Remaining NHL Free Agents And Where They May Go.. Or Should They? Part 1

Tolvanen is an interesting player who at one point was a mainstay with Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand which was a very solid third line before Gourde and Bjorkstand shuffled off to Tampa. Last year he was moved around a bit more but played most minutes with Chandler Stevenson and Eberle whom he fared well with as he likely would on most lines as he is excellent in a shutdown roll with two other strong defensive players or he can take on those responsibilities on a line with some good transition players that fly the zone a little more. Eeli is a very smart low risk player that gets the idea of not missing assignments in all three zones and does it well. Not sexy to the eye test but very valuable to any line, My guess is Winnipeg and Detroit are waiting for his agent to call and he is holding out for a more appetizing landing spot. Unless he takes a cheaper one year deal though he might have to settle now.

Tarasenko is one of those players that seem to be falling off the vine in the NHL today. At this stage of his career he is becoming a one trick pony that has to be put in the right situation to perform that one trick. If Vladamir is feeling it he can get a team 20 goals but it has to be in weak matchup situations with relatively skilled players that can also compensate for his lack of attention to defensive play. Last year he seemed to click with Yurov in Minnesota that way and when given the opportunity to play with EK it was prime for him. EK does the work and Vlad capitalizes with his strong shooting ability when the work is done. Those players are hard to put a value on and with most of the lineups complete now Tarasenko is kind of sitting on an island waiting for an injury. Oddly enough for a 20 plus goal scorer he might have to PTO and hope for a major injury. I have heard Edmonton was in contact, but I hope for their sake they wait out a better spot. L.A is light on righties and had problems scoring last year but cap space would have to be moved.

If a team can get the puck on Klingberg's stick in the D zone or anywhere really he can do good things. If it is not on his stick though things can get crazy in a bad way. John doesn't win battles well and needs open ice to be effective. Simply put, with Anaheim needing righties as bad as they do I think he lands there eventually.