Free Agent Frenzy: Wednesday Open Discussion Thread

Fodder to get the conversations rolling this morning...

* After being the recipient of a compliance buyout in Tampa Bay, Vincent Lecavalier has agreed to a 5-year, $22.5m contract with the Philadelphia Flyers (do the math, he's also due $32.667m over the next 14 years to no longer play for the Lightning).

* Grant Clitsome is off the market. The pending UFA defenseman agreed to a three-year, $6.2 million deal to stay with the Winnipeg Jets.

* Pascal Dupuis stays with the Pittsburgh Penguins, agreed to a four-year, $15m contract. Earlier in the day it was announced that the team had come to terms with Kris Letang on an 8-year, $58m contract.

* Glendale keeps the Coyotes - The Glendale city council voted late last night to a 15-year lease agreement with Renaissance Sports & Entertainment that will allow them to purchase the Coyotes and keep them in Phoenix. Good recap on [TSN].

Waivers/Buyouts

NHL.com has an official list of all compliance buyouts [here]. Compliance buyouts are restricted to a maximum of two per team and offer full cap relief through the remaining term of the contract. The buyout window began at 11 pm on June 26 and ends at 5 pm on July 4. Players must be placed on unconditional waivers before they can be bought out.

Chicago Blackhawks - Steve Montador (D), Rostislav Olesz (LW)
Montreal Canadiens - Scott Gomez (C), Tomas Kaberle (D)
New York Islanders - Rick DiPietro (G)
New York Rangers - Wade Redden (D)
Philadelphia Flyers - Danny Briere (C), Ilya Bryzgalov (G)
Tampa Bay Lightning - Vincent Lecavalier (C) (signed with Flyers)
Toronto Maple Leafs - Mike Komisarek (D)
Washington Capitals - Jeff Schultz (D)

There are a number of additional players who have already been placed on waivers but are not on the NHL's official compliance buyout list. UPDATE NOTE - this list has been updated as of today's waiver transactions, also TSN seems to have a more up-to-date tracker [here]:

Buffalo Sabres - Nathan Gerbe (C)
Colorado Avalanche - Matt Hunwick (D), Greg Zanon (D)
Detroit Red Wings - Carlo Colaiacovo (D)
Minnesota Wild - Tom Gilbert
Nashville Predators - Hal Gill (D), Sergei Kostitsyn (LW)
St. Louis Blues - Kris Russell
Vancouver Canucks - Keith Ballard (D)

We may see more additions as teams are allowed through tomorrow (July 4) to initiate unconditional waivers for buyout purposes.

Hurricanes free agents

Pending UFA center Brett Sutter and defenseman Brett Bellemore were signed to one-year contracts by the Hurricanes last week. Absent those two exceptions, the rest of the pending free agents will hit the open market on Friday:

Marc-Andre Bergeron (D)
Tim Brent (C)
Joe Corvo (D)
Dan Ellis (G)
Marc-Andre Gragnani (D) (signed with KHL)
Chad LaRose (RW)
Jerome Samson (RW)
Bobby Sanguinetti (D)
Tim Wallace (RW)

On Tuesday the Hurricanes [extended qualifying offers] to the following Restricted Free Agents: Zach Boychuk, Zac Dalpe, Michal Jordan, Riley Nash, and Jared Staal. The remaining RFAs that were not qualified and will become unrestricted free agents on Friday are:

A.J. Jenks (LW)
Justin Krueger (D) (signed with Swiss Elite League)
John Muse (G)
Andreas Nodl (RW)
Luke Pither (C)
Joe Sova (D)

The Canes have a handy off season player tracker posted [here].