Luongo and Redden Set the Market

Roberto Luongo, widely accepted as the best young goaltender in hockey, will average about $6.75 million over the next four years under his new contract with the Vancouver Canucks. That's the same money Nikolai Khabibulin makes under the fat deal he signed in Chicago last summer. So lesser lights such as Dominik Hasek and Dwayne Roloson have a ceiling to work from as they venture forth in this summer's free agent bazaar.

More interesting is the news that the Ottawa Senators have retained Wade Redden. Redden, who would have been among this summer's most popular properties, has a new contract worth $13 million over two years. The high-scoring but less reliable Bryan McCabe settled for just under $6 million per year in Toronto.

So what are fellow defensemen Nicklas Lidstrom, Ed Jovanovski and Zdeno Chara worth? The maximum player salary is $8.8 million. Could Lidstrom, oft hailed as the finest defenseman in the game, squeeze that kind of money from the Red Wings or another bidder?

In other free agent news, Dallas will pay Bill Guerin $4.5 million to go away.

Update: As far as Lidstrom goes, we have our answer. Nicklas has signed on for the same money he made last year. It looks like $7.6 million is the max for a 2006-07 NHL defenseman.