Where Will The Free Agents Land?

#1 Centers

1. Chris Drury (7.5M) - San Jose. I think they'll sign Drury and trade Marleau. Anaheim already has McDonald and Getzlaf as their top two centers and the Kings have Kopitar and Cammalleri.
2. Scotty Gomez (7M) - Atlanta. Gomez centering a line of Kovalchuk and Hossa. Sick.
3. Daniel Briere (6.75M) - Buffalo. It's in the best interest of both Briere and Buffalo to continue their relationship.
4. Peter Forsberg (4M) - Retire or play for Sweden.

#2 Centers

1. Michael Handzus (3.5M) - St. Louis. Will eventually replace the soon-to-be-retiring Doug Weight.
2. Michael Nylander (3.0M) - NY Rangers. Will continue to feed Jagr some pretty sweet passes.
3. Mike Peca (3.0 M) - Philadelphia. The Flyers are desperate for a veteran center and Peca will probably the best of what's left.
4. Keith Tkachuk (2.5M) - St. Louis. Will return to the city that traded him last season.
5. Todd White (2.25M) - Carolina. Will slot into the #3 spot behind Staal and Brind'Amour.
6. Wes Walz (2M) - Minnesota. Will re-sign with the Wild.

#3 Centers

1. Mike Comrie (1.25M) - Ottawa. Will re-sign with Ottawa.
2. Brian Smolinski (1M) - Washington. Not a sexy name, but can play on one of the Caps top two lines.
3. Eric Lindros (1M) - Please retire?

#1 Left Wings
1. Ryan Smyth (6.5M) - NY Islanders. In the end, I think Wang & Co. will convince Ryan to stay on the Island.
2. Paul Kariya (4.5M) - Nashville. Will re-sign with the Preds once the new ownership group takes over.
3. Jason Blake (4M) - Toronto. The Leafs will grossly overpay for this overachiever.


#2 Left Wings
1. Gary Roberts (2.5M) - San Jose. Will replace the departing Billy Guerin.
2. Ruslan Fedotenko (1.5M) - Philadelphia. Will return to the Orange & Black and shuffle between the 2nd and 3rd lines.

#3 Left Wings
1. Martin Gelinas (1.5M) - Anaheim. Will look for 2nd or 3rd line duties, keeping Moen and May on the 3rd and 4th lines - where they belong.

#1 Right Wings
1. Brendan Shanahan (4M) - NY Rangers. Will give it one more go around with Jagr and Co.
1. Teemu Selanne (4M) - Retire.
2. Petr Sykora (2.5M) - Calgary. Will slot onto the 2nd line behind Iginla.

#2 Right Wings
1. Scott Hartnell (2.5M) - Montreal. Will bring some toughness to the Habs 2nd line.
2. Ladislav Nagy (1.75M) - Dallas. Will re-sign with the Stars.
3. Dainus Zubrus (1.75M) - Buffalo. Will re-sign with the Sabres.
4. Bill Guerin (1.5M) - Pittsburgh. Will replace the departing Mark Recchi.

#3 Right Wings
1. Scott Nichol (1M) - Colorado. The Avalanche have money to spend.
2. Todd Bertuzzi (750K) - Chicago - The Blackhawks will be one of the few teams willing to take a chance on Big Bert.


Defence 1-2 Pairing
1. Sheldon Souray (6.75M) - Colorado. The Avalanche have money to spend and will waste it here.
2. Kimmo Timonen (7.2M) - Philadelphia. The Flyers find their #1 defenseman, despite overpaying for him.
3. Brian Rafalski (4.0 M) - NJ Devils. Sweet Lou won't lose BOTH Gomez and Rafalski.


Defence 3-4 Pairing
1. Mathieu Schneider (3.5M) - Anaheim. Will replace the retiring Scotty Neidermayer.
2. Roman Hamrlik (2.5M) - Edmonton. Will help out the PP.
3. Craig Rivet (2M) - San Jose. Will smartly stay put.
4. Danny Markov (2M) - Montreal. Will replace Souray.

Defence 5-6 Pairing
1. Cory Sarich (1.75M) - Nashville. Will replace Timonen.
2. Aaron Miller (1.25M) - Atlanta. Will help stabilize a defensive unit that has gone through several changes recently.
3. Bryan Berard (1M) - Retire.

Goalies #1
1. JS Giguere (6.75M) - Florida. Will open the bank and say "take however much you'd like". Anaheim can still win with Bryzgalov.
2. Dom Hasek (5.5) - Retire.

Please feel free to give your thoughts on where you think some of these players might land.

Niittymaki To Re-Sign This Weekend

According to Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer and HockeyBuzz blogger Tim Panaccio, the Philadelphia Flyers are expected to re-sign goaltender Antero Niittymaki this weekend.

Niity will serve as a back-up to incumbent Martin Biron, acquired at the trade deadline from Buffalo for a 2nd round draft pick.

The MVP of the 2006 Olympics for the silver medal-winning Finnish team, Niittymaki's career in Philadelphia has been a tumultuous one.

Antero was drafted 168th overall in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, but stayed in Finland until the beginning of 2001, because of military obligations. His stock began to rise due to his stellar play for the Philadelphia Phantoms in the American Hockey League (AHL). Niity led the Phantoms to the Calder Cup in 2005, while earning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy for MVP in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Niittymaki also became the first ever goalie to score an overtime goal in North American pro-hockey history, scoring a game-winning, empty net, overtime, shorthanded, unassisted goal on April 11, 2004 versus the Hershey Bears.

He started the 2005-06 season with the Flyers as Robert Esche's back-up. When Esche got hurt, Antero was thrust into the starting role. He played in seventeen straight games, while Esche was out, and recorded his first career NHL shutout.

The 2006-07 season for Niittymaki was marred by injury and inconsistency. He suffered a torn labrum in his left hip during training camp and opted to wait until this off-season to have surgery to correct it - took cortisone shots throughout the season.Teams also seemed to have Antero figured out. They figured out that he would squat into his butterfly stance very early when the opposition was in the offensive zone, and he was constantly being beaten up high with shots.

Perhaps the injury had something to do with his play, or perhaps he had a confidence issue, but Niittymaki clearly did not progress this season as the Flyers coaching staff had hoped.Perhaps he can right his ship in 2007-08. The Flyers will need him to if anything were to happen to Martin Biron.