Noon Number (September 30th): $900,000

$900,000 is the amount Tom Gilbert will be costing the Panthers against the cap this year.

Every Summer in the NHL, there is a mad rush when free agency opens. Teams get into bidding wars for the marquee players and a lot of middling players get more than they probably deserve. It's even worse when there are no marquee players. Suddenly the David Clarksons of this world are getting mammoth contracts that will, more than likely, come back to haunt the franchise who handed them out further down the line.

This Summer was a little bit different that usual, with no real stars available as UFAs, but a lot of players finding themselves the victims of compliance buyouts as teams tried to stay under the shrinking salary cap. Good players were now available, but had black marks on them, caused by the buyout or by the bad contract that they were on previously.

Long after the dust settled on the free-agency feeding frenzy, there were still a lot of very talented NHLers available. Some signed in Europe instead of waiting to see if they would have a job in America. Eventually teams started inviting them to training camp on PTOs, giving them some bit of a chance to prove themselves, albeit in a slightly awkward scenario. Some earned contracts, others weren't so lucky.

When you compare these signing to the ones that happened in the initial part of free agency, it's easy to see how the teams who waited til late made the smarter moves. When you see mediocre, or over-the-hill players like Zidlicky, Scuderi, Ference, Bozak and Clowe getting way overpaid, and decent players like Clarkson, Filppula, Alfredsson, Smith and Ribeiro getting contracts that they are very unlikely to live up to, you can really see the value in waiting til the frenzy is over to make your move.

It will be interesting to evaluate these moves at the end of the season and to see what players are available at the end of the Summer next year.

That's all folks. Hit me up on Twitter for more hockey talk.