Summer 2011 UFA's

There have been so many re-signings recently, including Bergeron, Thornton, Chara, and a few weeks before that Mikko Koivu. This is a becoming more and more common each year. July 1st used to be a huge day. Coming out of the lockout there were so many big name stars, to go along with quality veterans who can still get it done, and so many guys switched teams on July 1st. But every year since '06 its been less and less players making it to free agency. And even less big name players.

Here are list of the guys who are still scheduled to become UFA's this offseason, as long as they're not extended by their current team before July 1, 2011:

FORWARDS:
Craig Conroy, 38
John Madden, 37
Alex Kovalev, 37
Mike Knuble, 37
Andrew Brunette, 36
Todd Marchant, 36
Cory Stillman, 36
Fred Modin, 35
Jason Arnott, 35
Mike Grier, 35
Rob Niedermayer, 35
Todd White, 35
Vinny Prospal, 35
Steve Sullivan, 35
Scott Nichol, 35
Jamal Mayers, 35
Milan Hejduk, 34
Jarko Ruutu, 34
Jamie Langenbrunner, 34
Chris Clark, 34
Ethan Moreau, 34
Brendan Morrison, 34
Jeff Halpern, 34
Radek Dvorak, 33
Fernando Pisani, 33
Wade Belak, 33
Michael Handzus, 33
Eric Belanger, 32
Aaron Asham, 32
Marco Sturm, 31
Eric Cole, 31
Ruslan Fedotenko, 31
Sergei Samsonov, 31
Pascal Dupuis, 31
Simon Gagne, 30
Michael Ryder, 30
Alexei Ponikarovsky, 30
Vernon Fiddler, 30
Michael Rupp, 30
Alex Tanguay, 30
Brad Richards, 30
Tim Connolly, 29
Anti Miettenen, 29
Mike Comrie, 29
Radim Vrbata, 29
Joel Ward, 29
Raffi Torres, 29
Chuck Kobasew, 28
Chad Larose, 28
Brian Sutherby, 28
Justin Williams, 28
Alex Frolov, 28
Tomas Kopecky, 28
Chris Higgins, 27
Jussi Jokinen, 27
Brooks Laich, 27
Freddy Sjostrom, 27
Peter Prucha, 27
Curtis Glencross, 27
Chris Thorburn, 27
Ben Eager, 26
Patrick Eaves, 26
Tim Brent, 26
Matt Moulson, 26
Ville Leino, 26
Marcel Goc, 26
Cam Janssen, 26
Scotty Upshall, 26
Drew Miller, 26
Alexander Semin, 26
Tomas Fleischmann, 26
Nikolay Zherdev, 25




DEFENSE:
Sean O'Donnell, 38
Steve Staios, 36
Roman Hamrilik, 36
Hal Gill, 35
Craig Rivet, 35
Sami Salo, 35
Niclas Wallin, 35
Bryan McCabe, 35
Ruslan Salei, 35
Ed Jovonovski, 34
Brent Sopel, 33
Radek Martinek, 33
Tomas Kaberle, 32
Jan Hejda, 32
Chris Phillips, 32
Eric Brewer, 31
Andrei Markov, 31
Nick Boynton, 31
Kent Huskins, 31
Scott Hannan, 31
Paul Mara, 30
Jim Vandermeer, 30
Steve Montador, 30
John Erskine, 30
Freddy Meyer, 29
Kevin Bieksa, 29
Andrew Alberts, 28
Nathan Paestch, 27
Andy Greene, 27
Christian Ehrhoff, 27
Milan Jurcina, 27
Joni Pitkanen, 26
Trevor Daley, 26
Jeff Woywitka, 26
James Wisniewski, 26
Steve Eminger, 26
Ian White, 26
Anton Babchuk, 26
Jonathan Ericsson, 26
Shane O'Brien, 26
Mark Giordano, 26
Mark Stuart, 26
Adam Pardy, 26

GOALTENDERS:
Dwayne Roloson, 40
Chris Osgood, 37
Johan Hedberg, 37
Marty Turco, 34
Brian Boucher, 33
JS Giguere, 33
Jose Theodore, 33
Matthieu Garon, 32
Ilya Bryzgalov, 30
Jason Labarbera, 30
Craig Anderson, 29
Alex Auld, 29
Tomas Vokoun, 29
Mike Smith, 28
Curtis McElhinney, 27
Pascal Leclaire, 27
Peter Budaj, 27
Josh Harding, 26
Jimmy Howard, 26
Anti Niemi, 26

I've highlighted the top 5 highest profile player for each position. Also, if you're in the market for a 26 year old defensman, there are a couple of options....

What if Kadri doesn't make it?

Would it be the end of the world if Nazem Kadri doesn't make the Leafs? Or what if he spends some time split between the AHL and NHL this season? Would that be a huge failure? Check out some other guys who didn't crack the NHL and stick:

Eric Staal
1st NHL season - 11 goals, 31 points
then a year in AHL
then returns for 2nd NHL season - 45 goals, 100 points, Stanley Cup

Jason Spezza
One year split between NHL and AHL
then 1st full NHL year - 55 points
then a full year in AHL
finally 2nd full NHL season - 90 points

Steve Sullivan
Full year in the AHL
followed by 2 seasons split between NHL and AHL
then 1st full NHL season - 28 points
and this is followed by 8 consecutive 20+ goal seasons (including two 30 goal seasons) and a lot of those seasons were shortened due to injury.

Eric Fehr
3 seasons split between AHL and NHL
then his rookie year - 25 points
and last year in his 2nd season - 21 goals, 39 pts and turning out to be a really good player

Patrice Bergeron
rookie season - 16 goals
then a full year in AHL
2nd NHL season - 31 goals, hasn't really looked back except injuries have been a set back

David Backes
spent a season split between NCAA and AHL
then a season split between AHL and NHL
then his first full NHL season - 13 goals, 31 points
2nd full NHL season - 31 goals, 54 points

Andrew Brunette
Spent a full season in the AHL
followed by 3 up and down seasons split between dominating the AHL and struggling in the NHL
950 career games, and 660 career points later he's been one of the most consistant NHL scorers of the last decade.

These are just some of tons of examples of players who spent time in the AHL in some capacity and they all went on to do well in the NHL. If Kadri isn't quite ready, that's not really a big deal. Having said that, I hope he makes it.

Leafs pre-season

Last nights game was bad. Here's a few quick thoughts:

- Lebda and Lashoff were not impressive at all. I was expecting more out of those guys. Of course it was only 1 game.

- Christian Hanson was really good! I'm all turned around on this guy

- Brayden Irwin and Marcel Mueller: These guys weren't great, but they are huge bodies, I wouldn't mind seeing one of them take a roster spot. Irwin was actually one of the best Leafs

- Mike Brown is quickly becoming one of my favourite players. I hope he can keep this up

- Nazem Kadri was pretty good

- Dion Phaneuf... was bad

- Tomas Kaberle was by far the best player on the team

- Jussi Rynnas, judging by his 1/2 game only, does not look NHL ready

Its only been 1 pre-season game, no big deal, these were my thoughts, I'll write about tonights game too.