Free-agent market trimmed yet again...

Man, at this rate, there'll be nothing left for teams to feast on and me to write about!

Following suit to Pavel Datysuk, two other big-name free-agents have been officially taken off the list.

The list no longer includes the Avs Captain Joe Sakic and the talented bleu-liner from Ottawa who goes by the name of Anton Volchenkov.

TSN reports that Volchenkov has signed a three-year deal, it was announced by Sens GM John Muckler in the last hour.

"Anton has been one of our top defencemen all season," GM John Muckler said in a statement. "We're pleased to have secured him for the next three years, two of which were restricted and the third season when Anton would have been an unrestricted free agent."

Ouch, imagine him being restricted for the next two seasons, with the arbitrators giving away money like there's no tomorrow, he could have possibly made more than he's going to make over the next three years.

No wonder Muckler's happy, although contract details have yet to be released, instead of paying along the lines of $2-2.5 million (that's what I expect he got), he'd probably have to pay about a million and maybe more.

If that were to happen, then he'd be in a sticky situation, just like the Sabres were last off-season when an arbitrator award JP Dumont $2.5 million.

The Sabres just couldn't afford it and they let him go to Nashville.

Except for Muckler, it could have been a much more serious loss.

The loss could've been one of his two top-notch defencemen, namely Chris Phillips (since they'd have less money to keep him) or the man in question Anton Volchenkov (see the Dumont situation.)

Anyhow, great signing by Muckler and it remains to be seen how much he's going to be putting in his bank account in the next three years.

The announcement comes just 2 days before the Senators playoff quest begins at the Scotia Bank Place against number 87 and the Penguins.

Volchenkov, 25, is having a career year for the Senators, who drafted him 21st overall back in 2000.

He only had one goal, but has picked up a high 18 assists and an equally career marker with 19 points.

A more impressive stat, is his +37 mark, which ranks 5th in the NHL.

His play has picked up in the second half, after a slow start which led to many trade rumours involving the young Russian.

-Joe Sakic has re-signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche, per the Denver Post.

The classy Canadian forward, has shown that he still has scoring power left in the tank.

Sakic, 37, is having a phenomenal year with 36 goals and 64 assists, his highest total since he amassed 118 back in 2000-2001.

He made $5.75 million last year and there's no indication he'd make any less this upcoming season.

Avs giving Flames plenty of problems...

The Colorado Avalanche are hot.
Period, no fancy-schmancy adjectives to be employed here, simply, red hot.

That is something the Calgary Flames have not been in the last few weeks.

They have won only 3 games in the month of March and have seen their seemingly huge lead in the Northwest Division and Western Conference diminish.
On their heels now, they have lost their last 3 games in a row.

The losses have fueled more speculation on the Flames' coaching staff part, that GM Darryl Sutter would dismiss head coach Jim Playfair and take over himself the head coaching duties.
Sutter was quick to downplay these rumours.

Despite his team's struggles, the Flames still remain in a playoff position but if their current trend continues, they can find themselves playing golf early this year, something many didn't, couldn't even imagine back in January and February, as the Flames were riding Mile-high, posting 8-3-2 and 7-4-3 records respectively, that's in total 15-7-5.

Well, maybe I did exaggerate when I said nobody couldn't "imagine" them not making it, but anyway, we were all under the impression this was the way they'd finish the season, on that kind of note.

The hockey world has seen the Flames fall mightily down the Western Conference standings...no, I meant "PLUMMET" as they have gone from "top team" to "crap team".

The Calgary Flames also got another bullet in their heart, as the Colorado Avalanche have won 8 of their last 10 games and have only lost one in regulation in that process.
Helped by Paul Stastny's 20-game point streak (now over, was pointless in Colorado's 4-3 win over the Canucks 2 days ago), Joe Sakic's "still going strong" season and Milan Hejduk's recent rejuvenation have put the Avalanche only 4 points behind the extinguished Flames.

With Peter Budaj regaining his confidence and Jose Theodore becoming the best bench-warmer in the NHL, the Avalanche could be in posession of a playoff spot by the end of the week.

The Flames are not alone in the "fallen down in the standings" category, many other teams include the Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild and New York Islanders.

Things have gotten so bad in Calgary, that Miikka Kiprusoff has to get his girls to pump up the slumped Dion Phaneuf, who's lost that magic he showed in his rookie season.