NHL Free Agents: The 9 Best Signings Since the Lockout

Between the NHL draft and the free agency period that begins a few short days later, the end of June and into the first week of July is one of the most exciting (and stressful) times for hockey fans for all 30 teams.

The reasons for this vary.

If you're a Rangers or Maple Leafs fan, you are probably losing sleep over Brad Richards, and where he'll sign.  On the other side of the coin, Stars fans will look on with a bit of melancholy regardless of who is brought on board.

Or maybe you wake up on July 1st to see that your team has signed Jeff Finger (wait, who?) to a four-year, $3.5 million contract, leaving you to wonder if they allow drinking in the front office.

Needless to say the free agency period can be a make or break time for NHL teams moving forward.  Making a big splash brings headlines for a few days, but after that the reality sets in:  I'm going to have this player on my roster for the next six years...I sure hope it's worth it.

And sometimes it isn't.  Teams are still playing musical contracts with some of the awful numbers that were dealt out in the year or two after the CBA was introduced and GMs apparently didn't read the thing. 

But sometimes things do work out for both player and team, and fans don't throw things at you as you skate off the ice or curse your name on the HFBoards. 

Here are the nine best free agency signings since the lockout concluded.  And no.  Ilya Kovalchuk didn't make the cut.

Andrew Ladd

Andrew Ladd is, in my eyes, the definition of what a free-agent signing should be.

He wasn't brought into Atlanta (hereby referred to as Winnipeg) to save the franchise with goal scoring, or to be the cornerstone around which the team would be built in the future.  Instead, Ladd was brought on as a talented player with the intangibles and attitude that the team wanted to have spread in their locker room.

His offensive upside was a plus in this case, but not the soul of the deal.

After lifting Dustin Byfuglien away from the cap-strapped 'Hawks, Ladd may have been considered an afterthought of a signing.  But make no mistake about it:  bringing in two young Cup Champions went a long way towards changing the culture that Ilya Kovalchuk and Dany Heatley had left in shambles.

Now Ladd is at the forefront of offseason moves that the Jets are going to try to make.  Before handling mostly anything else, the priority is signing the guy that they think can be their Captain for a long while moving forward.

While some free agents are a distraction, or don't live up to their billing, or mess with the chemistry of the team on and off the ice, Ladd has quickly become part of the foundation of a young, and mildly promising team in Winnipeg.

Dallas Drake

Sometimes a free-agent signing isn't about the talent.  It's about what a guy can bring in terms of locker room presence and motivation.  Dallas Drake is a prime example of that.

The Detroit Red Wings didn't need a top-six forward heading into 2007-2008 season.  They needed a little bit of depth and a grinder, and found just that in Dallas Drake.  After the gritty forward had considered ending his career, he decided to take one last run at the Cup with the team that had originally drafted him.

Sixteen years after he began his career, the Red Wings "won it for Drake."  This was a locker room mantra throughout the playoffs.  To me, paying a guy just over a half million bucks to be the player that the team looks to for inspiration and motivation when they need a push is a good free-agent signing.

Marian Hossa

After losing in two straight Stanley Cup Finals, Marian Hossa finally decided to settle down in Chicago for the duration of his career.  While his injuries have kept him out of the lineup for a portion of each season since the signing, there is no doubt that when healthy Hossa is one of the biggest star bargains in the NHL with a cap hit of just over $5 million.

In 122 regular season games he has put up 108 points.  Through two playoff runs—the first concluding in Hossa finally lifting the Cup—he has 21 points in 29 games.  And while he wasn't the guy through the Cup run, his prescience and talent certainly made Chicago a tough team to match up against.

If he can finally shake the injury bug in the next few seasons there is no reason to believe he can't once again put up another few 70-point campaigns.  The guy is only 32 years old, and while he isn't a youngin' by any means he still has some good hockey in him.

An underrated part of Hossa's game is his play in the neutral zone.  Until I saw him play on a nightly basis for Detroit I had no idea he was such a monster back checker.  Solid two-way play, and a 70- or 75-point clip for that price only looks better as the salary cap continues to rise.

Zdeno Chara

It's easy to forget these days, but back in 2006 when the Boston signed Zdeno Chara there really wasn't anything big or bad about the Bruins.  The team had been mired in disappointment, and after several seasons of watching Joe Thornton fail to lead the team to postseason success drastic changes were made.

The team philosophy began to shift with the addition of the hulking blueliner.  Gritty, big and talented seemed to be the new name of the game.  It all came to a head earlier this month when the Bruins finally brought the Cup back to Boston for the first time since 1972.

His annual cap hit is $7.5 million across the duration of his contract—a worthy number for such an anchor of a defenseman.  Chara was immediately made Captain of the Bruins upon his arrival, and leads with his physicality on the ice.

His earth shaking slapshot doesn't go unnoticed too often either.  Consistently cranking pucks at over 100 miles per hour, he is usually among the top scorers from the blue line each season.  He is a five-time All-Star, recent recipient of the Mark Messier Leadership Award and owns one Norris Trophy from his stellar 2009 season.

That's a pretty keen signing if I do say so myself.

Marian Gaborik

While his season last year was marred by a lingering shoulder injury, there is no doubt that in Marian Gaborik the Rangers have one of the most talented and dangerous snipers in the NHL at their disposal.  Following his signing, he was involved in a large chunk of New York's goals, putting up 86 points in 76 games in his first season as a Ranger.

