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2010 NHL Free Agency: The Forwards

With the 2010 NHL Free Agency market set to open on Thursday, we’ll be listing the top unrestricted free agents in all three positions throughout the day. This isn’t the full list of free agents, but it’s a good chunk of them. The forwards:

Player
Age
Team
09-10 cap hHit
Ilya Kovalchuk
27
New Jersey
$6.389 million
Olli Jokinen
31
New York
$5.25 million
Ray Whitney
38
Carolina
$3.55 million
Mike Modano
40
Dallas
$3.45 million
Alexander Frolov
28
Los Angeles
$2.9 million
Matt Cullen
33
Ottawa
$2.875 million
Owen Nolan
38
Minnesota
$2.75 milion
Coby Armstrong
27
Atlanta
$2.4 million
Alexei Ponikarovsky
30
Pittsburgh
$2.1 million
Matthew Lombardi
28
Phoenix
$1.816 million
Ruslan Fedotenko
31
Pittsburgh
$1.8 million
Brendan Morrision
34
Washington
$1.5 million
Wayne Primeau
34
Toronto
$1.4 million
Kyle Wellwood
27
Vancouver
$1.2 million
Kirk Maltby
37
Detroit
$833,333
Maxim Afinogenov
30
Atlanta
$800,000
Adam Burish
27
Chicago
$712,000
Manny Malhotra
30
San Jose
$700,000
Aaron Asham
32
Philadelphia
$640,000

Quick analysis:

Obviously all of the focus is on Kovalchuk and where’s going, but after that this is obviously a bit of an underwhelming group of players. The bad news for some teams -- and the good news for these free agents -- is that teams will likely overspend for just “okay” players.

If Mike Modano does decide to come back this next season, he’s going to make a contending a team very happy. He’ll provide solid leadership and experience, and he still has that scoring ability that mkes him so special.

Let’s just hope that Kyle Wellwood ends up in a city that is known for being healthy. I don’t know if that city exists in North America, however.

Maxim Afinogenov will be a great pickup, as he was one of the most valuable forwards in the NHL last season. He’ll be looking for a raise, but he won’t be completely out of reach for teams in need of a scoring forward.