After midnight came and went, hockey’s biggest league is now out of order and NHL stars are free to sign contracts withh Russia’s KHL. Free from their contractual obligations as of now, players can sign with teams overseas (though some leagues, such as Swedish Elitserien (SEL), don’t allow temporary contracts).

Earlier, the KHL announced requirements for players signing temp deals. A single team can sign no more than three players and only one of them can be non-Russian (though teams are not obligated to dress more than five foreigners to games). They don’t count against the salary cap, but they can’t be signed to contracts worth more than the 65% of their NHL deals’ annual value.

Foreign KHL players must meet one of the following criteria:

• Play in more than 150 NHL games in the previous three seasons;
• Have KHL experience;
• Be a Stanley Cup winner or finalist;
• Be a winner of one of the NHL’s annual awards;
• Play for their national teams on the 2010 Olympics, one of the last two World Champs or one of the last two World Junior Champs.

These rules don’t apply to the KHL teams representing countries outside Russia.

Below the jump, we give you the blow-by-blow of the KHL’s version of a free-agent frenzy.

• The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin and the Ottawa Senators’ Sergei Gonchar have signed with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, their official site announces. Malkin is Magnitogorsk-native and Gonchar played there during the 2004-05 lockout. Malkin left the club with scandal in 2005.
• The Flyers’ Ruslan Fedotenko and the Winnipeg Jets’ Alexei Ponikarovsky have joined Donbass Donetsk, according to their official site. Two of the NHL’s three Ukranian players will now play for the only Ukranian team in the KHL.
• New Jersey Devils’ Ilya Kovalchuk will play for SKA St. Petersburg, as per the official release. His agent Yuri Nikolaev said in an interview with Sportbox.ru, his client has been talking with SKA for two years and had obligations with them.
• Ottawa Senators’ Kaspars Daugavins will join Dinamo Riga, Dinamo’s official site reports. Daugavins is a Riga-native.
• Toronto Maple Leafs’ Nikolai Kulemin has become a member of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, his hometown team, according to their official site. With Malkin, Gonchar and Kulemin, Metallurg has used their limit of temporary contracts. So, no Crosby.
• Ak Bars Kazan has released an official statement saying that they will not sign temporary contracts. Ak Bars was one of the most agressive clubs during the 2004 NHL lockout, but it didn’t work out well for them in the playoffs. This fall, they’ve been linked to Pavel Datsyuk and Alexander Burmistrov.
• Dinamo Minsk‘s official site has announced that they’ve reached a verbal agreement with Minnesota Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom. The signing makes sense, because Backstrom once played under their goalie coach Ari Hilli.
• The Calgary Flames’ Jiri Hudler and the Philadelphia Flyers’ Jakub Voracek have signed with Lev Praha, according to the KHL’s website. It’s an aggressive move for the Western Conference leading Lev, who is in its first year of existence in the KHL.
• Barys Astana‘s official site has announced that the club has come to agreement with Nik Antropov of the Winnipeg Jets. Antropov, the best Kazakhstani player in the NHL, will join a Barys team which is currently tenth of twelve teams in the Eastern Conference.
• Pavel Datsyuk will play for CSKA Moscow, his agent, Gary Greenstin, told SovSport. It was officially confirmed earlier that Datsyuk’s hometown team, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, was kicking tires to acquire the Detroit Red Wings’ center.
• Anton Khudobin of the Boston Bruins has signed with Atlant Moscow Region, according to the team’s official site. Khudobin, who was considered a back-up goaltender on the Bruins’ depth chart after Tim Thomas announced his hiatus, played for Metallurg Magnitogorsk before coming over to play in the Minnesota Wild organization.
• Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues will return to SKA St. Petersburg, according to their site. The news over the last few days showed a lot of hesitation – the young forward, who is considered one of the Calder Trophy frontrunners, had to choose between the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen and coming back home.
• New York Islanders’ defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky has joined Slovan Bratislava, KHL site reports. Visnovsky played for Slovan (then of the Slovak Extra League) before coming to the NHL.
• Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov has signed with CSKA Moscow, per their official site.

