"The bidding war for Brad Richards begins at high noon.

The rest of the NHL's free agency is just details.

While the Dallas Stars centre is going to get a lucrative offer from the Toronto Maple Leafs, many wonder if the 31-year-old, the most valuable unrestricted free agent on the market, is going to choose to move north of the border on Canada Day.

The betting is that Leafs GM Brian Burke's pursuit of Richards will simply drive up the price so that it costs the likes of the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres or Tampa Bay Lightning more money.

The Rangers, Leafs, Sabres and Flyers all need help in the middle. The Bolts are just being mentioned because they're a sentimental favourite -- Richards started his career in Tampa -- but the Rangers and Leafs were both in hot pursuit of Richards at last season's trade deadline.

Richards is going to cash in huge regardless of where he winds up. The whisper among NHL executives is he could get as much as $7.5 million per year on a seven-year deal from either the Flyers, Leafs or Rangers.

Richards' last demand from Dallas before talks broke off was a nine-year deal.

In other talk on the eve of free agency:

- If the Flyers do sign Richards -- and they need to make this kind of splash -- they're going to have to move more money. Unloading the contracts of Mike Richards (Los Angeles) and Jeff Carter (Columbus) wasn't enough. If the Flyers do have to unload another contract, they'll likely try to move winger Kris Versteeg. He has a cap hit of $3.083 million per season. The Panthers need to reach the $48-million cap floor and GM Dale Tallon doesn't mind former Hawks from his days in Chicago. D Andrej Meszaros is also a candidate to dealt.

- The Panthers are trying to sign veteran G Tomas Vokoun to a contract extension. It may make more sense for him to shop himself around. Colorado has cut ties with goalies Peter Budaj and Brian Elliott, which means the Avalanche job is wide open. If Vokoun doesn't want to land with the Avalanche, then the Phoenix Coyotes need a replacment for Ilya Bryzgalov, who was dealt to the Flyers. The money in Phoenix might not be as lucrative because of the club's ongoing ownership issue."