The Globe and Mail

It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks for the NHL.

Tuesday will be the Hall of Fame announcements, followed by Wednesday’s awards presentation, Friday and Saturday with the draft. All of that leads up to free agency starting next Thursday.

With 10 days to go, here’s my rankings of the top 100 UFAs this year. It’s a thin class overall, and especially in terms of scoring wingers, but there are a lot of netminders and some good No. 3 and 4 defencemen available. (Full free agent lists can be found here.)

As per usual, there’ll be a lot of activity, especially on the first day:

					'09-10 Cap Hit	GP	G	A	P	PIM	+/-	TOI/G
	NAME	POS	AGE	TEAM		GS	W	GAA	SPCT	SO		MIN
1	Kovalchuk, Ilya	F	27	NJ	$6.389	76	41	44	85	53	10	22.03
2	Marleau, Patrick	F	30	SJ	$6.300	82	44	39	83	22	21	21.21
3	Gonchar, Sergei	D	36	PIT	$5.000	62	11	39	50	49	-4	24.39
4	Plekanec, Tomas	F	27	MTL	$2.750	82	25	45	70	50	5	19.96
5	Martin, Paul	D	29	NJ	$3.833	22	2	9	11	2	10	22.50
6	Nabokov, Evgeni	G	34	SJ	$5.375	71	44	2.43	.922	3		4,194
7	Niedermayer, Scott	D	36	ANA	$6.750	80	10	38	48	38	-9	26.50
8	Kubina, Pavel	D	33	ATL	$5.000	76	6	32	38	66	0	22.62
9	Hamhuis, Dan	D	27	PIT	$2.000	78	5	19	24	49	4	21.24
10	Volchenkov, Anton	D	28	OTT	$2.500	64	4	10	14	38	2	20.69
11	Mitchell, Willie	D	33	VAN	$3.500	48	4	8	12	48	13	22.60
12	Michalek, Zbynek	D	27	PHX	$1.250	72	3	14	17	30	5	22.64
13	Lombardi, Matthew	F	28	PHX	$1.817	78	19	34	53	36	8	17.94
14	Frolov, Alexander	F	27	LA	$2.900	81	19	32	51	26	-1	18.43
15	Selanne, Teemu	F	39	ANA	$2.625	54	27	21	48	16	3	17.31
16	Mason, Chris	G	34	STL	$3.000	61	30	2.53	.913	2		3,512
17	Niittymaki, Antero	G	29	TB	$0.600	46	21	2.87	.909	1		2,657
18	Turco, Marty	G	34	DAL	$5.700	52	22	2.72	.913	4		3,087
19	Tallinder, Henrik	D	31	BUF	$2.563	82	4	16	20	32	13	20.61
20	Whitney, Ray	F	38	CAR	$3.550	80	21	37	58	26	-6	19.14
21	Prospal, Vaclav	F	35	NYR	$1.150	75	20	38	58	32	8	20.09
22	Stempniak, Lee	F	27	PHX	$2.500	80	28	20	48	26	0	17.30
23	Cullen, Matt	F	33	OTT	$2.875	81	16	32	48	34	-7	18.74
24	Jokinen, Olli	F	31	NYR	$5.250	82	15	35	50	75	3	17.85
25	Lydman, Toni	D	32	BUF	$2.875	67	4	16	20	30	10	18.85
26	Tanguay, Alex	F	30	TB	$2.500	80	10	27	37	32	-2	15.79
27	Afinogenov, Maxim	F	30	ATL	$0.800	82	24	37	61	46	-17	17.39
28	Ponikarovsky, A.	F	30	PIT	$2.105	77	21	29	50	61	-1	16.45
