COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Maksim Mayorov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Darryl Boyce, Alexandre Giroux, Kristian Huselius, Aaron Johnson, Brett Lebda, Radek Martinek, Curtis McElhinney, Curtis Sanford, Martin St. Pierre

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Dane Byers, Mark Dekanich, Nick Holden

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Taylor Ellington, Brent Regner


DALLAS STARS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Richard Bachman, Jamie Benn, Jordie Benn, Mark Fistric, Ryan Garbutt, Luke Gazdic, Philip Larsen, Colton Sceviour, Tom Wandell

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Adam Burish, Jake Dowell, Radek Dvorak, Maxime Fortunus, Brad Lukowich, Toby Petersen, Andrew Raycroft, Raymond Sawada, Sheldon Souray, Dan Spang

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Angelo Esposito, Jake Hauswirth, Michael Neal, Mikhail Stefanovich


DETROIT RED WINGS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Justin Abdelkader, Kyle Quincey

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Fabian Brunnstrom, Ty Conklin, Chris Conner, Garnet Exelby, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Doug Janik, Jamie Johnson, Chris Minard, Andrew Murray

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Travis Ehrhardt, Logan Pyett


EDMONTON OILERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Devan Dubnyk, Sam Gagner, Linus Omark, Theo Peckham, Jeff Petry, Alex Plante, Chris Vande Velde

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Yann Danis, Josh Green, Darcy Hordichuk, Ryan Keller, Bryan Rodney, Ryan Smyth

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Taylor Chorney

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Cam Barker, Milan Kytnar, Johan Motin, Hunter Tremblay


FLORIDA PANTHERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Michael Caruso, Roman Derlyuk, Keaton Ellerby, Brian Foster, Dmitry Kulikov, Michal Repik, Eric Selleck, Kris Versteeg, James Wright

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Krys Barch, Scott Clemmensen, Mark Cullen, Jason Garrison, Bracken Kearns, John Madden, Greg Rallo, Mikael Samuelsson, Marco Sturm, Sean Sullivan, Bill Thomas, Mike Weaver, Wojtek Wolski

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Jonathan Matsumoto

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Justin Bernhardt, Matt Bradley (contract bought out by the team), Tyler Plante (Contract terminated by the team), Ondrej Roman, Mike Santorelli (contract bought out by the team), Keith Seabrook


LOS ANGELES KINGS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Justin Azevedo, Andrew Campbell, Thomas Hickey, Dwight King, Stefan Legein, David Meckler, Jacob Muzzin

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Trent Hunter, Cam Paddock, Scott Parse, Dustin Penner

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Patrick Mullen, Jeff Zatkoff

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Ray Kaunisto


MINNESOTA WILD

Group 2 (Restricted)
Cody Almond, Dennis Endras, Justin Falk, Chay Genoway, David McIntyre, Carson McMillan, Jarod Palmer, Nick Palmieri

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Erik Christensen, Jon DiSalvatore, Kurtis Foster, Mike Lundin, Jed Ortmeyer, Warren Peters, Jeff Taffe

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Jeff Penner

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Kris Fredheim, Nick Johnson, Guillaume Latendresse


MONTREAL CANADIENS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Rafael Diaz, Lars Eller, Andreas Engqvist, Blake Geoffrion, Aaron Palushaj, Carey Price, P.K. Subban, Alexei Yemelin

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Joe Callahan, Chris Campoli, Mathieu Darche, Alex Henry, Nathan Lawson, Garrett Stafford, Brad Staubitz, Brian Willsie

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Frederic St. Denis

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Hunter Bishop, Michael Blunden, Andrew Conboy, Olivier Fortier, Dany Masse, Mark Mitera, Robert Slaney


NASHVILLE PREDATORS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Niclas Bergfors, Jonathon Blum, Atte Engren, Ryan Flynn, Sergei Kostitsyn, Teemu Laakso, Jack Maclellan, Alexander Radulov, Jeremy Smith, Ryan Thang, Shea Weber, Colin Wilson

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Francis Bouillon, Sebastien Caron, Andrei Kostitsyn, Brian McGrattan, Tyler Sloan, Ryan Suter, Jordin Tootoo