What started with an apology from Caps PR Mogul Nate Ewell ended with information that sent the Twittersphere into a tizzy: The Washington Capitals have signed forward Tomas Fleischmann to a one-year contract. The pact is reported to be for $2.6 million and avoids a potentially messy arbitration hearing that was set to be heard Wednesday.

The important thing to remember here is that the Capitals were going to sign Fleischmann to a one-year deal regardless. You simply do not let a developed asset like a 20-goal scorer walk away for nothing, and avoiding arbitration helps preserve goodwill on both sides. The only important detail was: for how much?

And that seems to be the rub for most: $2.6 million is too much. But is it?

The fine people over at Japer’s Rink did an excellent mock arbitration briefing that illustrates what Flash’s career has amounted to at this point:

It is beyond debate that Tomas Fleischmann is a skilled hockey player. He has improved his per-game goal and point totals in each of his seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), registering career highs nearly across the board during the 2009-10 regular season and finishing sixth in goals scored on an offensively potent Washington Capitals team.

So the question becomes: what is Flesichman’s 56G/72A /128P in 260 games worth?

The one player with similar career stats at the same ages for the first five years of their career is Valtteri Filppula, who in 290 games has boxcar stats of 52G/77A/129P – never scoring more than 19 goals in a season – making $3.5M in 2010-11.

Then we have the UFA/RFA climate, such as Clarke MacArthur’s $2.4M award that the Atlanta Thrashers walked away from and Matt Moulson also avoiding arbitration after agreeing to $2.45 with the Islanders, along with Alexander Frolov and Alexei Ponikarovsky each signing $3M contracts as UFAs.

This pegs Fleischmann’s value somewhere in the $2.5 to $3.5 million range – despite him being terrible when it came to puck possession (having the worst 5v5 CORSI ON for any Capital playing more than 20 games) or that he was on the ice for more Goals Against per 60 minutes than any other Caps skater.

Luckily for Fleischmann the market (and potential) dictates value, and a 25-year old forward on the upside of his career simply cannot be let go for nothing.

So join me in welcoming the Caps opening night 2nd line left wing mice-droppings collector 2nd line center, and let us know what you think Flash is worth in the comments.

Who needs ESPN? The signing of right wing Eric Fehr to a two-year contract, reported to be worth $2.2 million per year, was brought to us the old-fashioned way: via Twitter, from Uno Seis himself while he summers at his cabin in Winkler, Manitoba. Take that Greenwich!

We know what you’re thinking: Do a joint “Two More Years” celebratory party at Front Page on July 31st! We would, but sadly Fehr intends to spend the rest of the summer in Manitoba before returning to D.C.

Speaking of D.C., Fehr made the most of his breakout 2009-10 campaign with the big club, scoring 2.71 points per 60 minutes on the ice at even strength. That was a better clip than Malkin, Marleau and Stamkos, albeit it against much weaker competition. With a GVT of 8.9 for the year, the 24-year-old goal scorer appears to be a solid 3rd-line player with 2nd-line upside. And that is going to be the question going into next season: Does Fehr log some time on the second line, where he should face some stiffer competition, or be a fixture on the third line paired with Chimera and possibly Perreault?

While starting 53.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone on a team known for its prolific offense is a definite advantage, that was about average for Washington’s forwards.  Improvement is needed in directing pucks to the net, as his CORSI of -5.5 relative to his teammates was on the low side.  However, Fehr reported on his press call that this is his first healthy offseason since his time in juniors, so he’s “expecting some big things next year.”

Some similarities can be seen in the career path of Alexei Ponikarovsky, who consistently scores 20 goals year in and year out and at age 30 had a similar cap hit, making Fehr a reasonably priced option for the next two years with some significant upside.