Thursday, June 30, 2016

Top 10 in 2016 Pool Worthy Unrestricted Free Agents

As we draw closer and closer to the frenzy, we now have a pretty good idea of who's heading to market, barring a last minute push, trade and/or signing of a player.  So far, many of the names that were scheduled to appear in free agency, have stuck around to this point, which gives us lots of points of interest to talk about.  This post, however, we'll just go over the top 10 pool worthy players, which may or may not exactly be the top 10 most exciting players to move.

Thanks to the NHLPA invoking their lifting clause, the salary cap ceiling did see a slight increase, heading up from $71.4 million to $73 million.  It isn't much, but at least the cap didn't drop below $70 million, which would have happened, if the union didn't step up here.

The biggest prize of them all is Steven Stamkos, who may have suffered a little bit of frost bite from the team in recent seasons, as differences with the coaching staff and the roster's ability to win games, even in the playoffs, without him, may have caused an irreparable rift.  The Lightning have kept their cards close to the vest, leading up to free agency, but with all the talk that the Lightning have reached out to the Stamkos camp, the numbers were not exactly working in their favour, so it seemed more and more likely that the team's captain would head to the open market.

Despite a blood clot issue at the end of the regular season, Stamkos still finished atop the rankings for potential unrestricted free agents, finishing the year with 36 goals and 64 points in 77 games.  By no means are those career-high numbers, but his role had changed in recent years with the Lightning, so now he'll look for an opportunity where he can be that guy again.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $7.5 million

It has been expected for a couple of weeks, that Kyle Okposo was set to head to unrestricted free agency, after the Islanders' management team apparently wished him well through the free agency process.  A pretty good sign, right?  The 28-year old American has played in nine NHL seasons, all with the Islanders and now might be a really good time for him to make a change and collect a few extra bucks doing so.

His 2016 was good, ranking 24th among forwards with 22 goals and 64 points in 79 games with the club and he could be in for a significant raise on the open market.  It's hard to imagine that the Islanders wouldn't throw a number at him, but he will likely look for a team and a dollar figure, that makes sense for him.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $5.5 million

One of the more interesting trigger men to possibly hit the open market would be Boston's Loui Eriksson, a 30-goal scorer in the 2016 season.  The Bruins have some holes to fill and can't seem to close the gap between offer and demands between themselves and the player, ahead of unrestricted free agency.  There is little doubt that Eriksson will find what he's looking for on the open market and the days that have led up to free agency opening tomorrow has probably been filled with many suitors, so I would imagine that he will be one of the first to go tomorrow at Noon ET.

In total, Eriksson had 63 points in all 82 games and the 26th ranked forward had a cap hit of $4.25 million last season, making him into a fair bargain.  Can't imagine he'll be much of a bargain after July 1st.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $6 million

The Los Angeles Kings, no matter how much they thought they could be, were not really going to be in the market to re-sign forward Milan Lucic, unless some moves were made, previous to the open market going live tomorrow.  Between his age and scoring comparable players, Lucic was actually in some pretty distinguished company, so it was going to be hard for Los Angeles to work around some of their cap issues for him.

Lucic finished the year with 20 goals and 55 points in 81 games, which ranked him 82nd overall in pool scoring and was arguably a bargain at a $3.3 million cap hit.  On the open market, he'll receive a bit of a raise, but if he's going to name his price, he might be on the list for a little while.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $5 million

Frans Nielsen quietly goes about his business and manages to post some very respectable numbers and I would bet that he would like it to stay that way.  Unfortunately, being a high profile unrestricted free agent may change things this Summer, as he ranks 5th on the list this year, as the clock ticks over to the flood gates opening.  In 2014, he posted 58 points, 2015 was 43 points and then in the 2016 season, he got back up to 52 points and was a 20-goal scorer as well for the Islanders.

Still, his name doesn't really jump off the page at you, especially when it comes to the hockey pool draft, but someone in the NHL is going to see the value of his steady game and there is a fine chance that he will get a significant raise from his $2.75 million cap hit he had last season, especially at the ripe age of 32.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $4 million

The well-traveled Lee Stempniak is heading back to the open market, as his brief stint with the Boston Bruins was only just a rental agreement, by the look of things.  There might still be a home for him in Beantown, but the Bruins are probably going to exercise their options before coming back to the 33-year old in the early part of the Summer.  Last season, his cap hit was a fine bargain at $850,000 and he finished 107th overall in pool scoring, so there is certainly some value there, but the Bruins are not going to get him that cheap again, hence the wait.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $3.75 million

It's hard to imagine a talent like Mikkel Boedker would be a rental player, but heading into the frenzy, the Colorado Avalanche have announced that Boedker will go to free agency, but that isn't to say that they won't be a big player in the bidding process for his services.

The 26-year old Dane scored 17 goals and 51 points in 80 games between Arizona and Colorado and still has some more upside, assuming he can sign with a team that has a little bit more scoring depth and/or more maturity than the two teams he has featured with already in his career.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 season (and beyond): $4.5 million

It isn't exactly a banner year for goaltending on the open market, as the hot commodities, which are number one goalies, are generally locked up for the long-term and are rarely available this late into the Summer.  It is definitely more about goalies who believe they have earned a shot at being a number one elsewhere, enter Chad Johnson.  Johnson did an admirable job in Buffalo, while Robin Lehner recovered from an ankle injury, but Lehner has been identified as their number one, so Johnson will try and find a shot elsewhere through free agency.

The 30-year old appeared in 45 games for Buffalo, registering 22 wins and 48 points, good enough for 26th among goalies in pool scoring.  His cost would be very modest and for some teams that don't want to break the bank on goaltending, they could have some definite interest in Johnson.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $2 million

Could this be the Summer where Shane Doan finally leaves the Coyotes organization to try and win himself a Stanley Cup before the end of his loyal career?  Would you believe that he is already coming off of his first 35+ contract, which was a 4-year deal at the time?  The 39-year old forward was still producing in the 2016 season, scoring 28 goals and 47 points in 72 games for the dogs, so he still carries a lot of value to a team, especially in the leadership department.

The Jets/Coyotes have been a great franchise for him and he will always be remembered as a long-time member of this franchise, but there would be no better finish to his career than with a championship.  I'm not exactly sure about how many teams there are that could jump on a contract for a guy who will turn 40 around the start of the season, but there will have to be someone, I'm sure.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $2.5 million

The curious case of Andrew Ladd and what his value might be moving forward.  There was a lot of chatter that if Winnipeg was to re-sign him to a contract extension, it would have cost them an arm and a leg.  After the trade to Chicago and the Blackhawks' exit from the playoffs, combined with the role Ladd played, he demands may not be quite as high for a team to sign him on.

In 2016, between Winnipeg and Chicago, Ladd played in 78 games, scoring 25 goals and 46 points, which was only good for 100th among all forwards on the scoring list.  That should have a real impact on what his overall cap number should be, especially if he is looking for a long-term deal.

Estimated cap hit for the 2017 (and beyond): $4.75 million

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