Notable UFA's for 2011-12

By LOUIE KORAC
ST. LOUIS -- For fans that have been pining for the Blues to make moves in the present, maybe there's a reason John Davidson, Doug Armstrong and Co. are laying low.

Maybe they're looking forward to next year's crop of unrestricted free agents (unless they sign new contracts before then).

Here is a list of some notable players that can become UFA's after the 2010-11 season. Of course, not all of them are listed but the most notable ones are, as well as some that are worth mentioning.

Would some or one of these players be better suited for the Blues?

Take a look and judge for yourselves:

* -- I've put an asterisk and boldfaced those that I consider premier- or elite-market players.

BOSTON
*C Patrice Bergeron, RW Michael Ryder, LW Marco Sturm, *D Zdeno Chara

BUFFALO
C Tim Connolly

CAROLINA
LW Erik Cole, LW Sergei Samsonov, LW Jussi Jokinen, C Chad LaRose, D Joni Pitkanen

CALGARY
LW Curtis Glencross, D Mark Giordano

COLUMBUS
D Jan Hejda

COLORADO
RW Milan Hejduk, D Scott Hannan, G Craig Anderson

DALLAS
*C Brad Richards, D Trevor Daley

DETROIT
*D Nicklas Lidstrom, D Jonathan Ericsson, G Jimmy Howard

FLORIDA
*G Tomas Vokoun

LOS ANGELES
C Michal Handzus, RW Justin Williams

MINNESOTA
RW Antti Miettinen, LW Andrew Brunette

MONTREAL
*D Andrei Markov

NASHVILLE
RW Steve Sullivan, RW Joel Ward

NEW JERSEY
RW Jason Arnott, RW Jamie Langenbrunner

NY ISLANDERS
D Brendan Witt, D Radek Martinek, G Dwayne Roloson

NY RANGERS
C Vaclav Prospal

OTTAWA
RW Alexei Kovalev, D Chris Phillips, G Pascal Leclaire

PHILADELPHIA
LW Nikolai Zherdev, LW Ville Leino

PHOENIX
RW Radim Vrbata, RW Scottie Upshall, C Vernon Fiddler, C Petr Prucha, *D Ed Jovanovski, *G Ilya Bryzgalov

SAN JOSE
*C Joe Thornton

TAMPA BAY
*LW Simon Gagne

TORONTO
*D Tomas Kaberle, G J.S. Giguere

VANCOUVER
D Kevin Bieksa, D Sami Salo, D Christian Ehrhoff

WASHINGTON
*LW Alexander Semin, RW Mike Knuble, C Brooks Laich, D Tom Poti