And yet another top potential unrestricted free agent bites the dust with a new deal the day before... Jussi Jokinen re-signed with the Hurricanes, three years and $9 million, which works out to be a cool $3 million cap hit per year. Jokinen was ranked 9th among my top 21 potential free agents a couple of weeks ago, but the Hurricanes knew they had to keep a player of his calibre around.
Jokinen finished the year in 82nd among all forwards in scoring, according to my rankings, with 19 goals and 33 assists in 70 games with the Hurricanes, which puts him into some pretty good company for secondary scoring. If Jokinen was able to play all 82 games in the regular season, there was a good chance he would have cracked the 60-point plateau, making him around the top 50 in overall scoring.
At a cap hit of only $3 million per, the Hurricanes have themselves quite a deal on their hands, bringing their projected annual totals up to $39.6 million for six forwards, six defense and a goaltending tandem, leaving them $8.7 million away from the cap floor for seven forwards and a defenseman, not to mention all the added room to the salary cap ceiling. The Hurricanes are in great shape heading into Friday's signing free-for-all, so pay close attention to what they do.
Ehrhoff had a very impressive regular season with the Canucks, scoring 14 goals and 36 assists in 79 games with the Western Conference leaders, ranking 7th among all defensemen in scoring.
Arguably, Montador is a reasonable offensive defenseman, who probably doesn't put up enough points to be a true player of the sort, but his numbers are never really terrible to take him out of the argument. In 2011, Montador finished with 5 goals and 21 assists in 73 games with the Sabres, which was good enough for 61st among defensemen in scoring, which isn't great, but still pool worthy.
The Nashville Predators have decided to buy out the remaining year on J-P Dumont's contract, after a season where he finished up as a healthy scratch on most nights. Dumont only played in 70 games for Nashville, scoring 10 goals and adding 9 assists. He is now an unrestricted free agent, free to go anywhere that wants him. His remaining cap hit is listed below.
Oshie had an injury-shortened 2011 season, playing in only 49 games for the Blues, scoring 12 goals and adding 22 assists. That unfortunately put the small power forward out of the regular scoring ranks for the hockey pools, but when healthy, he is a pretty good scoring forward, one that may turn out to be a little bit of a sleeper in the drafts for the 2012 season.
Roloson split 2011 between Long Island and Tampa Bay, winning 24 games, 4 by shutout and added 2 assists for 58 points in the pool, ranking him 21st among all goalies. Roloson's season on the Island was not very good, but he was off the charts for the Lightning in both the end of the regular season and the playoffs. 
The Columbus Blue Jackets are going to try their hand at a last-minute negotiation with defenseman James Wisniewski, the best defenseman I had on my top 20 unrestricted free agents list. Wisniewski was either unable to secure a new deal or was just unwanted by the Canadiens, so his rights were traded away for something tangible.
Just so we know what we're looking at here... according to the points from last year, these are the top three forwards, two defense and goaltender signed on for each team in the division. There are going to be better players missing from this list, due to free agency, injuries last season or other miscellaneous reasons. I don't believe this is an accurate look at each team, just a snapshot for comparison purposes.