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brodie Dupont

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Jack Hillen, Zack Stortini


NEW JERSEY DEVILS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Matt Corrente, Mark Fayne, Vladimir Zharkov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Martin Brodeur, Johan Hedberg, Jay Leach, Brad Mills, Zach Parise, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Bryce Salvador, Tim Sestito, Petr Sykora

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Matt Taormina

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Kory Nagy, Timo Pielmeier


NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Sean Backman, Justin DiBenedetto, Mark Katic, Mikko Koskinen, Tomas Marcinko, Matt Martin, Rhett Rakhshani, Ty Wishart

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jeremy Colliton, Mark Eaton, Trevor Frischmon, Trevor Gillies, John Grahame, Milan Jurcina, Al Montoya, Jay Pandolfo, Pierre Parenteau, Dylan Reese, Steve Staios

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Micheal Haley

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Yury Alexandrov, Anton Klementyev (contract terminated by the team), Tyler McNeely, Yannick Riendeau, Tony Romano


NEW YORK RANGERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Lee Baldwin, Francois Bouchard, Chris Chappell, Michael Del Zotto, Sam Klassen, Anton Stralman, Cameron Talbot, Andreas Thuresson, Pavel Valentenko, Casey Wellman, Mats Zuccarello

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brendan Bell, Andre Deveaux, Steve Eminger, Ruslan Fedotenko, John Mitchell, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, John Scott, Jeff Woywitka

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Stu Bickel, Chad Johnson, Michael Vernace

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sean Avery (contract terminated by the team), More TBD


OTTAWA SENATORS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Stephane Da Costa, Kaspars Daugavins, Nikita Filatov, Nick Foligno, Eric Gryba, Jim O'Brien

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Alex Auld, Matt Carkner, Tim Conboy, Matt Gilroy, Zenon Konopka, Filip Kuba, Francis Lessard, Corey Locke, Mike McKenna, Mark Parrish, Jesse Winchester

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Rob Klinkhammer

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Craig Schira


PHILADELPHIA FLYERS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Marc-Andre Bourdon, Ben Holmstrom, Tom Sestito, Jakub Voracek, Harry Zolnierczyk

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jason Bacashihua, Johan Backlund, Blair Betts, Matt Carle, Matt Ford, Jaromir Jagr, Dan Jancevski, Pavel Kubina, Michael Leighton

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Joonas Lehtivuori, Andrew Rowe, Mike Testwuide


PHOENIX COYOTES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Kyle Chipchura, Brett MacLean, Chris Summers, Viktor Tikhonov

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Dean Arsene, Adrian Aucoin, Mathieu Beaudoin, Alexandre Bolduc, Shane Doan, Daymond Langkow, Patrick O'Sullivan, Nathan Oystrick, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Taylor Pyatt, Michal Rozsival, Kurt Sauer, Ray Whitney

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Tyler Eckford, Justin Pogge, Brock Trotter, Matt Watkins

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Gilbert Brule, Colin Long, Nick Ross


PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Robert Bortuzzo, Marc Cheverie, Alex Grant, Carl Sneep, Brian Strait, Eric Tangradi, Keven Veilleux

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Arron Asham, Ryan Craig, Brent Johnson, Steve MacIntyre, Colin McDonald, Scott Munroe, Richard Park, Steve Sullivan, Jason Williams

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Brad Thiessen

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Mattias Modig, Cal O'Reilly, Alexandre Picard, Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Boris Valabik


ST. LOUIS BLUES

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jay Barriball, Jori Lehtera, T.J. Oshie, Anthony Peluso, David Perron, Brett Sonne

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Jason Arnott, Jonathan Cheechoo, Carlo Colaiacovo, Brennan Evans, Kyle Hagel, Kent Huskins, Jamie Langenbrunner, Chris Porter, Brett Sterling, Danny Syvret

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
None

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
TBD


SAN JOSE SHARKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
T.J. Galiardi, Tim Kennedy, Brandon Mashinter, Frazer McLaren, Matt Pelech, Nick Petrecki, James Sheppard, Alex Stalock

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Ben Guite, Torrey Mitchell, Dominic Moore, Mike Moore, Antero Niittymaki, Jim Vandermeer, Colin White, Brad Winchester, Daniel Winnik