29	Johnsson, Kim	D	34	CHI	$4.850	60	7	10	17	30	10	22.78
30	Ellis, Dan	G	29	MON	$1.750	28	15	2.70	.909	1		1,714
31	Koivu, Saku	F	35	ANA	$3.250	71	19	33	52	36	14	18.58
32	Belanger, Eric	F	32	WAS	$1.750	77	15	26	41	32	2	15.51
33	Kariya, Paul	F	35	STL	$6.000	75	18	25	43	36	-7	17.15
34	Corvo, Joe	D	32	WAS	$2.625	52	6	12	18	12	-10	23.29
35	Guerin, Bill	F	39	PIT	$2.000	78	21	24	45	75	-9	17.53
36	Recchi, Mark	F	42	BOS	$1.700	81	18	25	43	34	4	17.05
37	Morrison, Brendan	F	34	WAS	$1.500	74	12	30	42	40	23	15.73
38	Theodore, Jose	G	33	WAS	$4.500	43	30	2.81	.911	1		2,585
39	Armstrong, Colby	F	27	ATL	$2.400	79	15	14	29	61	6	14.78
40	Morris, Derek	D	31	PHX	$3.300	76	4	25	29	37	2	21.43
41	Foster, Kurtis	D	28	TB	$0.600	71	8	34	42	48	-5	17.18
42	Boychuk, Johnny	D	26	BOS	$0.500	51	5	10	15	43	10	17.65
43	Malhotra, Manny	F	30	SJ	$0.700	71	14	19	33	41	17	15.62
44	Svatos, Marek	F	27	COL	$2.050	54	7	4	11	35	-13	11.41
45	Leighton, Michael	G	29	PHI	$0.600	31	17	2.83	.905	1		1,799
46	Cooke, Matt	F	31	PIT	$1.200	79	15	15	30	106	17	14.78
47	Hedberg, Johan	G	37	ATL	$1.088	42	21	2.62	.915	3		2,631
48	Biron, Martin	G	32	NYI	$1.400	26	9	3.27	.896	1		1,634
49	Leopold, Jordan	D	29	PIT	$1.750	81	11	15	26	28	0	21.91
50	Torres, Raffi	F	28	BUF	$2.250	74	19	17	36	34	-11	13.51
51	Demitra, Pavol	F	35	VAN	$4.000	28	3	13	16	0	3	16.18
52	Emery, Ray	G	27	PHI	$1.500	29	16	2.64	.905	3		1,683
53	Moore, Dominic	F	29	MTL	$1.100	69	10	18	28	43	5	14.83
54	Pyatt, Taylor	F	28	PHX	$0.600	74	12	11	23	39	13	13.45
55	Colaiacovo, Carlo	D	27	STL	$1.283	67	7	25	32	60	8	17.30
56	Mottau, Mike	D	32	NJ	$0.763	79	2	16	18	41	4	22.25
57	Eaton, Mark	D	33	PIT	$2.000	79	3	13	16	26	5	19.75
58	Higgins, Chris	F	27	CGY	$2.250	67	8	9	17	32	-9	17.54
59	Wallin, Niclas	D	35	SJ	$1.725	70	0	7	7	49	-5	17.31
60	Salei, Ruslan	D	35	COL	$3.025	14	1	5	6	10	-1	18.71
61	Sutton, Andy	D	35	OTT	$3.000	72	5	8	13	107	-10	20.39
62	Clark, Brett	D	33	COL	$3.500	64	3	17	20	28	6	19.13
63	Pothier, Brian	D	33	CAR	$2.500	61	5	10	15	21	4	19.02
64	O'Donnell, Sean	D	38	LA	$1.250	78	3	12	15	70	14	18.73
65	Lebda, Brett	D	28	DET	$0.650	63	1	7	8	24	-2	14.98
66	Jones, Randy	D	28	LA	$2.750	48	5	16	21	28	-3	18.17
67	Kozlov, Slava	F	38	ATL	$3.667	55	8	18	26	33	-15	15.25
68	Metropolit, Glen	F	35	MTL	$1.000	69	16	13	29	24	-1	13.57
69	Nolan, Owen	F	38	MIN	$2.750	73	16	17	33	40	-12	16.59
70	Morrisonn, Shaone	D	27	WAS	$1.975	68	1	11	12	68	8	17.56
