A look at the free-agent market

We’re less than 48 hours away from the start of the signing period for unrestricted free agents, so it’s certainly worth taking a look at which players will be available. Here’s one subjective list, including players, their salary-cap hits from last season and their statistics from last season. This excludes players such as Nicklas Lidstrom and Teemu Selanne, who are likely to return to the NHL only with their current teams. If you were an NHL general manager, who would you want, and at what price?

FORWARDS
Eric Belanger ($750,000) — 13 goals, 27 assists
Sean Bergenheim ($700,000) — 14 goals, 15 assists
Erik Cole ($2.9 million) — 26 goals, 26 assists
Tim Connolly ($4.5 million) — 13 goals, 29 assists
Tomas Fleischmann ($2.6 million) — 12 goals, 19 assists
Simon Gagne ($5.25 million) — 17 goals, 23 assists
Michal Handzus ($4 million) — 12 goals, 18 assists
Jussi Jokinen ($1.7 million) — 19 goals, 33 assists

Alexei Kovalev ($5 million) — 16 goals, 18 assists
Ville Leino ($800,000) — 19 goals, 34 assists
Antti Miettinen ($2.3 million) — 16 goals, 19 assists
Brad Richards ($7.8 million) — 28 goals, 49 assists
Michael Ryder ($4 million) — 18 goals, 23 assists
Sergei Samsonov ($2.5 million) — 13 goals, 27 assists
Steve Sullivan ($3.75 million) — 10 goals, 12 assists
Scottie Upshall ($2.25 million) — 22 goals, 12 assists
Radim Vrbata ($3 million) — 19 goals, 29 assists
Nikolai Zherdev ($2 million) 16 goals, 6 assists

DEFENSEMEN
Christian Ehrhoff ($3.1 million) — 14 goals, 36 assists
Roman Hamrlik ($5.5 million) — 5 goals, 29 assists
Scott Hannan ($4.5 million) — 1 goal, 10 assists
Ed Jovanovski ($6.5 million) — 5 goals, 9 assists
Tomas Kaberle ($4.25 million) — 4 goals, 43 assists
Bryan McCabe ($5.75 million) — 7 goals, 21 assists
Sami Salo ($3.5 million) — 3 goals, 4 assists
Brent Sopel ($2.3 million) — 2 goals, 5 assists
Ian White ($2.9 million) — 4 goals, 22 assists
James Wisniewski ($3.25 million) — 10 goals, 41 assists

GOALIES
Brian Boucher ($925,000) — 2.42 goals-against average
Ray Emery ($500,000) — 2.28 goals-against average
Jean-Sebastien Giguere ($6 million) — 2.87 goals-against average
Dwayne Roloson ($2.5 million) — 2.59 goals-against average
Jose Theodore ($1.1 million) — 2.71 goals-against average
Tomas Vokoun ($5.7 million) — 2.55 goals-against average

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