Malone Goes Solo
June 17th, 2008 by Jason ChenAs expected, Ryan Malone is going to be a UFA July 1st. The Pittsburgh native will not be back to his hometown team, despite being a fan favourite and his playoff heroics, broken face and all. The Jackets, who were rumoured to be the front-runners for his services, were willing to commit to a 4-5 year deal worth about $4.5m/year, while the Pens were adamant in not committing to more than $3m/year. Although trade talks have broken off, the Jackets are still the favourites to land the hulking winger. Talks apparently broke down when Malone refused to be traded, partly because he did not want to be the one that took a good chunk out of Columbus’ future and depth. A smart move on Malone’s part - I think he’s gonna need a lot of help offensively to replicate his 27-goal season.
Among the other players that will be available July 1st (confirmed):
C - Doug Weight, Bobby Holik, Bryan Smolinski, Josef Vasicek, Randy Robitaille, Martin Straka, Sean Avery, Jeff Hamilton
RW - Michael Ryder, Miro Satan, Shean Donovan, Martin Lapointe, Mike Johnson, Marian Hossa, Ben Clymer
LW - Kristian Huselius, Ladislav Nagy, Ruslan Fedotenko, Cory Stillman, Ryan Malone, Markus Naslund
D - Bret Hedican, John-Michael Liles, Ron Hainsey, Mike Commodore, Luke Richardson, Wade Redden, Jason Smith, Michal Rozsival, David Tanabe
G - Patrick Lalime, Wade Dubielewicz, Ray Emery, Dan Cloutier
Likely to hit the market:
C - Michael Ryan, Jason Williams, Marty Reasoner, Chris Kelly, Mike York, Curtis Brown, Ryan Johnson, Mats Sundin, Brendan Morrison, Byron Ritchie, Glen Metropolit
RW - Mark Recchi, Antti Miettinen, Trevor Letowski, Pavol Demitra, Darcy Tucker, Radim Vrbata, Andre Roy
LW - Andrew Brunette, Curtis Glencross, Vaclav Prospal, Mattias Tjarnqvist, Jarkko Ruutu, Brad Isbister, Pascal Dupuis
D - David Hale, Jim Vandermeer, Andrei Zyuzin, Andreas Lilja, Mark Streit, Karel Rachunek, Bryce Salvador, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Rory Fitzpatrick, Brooks Orpik, Mark Eaton, Mike Weaver, Brian Campbell
G - Alex Auld, Dan Ellis, Andrew Raycroft, David Aebischer, Curtis Sanford
Unlikely to hit the market:
C - Daymond Langkow, Stephane Yelle, Brad Winchester, Jeremy Roenick, Sergei Fedorov, Chris Gratton
RW - Owen Nolan, Darren McCarty, Brian Rolston, Matt Foy, Arron Asham, Georges Laraque
LW - Wade Brookbank, Todd Fedoruk, Aaron Voros, Jan Hlavac, Martin Gelinas, Jody Shelley, Matt Cooke
D - Kurt Sauer, Jeff Finger, Adam Foote, Brad Stuart, Rob Blake
G - Cristobal Huet
Status unknown:
C - Craig Conroy, Mike Peca, Patrick Rissmiller
LW - Scott Thornton, Jay Pandolfo
D - Jassen Cullimore, Oleg Tverdovsky, Bryan Berard
G - Jocelyn Thibault, Jose Theodore, Johan Holmqvist, Stephen Valiquette
Retirement possible:
C - Yanic Perreault, Peter Forsberg, Stu Barnes, Steve Rucchin, Joe Sakic, Jim Dowd
RW - Dallas Drake, Jaromir Jagr
LW - Geoff Sanderson, Brendan Shanahan, Gary Roberts, Martin Rucinsky
D - Jon Klemm, Keith Carney, Sean Hill, Patrice Brisebois, Jaroslav Modry, Teppo Numminen, Sandis Ozolinsh, Aaron Miller
G - Olaf Kolzig
Trade bait:
C - Patrick Marleau, O. Jokinen (Phx), Tuomo Ruutu, Henrik Sedin, Jason Spezza, Evgeni Malkin, M. Cammalleri (Cgy)
RW - Justin Williams, Jonathan Cheechoo
LW - A. Tanguay (Mtl), Erik Cole, Daniel Sedin
D - Joni Pitkanen, Kevin Bieksa, Pavel Kubina, Bryan McCabe
This is by no means a definitive list, but merely just a rough guide at this year’s UFAs.
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