Signings and Trades pre-FA Frenzy

Monday, June 30th

- Boston re-signs F Petteri Nokelainen to a 2-year, 1.7 M contract.

- Buffalo re-signs F Paul Gaustad to a 4-year, 9.2 M contract.

- Detroit re-signs D Andreas Lilja to a 2-year contract.

- Florida re-signs F Rotislav Olesz to a 6-year, 18.75 M contract.

- San Jose signs F Jody Shelley to a a 2-year contract.

Sunday, June 29th

- Colorado signs D Adam Foote to a 2-year, 6 M contract and D John-Michael Liles to a 4-year, 16 M contract.

- Edmonton trades F Jarret Stoll and D Matt Greene to Los Angeles for D Lubomir Visnovsky.

- Minnesota trades F Brian Rolston to Tampa Bay for a conditional 3rd round pick in the 2010 entry draft.

- Tampa Bay signs F Ryan Malone to a 7-year, 31.5 M contract and F Gary Roberts to a 1-year contract.

Flyers acquire Modry

The Philadelphia Flyers made a light splash today, acquiring veteran defenseman Jaroslav Modry from the Los Angeles Kings, in exchange for a 3rd round draft pick in this year’s draft.

The soon-to-be 37 year-old (Birthday on Feb. 27th) had 6 points (1+5) in 61 games, to go along with a +2 plus-minus and 42 minutes served in the penalty box.

Modry’s current salary is $1.2 M. He is set to become an unrestricted free-agent on July 1st.

This move comes as no surprise as the Flyers have been severely bitten by the “injury bug”, having lost defencemen Rory Fitzpatrick, Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje, as well as forwards Simon Gagné, Steve Downie, Joffrey Lupul and Denis Tolpeko to injury.

Modry adds experience, depth and size to an already quite good team in the Flyers.

Kings of the free agent market

LOS ANGELES-- The Kings are one of the major players in this year's free agent market.

After a disappointing season despite the great ones of youngsters Alexander Frolov, Mike Cammalleri and Anze Kopitars, Kings' GM Dean Lombardi was poised to make a splash and improve his club.

He did so, by adding veteran forwards Michal Handzus, Ladislav Nagy and Kyle Calder and defencemen Tom Preissing and Brad Stuart.

These signings tranform this club, as so many others have been this offseason, into a playoff team...

These 5 veterans add skill, size, experience, finesse, grit, power, speed, intelligence... to the Kings' roster.

Here are the Kings' expected lines, with these signings:

Frolov -- Kopitar -- Cammalleri
Nagy -- Handzus -- Brown
Thornton -- Armstrong -- Calder
Ivaanans -- O'Sullivan -- Willsie

Blake -- Johnson
Stuart -- Visnovski
Preissing -- Modry

Cloutier
LaBarbera

This is definately a team to be excited about, and to follow during the 2007/08 season.

Briere gets offer from Canadiens

MONTREAL- According to TSN's Darren Dreger, the Montreal Canadiens have offered star forward Daniel Briere a contract.

The offer is worth US$42 million over a period of 7 years, an average salary of US$7 million per season.

Briere has also been tendered contract offers by 8 other teams, but has "narrowed his list down" to 5 teams, including the Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings.

Briere is currently in Los Angeles, California.

Flurry of re-signings

ATL- Today, the Atlanta Thrashers re-signed forward Pascal Dupuis to a 1-year, US$800,000
contract. Dupuis was acquired last trade deadline by the Thrashers from the Rangers.

BUF- Saturday, the Buffalo Sabres re-signed forward/"goon" Adam Mair to a 3-year contract. His salary is expected to be over the US$650,000 he earned last season.

LAK- On friday, the Los Angeles Kings re-signed defenseman Jaroslav Modry and left winger Jeff Giuliano to 1-year contracts. No "money-related" information was disclosed.

MIN- Saturday afternoon, the Minnesota Wild re-signed restricted free-agents Mikko Koivu and Martin Skoula to new multi-year contracts. Both player's salaries will be around the US$1 million mark.

STL- On saturday, the Saint-Louis Blues re-signed forward Keith Tkachuk to a 2-year contract worth US$8 million. Tkachuk was acquired earlier this week from the Atlanta Thrashers.

New Jerseys Update

Over the last past week, a serious number of jerseys have either been unveiled or "leaked", here they are:

Boston Bruins (Officially Announced):

Carolina Hurricanes (Leaked by EASPORTS):

Columbus Blue Jackets (Officially Announced):

Dallas Stars (Leaked by Stars' Writer Mike Heyka):

Los Angeles Kings (Leaked over at HF Boards):

Washington Capitals (Officially Announced):

Rumor Central

BOS- Bruins' GM Peter Chiarelli has admitted to being in the market for a goalie. Ilya Bryzgalov and Manny Fernandez both seem to be on the "expendable" list for both their clubs.

DET- "Hard decisions" have to be made by Red Wings' GM Ken Holland, and Philadelphia's signing of Kimmo Timonen to a monster contract isn't helping him or other GMs in the market for a quality defenseman. Add to that the fact that the Wings only have US$10 million dollars to spend this offseason, and the signing of UFAs Mathieu Schneider, Dominik Hasek, Todd Bertuzzi and Danny Markov will be difficult. The most likely to remain are Schneider and Hasek, but anything can happen.

EDM- Kevin Lowe aknowledges that he is in need of a veteran player that will create "some buzz". He also says that he is ready to compromise his future for such a player. Who knows, he might not have to compromise anything, if he signs Robert Lang, who will not be re-signed by the Wings.

LAK- The Los Angeles Daily News report that the Kings will buy out the remaining 4 years of forward Alyn McCauley's contract, which would cost the "mighty" club 666 thousand over the next 4 years.

NSH- John Glennon, a writer for the "Tennessean", reports that the Predators, with the departure of Kimmo Timonen, Scottie Upshall and Tomas Vokoun, are trying to retain the services of Paul Kariya for next season. "Talks have been very positive", he says.