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
John McCarthy

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Benn Ferriero, Tony Lucia, Cam MacIntyre, James Marcou, Tyson Sexsmith


TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jaroslav Janus, Anders Lindback, Evan Oberg

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Brett Clark, Mike Commodore, Bruno Gervais, Richard Petiot, Dwayne Roloson, Brandon Segal, Ryan Shannon, Trevor Smith, Tim Wallace

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Scott Jackson, Jonathon Kalinski, Michael Kostka, Alexandre Picard

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Sebastien Piche, Benoit Pouliot


TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Cody Franson, Mark Fraser, Matt Frattin, Richard Greenop, Simon Gysbers, Korbinian Holzer, Nikolai Kulemin, Juraj Mikus, Marcel Mueller, Jussi Rynnas, Ben Scrivens

Group 3 (Unrestritced)
Joey Crabb, Philippe Dupuis, Jeff Finger, Ryan Hamilton, Mike Zigomanis

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Matt Lashoff, Jay Rosehill

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Colby Armstrong (contract bought out by the team), More TBD


VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Eddie Lack, Mason Raymond, Cory Schneider, Dale Weise

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Nolan Baumgartner, Byron Bitz, Matt Climie, Andrew Ebbett, Sami Pahlsson, Steve Pinizzotto, Steven Reinprecht, Aaron Rome, Sami Salo

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Mark Mancari

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Mike Duco, Marc-Andre Gragnani, Victor Oreskovich, Ryan Parent


WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Jay Beagle, John Carlson, Mike Green, Zach Hamill, Kevin Marshall, Mathieu Perreault

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Keith Aucoin, Sean Collins, Kyle Greentree, Jeff Halpern, D.J. King, Mike Knuble, Jacob Micflikier, Zach Miskovic, Alexander Semin

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Christian Hanson, Jordan Henry, Joel Rechlicz

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
None


WINNIPEG JETS

Group 2 (Restricted)
Brett Festerling, Michael Forney, Evander Kane, Arturs Kulda, Maxime Macenauer, Spencer Machacek, Ben Maxwell, John Negrin, Frederik Pettersson, Paul Postma

Group 3 (Unrestricted)
Mark Flood, Tanner Glass, Jonas Gustavsson, Jason Jaffray, Randy Jones, Peter Mannino, Chris Mason, Derek Meech, Tim Stapleton, Kyle Wellwood

Group 6 (Unrestricted)
Kenndal McArdle

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA)
Eric Fehr, Andrei Zubarev


FREE AGENT CLASSIFICATIONS (Courtesy of nhl.com)

Group 2 (Restricted Free Agents) - Subject to compensation and right to match. The following players have been tendered a qualifying offer by their respective clubs and are subject to draft-choice compensation and right to match. The draft choice compensation scale is based on compensation offered by the new club (These are last summer's figures and are meant as a general guideline for compensation. If new figures are released, they will likely be released on July 1, 2011):

$1,034,249 or below - No compensation
Over $1,034,249 to $1,567,043 - Third-round choice
Over $1,567,043 to $3,134,088 - Second-round choice
Over $3,134,088 to $4,701,131 - First-round and Third-round choice
Over $4,701,131 to $6,268,175 - First-Round, Second-round, and Third-round choice
Over $6,268,175 to $7,835,219 - two First-round choices, one second-round choice, and one Third-round choice
Over $7,835,219 - four First-round choices

Group 3 (Unrestricted Free Agents) - The following players have qualified for Group 3 Free Agency (age 27 or older or with at least seven accrued seasons) and are Unrestricted Free Agents.

Group 6 (Unrestricted Free Agents) - The following players qualify for unrestricted free agency, having met the requirements for Group 6 free agency. These players, whose contracts have expired, are age 25 or older, have completed three or more professional seasons, and (i) in the case of a player other than a goaltender, have played less than 80 NHL games (regular season and playoffs), or (ii) in the case of a goaltender, have played less than 28 NHL games (regular season and playoffs).

Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) - The following players were not tendered a qualifying offer and are therefore unrestricted free agents not subject to a right to match or draft choice compensation.

           Check back tommorrow fora alist of all the free agents signings and trades! It should be another great year of signings!