In this era of hard-line contract negotiations, restricted free agency brings the ever-present possibility of key players holding out. Protracted holdouts can kill a team's season and seriously affect a player's development.

If a player misses training camp and even some games, it's unusual that he regains his form from the previous season. It takes 15-20 games just to get back into shape, and that doesn't leave a lot of time or opportunity to work toward improvement. More often than not, the season becomes a wash.

	Dafoe hurt both himself and his team with a long contract holdout.

As for the team, it doesn't have a key player in the lineup or in the locker room for a considerable period. The NHL regular season might not carry the significance of the 16-game NFL docket, but any coach whose team started slow will say losing games early can end the season before it hits the All-Star break.

And if you thought things were ugly last year with holdouts like those of Byron Dafoe and Keith Primeau, turn your head toward the coming months because there could be quite a few more this season.

NHL owners don't throw cash around willy-nilly anymore -- at least not outside of Manhattan -- yet the NHLPA and the game's stars haven't adjusted to the fact that money is no longer being doled out like rice after a wedding.

Some big names like Joe Sakic, John LeClair, Chris Osgood and Jere Lehtinen avoided the possibility and filed for arbitration, which will give them a one-year deal and ensure their presence in training camp.

For LeClair and Sakic, it is smart because they will be unrestricted free agents the following year. This way, their current teams have time to negotiate a long-term deal -- LeClair has already turned down a five-year, $25 million offer -- or the players can test the market next summer. A great position in which to be, assuming Sakic and LeClair remain healthy.

But there are some restricted free agents -- a free-agent classification which means their present teams can match any offers and receive compensation if they don't -- who have holdout written all over them. And two teams, Colorado and Boston, each have three integral team members potentially missing training camp.

The Avs have all the talent, chemistry and depth -- save for on the blue line -- to make another serious run at the Stanley Cup. But with Chris Drury, Milan Hejduk and Adam Deadmarsh all deserving -- and expecting -- major raises, it's not a risk to state that at least one of them isn't going to be happy come September.

The three of them combined for 183 points last season. Drury and Hejduk have only been in the league a short time, and a missed training camp would hinder the progress of the budding stars.

Meanwhile, things in Boston could be even worse because the team is coming off a terrible season in which the Bruins missed the playoffs and lost Ray Bourque. One of the major reasons for last year's disaster -- after an encouraging '98-99 -- was the holdout of goalie Byron Dafoe, and his subsequent play after return to the lineup. Dafoe didn't sign until late in October, and by that time, the damage had been done; the Bruins began the season 0-5-4 and never recovered. And Dafoe followed up his '98-99 season (1.99 GAA and 10 shutouts) with marginal numbers: 2.97 GAA and .889 save percentage.

Now, three of the team's most talented forwards -- Anson Carter, Sergei Samsonov and Joe Thornton -- are restricted free agents. All are young, talented and improving. Well, if Samsonov would shoot the puck, he would improve. If Bruins GM Harry Sinden, one of the league's toughest negotiators, doesn't have them signed or traded by Sept. 1, the season will be another train wreck; and Pat Burns may be gone by Thanksgiving -- the U.S. version of the holiday.

Beyond these cases, there are some other interesting names to monitor.