Grading the free agents Quality of competition

The pool of NHL free agents this summer will be wide if not deep — including restricted free agents (and I think you have to), there are 165 "availables" out there among players who played at least 20 games last season and more than 10 minutes a game at even strength.

Of that group, here are the top 20+ defencemen and forwards in Behind The Net's quality of competition measure. By this metric, these are the free agents who lined up against the opposition's top lines in 2007-08 (RFAs in red):

	NAME	TEAM	GP	TOI/60	QUAL COMP
1	ADAM FOOTE	COL	75	17.3	0.15
2	KURT SAUER	COL	54	15.0	0.12
3	JAY BOUWMEESTER	FLA	82	19.0	0.12
4	BRYCE SALVADOR	N.J	64	15.6	0.09
5	ROB BLAKE	L.A	71	14.8	0.09
6	MAREK MALIK	NYR	42	15.8	0.06
7	CHRISTIAN EHRHOFF	S.J	77	15.9	0.05
8	MICHAL ROZSIVAL	NYR	80	16.9	0.05
9	DENNIS WIDEMAN	BOS	81	17.6	0.04
10	BRET HEDICAN	CAR	66	15.8	0.03
11	JONI PITKANEN	EDM	63	16.9	0.03
12	SHAONE MORRISONN	WSH	76	16.1	0.03
13	MARK EATON	PIT	36	14.6	0.02
14	BRUNO GERVAIS	NYI	60	14.4	0.02
15	MIKE GREEN	WSH	82	17.8	0.02
16	DENNIS SEIDENBERG	CAR	47	14.1	0.01
17	MIKE COMMODORE	OTT	67	14.3	0.01
18	JAROSLAV MODRY	PHI	80	15.2	0.01
19	JORDAN HENDRY	CHI	40	14.3	0.01
20	PAUL MARA	NYR	61	13.5	0.00
21	ANDREJ MESZAROS	OTT	82	15.5	0.00
22	RON HAINSEY	CBJ	78	15.5	0.00

	NAME	TEAM	GP	TOI/60	QUAL COMP
1	JAY PANDOLFO	N.J	54	13.4	0.16
2	STEPHANE VEILLEUX	MIN	77	12.1	0.10
3	CLARKE MACARTHUR	BUF	37	12.5	0.09
4	JARRET STOLL	EDM	81	10.8	0.09
5	BRAD RICHARDSON	LA	22	11.6	0.09
6	MATS SUNDIN	TOR	74	13.9	0.08
7	CRAIG CONROY	CGY	79	12.3	0.07
8	JAN HLAVAC	NSH	80	13.2	0.07
9	JOE SAKIC	COL	44	13.7	0.07
10	MICHAEL PECA	CBJ	65	12.4	0.07
11	BRYAN SMOLINSKI	MTL	64	10.4	0.07
12	DAVID CLARKSON	N.J	81	11.5	0.06
13	SEAN AVERY	NYR	57	13.1	0.06
14	MARTY REASONER	EDM	82	11.0	0.06
15	RUSLAN FEDOTENKO	NYI	67	13.2	0.06
16	MICHAEL RYDER	MTL	70	10.8	0.06
17	CORY STILLMAN	OTT	79	13.4	0.05
18	MATT STAJAN	TOR	82	13.7	0.05
19	DAVID BACKES	STL	72	11.9	0.05
20	JAY MCCLEMENT	STL	81	11.2	0.05
21	BRAD ISBISTER	VAN	55	10.1	0.05

If I've got someone there who's re-signed, let me know (and keep in mind that this changes by the day).

I've included everyone on this list, even the likes of Foote and Sakic, who are all but certain to sign with Colorado. If Foote was available, somehow, however, I imagine he could command one of the biggest deals for a blueliner out there.

He had a very strong year defensively.

What I don't have here is performance in those difficult minutes, and some of these players struggled mightily. I'm planning on having a series of similar posts, identifying the leaders in various attributes, so if there's one you're a fan of, let me know.
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