With the first six hours of free agency dictating market value, three of TSN’s Top 10 unrestricted free agents inked deals in the latter hours of Day 1.

Clearly, the push for Matt Beleskey, Justin Williams and Antoine Vermette was to sign while the getting was still relatively good - even if the terms were not as generous as they might have hoped.

The first day of free agency was filled with restraint for a change. That self-control from general managers also left a slew of talented, next-wave free agents available on Day 2.

Cody Franson netted more points (36) last season than Beleskey (32) and he’s a big, in-demand, right-shooting defenceman still looking for a job. 

The Maple Leafs landed a first-round pick for Franson from the Predators in a February trade. That his numbers and minutes dropped off in Nashville is less indicative of his play and more about the overall depth of the Predators’ defence corps. He is still in the prime of his career and can instantly be plugged into almost any team’s top two pairings.

Then there’s Johnny Oduya, 33, who steadied the Blackhawks on two Stanley Cup runs in the last three seasons. Christian Ehrhoff, 32, struggled to stay on the ice last season in Pittsburgh but is still a capable of eating 20 minutes per night.

Then there is the third tier of defencemen, where a possible value buy like Jan Hejda is available. Hejda just turned 37, but he has only 627 games of wear on his tires.

Chris Stewart, Eric Fehr, Jiri Tlusty and Joel Ward all drew significant interest on Wednesday, but weren’t able to settle on any terms.

Here’s a look at the best of what’s left as Day 2 of the rest of the summer begins:

 

Available UFAs

 
Player POS Age Team GP G PTS
Cody Franson D 27 NSH 78 7 36
Johnny Oduya D 33 CHI 76 2 10
Christian Ehrhoff D 32 PIT 49 3 14
Chris Stewart RW 27 MIN 81 14 36
Joel Ward RW 34 WSH 82 19 34
Eric Fehr C 29 WSH 75 19 33
Jiri Tlusty C 27 WPG 72 14 31
Shawn Matthias C 27 VAN 78 18 27
Curtis Glencross C 32 WSH 71 13 35
Mike Santorelli C 30 NSH 79 12 33
Lee Stempniak RW 32 WPG 71 15 28
Martin Erat RW 33 ARZ 79 9 32
Tomas Fleischmann LW 31 FLA 66 8 27
Stephen Weiss C 32 DET 52 9 25
Sean Bergenheim LW 31 MIN 56 9 19
Jarret Stoll C 33 LAK 73 6 17
Mike Richards C 30 LAK 53 5 11
Matt Irwin D 27 SJS 53 8 19
Daniel Paille LW 31 BOS 71 6 13
Alexander Semin LW 31 CAR 57 6 19
Erik Cole LW 36 DET 68 21 39
Lubomir Visnovsky D 38 NYI 53 5 20
Scottie Upshall LW 31 FLA 63 8 16
Michael Ryder RW 35 NJD 47 6 19
Jan Hejda D 36 COL 81 1 13
Tyler Kennedy C 28 NYI 38 6 14
Anton Volchenkov D 32 NSH 46 0 7
Eric Brewer 36 TOR 44 3 11
Olli Jokinen C 36 STL 62 4 10
Matt Cooke C 36 MIN 29 4 10
Tomas Kopecky C 33 FLA 64 2 8
Marty Havlat RW 34 NJD 40 5 14
Marcel Goc C 31 STL 74 3 9
Ray Emery G 32 PHI 31 3.06 .894
David Schlemko D 28 CGY 44 1 4
Keaton Ellerby D 26 WPG 1 0 1
Eric Tangradi C 26 MTL 7 0 0