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Looking ahead to 2011 free agency

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So you’re left feeling flat and anguished by the slow, methodical process of the 2010 free agency season. It’s understandable that with Ilya Kovalchuk just having two known suitors chasing after him and other secondary free agent prizes holding tight and not rushing to go anywhere else just yet that you, the fan, might feel let down.

While your thoughts have already turned to how your team is going to do next season, are there reasons to get excited about next year’s free agency brand of Supermarket Sweep? You bet there is, and not everything will turn out to be a can of prunes either, there’s some prime pieces of steak to be had.

Anaheim: Todd Marchant, Aaron Voros, Ryan Carter, Curtis McElhinney

Atlanta: Todd White, Chris Thorburn, Eric Boulton, Brent Sopel

Boston: Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Michael Ryder, Marco Sturm, Mark Recchi, Mark Stuart

Buffalo: Tim Connolly, Mike Grier, Rob Niedermayer, Cody McCormick, Craig Rivet, Steve Montador, Patrick Lalime

Calgary: Alex Tanguay, Curtis Glencross, Steve Staios, Mark Giordano, Adam Pardy, Staffan Kronwall, Henrik Karlsson

Carolina: Erik Cole, Sergei Samsonov, Jussi Jokinen, Chad Larose, Pat Dwyer, Joni Pitkanen, Anton Babchuk, Jay Harrison

Chicago: Tomas Kopecky, Marty Reasoner

Colorado: Milan Hejduk, David Koci, Scott Hannan, Adam Foote, Craig Anderson, Peter Budaj

Columbus: Chris Clark, Ethan Moreau, Andrew Murray, Jan Hejda, Mathieu Garon

Dallas: Brad Richards, Brian Sutherby, Brandon Segal, Trevor Daley, Karlis Skrastins, Brad Lukowich, Jeff Woywitka

Detroit: Kris Draper, Patrick Eaves, Drew Miller, Nicklas Lidstrom, Jonathan Ericsson, Derek Meech, Chris Osgood, Jimmy Howard

Edmonton: Ryan Jones, Steve McIntyre, Jim Vandermeer, Jason Strudwick

Florida: Cory Stillman, Radek Dvorak, Chris Higgins, Bryan McCabe, Nathan Paetsch, Tomas Vokoun

Los Angeles: Michal Handzus, Justin Williams, Peter Harrold, Erik Ersberg

Minnesota: Chuck Kobasew, Antti Miettinen, Andrew Brunette, Josh Harding

Montreal: Mathieu Darche, Andrei Markov, Roman Hamrlik, Hal Gill, Alex Auld

Nashville: Steve Sullivan, Joel Ward, Marcel Goc, Jerred Smithson, Jamie Lundmark, Wade Belak

New Jersey: Jason Arnott, Jamie Langenbrunner, Andy Greene, Johan Hedberg

New York Islanders: P.A. Parenteau, Zenon Konopka, Trevor Gillies, Radek Martinek, Milan Jurcina, Dwayne Roloson

New York Rangers: Vaclav Prospal, Donald Brashear (yes, he’s still there), Steve Eminger

Ottawa: Alexei Kovalev, Jarkko Ruutu, Ryan Shannon, Chris Phillips, Pascal Leclaire

Philadelphia: Simon Gagne, Nikolai Zherdev, Ville Leino, Riley Cote, Sean O’Donnell, Brian Boucher

Phoenix: Radim Vrbata, Scottie Upshall, Petr Prucha, Vernon Fiddler, Andrew Ebbett, Ed Jovanovski, Ilya Bryzgalov, Jason Labarbera

Pittsburgh: Pascal Dupuis, Maxime Talbot, Michael Rupp, Eric Godard, Craig Adams

San Jose: Joe Thornton, Scott Nichol, Niclas Wallin, Kent Huskins, Jay Leach

St. Louis: David Backes, Jay Winchester, Cam Janssen, Eric Brewer, Nathan Oystrick, Ty Conklin

Tampa Bay: Mike Smith

Toronto: Fredrik Sjostrom, Tomas Kaberle

Vancouver: Darcy Hordichuk, Tanner Glass, Rick Rypien, Joel Perreault, Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo, Christian Ehrhoff, Shane O’Brien, Andrew Alberts

Washington: Alexander Semin, Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich, Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon, Tom Poti, John Erskine

Mind you, these are just the guys who are slated to become unrestricted free agents after next season. There’s plenty of guys who are set to become restricted free agents as well including some already huge stars in the league, but you have to presume that more often than not they’ll get deals worked out with their parent clubs somehow.

This list, however, has a lot of hope for an exciting off-season in 2011 with names like Joe Thornton, Tomas Vokoun, Brad Richards, David Backes, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara sitting out as possibilities. If by some freakish stroke of magic all of these guys become free agents next year, we’ll have more than enough spice to keep next summer busy with rumors and speculation.

As it is, we live in the now and right now things are quiet and rather unexciting. But next year... Next year shows great promise for free agency hijinks.