With NHL free agency getting started on July 1^st, we’re going to take a quick look around the league to see who is available and who the best option is.

We’re going to start our NHL off-season talk with the goaltenders who are set to become free agents on July 1^st. There is a pretty solid list of available candidates, and by solid I mean as solid as a plate of Jell-O that hasn’t had enough time to solidify yet.

First up, we’ll rank the top 10 available unrestricted free agents.

1. Martin Biron (Philadelphia) – Biron was one regular season win short of posting back to back 30 win seasons for the Flyers. In addition to that, he led the Flyers to the conference finals in 2007-08 before being ousted by the Penguins. This year the Flyers fell to the Penguins again, this time in the first round.

After spending much of his career in Buffalo and eventually losing his starting job to Ryan Miller, the Sabres shipped him off to Philly where he signed a 2 year, $3.5 million dollar contract. With the upcoming cap situation in Philly being extremely tight and the Flyers already signing Ray Emery to a one year deal, things aren’t looking so good for Biron in Philly.

He is sporadic at times and that can hurt a team but I still feel he is the best candidate for a team needing someone to start between the pipes. He is only 31 years old and his salary is not that much compared to some of the other goalies in the league. In my mind he would actually make for the perfect backup goaltender, but after starting a large amount of games in Philly for the past two seasons, I can’t see him embracing that backup role once again (and the salary that goes along with it).

2. Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago) – One could argue that Khabibulin was a huge disappointment in Chicago after landing his monster deal of close to $7 million per season. I would completely agree with the person arguing that point. In his four seasons in Chicago he started 50, 60, 50 and 42 games. His win-loss record was much better this season, but so was the overall team. Sorry, but for someone pulling in that kind of money, he should be starting around 70 games and leading his team to the post-season each time.

Last off-season the Blackhawks signed another somewhat shaky goaltender in Cristobal Huet, so I see no possible way that they retain the services of Khabibulin. He will no doubt need to take a pay cut if he wants another job in the NHL, but he should be able to contribute to another team. He hasn’t been nearly as good in Chicago as he was while winning the Cup in Tampa Bay, but someone will give him another shot. If not, the KHL still awaits.

3. Scott Clemmensen (New Jersey) – Most people will probably recognize Clemmensen as the guy who saved the Devils season while Martin Brodeur was out with a long term injury. Upon returning, Clemmensen was shipped back down to the AHL to finish up the season. This was more about clearing waivers than any form of respect, but I have a feeling that it didn’t sit too well with Clemmensen. He now hits the open market and has proven he can play effectively at the NHL level. While subbing for Brodeur (and Kevin Weekes), Clemmensen posted a 25-13-1 record and two shutouts. His GAA and save percentage were statistically in the top ten among league leaders. I have to assume that a team in need of goaltending will want to give him a shot seeing that he is only 31 years old, but there is always that off chance that he’ll return to New Jersey to be Brodeur’s full-time backup. There is always that chance that he was a product of the New Jersey system.

4. Ty Conklin (Detroit) – I’m actually quite fond of Conklin as a backup. Although he didn’t play very much for Buffalo in his short stint with the Sabres, he played well enough to impress me. Last season he helped carry Pittsburgh to the post-season while starter Marc-Andre Fleury was injured. This season he headed to Detroit to split time with Chris Osgood. Conklin has bounced around several teams so there must be something I’m missing, but I think he is a very suitable backup goalie. I also think he is perfect for Detroit. In 40 games for Detroit this season, Conklin went 25-11-2 with 6 shutouts. Osgood is heading into the final year of his contract and Conklin is more than capable of filling in from time to time. If I were Detroit I would look at locking him up with another one year deal and then seriously addressing the goaltending situation the following summer.

5. Manny Fernandez (Boston) – Fernandez hits the market and looks to be finished in Boston. While splitting time with Tim Thomas, there is no doubt that Thomas is the man in Boston. Fernandez started 28 games this past season with Boston posting a 16-8-3 record in the process. He definitely doesn’t deserve a contract over $4 million (what he was making in Boston) but he should be able to hook up with someone and split time between the pipes.

