Speculation: July 1 Live Blog

6:00 - And yep, that will about to it. Thanks for following!

5:30 - Starting to wind down here. Yes, there will be some deals through the evening + tomorrow, but not as often. We're going to finish here around 6. It's been fun!

5:05 - Edmonton agrees to a deal with Eric Belanger. Very nice deal for the Oilers, Belanger is very solid.

5:00 - Florida signs Tomas Fleischmann to a 4 year, $18 million contract. Another crazy, crazy deal.

4:40 - Colorado continues to revamp their goaltending position as they have signed JS Giguere. The Sharks have also signed Jim Vandermeer.

4:35 - Dallas Stars have signed Sheldon Souray. Absolutely clueless on that one.

4:20 - Just some updates. Sturm to VAN for 1 year. Ponikarovsky to CAR for 1 year. Risks for both, but short-term deals make sense.

4:15 - Sabres owner and Hockey Fanboy Terry Pegula strikes again, as the Sabres sign Ville Leino to a 6 year, $27 million deal. Another ridiculous contract from this team.

4:10 - Ryan Rishaug reporting the Oilers have dealt Kurtis Foster to the Ducks for Andy Sutton. Interesting deal.

4:00 - The Florida Panthers are making waves again as they have acquired F Kris Versteeg from the Philadelphia Flyers for a 2nd round pick in 2012 or 2013 and a 3rd round pick in 2012. Good on the Isles for staying away. Versteeg is a very redundant player for this team.

3:45 - The Dallas Stars have signed Michael Ryder for 2 years and $7 million. Interesting decision for him.

3:40 - Alex Auld has caught on with the Ottawa Senators for one year, and $1 million.

3:35 - The Edmonton Oilers have signed Cam Barker and Darcy Hordichuk. Edmonton becoming the land of opportunity as well, as the Isles could have used Barker a few years back...but not now.

3:30 - While the Islanders have signed Marty Reasoner, the Capitals have signed former Islander Roman Hamrlik for 2 years/$7 million. The Canadiens have signed Isles target Erik Cole for 4 years, $18 million. Good signings for both. Still plenty of top-6 options up front, and guys like Ian White, Scott Hannan, and Bryan McCabe on the back-end.

3:25 - Joel Ward has agreed to a 4 year contract with the Washington Capitals for 3 million per year. That, my friends, is a major overpayment. Good for Ward.

3:20 - The Islanders have agreed to terms with Marty Reasoner on a 2 year contract for $2.5 million. Great faceoff man, will be a major upgrade over Zenon Konopka on the fourth line. More on Reasoner later.

3:15 - Gotta love the new age reporting. Steve Sullivan announced on his Twitter that he has signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Risky, but potentially a nice move for the Pens.

3:00 - The Rangers have signed Mike Rupp. Actually a pretty good minor signing for them, but don't really see how he fits a need. Rupp has now been property of every Atlantic team but the Flyers. Three year deal.

2:55 - Former Avs goalie goes to Montreal on a 2-year deal for $2.3M. Goalie musical chairs continue as things are starting to slow down a little bit. Expect things to pick back up in the next hour or so, maybe sooner.

2:45 - Former Flyer Brian Boucher goes to Carolina to back-up Cam Ward. Good, smart signing for the Canes.

2:30 - Flyers sign Max Talbot. Gonna be hilarious to see how becomes Public Enemy #2 (Jagr is #1) in Pittsburgh now. He was loved there.

2:25 - Radim Vrbata has re-signed in Phoenix for $9 million over 3 years. Good signing by the Coyotes, but they are another team close to maxing out their internal budget now.

2:15 - Another lull (as I say this, I'm sure 10 guys will sign), but all these teams that have spent already helps the Islanders cause. Lots of role/marginal players off the board, likely taking the first deal they saw.  Isles need to be patient and smart, and it will work out. Mark Streit was signed after dinner-time and Dwayne Roloson was signed mid-afternoon. Still plenty of time.

