from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province,

The Florida Panthers were like a Kardashian sister on two-for-one day at Nieman-Marcus. The Panthers, in no particular order, added Dave Bolland, Jussi Jokinen, Willie Mitchell, Shawn Thornton, Al Montoya and Derek McKenzie. Those six players will represent just under $17 million in cap space next season. Then again, Jokinen did score the 21 goals last season.

Close behind the Panthers are the Buffalo Sabres who signed Matt Moulson, Brian Gionta, Cody McCormick and Marcus Foligno in addition to picking up Josh Gorges' salary from Montreal. The cost for those five players? Just over $16 million on next year's payroll.

From there, we move to a group which didn't quite reach the Panthers-Sabres' level but still had a high old time of it this week. Washington added Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik and Justin Peters. The Islanders signed Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Grabovski, Cory Conacher and some other spare parts. Calgary's take was Derek Engelland, Jonas Hiller and Mason Raymond. New Jersey picked up Mike Cammalleri and Marty Havlat in addition to re-signing Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier.

As for your Vancouver Canucks, they'll have $11 million tied up next season in Ryan Miller and Radim "The Dream" Vrbata as well as three depth players for the organization.

Now, here's our question. Look at those teams which were spending like sailors on shore leave and see if you can identify a common denominator. The clock's ticking. The music is playing for Final Jeopardy. OK, time's up.

read on