NHL Bracing for Free-Agency Signing Blitz

Gentlemen, start your calculators.

The NHL’s free-agent signing period will begin today, moments after a 9 a.m. Pacific time deadline passes for clubs to tender offers to their restricted free agents. More than 200 unrestricted free agents are expected to seek new deals, but general managers will for the first time face the challenge of operating under a salary cap.

The number of available free agents won’t be clear until after qualifying offers are given to restricted free agents. If clubs don’t make qualifying offers to players who are past entry level, younger than 31 and whose contracts ended after the 2004-05 season, those players will become unrestricted free agents.

The deadline for qualifying offers had been set at Sunday at 2 p.m. Pacific time but was pushed back to give clubs more preparation time.

The new collective bargaining agreement stipulates that restricted free agents who don’t sign contracts by Dec. 1 of a given year can’t play in the NHL the rest of that season.

The Kings and Mighty Ducks have said they plan to explore free agency, but they might wait for others to set the market. “I don’t think I’ll do anything [today],” Duck General Manager Brian Burke said last week. “Some people will rush to the cash register. I think we can keep our group together and add a couple of guys.”

King General Manager Dave Taylor said last week his club is “well positioned to move forward under the new agreement,” and added, “Don’t expect us to go to $39 million on Aug. 1.”

Most clubs announced by Sunday which restricted free agents they won’t qualify. The most prominent player allowed to become an unrestricted free agent was Miroslav Satan, who scored 194 goals for the Buffalo Sabres in his last six seasons and is sure to draw widespread interest. The New York Rangers bought out standout defensive center Bobby Holik last week, making him an unrestricted free agent, and he’s also likely to draw offers.

The Mighty Ducks did not make a qualifying offer to defenseman Martin Skoula, who became expendable when Sandis Ozolinsh re-signed for two years. The Ducks also did not give qualifying offers to winger Alexei Smirnov, their 2000 first-round draft pick and 12th overall, wingers Sheldon Brookbank and Cory Pecker, defensemen Lance Ward and Kurtis Foster and goaltender Eddy Ferhi.

They gave qualifying offers to forwards Stanislav Chistov, Chris Kunitz, Mike Leclerc, Rob Niedermayer and Samuel Pahlsson as well as to defensemen Ruslan Salei and Mark Popovic.

The Kings gave qualifying offers to forwards Alexander Frolov, Michael Cammalleri, Noah Clarke, Yanick Lehoux, George Parros and Eric Belanger, defenseman Joe Corvo and goaltender Adam Hauser. They did not make qualifying offers to forwards Esa Pirnes and Scott Barney. They re-signed winger Ryan Flinn last week.

The league list of unrestricted free agents includes proven scorers Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Mike Modano, Ziggy Palffy, Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne and Alexei Kovalev. The pool of defenseman is also impressive and includes Scott Niedermayer, Adam Foote, Brian Rafalski, Mathieu Schneider, Roman Hamrlik and Sergei Gonchar.

The maximum salary for any player this season is $7.8 million, or 20% of the $39-million league cap.

The cap was based on $1.7 billion in projected revenues, but if revenues are less, the cap will fall in 2006-07. General managers must keep that in mind when structuring multiyear offers.