71	Meyer, Freddy	D	29	NYI	$0.588	64	4	11	15	40	-2	16.77
72	Modano, Mike	F	40	DAL	$3.450	59	14	16	30	22	-6	14.29
73	Lilja, Andreas	D	34	DET	$1.250	20	1	1	2	4	-2	14.10
74	Madden, John	F	37	CHI	$2.750	79	10	13	23	12	-2	15.41
75	Ward, Aaron	D	37	ANA	$2.500	77	1	12	13	62	-15	17.29
76	Weaver, Mike	D	32	STL	$0.800	77	1	9	10	29	10	16.95
77	Wellwood, Kyle	F	27	VAN	$1.200	75	14	11	25	12	6	13.85
78	Lang, Robert	F	39	PHX	$1.700	64	9	20	29	28	-4	15.08
79	Mara, Paul	D	30	MTL	$1.675	42	0	8	8	48	-16	18.71
80	Jurcina, Milan	D	27	WAS	$1.375	44	1	6	7	24	2	17.64
81	Niedermayer, Rob	F	35	NJ	$1.000	71	10	12	22	45	3	16.80
82	Fedotenko, Ruslan	F	31	PIT	$1.800	80	11	19	30	50	-17	14.65
83	Halpern, Jeff	F	34	LA	$2.000	71	9	10	19	39	-14	14.51
84	Auld, Alex	G	29	NYR	$1.000	20	9	2.96	.895	0		1,298
85	Nystrom, Eric	F	27	CGY	$0.688	82	11	8	19	54	0	13.17
86	Walker, Scott	F	36	WAS	$2.500	42	5	3	8	32	-3	9.67
87	Modin, Fredrik	F	35	LA	$3.250	44	5	6	11	26	-8	14.77
88	Satan, Miroslav	F	35	BOS	$0.700	38	9	5	14	12	8	15.74
89	Johnson, Aaron	D	27	EDM	$0.540	41	4	6	10	35	-6	15.61
90	Conroy, Craig	F	38	CGY	$1.050	63	3	12	15	25	-6	13.56
91	Tucker, Darcy	F	35	COL	$2.250	71	10	14	24	47	-3	12.11
92	Asham, Arron	F	32	PHI	$0.640	72	10	14	24	126	-2	10.07
93	Danis, Yann	G	28	NJ	$0.500	6	3	2.06	.923	0		467
94	Lehtinen, Jere	F	36	DAL	$2.500	58	4	13	17	8	-8	14.74
95	Pisani, Fernando	F	33	EDM	$2.500	40	4	4	8	10	-16	14.58
96	Nichol, Scott	F	35	SJ	$0.750	79	4	15	19	72	0	13.06
97	Hendricks, Matt	F	28	COL	$0.500	56	9	7	16	74	1	9.25
98	Burish, Adam	F	27	CHI	$0.713	13	1	3	4	14	2	8.77
99	Raycroft, Andrew	G	30	VAN	$0.500	14	9	2.42	.911	1		967
100	Bergeron, M-A	D	29	MTL	$0.750	60	13	21	34	16	-7	15.05

I’ll reserve the right to alter this list as we go and players are bought out or signed. Over the next week, I’ll pick out some gems that could be overlooked. On July 1, players will be crossed off as they’re picked up by teams around the league.

UPDATE Players with strikethrough have been signed or retired.

UPDATE This list has not been updated to include players who were bought out or restricted free agents that did not receive qualifying offers. So keep in mind that the likes of Patrick O'Sullivan, Robert Nilsson, Denis Grebeshkov, etc., are also available.

UPDATE Antti Niemi and Brendan Witt are also now UFAs. I'll be keeping this cheat sheet updated all off-season.