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The NHL's free-agent season opens Saturday.
For players over age 31 like Mark Messier and Claude Lemieux,
unrestricted free agency awaits: no strings attached, sign with any
team that's interested with no compensation required.
|  | | Lemieux may be moving on once again, especially if another team offers him a long-term contract. |
For younger stars like Joe Sakic and Jason Arnott, restricted
free agency gives them little leverage. Teams are reluctant to sign
them because the compensation, usually five first-round draft
picks, is stiff.
The Philadelphia Flyers submitted an $8.5 million qualifying
offer to center Eric Lindros on Friday night, preventing him from
becoming an unrestricted free agent. Lindros, his career in
jeopardy because of a series of concussions, has until Aug. 1 to
accept the offer.
Flyers GM Bob Clarke still is trying to trade Lindros, who has yet to
be medicially cleared to play. Clark is proposing deals that would require relatively little in return to begin with
but would net the Flyers more in return the more Lindros is able to play for
a new team.
There probably won't be much activity until next week. GMs will
receive the final list of restricted and unrestricted free agents
Saturday. After that, the cat-and-mouse game begins.
"I don't think I'll call any agents (Saturday)," Mike Smith,
manager of hockey operations for the Blackhawks, told the Chicago
Sun-Times. "I'll wait for them to call us. That's how I do it.
"What's the rush? If someone wants to sign on Saturday, it's
probably an indication of tampering. If (we lose a player because
we didn't go after him right away), that happens. We're not in a
rush to jump right in."
Friday's formality for NHL clubs was to make qualifying offers
to their respective restricted free agents. Since qualifying offers
usually represent the same salary the player earned the season
before, there often remains much negotiating before training camp.
After teams make a qualifying offer, players then have 30 days
to accept it or become restricted free agents.
Not all restricted free agents will get qualifying offers. Last
summer, the Montreal Canadiens decided not to make one to winger
Jonas Hoglund, who at 26, became an unrestricted free agent and
signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This year it's Alexandre Daigle, who was informed by the Rangers
that he wouldn't get a qualifying offer and thus becomes an
unrestricted free agent.
"I do not anticipate being really active," Canucks GM Brian
Burke told the Vancouver Sun. "Now that might change if teams
don't qualify certain guys who would then move from the restricted
list to the unrestricted list."
The Canucks opted to pay the 39-year-old Messier a $2
million buyout for the final two years of his five-year contract
instead of being on the hook for $6 million a season.
Officially the Canucks still hold a faint hope of convincing
their captain to return to Vancouver at a reduced salary.
"I discussed with Mark what our level of interest is," Burke
said Friday. "He told me he intended to look around."
"We're sitting tight until July 1 gets here," Doug Messier,
Mark's father and agent, said from his South Carolina home on
Friday. "There's nothing new to report right now."
Lemieux, who turns 35 on July 16, says that while he
"absolutely" wants to return to the Devils, he'll be testing the
market.
"I've come this far, so I'll look at all the options," Lemieux
told the Bergen (N.J.) Record. "But, yeah, I'd absolutely want to
come back. It was a great year, and we had a lot of fun. When you
win, there's no better ending to a season.
"But it has to be the right deal. If it is, that's where I'll
be."
Other players who are due to become unrestricted free agents
today include forwards Shayne Corson, Gary Roberts, Dallas Drake
and Rick Tocchet; defensemen Vladimir Malakhov, Mathieu Schneider,
Paul Coffey, Dave Manson and Sylvain Cote; and goaltenders Bob
Essensa, Ron Tugnutt, Sean Burke and Tom Barrasso.
Corson decided to test the free agent market after mulling over
an offer from his team, the Canadiens.
"He's going to go see other teams," Montreal GM Rejean Houle
said Friday. "We've made him an offer. We'll see what
happens."
Other restricted free agents include forwards Doug Weight, Owen
Nolan, Slava Kozlov, Brian Savage, Adam Deadmarsh and Mike Peca;
defensemen Sandis Ozolinsh, Scott Niedermayer, Alexei Zhitnik,
Roman Hamrlik, Kenny Jonsson and Sergei Gonchar; and goaltenders
Felix Potvin, Chris Osgood, Steve Shields and Jose Theodore.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. | |
ALSO SEE
Free-agent busters: Flyers offer Lindros $8.5M
Canucks cut Messier loose with $2 million payday
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