2:06 - The goalie market continues to saturate as Johan Hedberg has re-signed with the Devils.

2:01 - The Capitals have traded G Semyon Varlamov to the Colorado Avalanche. Not sure if he will play in Russia or not next year, but good on the Avs to take a shot. Still up in the air if they will sign Tomas Vokoun or not. And they paid a 1st and 2nd round pick for him? Sherman is way too desperate.

2:00 - The Panthers have struck again, as they have signed fourth line C Marcel Goc to a three-year deal. I like Goc and hoped the Islanders would look at him, but for 3 years? Crazy. Panthers are out of control right now.

1:55 - Flyers have signed Andreas Lilja, furthering my theory they will have Andrej Meszaros on the block quite shortly.

1:55 - Finally, a little bit of a lull here. Don't panic the Islanders haven't signed anyone yet. We're only 2 hours in, and there is always the trade route. Plenty of avenues they can go from here - and still some good forward talent out there.

1:50 - Andrew Brunette has signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. For those wondering, he turned down the Rangers to do so according to Larry Brooks.

1:45 - Like Chris Botta has mentioned on Twitter, don't be surprised to see Bryan McCabe come home.

1:36 - Ed Jovanovski goes back to Florida for 4 years. Again, that's the type of deal the Isles will have to offer free agents. Florida must be close to the cap floor now. Jan Hejda signs for four years to Colorado. Isles miss out on a good one.

1:35 - Tim Brent goes from Toronto to Carolina on a two-year deal. Good faceoff man, another one the Isles could have looked into for their 4th line.

1:30 - Radek Dvorak signs with the Stars, 1 year/$1.5M. Could be a nice signing for the Stars. Jagr gets $3.3M from the Flyers, which is an absurd overpayment - and proving that it is all about the money.

1:25 - Just a hat tip, if the signing isn't announced by Bob McKenzie, Nick Kypreos, Darren Dreger, or the team's beat reporter, you should probably ignore it.

1:20 - TONS happening right now. The Coyotes have signed both Raffi Torres (1.75py) and Mike Smith (2m) for 2-years each. The Blues have agreed to a 2-year contract with Matt D'Agostini. And the BIG SHOCK of the day - Jaromir Jagr has signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. Now Penguins fans...you can be angry. That's a slap in the face.

1:17 - An update on Upshall - the Panthers have announced a four year deal. That's the kind of term the Isles will have to offer to get free agents, even of Upshall's caliber. Upshall's deal is for $14 million over 4 years per McKenzie.

1:16 - Washington has signed 4th line center Jeff Halpern to a 1 year/$825K contract. Wanted the Islanders to go after him, but even if they did, couldn't blame him for going to Washington at this stage of his career. Good signing for the Caps.

1:15 - Looks like the Florida Panthers have signed Scottie Upshall. Good signing for the Panthers, who need to spend, spend, spend to get to the cap floor.

1:10 - Chicago Blackhawks have signed veteran Sean O'Donnell to a 1 year contract worth $850K. Will be interesting to see if they still try and sign Chris Campoli, as Bowman said he wanted two defensemen to round out his core. Good veteran signing for the Hawks.

1:05 - Dallas Stars have signed Adam Pardy to a 2y/$4M contract. Good depth signing for the Stars, but a bit of an overpayment.

12:55 - Florida signs Jose Theodore to a 2 year/$3M contract. They get their new starting goalie, as Tomas Vokoun is officially moving on.

12:51 - Ben Eager signs with the Edmonton Oilers for 3y/$3.3M. Jamal Mayers signed with Chicago for 1 year/$550K. Eager a great signing for Edmonton - perfect signing for a young team.

12:50 - While we have some time, here's some recent Isles July 1 history. In 2007, Garth Snow signed Jon Sim to a 3y/$3M contract. In 2008, Garth Snow signed Mark Streit to a 5y/$20.5M contract. In 2009, Garth Snow signed Dwayne Roloson to a 2y/$5M contract. Last year, no activity.

