Now that the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs and 2011 NHL Entry Draft are over, hockey fans are probably starting to think about next season and trying not to think about the long, hockey-free summer. The best distraction from that stark, puck-less reality will come on Friday, July 1 when the free agent frenzy begins.
If you want to start dreaming about all the ways your team could get better (or conversely, if you want to guess which signings might provide future nightmare fuel), it might help to look at a list of free agents.
In this first post, we’ll provide the easier-to-get (but usually more expensive to sign) group known as unrestricted free agents. These guys are at least 27 years old and could be available to any team willing to fork over the dough. These players are listed by their position, current team, age and their 2010-11 salaries.
Top 100 Forwards (for a complete list, click here)
Note: players listed by previous salaries, not ranked by perceived talent.
Brad Richards | DAL | 31 | $7,800,000 |
Simon Gagne | TBL | 31 | $5,250,000 |
Alex Kovalev | PIT | 38 | $5,000,000 |
Michael Nylander | WAS | 38 | $4,875,000 |
Teemu Selanne | ANA | 40 | $4,500,000 |
Jason Arnott | WAS | 36 | $4,500,000 |
Tim Connolly | BUF | 30 | $4,500,000 |
Michael Ryder | BOS | 31 | $4,000,000 |
Michal Handzus | LAK | 34 | $4,000,000 |
Steve Sullivan | NAS | 36 | $3,750,000 |
Cory Stillman | CAR | 37 | $3,533,333 |
Marco Sturm | WAS | 33 | $3,500,000 |
Alex Ponikarovsky | LAK | 31 | $3,200,000 |
Radim Vrbata | PHO | 30 | $3,000,000 |
Erik Cole | CAR | 32 | $2,900,000 |
Jamie Langenbrunner | DAL | 35 | $2,800,000 |
Chris Clark | CLB | 35 | $2,633,333 |
Tomas Fleischmann | COL | 27 | $2,600,000 |
Sergei Samsonov | FLA | 32 | $2,533,333 |
Vaclav Prospal | NYR | 36 | $2,480,000 |
Todd White | NYR | 36 | $2,375,000 |
Chuck Kobasew | MIN | 29 | $2,333,333 |
Antti Miettinen | MIN | 30 | $2,333,333 |
Andrew Brunette | MIN | 37 | $2,333,333 |
Scottie Upshall | CLB | 27 | $2,250,000 |
Brooks Laich | WAS | 28 | $2,066,667 |
Nikolay Zherdev | PHI | 26 | $2,000,000 |
Ethan Moreau | CLB | 35 | $2,000,000 |
Mike Modano | DET | 41 | $1,750,000 |
Chad Larose | CAR | 29 | $1,700,000 |
Radek Dvorak | WIN | 34 | $1,700,000 |
Jussi Jokinen | CAR | 28 | $1,700,000 |
Chris Higgins | VAN | 28 | $1,600,000 |
Kris Draper | DET | 40 | $1,583,333 |
Mike Grier | BUF | 36 | $1,500,000 |
Joel Ward | NAS | 30 | $1,500,000 |
Pascl Dupuis | PIT | 32 | $1,400,000 |
Jarkko Ruutu | ANA | 35 | $1,300,000 |
John Madden | MIN | 38 | $1,250,000 |
Rob Niedermayer | BUF | 36 | $1,250,000 |
Tomas Kopecky | CHI | 29 | $1,200,000 |
Petr Prucha | PHO | 28 | $1,200,000 |
Marty Reasoner | FLA | 34 | $1,150,000 |
Todd Marchant | ANA | 37 | $1,125,000 |
Vernon Fiddler | PHO | 31 | $1,100,000 |
Maxime Talbot | PIT | 27 | $1,050,000 |
Patrick Rissmiller | FLA | 32 | $1,000,000 |
Aaron Voros | TOR | 29 | $1,000,000 |
Matt Bradley | WAS | 33 | $1,000,000 |
Raffi Torres | VAN | 29 | $1,000,000 |
Ruslan Fedotenko | NYR | 32 | $1,000,000 |
Ben Eager | SAN | 27 | $965,000 |
Alexandre Picard | PHO | 25 | $868,219 |
Michael Rupp | PIT | 31 | $825,000 |
Brian Sutherby | DAL | 29 | $812,500 |
Marek Svatos | OTT | 29 | $800,000 |
Boyd Gordon | WAS | 27 | $800,000 |
Ville Leino | PHI | 27 | $800,000 |
Marcel Goc | NAS | 27 | $775,000 |
Darcy Hordichuk | FLA | 30 | $775,000 |
Scott Nichol | SAN | 36 | $760,000 |
Eric Godard | PIT | 31 | $750,000 |
Eric Belanger | PHO | 33 | $750,000 |
Patrick Eaves | DET | 27 | $750,000 |
Fredrik Sjostrom | TOR | 28 | $750,000 |
Brendan Morrison | CGY | 35 | $725,000 |
Sean Bergenheim | TBL | 27 | $700,000 |
Arron Asham | PIT | 33 | $700,000 |
Brad Winchester | ANA | 30 | $700,000 |
Jonas Andersson | VAN | 30 | $675,000 |
Kyle Wellwood | SAN | 28 | $650,000 |
