The youthful NHL summer of 2002 has thus far failed to deliver much in the form of weighty conclusions to the business matters that currently confront the league.

In other words, we still can't tell where the hell this ship is heading.

	Ed Belfour was in the right place at the right time to cash in with the Leafs.

What we have learned, however, is that NHL free agency, or at least the portion of it that actually leaves the players available to all suitors on the open market, is many things to many people, sometimes a desirous objective in itself and sometimes the worst fate that can befall an athlete in the autumn of his career.

To be left without a contract at an awkward age, Adam Oates might tell you, is how one becomes a Mighty Duck. Bobby Holik and Bill Guerin, by contrast, have found riches beyond belief on the other side of their 31st birthdays.

To the teams, meanwhile, the concept of unrestricted free agency remains both bewitching and befuddling. Some, like the Rangers and Stars, are drawn to it like moths to a flame, so entranced by the glow that they forget errors past.

The Dallas organization, for example, was burnt badly last summer by signing Pierre Turgeon, Donald Audette and Valery Kamensky, yet in the first four days of free agency this summer they spent $62 million on Guerin, Scott Young and Philippe Boucher.

"One of the things that really attracted me to them was they said they were going to be committed to getting free agents, and they were," said Guerin.

For two-thirds of the league, meanwhile, unrestricted free agency is a virtual demilitarized zone, a place where only disappointment and debt lives.

Vancouver GM Brian Burke spoke out last week against the madness of spending millions on maybes, while Chicago GM Mike Smith succinctly summed up the free agent activity as "a 100-yard sprint to see who can be the most foolish."

Even the Philadelphia Flyers, traditionally big spenders at this time of year, have decided to sit this summer out, reportedly wary of past free agency mistakes and the possibility that a hard salary cap looms three or four years down the line that could seriously penalize heavy spenders.

When Luke Richardson took the cash and set off for Columbus in the first week of July, the Flyers didn't jump in and grab the next best free agent defender. Instead, minor-leaguer Bruno St. Jacques has been told Richardson's old job is now his to lose.

The Islanders, coming off an upbeat 2001-02 season, might have figured as a big player this summer. But an old building and the financial woes of the club's corporate ownership, Computer Associates, may have conspired to reign in Mike Milbury's ambitions.

Edmonton, meanwhile, doesn't have a single player under contract beyond the 2003-04 season, the last year of play under the current collective bargaining agreement.

"It's discouraging in that about half a dozen teams are the ones raising the bar, not only for themselves but for everybody else," said team chairman Cal Nichols. "And the trickle-down effect for us is significant. But it's not going to change our business plan. We're sticking with what we believe to be the right thing to do."

The looming cloud of a possible league-wide shutdown in September, 2004 is included in most conversations. That said, some teams clearly are going ahead with business as usual, while other clubs may be using '04 as convenient rationale for difficult-to-explain player decisions.

The Maple Leafs, for example, declined to give Curtis Joseph a four-year contract before he left to join the Red Wings, and GM Pat Quinn said the labor environment played a part in that decision.

"We don't know where things are going with the collective bargaining agreement and having a four-year deal could be a problem," said Quinn. "We didn't want to get into a sport with too many people in long-term situations."

That said, the Leafs still unsuccessfully offered Holik, Guerin and Tony Amonte five-year deals.

The Calgary Flames did sign unrestricted winger Martin Gelinas to a three-year contract, and GM Craig Button clearly expressed the conflict facing many teams.

	“	I don't know where whack is to know where out of whack is. When I played in the 1970s, salaries were out of whack. It was outrageous that there were players being paid $200,000 a year for a game they had played for nothing most of their lives. It was nuts and there was no way in the world hockey could survive with salaries at that level. Well, guess what? ”
		— Ken Dryden, Toronto president

"You want to get better now, but if the system doesn't allow for a more equitable competitive balance in the future, it doesn't matter what we do today," said Button. "We are not prepared to sign a lot of long-term contracts."

Yet some teams clearly are. Within this confusing jungle of corporate folly and competitive urgency, individual players are clearly facing tricky choices as they guide their careers through their early or late 30s.

