Free Agent Watch 2008

Apparently, since the salary cap has been raised to $56.7 million dollars, the Thrashers are just that much more viable on the free agent market. A lot of teams are trying to go after big players but are still coming up short on funds to pay them. With teams like Boston and Ottawa only having a few million for free agents, and are focusing on one player in particular (Boston's really focusing on Hossa), we can come in and take the leftovers. Do we want to? A lot of these guys have been placed on waivers for a reason, and some of the FAs are over the hill. Other than Campbell, who we could very well grab because we can afford to give him the $7.5 million that he seems to want, we can make a play for McCabe or Oprik, who has recently broken off talks with the Pens. Sean Avery's out there too... because what we need is someone with the maturity level of a gnat annoying the opposition's goalies. YES!

ESPN has a great run-down of the top FAs on the market. It's a shame that we're going towards a "youth movement" here... Federov would be a nice acquisition. Let's get 2 out of the Russian 5 here... toss in Kovy... yeah. It could work... Recchi showed there was some gas left in his engine - Federov probably has more.