Eric Boulton | WIN | 34 | $650,000 |
Drew Miller | DET | 27 | $650,000 |
Tanner Glass | VAN | 27 | $625,000 |
Ryan Carter | FLA | 27 | $625,000 |
Andrew Murray | CLB | 30 | $625,000 |
Ryan Shannon | OTT | 28 | $625,000 |
Matt Ellis | BUF | 29 | $625,000 |
Jeff LoVecchio | FLA | 25 | $605,000 |
Jamal Mayers | SAN | 36 | $600,000 |
Cam Janssen | STL | 27 | $600,000 |
Jamie Lundmark | NAS | 30 | $600,000 |
Mark Parrish | BUF | 34 | $600,000 |
Adam Hall | TBL | 30 | $600,000 |
Zenon Konopka | NYI | 30 | $600,000 |
Jeff Halpern | MTL | 35 | $600,000 |
Kyle Wilson | CLB | 26 | $600,000 |
Kris Chucko | CGY | 25 | $600,000 |
Aaron Gagnon | DAL | 25 | $600,000 |
Mark Mancari | BUF | 25 | $575,000 |
Andy Hilbert | NYI | 30 | $575,000 |
David Koci | COL | 30 | $575,000 |
Tim Brent | TOR | 27 | $575,000 |
Raymond Sawada | DAL | 26 | $575,000 |
Ben Guite | CLB | 32 | $575,000 |
Wade Belak | NAS | 34 | $575,000 |
Josh Green | ANA | 33 | $575,000 |
Trevor Frischmon | CLB | 29 | $575,000 |
John Zeiler | LAK | 28 | $558,333 |
Top 50 Defensemen
Ed Jovanovski | PHO | 35 | $6,500,000 |
Bryan McCabe | NYR | 36 | $5,750,000 |
Roman Hamrlik | MTL | 37 | $5,500,000 |
Scott Hannan | WAS | 32 | $4,500,000 |
Tomas Kaberle | BOS | 33 | $4,250,000 |
Joni Pitkanen | CAR | 27 | $4,000,000 |
Kevin Bieksa | VAN | 30 | $3,750,000 |
Craig Rivet | CLB | 36 | $3,500,000 |
Sami Salo | VAN | 36 | $3,500,000 |
James Wisniewski | MTL | 27 | $3,250,000 |
Christian Ehrhoff | VAN | 28 | $3,100,000 |
Ian White | SAN | 27 | $2,999,995 |
Steve Staios | CGY | 37 | $2,700,000 |
Brent Sopel | MTL | 34 | $2,333,333 |
Jim Vandermeer | EDM | 31 | $2,300,000 |
Jan Hejda | CLB | 33 | $2,000,000 |
Kent Huskins | SAN | 32 | $1,700,000 |
Shane O’Brien | NAS | 27 | $1,600,000 |
Steve Montador | BUF | 31 | $1,550,000 |
Radek Martinek | NYI | 34 | $1,500,000 |
Anton Babchuk | CGY | 27 | $1,400,000 |
Karlis Skrastins | DAL | 36 | $1,375,000 |
Sean O’Donnell | PHI | 39 | $1,300,000 |
Adam Foote | COL | 39 | $1,250,000 |
Steve Eminger | NYR | 27 | $1,125,000 |
Severin Blindenbacher | DAL | 28 | $1,112,500 |
Ruslan Salei | DET | 36 | $1,100,000 |
Andrew Alberts | VAN | 29 | $1,050,000 |
Brad Lukowich | DAL | 34 | $1,000,000 |
Randy Jones | TBL | 29 | $1,000,000 |
Marc-Andre Bergeron | TBL | 30 | $1,000,000 |
Jonathan Ericsson | DET | 27 | $900,000 |
Paul Mara | MTL | 31 | $750,000 |
Andreas Lilja | ANA | 35 | $750,000 |
Andy Greene | NJD | 28 | $737,500 |
Jason Strudwick | EDM | 35 | $725,000 |
Adam Pardy | CGY | 27 | $700,000 |
David Hale | OTT | 30 | $675,000 |
Jeff Woywitka | DAL | 27 | $650,000 |
Sean Collins | WAS | 27 | $650,000 |
Alexander Sulzer | FLA | 27 | $650,000 |
Nathan Oystrick | STL | 28 | $600,000 |
Jordan Hendry | CHI | 27 | $600,000 |
Freddy Meyer | WIN | 30 | $600,000 |
Drew Bagnall | MIN | 27 | $600,000 |
Tyson Strachan | STL | 26 | $600,000 |
Mathieu Roy | TBL | 27 | $600,000 |
Dean Arsene | STL | 30 | $600,000 |
Shawn Belle | COL | 26 | $600,000 |
Danny Syvret | PHI | 26 | $600,000 |
Top 20 Goalies
Jean-Sebastien Giguere | TOR | 34 | $6,000,000 |
Tomas Vokoun | FLA | 34 | $5,700,000 |
Pascal Leclaire | OTT | 28 | $3,800,000 |
Dwayne Roloson | TBL | 41 | $2,500,000 |
Mike Smith | TBL | 29 | $2,200,000 |
Johan Hedberg | NJD | 38 | $1,500,000 |
Chris Osgood | DET | 38 | $1,416,667 |
Ty Conklin | STL | 35 | $1,300,000 |
Marty Turco | CHI | 35 | $1,300,000 |
Peter Budaj | COL | 28 | $1,250,000 |
Josh Harding | MIN | 27 | $1,200,000 |
Mathieu Garon | CLB | 33 | $1,200,000 |
Jose Theodore | MIN | 34 | $1,100,000 |
Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers | EDM | 27 | $1,050,000 |
Alex Auld | MTL | 30 | $1,000,000 |
Brian Boucher | PHI | 34 | $925,000 |
Joey MacDonald | DET | 31 | $550,000 |
Curtis McElhinney | OTT | 28 | $535,000 |
Martin Gerber | EDM | 36 | $500,000 |
Ray Emery | ANA | 28 | $500,000 |