12:40 - Tampa Bay signs G Mathieu Garon to a 2 year deal for $2.6 million. He'll backup former Islander Dwayne Roloson. Tampa now has very good goaltending depth.

12:35 - Tom Gulitti announces that Andy Greene has re-signed with the Devils for four seasons. Quite the long term for a guy like Greene.

12:25 - Craig Custance now saying there's no deal with Michal Handzus and the Flyers. And now I'm done speculating. Wake me up when there's numbers. Bob McKenzie confirming no contact between Flyers and Handzus. So there's that.

12:20 - Jay Gold saying the Coburn signing is official - 2 years, 8 million. Flyers may trade to move Meszaros, which would be a perfect fit for the Isles. Don't think they will trade him within the division, however. And now the Handzus contract looks done. Weird five minutes there.

12:15 - Lots of false news coming out of Flyers camp. Apparently neither Handzus nor Coburn has been signed yet. Odd, but we'll see if that changes.

12:10 - Our first signing comes (very) early this year. The Flyers have signed UFA F Michal Handzus - waiting on confirmation of the number. Wouldn't have fit the Islanders, good signing for Philly who need C depth after trading Richards and Carter.

12:06 - Some Isles news to start the day, the team has signed prospect F Kirill Kabanov to an entry-level contract. He'll still be back in juniors next year. We'll have more on the Kabanov signing later.

12:05 - Usually, the first UFA signing comes in around 12:30, so don't expect much until then. Maybe a re-signing or two.

12:01 - Detroit re-signs Drew Miller for 2-years. Pittsburgh re-signs Tyler Kennedy for 2-years. Good signings by both.

12:00 - Happy start of free agency! Now let's get crazy - we know some teams will.

11:55 - The Vancouver Canucks have signed Long Island F Chris Higgins to a 2 year contract worth 1.9 million. Good signing for both parties. Higgins is good in a bottom-6 role and he gets some security.

11:52 - Eight minutes until showtime here. Not sure what's more exciting, this or New Year's.

11:45 - The Flyers and Ville Leino could not agree to a contract, so he will be heading to UFA as well.

11:38 - Gord Miller announces San Jose will not re-sign Ian White, who will head to market as a UFA. The Islanders should be very interested in the 27 year old, top-4 defenseman.

11:35 - In a shocker, the Pittsburgh Penguins have pulled their offer for F Jaromir Jagr. Everyone thought Jagr only wanted to go to Pittsburgh, and if he did, he waited too long. Very surprising move there, but clearly the Penguins have other business they want to take care of today.

11:26 - And the lull is broken. Buffalo re-signs Cody McCormick to a 3 year, $4.6M contract. Maybe a little long, but McCormick is a very good 4th line guy.

11:25 - A nice little lull before the craziness really starts at noon. All we know now is that Mike Rupp and Jan Hejda will be hitting the market, Chris Higgins is working on a 2y deal with the Canucks, and the Devils are still trying to sign Andy Greene. Based on the contracts we've seen to Ehrhoff and Wisniewski, expect a lot of money to be thrown around today. The question is, will the Isles get involved?

10:55 - The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed James Wisniewski to a 6 year/$33M contract. Massive overpayment, but the Blue Jackets are certainly going for it.

10:41 - Craig Custance reporting Patrick Eaves has re-signed in Detroit on a 3 year/$4.6M contract. Good depth signing for the Wings, as Eaves played well there last season.

10:40 - Bob McKenzie reporting Minnesota has signed G Josh Harding to a 1 year, $750K contract. That most likely means Jose Theodore will be going to market today.

10:35 - Welcome to our free agency Live Blog! We'll be updating this page with whatever we hear from legit rumors until about 6:30 PM. If the Islanders make a signing, it will go to the top of the page. So stay with us all day, it should be a fun one!