Is it just me, or is everyone else wondering what the hell Mike Gillis is doing? I was so excited for free-agent frenzy on July 1, but every time I checked the signing updates, nothing much had happened. I was hoping for a big-bang kind of a signing, especially someone who could score.

I know that according to press reports a ton of money was offered to Mats Sundin , but here’s the downside. He doesn’t even know if he wants to play next year.

If Sundin does take our offer, will he have the heart, desire, and the drive to win us the Stanley Cup? I hope so but, we all thought Mark Messier would make that kind of impact back in ’97, and I don’t want to go back there….. .we all know what happened .

A few teams in the West division have made some big moves to make their teams stronger. Calgary has traded for Mike Cammallari and Edmonton has also been busy, acquiring Eric Cole, Gilbert Brule, and Lubomir Visnovsky.

Detroit has signed Ty Conklin and Marian Hossa, and Chicago, too, is looking better by signing Cristobal Huet and Brian Campbell. Although the Blackhawks are a young team that almost made the playoffs last season, I think they will be tough to beat. Elsewhere, Columbus has signed Kristian Huselius, while Dallas has signed Sean Avery.

As for the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Cup before in 2004 and now has another great-looking team by re-signing Vincent Lecavalier, drafting Steven Stamkos, re-acquiring Vaclav Prospal, and signing Adam Hall, Radim Vrbata, Gary Roberts, and Ryan Malone. Lucky for the Canucks that we never play them.

The Rangers signed Wade Redden, while New Jersey signed Brian Rolston. Boston signed Michael Ryder and Toronto signed Niklas Hagman. The New York Islanders scooped up Mark Streit and Doug Weight and the Washington Capitals signed Jose Theodore.

Most of the action around the league has been players re-signing with their former teams. The ones that have signed have signed for big money.

The most interesting one has been by Toronto. Jeff Finger was signed for four years paying him US$3.5 million a year. This is an interesting and expensive gamble by the Leafs.

There are still a few talented unrestricted free agents yet to be signed such as Mats Sundin, Jaromir Jagr, Teemu Selanne, Jason Williams, Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Wes Walz, Pascal Dupuis, Sergei Fedorov as well as Canucks forwards Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison, but I hope we don’t wait too long and miss out.