The annual NHL free-agent frenzy doesn't have the cache of past Canada Days, but Thursday and Friday will be interesting nonetheless.

Last summer, Jay Bouwmeester, Michael Cammalleri, Marian Gaborik, Brian Gionta, Martin Havlat, Marian Hossa, Mike Komisarek and Matthias Ohlund were some of the players who changed teams.

This time around, besides the obvious -- which team will fork out big bucks for Ilya Kovalchuk -- the two most interesting areas will be to see where the goaltending dynamos fall and whether some of the well-documented problem players will be moved by their respective teams.

By problem players we mean those who no longer fit a team's payroll structure and were mentioned when the clubs met in Los Angeles for the 2010 NHL entry draft last week. Let's see now, there was Marc Savard, Mike Ribeiro, Tomas Kaberle, Sheldon Souray and Tim Thomas.

Already, we've seen the Edmonton Oilers send an unproductive Patrick O'Sullivan (13 goals in 91 games with the Oilers) to the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for defenceman Jim Vandermeer. Edmonton general manager Steve Tambellini also was saw some payroll relief when the Columbus Blue Jackets plucked 34-year-old Ethan Moreau and his $1.75-million salary.

The Philadelphia Flyers and San Jose Sharks are among the teams that will be shopping for goaltenders on Thursday. Out there looking for a new address are Martin Biron, Chris Mason, Johan Hedberg, Michael Leighton, Evgeni Nabovkov, Antero Niittymaki, Vesa Toskala, Marty Turco and Dan Ellis, if he doesn't sign a deal with the Montreal Canadiens, who acquired his rights on Tuesday. There was a report on Wednesday that the Flyers would re-sign Leighton to be their No. 1.

Here is a list of the top unrestricted free agents this summer:

Goalies -- Alex Auld, Martin Biron, Yann Danis, Dan Ellis, Johan Hedberg, Patrick Lalime, Manny Legace, Michael Leighton, Evgeni Nabokov, Chris Mason, Antero Niittymaki, Andrew Raycroft, Jose Theodore, Vesa Toskala, Marty Turco, Steve Valiquette.

Defence -- Joe Corvo, Mark Eaton, Kurtis Foster, Dan Hamhuis, Sergei Gonchar, Kim Johnsson, Pavel Kubina, Brett Lebda, Jordan Leopold, Andreas Lilja, Toni Lydman, Paul Martin, Zbynek Michalek, Willie Mitchell, Derek Morris, Henrik Tallinder, Anton Volchenkov, Aaron Ward.

Forwards -- Maxim Afinogenov, Colby Armstrong, Arron Asham, Steve Begin, Adam Burish, Eric Belanger, Mike Comrie, Craig Conroy, Matt Cullen, Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alexander Frolov, Bill Guerin, Jeff Halpern, Olli Jokinen, Paul Kariya, Saku Koivu, Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov, Jere Lehtinen, Matthew Lombardi, John Madden, Manny Malhotra, Kirk Maltby, Jamal Mayers, Glen Metropolit, Mike Modano, Fredrik Modin, Dominic Moore, Brendan Morrison, Owen Nolan, Eric Nystrom, Jed Ortmeyer, Richard Park, Fernando Pisani, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Vinny Prospal, Miroslav Satan, Teemu Selanne, Jody Shelly, Lee Stempniak, Marek Svatos, Petr Sykora, Alex Tanguay, Shawn Thornton, Raffi Torres, Darcy Tucker, Doug Weight, Kyle Wellwood, Ray Whitney.