Returning to form this upcoming season will be paramount for both Gaborik and the Rangers.  But despite his lack of effectiveness last season, New York still managed to sneak into the playoffs on the last day of play.

Several Rangers forwards have taken a big step forward in the last year, surrounding Gaborik with what is the most talented and promising team he's played on in his career.  The team is one of the front-runners in the race for Brad Richards—mostly with the intent of having him center a top line with Gaborik.

Returning to health and producing at his 80-point pace is vital to the success of the Rangers moving forward.  When he is healthy, he's worth every penny of his $7.5 million contract.

Brian Rafalski

Brian Rafalski is a player who would eventually play in five Cup Finals in only 11 seasons played at the NHL level, and with good reason.  He was one of the most sought after puck moving blueliners when he became a free agent in 2007.

Surely leaving bigger offers on the table, Rafalski joined the Red Wings for an annual cap hit of $6 million per season—a bargain for a player with the experience, poise and capabilities that Rafalski had.  Through seven seasons with the New Jersey Devils he consistently put up 50-point campaigns and was a central cog in two Devils Championship teams.

By bringing in Rafalski, Detroit had secured an elite puck-moving talent with Stanley Cup credentials.  He added to his impressive resume by helping the Red Wings secure the Stanley Cup in his first season with the team. 

Talk about an immediate bang for your buck.

Alex Tanguay

There's something in the water in Calgary.  At least as far as Alex Tanguay is concerned.

After putting together several excellent seasons for the Colorado Avalanche, Tanguay was traded to the Flames for the 2006-2007 season.  And 81 points later, the relationship appeared to be working for both sides.  Until scuffles with coach Mike Keenan led Tanguay to ask for a trade.

While management and the player both wanted to keep this quiet, the fact was revealed between his first and second seasons in Calgary, and Keenan didn't take kindly to the fact that his player didn't approve of the way he was being utilized.

Tanguay slumped badly during his second season under the constant speculation of trades and being relegated to a checking line role.  He was traded to Montreal, waiving his no trade clause to get out from underneath Keenan and his system of play.

His time with the Canadians was hampered by a shoulder injury, and the team opted not to resign him the following year.  Tanguay headed to Tampa Bay where he produced an egg of a season—the worst of his career.

This is where the keen signing comes into play.  Calgary swooped in and snagged the player at a discount ($1.7 million), hoping that he could rekindle the success he had in the past.  And they weren't let down.  He finished second on the team and scoring, and has been rewarded with a five-year contract extension worth $17.5 million.

It was a low-risk, high-reward signing for a team that desperately needed help up front, and a low-risk move for a player who was trying to revive his career after a few sub-par seasons of play.

Sergei Gonchar

Sergei Gonchar signed a five-year, $25 million contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins following the NHL lockout.  The relationship would last for half a decade, and while his last two seasons as a Pen may be forgettable due to injury, the first three bore sweet fruit for both club and player.

After putting up 58 points in 75 games in his first year as a Pen, he exploded for 67 points in 2006-2007 as things began to click for the young team in Pittsburgh.  Expectations were mildly high heading into the playoffs that year, where the Pens were eliminated in five games by the Ottawa Senators.  (I linked the story because that sentence looks weird without documentation.)

The next two seasons would be a whirlwind of playoff hockey for both Gonchar and the Penguins. 

The next season saw the Pens battle all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings.  Gonchar was an important part of that team, putting up 14 points in 20 games while being a calming influence on the ice.  The learning experience, cliche as it is, would serve the team well a year later.

Gonchar was limited for much of the 2008-2009 regular season, but made it back in time for the playoffs.

After two years of disappointment in the postseason, the Penguins avenged their Cup Finals loss against the Wings as they met and defeated them in the Finals.  Gonchar put up 14 points again en route to a tough, seven-game series victory that saw both teams leave everything on the ice.

Gonchar was a central player in the Penguins back-to-back Finals runs, making countless outlet passes to the vaunted top line forwards and being a calming influence on the bench.  It's hard to put a price on that kind of hockey—$5 million seems more than worth it.

Scott Niedermayer

That picture should tell you everything you need to know about the importance of the Anaheim Ducks signing Scott Niedermayer.

Turning down a (at that point) league maximum $7.8 million contract offer from the New Jersey Devils—where he won three Stanley Cups and anchored one of the strongest defensive cores in recent memory—he signed on to play with his brother Rob in Anaheim.

One of the Leagues best blueliners for four years, $27 million.  That's what bloodlines will get you.

He was named team Captain in 2005-2006, and went off to have his most outstanding offensive season to date with 63 points.  He lead the team to the Western Conference Finals, where the team was eliminated in a hard fought battle with the upstart Edmonton Oilers... led by none other than Chris Pronger.

As the Hockey Gods would have it, Pronger would end up alongside Niedermayer in Anaheim the following season, and the two Norris Trophy winners helped the Ducks to one of their best regular seasons ever.  It was evident heading into the postseason that they were a force to be reckoned with, playing a tenacious, nasty style of hockey.

Pronger was the grit, and Niedermayer was the silk.

And they ran the table all the way to the Finals, where they dealt with the Ottawa Senators in five games.  Niedermayer had 11 points on the way to the Cup victory, and because of his timely big plays and leadership, won the Conn Smythe trophy as the Playoff MVP.