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More than four weeks after that behemoth 12-year contract was signed, Marian Hossa's deal is now apparently the subject of an investigation by the NHL. 

Here's NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly (a very busy man these days) in an email to the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch:

"We’re trying to understand how it was negotiated and whether the intent and effect is to circumvent the cap," wrote Daly. "This was the first of the long-term contracts that took a player out past the age 40 and the value of the contract in its ‘out years’ was dramatically lower than its early years.

"We want to know if the possibility of player retirement was ever discussed or even contemplated."

You know what? I'm all for the league getting rid of these goofy, get-paid-little-when-you're-41 *wink wink* deals, but the horse is already out of the barn on that front — at least with this CBA. How can the NHL justify investigating Hossa's contract and not the 12-year, $73-million one Henrik Zetterberg signed in January?

What's the difference? That Hossa's a year and nine months older? That Zetterberg's deal pays him a pittance the final two years and Hossa's does the same in the last four?

The fact is, there's no limitation on this sort of thing in collective bargaining agreement, so any attempt at a crackdown now isn't going to get very far. It's a loophole, and it's a bad one, but I can't see punishing the Blackhawks for a misdeed when there are a pile of these things out there — in all different forms — already.

Fix it in 2011 by negotiating limitations in. Live with the mistake until then. Wear it as a hat.

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

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A high-profile agent told Sun Media yesterday that the current environment for free agents is "all being orchestrated" by the NHL and the plan all along was to make these players sit to see if they’re willing to sign for less money.

"I think what you’ve got here is something that has been in the works for a while," said the agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bunch of guys sitting around like this looking for work. This is something teams have been looking at for a while."

— Bruce Garrioch, Sun Media

Greg Wyshynski gave Garrioch a hard time over this story in the Puck Headlines on Wednesday, but I was actually told the exact same thing — nearly word for word — by a lower profile agent last week. At the time, I chalked it up to frustration on the part of one individual, but it turns out this is something being talked about with some regularity behind the scenes.

"NHL teams know that [players will panic] and for the most part agents think NHL headquarters instructed teams to get as many players as possible to free-agent market to get players fighting against each other [for contracts]," the agent told me via email. "Some GMs have said that 'we'll wait until August because we believe we get better deals then.' None of them will say anything about Bettman instructing them since collusion charges could [come into play]."

I trust the source that said that to me, but I'm still uneasy about spreading rumours that widespread collusion is going on. It would be incredible if all 30 teams were able to agree to not stock their teams as well as possible to further some nefarious league objective.

Unbelievable, even.

Still, it's also really shocking how many quality players are available, probably 20 of whom definitely should have found a home by now. Alex Tanguay is one, but how about Sergei Zubov, Robert Lang, Manny Fernandez, Mats Sundin, Petr Sykora, Jason Williams, Taylor Pyatt, Manny Malhotra, Dennis Seidenberg, Dominic Moore, Mike Comrie, Mathieu Schneider, Miroslav Satan, Mike Grier, Mike Peca, Blair Betts, Martin Skoula, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Rob Niedermayer, etc.?

In terms of the argument that there's no cash left to spend, considering the cap is the same size as it was a year ago, that should be pretty easy to determine. Using rough calculations from nhlnumbers.com and capgeek.com, here's what teams spent last season compared to this one and the cash left over:

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P.J. Axelsson, who appeared in 797 NHL games (all with the Bruins), has signed a four-year deal with Frolunda of the Swedish Elite League, his former club. The signing closes the door on Axelsson's Bruin career, which included 103 goals and 184 assists. Axelsson, the team's seventh-round pick in 1995, established himself as one of the league's best defensive forwards.

"When you look at Bruins history, the classic Bruins, it's lunchpail hockey," said Neil Abbott, Axelsson's agent. "P.J. was a Bruin through and through, true to the core. With his hard work and determination, he gave it his all. I never saw any client work harder and have more fun doing it than P.J. He loved wearing that jersey."

— Fluto Shinzawa, Boston Globe

Axelsson first left Frolunda in 1997, after being drafted by the Bruins in the seventh round in 1995, and he's been in Beantown an awful long time. Playing for an iconic Original Six franchise, he's now 10th all-time in games played as a Bruin and is only 34.

His best-ever season was only 17 goals and 36 points, but Axelsson's been one of the top 20 or so defensive forwards in the NHL for much of his career. The active players this past season who have played their entire career with only one franchise and more games than Axelsson are Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, Nick Lidstrom, Martin Brodeur, Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Daniel Alfredsson, Patrick Marleau, Patrik Elias, Jere Lehtinen and Tomas Holmstrom.

I bet we'll see Axelsson next at the 2010 Olympics.

