The Puck Stops Here

Since my last free agent post we have some more signings and roster moves.

Martin St Louis resigned with Tampa Bay. TSN's story is here. There was speculation that Tampa could not afford him and LeCavalier, although this seems to be false. Nevertheless, the salary cap is going to force Tampa to break up their core much sooner than they would have under the old CBA - it has already started with Khabibulin in Chicago.

Mattias Ohlund resigned with Vancouver. TSN's story is here.

John Pohl was traded to Toronto for future consideration by St Louis. TSN's story is here. Likely, this trade will have no NHL significance at all. Pohl is a minor leaguer.

Detroit signs Andreas Lilja from Nashville. He should provide some defensive depth. They also signed Don MacLean from Toronto. He will likely start the year in the AHL. TSN's story is here.

Patrik Elias resigns in New Jersey. TSN's story is here. Although this technically puts the Devils over the salary cap, that is probably not important because Elias is suffering from hepatitis A and will likely miss most or all of the season. As I pointed out in injuries and the new CBA, the Devils will be allowed to exceed the salary cap as long as they are only exceeding it with injured players and with the high NHL injury rate, if Elias comes back this year, there will likely be other injured guys whose salary space can be used. Nevertheless, the Devils may move to reduce salary, but there is no need to get below the cap including Elias's salary.

The New York Islanders resigned Justin Papineau. TSN's story is here.

Anaheim moved to get below the salary cap by trading Steve Rucchin to the New York Rangers for minor league goon Trevor Gillies and a conditional 2007 draft pick. TSN's story is here. The Ducks got nothing of value in return for Rucchin.

Washington signed Petr Sykora (not the Anaheim player) from the Czech Republic. He last appeared in the NHL as a Nashville Predator. TSN's story is here. Sykora could be a useful forward. The Capitals also resigned Chris Clark. TSN's story is here.

Teams are still signing their rfa's and assorted remaining ufa's. There are also some trades being made to ensure that teams stay below salary caps. This is the end game of the free agent frenzy, it is less glamorous then the signings of the first few days, but it is still quite important to the success and failure of the NHL teams.