Chirps from Center Ice

Updating the blog with the list of Penguins players who received qualifying offers:

Robert Bortuzzo, Alex Grant, Matt Niskanen, Carl Sneep, Brian Strait, Eric Tangradi and Keven Veilleux.

And those who didn’t:

Cal O’Reilly, Mattias Modig, Alexandre Picard, Casey Pierro-Zabotel and Boris Valabik.

Two things: 1) Surprised Pittsburgh qualified Veilleux. He needs to stay healthy this year. 2) Read somewhere (can’t remember where) that Pittsburgh will try to re-sign O’Reilly as a free agent.

For a list of players who did not receive qualifying offers from the other 29 NHL teams and are now unrestricted free agents, check out Bridgeport Sound Tigers beat writer Mike Fornabaio’s list.

Jonathan Bombulie has outdone himself. Here is a list of 450 AHL free agents. 450! I can’t imagine the work put into the digging and researching each player Bombulie put into this. That is why he (and Fornabaio) are the best at what they do. (along with Leone, Eminian, Lindsay, etc…)

Free Agency begins Sunday. Seems weird that it would start Sunday. Will do my best to keep things updated here on the blog. Immediate reactions on Twitter. I’m on Facebook too, still trying to figure out why they call it a “status update”

Stay cool.