12PM BoNY Free Agent Frenzy Livebloggers

12:59 PM I'll reset with the breaking news in the next post!

12:59 PM McGuire says he's got a signing "Coming Forward"

12:58 PM God dammit, talk about Mike Modano's Hall of Fame chances when he retires, how about that.

12:58 PM BREAKING NEWS: BUT THEY WON'T TELL US!

12:57 PM Hockey Hall of Fame Talk. Pierre would take Belfour, Zubov over Joseph, Blake for the HHOF.

12:54 PM Commercial

12:53 PM 16-20, Handzus, Poti, Hamrlik, Sykora, Ouelett.

12:53 PM TSN's 11-15, Schneider, Zubrus, Kozlov, Stuart, Guerin

12:52 PM The reporters say Boston's moves will hurt team chemistry.

12:51 PM Devils fans? What do you think of Alex Auld for 15 games at under $1 Mill?

12:50 PM Gomer rumored to St. Louis, Chris at the Arena program reported at possibly 7 mill a year.

12:49 PM The Reporters debating Hasek. Dougie took a shot at Hull for his shots at CBJ on NBC last year.

12:46 PM Commercial.

12:44 PM Duthie references THN's Player Poll for a 4th time.

12:43 PM Leafs Lunch is saying Gomez will sign 7 years/7 mill a year with NYR/PHI.

12:42 PM Any UFA's, if you're taking a look at NJ...look at this beauty!

http://www.newjerseydevils.com/njd/prucenter/view-cam.php

12:41 PM Kevin Lowe is interested in Rafalski, maybe Souray, Hamrlik. Gomez is interested apparently, close to home. He'll be looking at Drury and Briere.

12:40 PM James Duthie's Gospel is apparently the THN Players' Pool. The same one where 65% of players said they'd accept a homosexual teammate. Sure. Edmonton is the 2nd least desirable place to make money and play hockey apparently.

12:39 PM Edmonton has re-signed Dick Tarnstrom, who played in Switzerland after spending 05-06 in PIT and EDM, as they turn their focus to the Oil.

12:38 PM COMMERCIAL.

12:37 PM Sheldon Souray could come to New Jersey, and start an NJ version of their pizza place in MTL. I'd happily come. I always love a fresh take on pizza.

12:34 PM Duthie thinks Crosby should be the next $10 million player. I sort of agree.

Battle of New York INSIDER's PERSECTIVE

Mike Chen, Battle of California:

I'm guessing they'll nail down Marleau for about $6 million per year and I don't think that any oftheir forward signings (if they do try to get anyone) will be for morethan Marleau's contract. That's just an educated guess.

And contrary to what Keith Jones says, I do think it's possible tograb Drury and keep them together IF Drury takes about $6 million togo to a contender. Cheechoo's locked in for cheap and they've gotenough young talent as long as a FA forward isn't hemmed in for morethan 3 years. I don't think this'll happen though, and I think SJ willfocus on D.

My guess is that SJ's budget will be about 45 mil.

12:33 PM Calgary may be looking at Scott Hannan.

12:32 PM TSN doesn't use any eye candy reporters. Dude in CGY says D.Sutter has 11-12 Mill under the cap. If you've got Jarome Iginla, Mikka Kiprusoff, Daymond Langkow becoming a UFA possibly next year, and Dion Phaneuf an RFA, you save a little money.

12:31 PM New Jersey will be a scary place if it's without Gomer or Raffy next year. There may be shots fired in the rink instead of outside. Sorry, bad joke, I'll be here all week.

12:30 PM Dreger says all the coveted players will take their time.

12:28 PM Gord Miller's Wild Card of the Day: Brian Rafalski. All of them seem genuinely surprised that he's still on the market. Bob says the phones are going crazy for him.

12:26 PM Commercial.

12:23 PM Players apparently love it in SJ. California is going to be a force to reckoned with in the hockey world for some time.

12:22 PM Joe Thornton - "California Rocks".

12:21 PM Jumbo Joe loves SJ, apparently not enough to live there. He's on the line with Duthie right now.

12:20 PM Kudos to Thornton. Based on what we've been seeing, he could've easily commanded $10 Million. Now the worry goes to Marleau. What do you think the Sharks will do? Leave comments, E-Mail at SMLepore@comcast.net, and IM at Incudude530.

12:19 PM BREAKING NEWS: THE SHARKS HAVE SIGNED JOE THORNTON TO A 3-YEAR EXTENSION, WORTH $7.2 Million A SEASON

12:19 PM Pierre McGuire argues that, complaining about his lack of playoff production. The panel chooses Scott Hannan over Brad Stuart.

12:18 PM Doug says, at 27, Danny Briere's the only guy that's worth the big bucks.

12:16 PM Kyle Calder may be an ideal guy for the Canucks.

12:14 PM They check in on VANCity right now. 'Nucks would like to be 2 mill under, giving Dave Nonis 7 mill to work with. They apparently need another forward.

12:11 PM COMMERCIAL. Back after this.

12:11 PM Remember when BUF could've had Briere for 5 yrs/$25 mill last year?

12:09 PM TSN's going through the Top 5's again.

12:08 PM Front-loading contracts will kill small market teams, says Dreger.

12:07 PM Miller, McKenzie and Dreger say there's a possible $10 million with the flexible salaries.

12:05 PM The guys talk about Rafalski's value, saying that a team might make a mistake overpaying him. Once agian, they remind us that the cap is $50.3 mill, the floor is $34.3 mill, and the max salary is $10.06 Mill, sadly.

12:04 PM Keith and Doug won't shut up about COL, but they're very right.

12:03 PM Dougie Mac says the GM calls the agent, and asks for permission to talk to the player. I like Doug MacLean, but I disagree with a lot of what he says. Pierre says STL will have a big draw. I reported last night on KK that Scotty Gomez might be interested there.

12:02 PM Recap of what's happened so far...nothing, unless you count Pascal Dupuis re-upping for $800K in ATL. Keith Tkachuk and Manny Fernandez went back to STL and were traded to MIN yesterday. That cell phone during the fatty Tkachuk interview's annoying.