Desperate Teams Continue to Shell Out for Free Agents

So far, the drunken sailors of the 2006 free agent market are sad sack outfits like Boston (Chara, Savard), Phoenix (Jovanovski), Los Angeles (Blake, Thornton, McCauley), and St. Louis (McKee, Weight).

History suggests that one of those teams will make the great leap forward next season, a couple will improve marginally, and another will be worse than ever. But stayed tuned, there's much more flesh-trading to come.