Free Agency ’11, Day 2 (and 3) (and 4) (and 5?) running

While we wait for the Islanders’ next move — much depth still needed here up front, and still no word on destinations for their own free agents — a couple of big early moves Saturday on two different levels: Brad Richards has chosen the Rangers (at some breathtaking terms), and Chris Bourque returns to the Washington Capitals’ organization.

–Ben Walter to the Flames. Edit: CapGeek says he gets $275,000 in the AHL.

–Brendan McCarthy reports Mark Flood to Winnipeg and likely St. John’s after a good season with the Manitoba Moose. (Edit: He played last year on an AHL deal. Good on him to earn another NHL contract.) Meanwhile, the Capitals sign goalie Tomas Vokoun, which only makes Hershey’s goaltending deeper by trickle-down effect.

–RDS reports Andrew Gordon to the Ducks. So if you’re keeping score, and if the reported numbers are correct, the big offensive AHL free agents who have signed so far are guys like Mancari, Gordon and Ryan Potulny: respectively, they got a one-way deal, a sizeable AHL salary on a two-way, and a two-year deal that includes a one-way next year. That’s certainly the trend on these kinds of players. Edit: The Ducks say it’s a two-year contract for Gordon. We’ll see what the terms turn out to be, then. Edit2: See below

–Ryan Aber reported early this afternoon that Alexandre Giroux hoped to have a decision by the end of the day today. Haven’t seen one yet, six and a half hours later.

Let’s keep using this post for notes from Sunday, too. We’ll break out if anything big happens.

–The Penguins sign Boris Valabik, the 6-foot-7 defenseman who went from the Wolves to the P-Bruins last year.

–Matt Keith signed to play in Sweden, then tweeted about it.

–Hershey’s Steve Pinizzotto signs with Vancouver.

–A big domino falls, and for apparently big money. RDS reports that Alex Giroux has signed with the Blue Jackets. Renard Lavoie reports that it’s a two-way, but what a two-way: He gets better than NHL minimum to play for Springfield Edit: Lavoie corrects that tonight, $325,000 in the AHL, and $825,000 to play in the NHL. Not bad. Edit: This is still, indeed, not bad. Lavoie also reports Trevor Smith to the Lightning and Danny Richmond to Washington.

–CapGeek says Andrew Gordon’s two-year deal includes, like Ryan Potulny’s, a one-way in the second year. He’s guaranteed $800,000 over the two years, including $250k this year.

These are, as we’ve mentioned before, not numbers the Islanders have thrown around on their AHL guys.

–CapGeek again on Chris Bourque: $300,000 on the back end of his two-way. That’s a lot of Krackel.

–More from the Blue Jackets: Tim Wharnsby reports that Martin St. Pierre is coming back from overseas.

Oh, what the heck, let’s keep it up here until something happens to change it. Monday, the Blues announced (though it appeared to be floating around Twitter last night) that they’ve signed AHL sniper Brett Sterling.

–Binghamton captain Ryan Keller to Edmonton.

Tuesday-morning edit: Expect that we’ll get something newsy soon, whether it’s from the Island or from the league’s Board of Governors meeting in Hilton Head, S.C., so a new post should — should — move up top soon, and it appears there’ll be a couple of coaching announcements around the league, too. Maybe it’d be funny to keep using this to update big AHL signings, a Nightline-style “Bridgeport Held Hostage, Day X,” while we wait, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, checking my memory. Last year, the Sound Tigers had holes at forward, especially down the middle. They weren’t filled for a while, and I remember thinking it felt unusual to wait that long. For the record, dates of major Bridgeport targeted signings in recent summers:

2010: Jeremy Yablonski, July 21; Rob Hisey/Andy Hilbert, Aug. 18.
2009: Scott Munroe/Brett Westgarth/Jeremy Reich, July 2; Greg Mauldin/Mark Flood, July 3; Matt Moulson/Greg Moore, July 6.
2008: Mike Iggulden, July 2; Chris Lee/Mitch Fritz/Kurtis McLean/Brett Skinner, July 3; Yann Danis/Joe Callahan, July 7.

Michael Fornabaio