Before the free agency frenzy begins on Wednesday, two last pieces of business to tend to:
-All teams had until 5 PM today to tender qualifying offers to any restricted free agents. New Jersey did just that with Stefan Matteau and Seth Helgeson. However, qualifying offers were not in the cards for Maxime Clermont or Corbin McPherson, making both of them unrestricted free agents.
-Here’s another list to keep an eye on for organizational depth: the annual AHL Big Board is out. With the original author moving on to greener pastures in Pittsburgh, our friends over at Chirps from Center Ice took over the project and enlisted several other bloggers, including myself, to help put the list together. Unlike in past years where you had to nearly scroll all the way to the bottom to find any Devils, there are quite a few Albany UFAs in the top 100: Joe Whitney sits at 10, Paul Thompson at 21 (just behind former Devil Bobby Butler at 20), Scott Timmins at 47, Darcy Zajac at 68, and Scott Clemmensen at 72. The Patriot News (who cover the Hershey Bears) did their own Top 100 list, complete with videos.
Unless anything earth shattering happens before Wednesday…the first Free Agent Tracker goes live at noon sharp on the 1st!
Thoughts Inside The Box 