OK, so the top need for the Lightning in the off season is D, is it not?  Stabilizing and upgrading the walking wounded, AHL caliber group that closed out the season for the Lightning.

Paul Ranger and Andrej Meszaros will hopefully be back at full force next season after having both of their 2008-09 seasons abbreviated by injuries.  I've already posted about the season that was on the Lightning blue-line, and that is not to be the subject of this posting.

Nope, the point to this post is to put up the projected list of Unrestricted Free Agent defensemen as it stands right now.  View the list below the fold...

This list is not a surefire thing as any number of these guys may be re-signed, may retire, or any other number of things between now and July 1st (the first day of free agency).  The list will grow with RFA's not tendered offers by their teams, and it could shrink substantially if teams decide to hold onto pending free agents instead of letting their contracts expire.

At any rate, by way of NHL Numbers, this is the current list of projected UFA's on defense:

2009 Free Agent List - Defencemen - Unrestricted Free Agents
Note: This is an incomplete list of free agents.
Player		Age	Team	Pos	2009 FA Status	08/09 Cap Number	08/09 Salary
Beauchemin, Francois		29	ANA	D	UFA	1.650	1.650
Hedican, Bret		38	ANA	D	UFA	0.871	0.871
Niedermayer, Scott		35	ANA	D	UFA	6.750	6.750
Hnidy, Shane		33	BOS	D	UFA	0.757	0.760
Montador, Steve		29	BOS	D	UFA	0.800	0.800
Numminen, Teppo		40	BUF	D	UFA	1.100	1.100
Spacek, Jaroslav		35	BUF	D	UFA	3.333	3.300
Seidenberg, Dennis		27	CAR	D	UFA	1.200	1.200
Tanabe, David		28	CAR	D	UFA	0.750	0.900
Aucoin, Adrian		35	CGY	D	UFA	4.000	4.000
Leopold, Jordan		28	CGY	D	UFA	1.500	1.500
Warrener, Rhett		33	CGY	D	UFA	2.350	2.500
Johnson, Aaron		26	CHI	D	UFA	0.525	0.525
Walker, Matt		29	CHI	D	UFA	0.600	0.600
Backman, Christian		29	CLB	D	UFA	2.300	3.400
MacKenzie, Aaron		28	COL	D	UFA	0.475	0.475
Nycholat, Lawrence		30	COL	D	UFA	0.550	0.600
Tjarnqvist, Daniel		32	COL	D	UFA	0.750	0.750
Sydor, Darryl		37	DAL	D	UFA	2.500	2.500
Zubov, Sergei		38	DAL	D	UFA	5.350	5.350
Chelios, Chris		47	DET	D	UFA	0.750	0.750
Strudwick, Jason		33	EDM	D	UFA	0.650	0.650
Bouwmeester, Jay		25	FLA	D	UFA	4.875	4.875
Boynton, Nick		30	FLA	D	UFA	2.950	2.950
Cullimore, Jassen		36	FLA	D	UFA	0.830	0.830
Skrastins, Karlis		34	FLA	D	UFA	2.400	2.400
Gauthier, Denis		32	LAK	D	UFA	2.100	2.200
Bergeron, Marc-Andre		28	MIN	D	UFA	1.116	1.691
Foster, Kurtis		27	MIN	D	UFA	1.025	1.025
Mojzis, Tomas		27	MIN	D	UFA	0.500	0.500
Skoula, Martin		29	MIN	D	UFA	1.800	1.900
Bouillon, Francis		33	MTL	D	UFA	1.875	1.875
Brisebois, Patrice		38	MTL	D	UFA	1.500	0.750
Dandenault, Mathieu		33	MTL	D	UFA	1.725	1.750
Henry, Alex		29	MTL	D	UFA	0.500	0.500
Janik, Doug		29	MTL	D	UFA	0.500	0.500
Komisarek, Mike		27	MTL	D	UFA	1.700	1.900
Schneider, Mathieu		40	MTL	D	UFA	5.625	5.750
De Vries, Greg		36	NAS	D	UFA	2.500	2.750
Koistinen, Ville		27	NAS	D	UFA	0.700	0.700
Zanon, Greg		29	NAS	D	UFA	0.725	0.750
Havelid, Niclas		36	NJD	D	UFA	2.700	2.900
Oduya, Johnny		27	NJD	D	UFA	0.600	0.600
Lee, Chris		28	NYI	D	UFA	0.500	0.500
Pock, Thomas		27	NYI	D	UFA	0.667	0.685
Mara, Paul		29	NYR	D	UFA	1.950	1.950
Morris, Derek		30	NYR	D	UFA	3.917	3.950
Richardson, Luke		40	OTT	D	UFA	0.500	0.500
Alberts, Andrew		28	PHI	D	UFA	1.250	1.400
Hatcher, Derian		37	PHI	D	UFA	3.500	3.500
Kukkonen, Lasse		27	PHI	D	UFA	0.875	0.900
Kalinin, Dmitri		28	PHX	D	UFA	2.100	2.100
Klee, Ken		38	PHX	D	UFA	0.625	1.250
Boucher, Philippe		36	PIT	D	UFA	2.500	2.500
Gill, Hal		34	PIT	D	UFA	2.075	2.100
Scuderi, Rob		30	PIT	D	UFA	0.713	0.725
Blake, Rob		39	SJS	D	UFA	5.000	5.000
Huskins, Kent		30	SJS	D	UFA	0.625	0.650
Semenov, Alexei		28	SJS	D	UFA	0.650	0.650
Weaver, Mike		31	STL	D	UFA	0.700	0.700
Malik, Marek		34	TBL	D	UFA	1.250	1.250
Melichar, Josef		30	TBL	D	UFA	1.000	1.000
Murphy, Cory		31	TBL	D	UFA	0.412	0.875
Niskala, Janne		27	TBL	D	UFA	0.600	0.600
Heward, Jamie		38	TOR	D	UFA	0.475	0.475
Baumgartner, Nolan		33	VAN	D	UFA	0.550	0.550
Davison, Rob		29	VAN	D	UFA	0.560	0.560
Ohlund, Mattias		32	VAN	D	UFA	3.500	3.500
Vaananen, Ossi		28	VAN	D	UFA	1.000	1.000
Helmer, Bryan		36	WAS	D	UFA	0.475	0.475
Sloan, Tyler		28	WAS	D	UFA	0.475	0.475

Now the question is, who would you target out of this bunch?  Knowing financial constraints this team has, they won't be vying for Jay Bouwmeester, but that doesn't mean they won't chase any of these guys.  Who would provide the best bang-for-the-buck?  The best spark?  The best compliment to the only two sure-thing returns (pending trade) on the Lightning defense?