Indeed, trying to read the mind of a free agent in 2002 is like following Scotty Bowman's train of thought at a postgame press conference.

The clearest, most straightforward choice was made by Joseph, who jettisoned his Leaf jersey for Motown red essentially because, at age 35, he figured he had a much better chance of realizing his life's dream of winning a Stanley Cup in Detroit than Toronto.

The money was less in Detroit, but the payoff may be larger. For Joseph, that was enough, particularly after a season of problems in Toronto that included a very public deterioration in his relationship with Quinn.

"A year ago, I never would have dreamed that I'd be making this decision," said Joseph.

Guerin, Holik, Darius Kasparaitis and Robert Lang, meanwhile, moved to new teams for decidedly different reasons. All four might have cited the possibility of championships, but all four went to non-playoff teams for the cash.

Guerin went to the Stars, Holik and Kasparaitis went to the Rangers and Lang rejoined former teammate Jaromir Jagr with the Washington Capitals. All four received enormous salary increases and long-term deals to compensate for deciding to join non-contenders rather than accept less to work for clubs that already rank higher in the standings.

That quartet received more than $140 million, leaving many gasping at the salaries awarded to such non-superstar players.

"I don't know where whack is to know where out of whack is," said Leaf president Ken Dryden. "When I played in the 1970s, salaries were out of whack. It was outrageous that there were players being paid $200,000 a year for a game they had played for nothing most of their lives. It was nuts and there was no way in the world hockey could survive with salaries at that level. Well, guess what?"

While Guerin, Holik et al. went for the bucks to the highest bidder, other NHLers benefited by being conveniently positioned.

In other words, being in the right place at the right time.

When Joseph bailed out of Toronto, Ed Belfour came sailing in and, after his worst NHL season, actually picked up a tidy $500,000 salary increase to go north. Young suffered through a difficult 19-goal season, but with the Stars looking to be aggressive he ended up with a $3.5 million salary.

Boucher and Scott Lachance, meanwhile, found themselves in the same position as Martin Lapointe last year, namely 10-year veterans earning less than the league average. Boucher moved to Dallas and Lachance to Columbus to double their salaries for no other reason than they were free and clear and, in relative terms, affordable to non-playoff teams that didn't want to throw millions more at Kasparaitis.

For older, fading types, the choices were more limited. Indeed, for a player like the 39-year-old Oates, it was a matter of stayin' alive, keeping a long career going for another set of paycheques with a franchise that has no hope of significant success until after he has hung up his skates.

Similarly, Gelinas left the Eastern Conference champion Carolina Hurricanes for a degree of security to join the Flames, who have missed the playoffs six straight years. Winger Randy McKay went home to Montreal for a two-year, $4.25 million contract after years of being a dependable veteran in New Jersey before being traded to Dallas last year. Kelly Buchberger, meanwhile, left the very solid Kings to join his old pal Wayne Gretzky in the desert with the Coyotes, another example of an aging player happy to move to keep his career alive.

Richardson, meanwhile, absorbed a slight pay cut to get four years out of the Blue Jackets, again exchanging the possibility of competitive success for a long-term contract.

Finally, there were those who stayed put, eschewing the lure of movement for added riches to remain in a comfortable living and working environment.

Ron Francis and Bret Hedican didn't even try the open market, re-signing with Carolina before July 1 arrived. Chris Chelios might have been able to get more than $6 million per season to move, but he stayed in Detroit for that salary for the next two years. Teemu Selanne, effectively, swallowed a $3 million pay cut to stay in Silicon Valley with the Sharks.

Rangers goalie Mike Richter probably didn't have the same options as either Chelios or Selanne staring him in the face, and opted to stay in Manhattan for $8 million over two years to share the job with teenager Dan Blackburn.

From both the teams and the players, then, we've seen mixed motives. While some rich clubs like Philly take a pass, a relatively new club like Columbus jumps in for the first time.

While Joseph looks for an elusive title, Guerin looks for big money and security beyond 2004 and Chelios avoids shopping around altogether.

There is no central theme, only guessing and uncertainty all around. The mind of an NHL free agent these days is as cluttered as never before.

Damien Cox is a columnist for the Toronto Star.