Free Agent Day 2008

Welcome to the most important hockey day in July. It doesn’t sound so important when you write it out like that, but make no mistake, today brings us into the 2008-09 season. Rosters will start to fill up, and within a few days we’ll start seeing standings predictions.

Happy Canada Day, too.

At noon Eastern, the first free agent signings will become official. Jamie Fitzgerald and I will be working on keeping up with rumors and official signings.

Tracker – follow along and comment

July 3

10:13am – The Caps have signed Keith Aucoin.
12:13pm – The Habs have traded Mikhail Grabovski for Greg Pateryn and the Leafs’ second round pick in 2010.
12:33pm – The Canadiens have signed Alex Henry for one year, and Cédrick Desjardins for two years.
12:59pm – The Stars have signed Francis Wathier, Maxime Fortunus and Garrett Stafford each to two-year, two-way contracts through the 2009-10 season. They also signed Landon Wilson to a one-year, two-way contract for 2008-09.
1:48pm – The Hurricanes signed Dwight Helminen to a one-year, two-way contract for $475k in the NHL level and $100k in the minors.
1:59pm – The Pens have signed Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan, each for one year.
2:08pm – The Coyotes have signed David Hale for two years.
2:11pm – The Oilers have signed Taylor Chorney to a three-year entry level contract.
2:24pm – Wyatt Smith has signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Bolts.
2:50pm – Georges Laraque has gone home to Montreal, signing a three-year deal with the Habs.
3:53pm – Avalanche sign Daniel Tjarnqvist and Chris Durno.
4:16pm – The Islanders have gone on a signing spree, giving contracts to Kurtis McLean, Chris Lee, Mitch Fritz, Peter Mannino, Mike Iggulden and Brett Skinner.
4:18pm – The Wild have signed Antti Miettinen.
4:39pm – The Rangers signed Markus Naslund to a two-year, $8 million contract and Dmitri Kalinin to a one-year contract.
4:49pm – The Florida Panthers signed Rory Fitzpatrick, Steve MacIntyre, Chris Beckford-Tseu and James DeLory. Panthers, or Amerks fans, will definitely be happy with MacIntyre.
5:11pm – The Leafs signed Dominic Moore, John Mitchell and Greg Scott.
5:32pm – In a shocker, the Canadiens have signed another Montreal native. Marc Denis signed a one-year, two-way deal.
5:39pm – The Sharks have signed Rob Blake.
5:52pm – The Blues re-sign Yan Stastny to a two-year deal.
6:43pm – The Coyotes re-sign Matt Jones.
7:20pm – The Coyotes have also signed another heavyweight, this time Francis Lessard. Both Phoenix and San Antonio will be fun to watch.
10:41pm – Brian McGrattan, recently traded to the Coyotes for a draft pick, signed a one-year deal with the team.