Another player off to Frolunda is Joel Lundqvist, who played last season in Dallas and is the identical twin brother of Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

More photos » by Tom Mihalek - AP

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Well now we know for sure Rick DiPietro isn’t starting the season in the NHL, as we document below. Maybe he’ll be out even longer than we projected. Larry Brooks of the Post exclusively broke the news that the Islanders have signed Martin Biron to a one year, $1.4 million dollar contract. ... At such a good value, Biron is very tradeable for a pick before the deadline if Dwayne Roloson plays well - even if DiPietro doesn’t have a perfect return from rehab.

— Chris Botta, NYI Point Blank

There were some surprised looks in the newsroom Wednesday night when the Marty Biron sweepstakes (such as they were) ended with such a low salary and the league's worst team, but the fact of the matter was he really had aboslutely nowhere to go. (Although the KHL was calling...)

Even after the two best seasons of his NHL career with the Flyers, even after back to back years with a save percentage of .915 or better, Biron lost out on the goalie carousel this summer as we knew someone would, and his reward was a steep discount from the $3.5-million or so he was seeking and the right to battle two other NHL starters for time in goal.

Or so it would seem.

At second glance, however, should DiPietro be unable to go to start the season (likely), Biron will pick up most of the starts, and if he can prove himself (again) as a No. 1 (again, likely), there'll be a team in need of one by December. I guarantee it.

Let's say DiPietro's healthy, Dwayne Roloson plays lights out, even at age 40, and Biron's in demand with more than one team around the league — why not take on his $1.4-million to start, pay a small fraction of that and ship him out for a second-round pick when another team loses its guy to injury or inconsistency early on?

If nothing else, the Islanders likely have the best backup in the NHL right now — and to me that's worth something.

More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

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Those that have been paying close attention to free agency this summer have noted the NHL goalie carousel that has become Atlant Mytischi, the KHL team that Martin Gerber signed with yesterday and which Antero Niittymaki was rumoured to be heading to two weeks ago.

Gerber will be taking over former teammate Ray Emery's role in Atlant, but according to a source, he received a far smaller contract of only $700,000 (U.S.) on a one -year deal — the same offer that was made to Niittymaki shortly after NHL free agency began July 1.

Niittymaki eventually took a one-year, $600,000 deal to play for the Lightning next season, but as we've heard in the past, there's more to these KHL contracts than the dollar figure.

One agent involved in signing players to KHL deals said that they are worth two and a half to three times their NHL equivalents because players do not have to pay tax on them and receive free housing, a car and most of their meals. Many are also given a cellphone and have their utilities paid for, as well as travel to and from their home country.

Niittymaki ultimately had the tax-free, incentive-laden deal from Atlant and multiple near league minimum offers from NHL teams, and opted for the paycut to play in Tampa, where he's hoping for more playing time than he would have received elsewhere. (Not a bad bet given Mike Smith continues to recover from his concussion issues.)

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According to Russian publication Sovetsky Sport, netminder Martin Gerber has taken former teammate Ray Emery's old KHL job with Atlant Mytishchi on a one-year contract.

You know, I think Gerber got a bit of a bum rap last season in Ottawa when he was waived and then demoted to the minors, something that came as a result more of his team's struggles and his bloated salary than truly awful play. There were plenty of netminders who had worse seasons last year — look at what Vesa Toskala did in Toronto — and besides, Ottawa's biggest issue was scoring goals.

In any event, Gerber turns 35 in September and we may have seen the last of him in North America. He leaves with a 110-78-14 career record and a .910 career save percentage, as well as a lot of Senators owner Eugene Melnyk's loot.

It's a tough gig being a goalie in the NHL — one day you're worth $3-million plus in free agency, a few years later, you're off to the KHL without any similar offers to play in the best league in the world. (Tough being a relative term here.)

The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins have signed goaltender Brent Johnson to a one-year contract, it was announced today by Executive Vice President and General Manager Ray Shero. Johnson, 32, played 21 games with the Washington Capitals, finishing with a record of 12-6-2 during the 2008-09 season. The veteran goaltender recorded a .908 save percentage along with a 2.81 goals-against average.

>> team release

With so many solid netminders available, Johnson's an interesting choice — even though he's been a decent backup for quite a long time now. My guess is his contract demands were low, something that allowed him to beat out the likes of Manny Fernandez, Marty Biron and Martin Gerber (among others).

Still, Johnson had a decent campaign last year and will now battle John Curry to be the bench door opener behind Marc-Andre Fleury. I imagine he received a one-way deal, although we'll have to wait and see on that.

Only two players (Shaone Morrisonn and Ville Koistinen) actually went through the arbitration process last summer, but it appears we may have a few more this time around. Those potentially receiving decent sized awards are the likes of Zajac, Ruutu, Hudler and Zherdev, who all had a fair number of points last season, while many of the others should be under $2-million.

It's tough to forecast where players like MacArthur, Grebeshkov, Harding and Plekanec will slot in.

• Both Copper & Blue and Japers' Rink have done excellent mock arbitration hearings for their players in the past few days. There's some terrific stuff in there, including likely comparables.