6. Dwayne Roloson (Edmonton) – Roloson hits the market at the ripe age of 39, which isn’t exactly a great bargaining chip when looking for a new job. It seems like a very long time ago that he led the 8^th seeded Oilers to the Stanley Cup before getting injured in Game One and watching his team fall in seven to the Hurricanes. At this point in his career he is much better suited for the backup role. He started 63 games this year for Edmonton, posting a 28-24-9 record along the way. He might possibly stick in Edmonton, although that seems somewhat unlikely.

7. Antero Niittymaki (Philadelphia) – Along with Martin Biron, Niittymaki hits the free agent market and there appears to be no room for him in Philly. His contract was considerably less than Biron (1.375 million) so the Flyers might have plans for him to split time with Ray Emery (everyone in Philly shudders). Niittymaki is only 28 years old and went 15-8-6 in 32 regular season starts last season. While those numbers aren’t necessarily great, they could be worse (see Emery, Ray). He might have to take a brief pay cut to the tune of one million per season, but it wouldn’t be a terrible investment. Now Ray Emery…well that’s another story. (Had enough yet Philly?)

8. Craig Anderson (Florida) – Last season Anderson split time with Tomas Vokoun going 15-7-5 in 31 starts. Anderson never fully got into a groove as the Panthers goaltending situation depended on whether or not the team won or loss the previous game. When he got an extended amount of playing time, he proved he was capable of winning games for the Panthers. He may not want to split time this way with Vokoun again, so look for him to test the free agent market and see what else is available.

9. Manny Legace (St Louis) – Legace posted a 13-9-2 record in 29 starts for the Blues last season. While these numbers aren’t great, either is the unrestricted class of 2009. Legace may end up staying in St Louis to serve a similar role, but one has to assume he’ll receive a significant pay cut, unless someone thinks he is worth $2.5 million per season. Seeing that someone like Ty Conklin makes much less per season, there is no way this is happening.

10. Brian Boucher (San Jose) – Boucher went 12-6-3 in 22 games with the Sharks last season. He was in a pretty good spot backing up Evgeni Nabakov for the first round chokers last season. One could argue that Boucher benefited from playing for the best team in the regular season, which is a fair argument, but I can’t ignore the stats when doing these rankings. Boucher only made $650,000 last season so I could see him getting a slight raise for a similar role. His days as a number one goalie for long gone.

The list for restricted agents is much smaller. And by smaller I mean most of the players are still playing in the AHL so I don’t know nearly enough about them to do rankings. So to keep this simple, here are the top three goaltenders that are eligible for restricted free agency.

1. Kari Lehtonen (Atlanta) – If I’m Kari Lehtonen, I’m begging my way out of Atlanta. I don’t see this franchise ever being successful in the NHL and in my opinion; they should be shipped up to Canada or eliminated completely from the league. Lehtonen played in 46 games for the terrible Thrashers earning a 19-22-3 record with three shutouts. I’ve seen him play enough games to know that he is much better than the record indicates. Like I said, Atlanta is terrible. Lehtonen is only 25 years old so I could easily see him latching on with another team and serving the role of franchise goaltender.

2. Brian Elliott (Ottawa) – Brian Elliot got the pleasure of playing for the Senators once their season was effectively over. Regardless of that fact, he quickly turned them into a much better team as Ottawa was actually one of the better teams towards the end of the season. In 31 games played, Elliot went 16-8-3 with one shutout. One would assume with him being only 24 years old, that Ottawa would lock him up and not allow anybody else to entertain offers for him. Based on what I saw last season, I’m not looking forward to seeing Buffalo face him multiple times a season.

3. Peter Budaj (Colorado) – Budaj almost single handedly killed my entire fantasy team this past season. Luckily I dumped him and squeaked into the playoffs. Nevertheless, with so few restricted free agents with NHL experience, Budaj is near the top of the list. Who knows, with him only being 26 years old maybe he’ll get much better as time goes on. He’ll need to if he wants to improve on his 20-29-5 record that he posted last season. Then again, playing for the Avalanche these days isn’t exactly the perfect scenario for a young goaltender.