from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

- Thursday kicked off the opening of the six-day window pending unrestricted free agents could talk to other teams and, of course, vice-versa.

One name that’s under the radar, but shouldn’t be, is that of 29-year-old Swedish center Carl Soderberg.

On what is otherwise a fairly mediocre UFA July 1 crop, at least by past years’ standards, Soderberg could be one of the top catches, a versatile, two-way player whose 44 points (13 goals, 31 assists) were tied for third in Boston Bruins scoring this past season.

The cap-strung Bruins can't come close to matching the kind of money he will make on the open market. As many as 7-8 teams are believed to be interested in him and can now talk to him officially. Word is Soderberg's camp is looking for $5 million a year. Not sure he’ll get that, but there’s no harm in trying.

- Isn't it funny with all this talk of goalies trades this week that there's a pending unrestricted free agent sitting there with four 30-plus win seasons and a Stanley Cup under his belt?

continued