Happy Friday, and welcome to LBC’s fifth-annual NHL free agency open thread: come for the rumors, stay for the promise of a repeat of the Florida Panthers‘ front office performance in July of 2011 (which ain’t gonna happen). Sunrise Overlord Dale Tallon has wisely kept the organization’s talking points regarding potential acquisitions to the lowest possible volume in recent days, which is generally the norm for this club for better or worse:
“We’ll probably be more active in August. We’re not going to overpay on July 5. We’re going to sit tight and be patient and get some good players at the right price.” – Miami Herald
One can hope for some spice, however, so let’s jump right into the “action” from around the NHL (all UFAs listed here via CapGeek). Similar to what we provided just a few days ago, here are the must-follows via the Tweets and elsewhere as free agency officially opens at noon:
Broadcast/Web:
- NHL Network (12 p.m. ET), TSN
Twitter:
- Bob McKenzie (TSN)
- Darren Dreger (TSN)
- Pierre LeBrun (ESPN)
- Elliotte Friedman (HNIC)
- George Richards (Miami Herald)
- Harvey Fialkov (Sun-Sentinel)
- Panthers Official
- Litter Box Cats
Relevant Sites:
Various updates as they roll in…
- 11:18 – Cats re-up C Shawn Matthias; two year deal
- 12:15 – Cats sign veteran wing Joey Crabb, two year/one way
- 1:15 – Cats sign D Mike Mottau
- 2:18 – Stephen Weiss signs five year deal with DET; $4.9M per
- 3:00 – Cats sign C Jesse Winchester to one year/two-way
- 4:02 – Cats send F George Parros to MTL in exchange for Philippe Lefebvre, 7th-round pick
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