NHL's Madness Set to Begin

The NHL's version of Midnight Noon Madness will begin at 12 p.m. tomorrow. The Caps have a lot to accomplish with their own pending (mostly restricted) free agents, most notably Mike Green and Brook Laich. Both might be subject to offer sheets from other clubs, but both Caps' beat writers are reporting that the Caps will match them.

Concerning Green, Tarik writes that "the pool of teams with the draft picks and money to make such an offer is small (and shrinking)." Laich and the Caps are talking and it seems both sides want him to return to town.

As for Cristobal Huet, an unrestricted-free-agent-to-be, Tarik predicts that he'll be back in the red, white and blue for three years at $5 million per season. No further word on anybody else, including Sergei Fedorov and Shaone Morrisonn.

Many media outlets expect the action to be fast and furious around the league -- and the array of weekend trades might be an indicator.

The rival Tampa Bay Lightning, for example, have been busy -- acquiring the Pittsburgh Pens' Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts as well as the Minnesota Wild's Brian Rolston. (Malone has since agreed to a seven year, $31.5 million contract and Roberts is on the verge of a one-year deal.) If you combine that with the hiring of Barry Melrose as coach and some of the trades made late last season (including the acquision of Jeff Halpern), the 'Ning should be much better this time around.

Stay tuned.