On the eve of free agency...

Well, here's the rundown as to what's going down:

The day after the waiver process began for buyouts:
- Ethan Moreau was claimed from the Edmonton Oilers by the Columbus Blue Jackets
- Phoenix Coyotes traded Jim Vandermeer to the Edmonton Oilers for Patrick O'Sullivan. Phoenix then exercised their option to buy out O'Sullivan's contract.
- Jonathan Cheechoo was bought out by the Ottawa Senators.
- Philadelphia Flyers re-signed Michael Leighton to a two-year contract. Will they still go after another goaltender?
- The Calgary Flames traded forward Jason Jaffray to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Logan MacMillan.
- Ville Koistinen was bought out by The Florida Panthers.
- Rod Brind'Amour announced his retirement.
- The NHL and Phoenix Coyotes announced that Doug Moss was fired from his duties as President and COO of the team. New COO Michael Nealy is the interim President of the team.

Pretty action-packed day. Here's the rundown for the teams we cover and whatever else's clever.

Detroit Red Wings:
Detroit General Manager Ken Holland says he doesn't plan on being active on the First because most of the pieces are already in place. While most of their key RFAs were qualified (Evan McGrath and Johan Ryno were the only ones not qualified) it appears as if their remaining unrestricted free agents will be testing the open market (Todd Bertuzzi and Doug Janik will both be back with the team.) Kirk Maltby might come back if he's willing to take a two-way contract but he'll more likely try to find a solid NHL job elsewhere. Andreas Lilja also wants a pay raise and will have to look elsewhere for it. The team is looking for a third-pairing defenseman who can bring "the sandpaper" (Nick Boynton comes to mind, though Janik could steal the job in camp if he plays well enough) as well as an enforcing fourth-line forward who's willing to take a two-way contract and fit in the Wings' system. Sadly, enforcers like Zenon Konopka, Derek Boogaard, and Arron Asham (guys who could play in the Wings' system) are more likely to secure one-way deals than guys like Brian McGrattan and Andrew Peters (who wouldn't play well in the Wings' system.) Otherwise, the team's good from top to bottom and is pretty set going into next season.


Phoenix Coyotes:
GM Don Maloney's got his work cut out for him. Zbyenk Michalek is looking like he'll take off and that the Ottawa Senators are a very likely destination. Matthew Lombardi, Lee Stempniak, and Derek Morris are also free agents, but those players appear to be closer to re-signing than Michalek is. Still, nothing's guaranteed and while Mike Modano might replace Robert Lang's spot in the lineup, the team still has some fine tweaking to do in every department other than goaltending (that's actually pretty solid.) Luckily there are guys like Viktor Tikhonov, who are ready for an NHL job, but will the team try to rely too much on their young talent instead of getting who they really need because of their budgetary constraints? If we had our way, they'd re-sign Lombardi, get Modano and Alex Tanguay in on short contracts to play with Shane Doan until Kyle Turris and Brett MacLean are ready to not just play in the NHL, but to dominate as well, re-sign Derek Morris, and either re-sign Michalek or get in another solid shutdown defender because many will be made available.


The all-Free Agent Team

Forwards:
Ilya Kovalchuk - Matthew Lombardi - Maxim Afinogenov
Alex Tanguay - Saku Koivu - Colby Armstrong
Ray Whitney - Vaclav Prospal - Lee Stempniak
Eric Nystrom - Zenon Konopka - Arron Asham

Defense:
Sergei Gonchar - Alexei Volchenkov
Dan Hamuis - Paul Martin
Zbyenk Michalek - Pavel Kubina

Goaltenders:
Evgeni Nabokov
Chris Mason