2010 NHL Free Agency: The Defensemen

Jun 29, 2010, 11:00 AM EDT

With the 2010 NHL Free Agency market set to open on Thursday, we’ll
be listing the top unrestricted free agents in all three positions throughout the day. This isn’t the
full list of free agents, but it’s a good chunk of them. The defensemen:

Player	Age	Team	09-10 cap hit
Pavel Kubina	33	Atlanta	$5 million
Sergei Gonchar	36	Pittsburgh	$5 million
Kim Johnsson	34	Chicago	$4.85 million
Paul Martin	29	New Jersey	$3.8 million
Derek Morris	31	Phoenix	$3.3 million
Ruslan Sulei	35	Colorado	$3.02 million
Randy Jones	28	Los Angeles	$2.75 million
Joe Corvo	33	Washington	$2.625 million
Anton Volchenkov	28	Ottawa	$2.5 million
Brian Pothier	33	Carolina	$2.5 million
Dan Hamhuis	27	Pittsburgh	$2 million
Shaone Morrison	27	Washington	$1.975 million
Jordan Leopold	29	Pittsburgh	$1.75 million
Carlo Colaiacovo	27	St. Louis	$1.28 million
Zybnek Michalek	27	Phoenix	$1.25 million
Marc-Andre Bergeron	29	Montreal	$750,000
Lukas Krajicek	27	Philadelphia	$700,000
Brett Lebda	28	Detroit	$650,000
Kurtis Foster	28	Tampa Bay	$600,00

Quick analysis:

Not exactly an elite group of
defensemen this season, as teams have done a good job of locking up
their elite soon-to-be free agents before they hit the open market on
Thursday.

What’s left is an okay group of good but not great
defensemen, highlighted by the impending free agency of Sergei Gonchar.
He’s one of the older defensemen in this group, yet still puts up a high
number of points. I doubt he’ll see another $5 million-a-year contract,
but he’s going to make some team happy should Pittsburgh fail, or
decide not to, keep him.

Paul Martin would certainly seem to be
the next best player available, followed by Dan Hamhuis, Anton
Volchenkov and perhaps Joe Corvo.

Two names to keep an eye on are
Kurtis Foster and Marc-Andre Bergeron. I know that MAB got a bad rap in
Montreal, but both he and Foster were the two of the most valuable
defensemen in the NHL last season in point production.

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4 Comments (Feed for Comments)

acm - Jun 29, 2010 at 12:38 PM

My first visit to your site – Ummm yeah you guys forgot Henrik Tallinder and Tony Luidman of the Sabres, 2 of the better FA’s on D available. So much for your credibility.
Eric DeMink - Jun 29, 2010 at 5:28 PM

Neither Lydman or Tallinder are impact players so I don’t know what the big deal is. The 2010 class of free agent defensemen is for the most part, uninspiring.
Metsys - Jun 30, 2010 at 10:26 AM

To “acm”:
Read more carefully…
“This isn’t the full list of free agents, but it’s a good chunk of them.”
Keith - Jul 2, 2010 at 11:26 AM

Actually Tallinder and Lydman are better dmen than a quarter of that list.