With a ridiculous overpayment to boot.

bah humbug

here's who''s left:
2012 NHL UFA Tracker - Yahoo! Sports

not a lot of household names

Speaking of over-paying, Jagr got $4.55 mil from Dallas.

IDK if it's so much Stafford wanted to play for Detroit as it was the Lions presented him with the opportunity to be the first overall pick in the 2009 draft and all the acclaim/fortune that comes with it. It was kind of a 'right-place, right-time' for both sides, Lions were looking for a franchise QB & Stafford knew if he didn't go with the Lions, the chance to be the #1 overall pick wouldn't be there in the future ... seems to be working out for us so far, .

... I like Jagr, but that's a bit steep unless you're just looking for a ticket draw ... watching him burn out in the playoffs is kind of the level of play I'm thinking you can expect from him in the future.

... slim picken's, that's for sure ... I like Shane Doan, but other then that, I went through the list twice and nobody really jumped out at me ... it's one of those years your GM is gonna' have to earn his money ...

I think I read somewhere that he wanted to go to Motreal, but they weren't interested in paying him that $4.5M he was asking for, and then the Stars called him up offering what he basically was asking for.

So, it's not like he had his choice of teams to go to, and he probably would've preferred many teams over the Stars, because they have the most demanding travel schedule of all the teams, and like SloMo said - he burned out in the playoffs as it was in the Eastern Conference with less travel to wear you down. But, on the other hand, he said in an interview that he was going to change his offseason training program and lose some weight for the upcoming season in an effort to build up his stamina.

Still, that was an overpay for sure if he performs like he did last year with the Flyers and all indications are pointing towards the very real possibility that he might have a worse year under the conditions I described.

In my opinion, at least these guys could potentially make any roster better when given the right role within that team:

Jochen Hecht, Peter Mueller, Gilbert Brule, Dominic Moore, Kyle Wellwood, Petr Sykora, Stephen Gionta, Shane Doan, Jamie Langenbrunner, Jason Blake, Niklas Hagman, Kristian Huselius, Wojtek Wolski, Daniel Winnik.

And there are a number of defenseman as well, who'd work well in a more limited role, say #5 to #7 in the depth chart.

Oh, and Rene Bourque might be another interesting player available via trade from Motreal. He didn't have a good outing with the Habs and he finished something like -16 for them in the games he played. Also, with the changes to the organization's personnel - they might be willing to let him go in order to get a player and/or prospect(s) in return, who'd better fit their system. Bourque has a $3.55M cap hit which is very affordable if he were to produce at the level at which he did for the Flames at his best. I think he has all the tangibles to be a really good forward when given the right linemates to play with and system to play in. He has a limited NTC if I remember correctly, but that shouldn't be a problem and he might be willing to waive it altogether in order to get out of Motreal.