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?
