Wallin confirms Leafs rumor *Updated*

Rickard Wallin confirms in Aftonbladet and Expressen today that it is indeed the Toronto Maple Leafs, as the blog wrote yesterday, that wants him. He avoids saying everthing is a done deal just yet though, while Johans blogg repeats once again today that it is.

The news came as a shock for Färjestad and its fans yesterday, but Wallin says the following to Aftonbladet.

- I'm 29 years old, so it's my last chance. I would probably regret it, if I didn't take the chance, he says.

Wallin's agent, Craig Oster, says to Expressen that talks with Toronto have been going for a couple of weeks.

- Toronto believes he can help the club and they think he has had a good season and a good World Championship. We started talking with them a couple of weeks ago, says Wallin's agent Craig Oster.

UPDATE JULY 10: It's now confirmed that Toronto has signed Rickard Wallin.
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Rickard Wallin to Toronto?

According to the reliable blog, Johans Blogg, Swedish center Rickard Wallin is returning to the NHL. This time to the Toronto Maple Leafs though instead of the Minnesota Wild.

Earlier this year, Wallin signed a 4-year extension with Färjestad in the SEL. As you might remember though, he was one of the players in Hockey in Swedish's list of SEL players with an NHL-out clause. A clause which he supposedly has used now.

Wallin had a SEL career-high of 45 points in 55 games this season, which placed him 10th in points in the league. He later went on to win his third Swedish Championship title and then play in his third straight World Championship.

This will be his second attempt at making it in the NHL. So far Wallin got 19 NHL games with the Minnesota Wild under his belt and he produced 6 goals and 4 assists in those games.
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Available SEL players?

It's July and the NHL Free Agency Frenzy has started again.

As there still is no transfer agreement between Sweden and the NHL, players with SEL contracts have to have an NHL-out clause to be able to sign with an NHL team.

I found a list that consisted of players with an NHL-out clause, but it only listed some of the SEL teams. I ending up using it as a base to assemble a list with players with a SEL contract, but who are available to sign with any NHL team (at least now in July).

The list is probably still missing a lot of names as it's hard to get info about these things, but I will update it if I find out about any other players.

Lars Jonsson, D (Brynäs) - 53GP, 9G, 12A, 21P
Riku Hahl, C (Frölunda) - 52GP, 7G, 24A, 31P
Johan Holmqvist, G (Frölunda) - 49GP, 2.15GAA, .917SVS%, 2SO
Per Ledin, LW/RW (HV71) - 58GP, 11G, 12A, 23P (AHL)
Mikko Lehtonen, D (Frölunda) - 41GP, 15G, 15A, 30P
Janne Niskala, D (Frölunda) - 35GP, 9G, 10A, 19P
Rickard Wallin, C/LW (Färjestad) - 55GP, 18G, 27A, 45P

Also, for the fun of it, here are the current three SEL Free Agents that had most points last season plus a joker:

Fredrik Bremberg, LW (Djurgården) - 53GP, 17G, 40A, 57P
Mika Pyörälä, LW/C (Timrå) - 55GP, 21G, 22A, 43P
Niklas Anger, RW/LW (Djurgården) - 51GP, 23G, 19A, 42P
Peter Forsberg, C (MODO) - 3GP, 1G, 2A, 3GP

The all-time leading scorer in the SEL, Bremberg (did you know that?), and the guy with the funny lastname, Anger, will probably not attract interested from the NHL and might head out in Europe (KHL?). Pyörälä might be looking to try and make it onto an NHL roster through camp/AHL.

Forsberg? Well who knows about his future? Probably not even him.
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