From the Pressbox: Alfie Finds a New Home

Free agency season kicked off on July 5.

Here's a list of the player movement so far:

As with every NHL offseason, one of the highlights is the period where unrestricted free agents shop themselves in the hope of finding their next big payday.

This past week saw some big names move, as usual, but the biggest shock on day 1 was the revelation that longtime Ottawa captain, Daniel Alfredsson, has decided to end his 17 year association with the Senators.  He opted to join the Detroit Red Wings instead, no doubt because of the strong core of fellow Swedes on that roster and ultimately because he thinks he'll have a better shot at finally winning the Stanley Cup in Motown.

Another notable signing came from the Philadelphia Flyers who signed Vincent Lecavalier, another player who ended his own 14 year career with Tampa, when the Lightning used one of their amnesty options to get out from under the remainder of his long-term deal with them. The Flyers quickly jumped to the head of the pack of suitors for his services, to look him up for five years with an annual $4.5 M cap hit to go along with a lengthy string of annual checks from Tampa and that prior buyout, for the best "double-dip" of this offseason.

The Maple Leafs made significant noise by winning the auction for the services of David Clarkson to a seven-year deal with an annual cap hit of $5.25 M. That brings this rugged, ultracompetitive winger back to his hometown team, a factor that played a considerable role in his decision. Tyler Bozak also decided to resign with the Leafs, for five more years at a cap hit of $4.2 M. These moves were facilitated when the Leafs used one of their buyouts on Mikhail Grabovski, whose contract called for an annual payout of over 5M for each of the next four years.

Winger Nathan Horton spurned the Bruins and instead moved on to the Columbus blue Jackets, signing for eight years with an annual stipend of $5.3 M. I find this one a bit curious because he is leaving Boston, where he won a Stanley Cup for a team that remains a strong contender.

A couple of trades also added to the above-noted player movement.

The Senators quickly rebounded from the Alfredsson departure by acquiring high-scoring winger Bobby Ryan from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Jakob Silfverberg, top prospect Stefan Noesen and a first round pick in next year's Amateur Draft. This deal gives the Ducks some much needed salary cap flexibility and arms the Senators with a winger who can immediately move onto the top forward line, alongside Jason Spezza.

The Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars also moved some big names with the Bruins receiving veteran winger Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser in exchange for Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and Ryan Sutton. Eriksson is one of the league's top left wingers and will fit in nicely on the Bruins top six. The biggest surprise with this deal is how the Bruins decided to move Seguin, a former second overall draft pick who never quite showed the promise expected of him. In fact, their management team implied that he still had some maturing to do, a notion no doubt fueled by some off-ice rumblings. In his defense, Seguin was originally drafted as a center but was used almost exclusively as a winger in Boston.

The UFA list still shows some big names are still available, including names like Grabovski, Jaromir Jagr, Ilya Bryzgalov, Tim Thomas and a host of other players who are looking for work. That means there will be lots more player movement during the next few weeks. More trades are likely as a couple of teams are over the cap right now (Philadelphia and San Jose) and other teams will also seek to shuffle their rosters before finalizing them later this summer.

Hockey has truly become a 365-day sport and I will continue to report on the headlines over the rest of the offseason.

Congratulations to Chris Chelios, Scott Niedermayer, Brendan Shanahan, Geraldine Heaney and the late Fred Shero on the news of their induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, scheduled for November 2013.

Paul Bruno has been writing about the fantasy sports scene for several years and is an accredited member of the sports media in Toronto for over 20 years. You are invited to send your feedback and you can follow him on Twitter (statsman22).