James Mirtle, the Battle of Alberta, and Tom Benjamin are all having a go at what the new landscape looks like now that the Free Agency frenzy has settled out.

I for one am not so alarmist, so lets take a look at how this has actually played out;

- Buffalo lost Sarich, Briere and Drury in this round - to the Flames, Flyers and Rangers respectively. Was it because the Sabres wouldn't spend like a 'big market' team? No. They offered Drury identical money to what the Rangers offered him - Drury chose to go to New York to finish his career rather than stay in Buffalo. Can you blame him?

- Among the teams hot in the bidding for Briere was Montreal - a team that reportedly offered Briere identical money to what the Flyers offered. Could it have turned out differently with Briere signing in Montreal? Absolutely. Briere could well have decided to follow the cash to Montreal and it's Francophone communities just as easily as he followed the Flyers and his buddy Biron.

- Calgary (and let's be clear, a small market team) re-signed Iginla, and signed both Sarich and Nolan, as well as being players in the Ryan Smyth sweepstakes. How indicative of small market in behaviour is that? Sure they let Hamrlik go, but he had run his course with the team anyway (and ended up in...Montreal!).

- The Rangers, the team everybody is using as the poster-child for big market teams, actually has a couple of advantages in signing players others don't. First, they have Jagr and his superstar contract at half price (thanks to the Washington debacle where they are still paying half of it), and secondly, they are the Big Apple. As places to be a pro athlete go, New York is about as good as it gets. Endorsement deals, Letterman appearances, etc., New York has it all. Thirdly, the team has the money to spend right to the cap limit every year - so they will always be an attractive destination for marquee free agents. Taking a look at those three advantages, and none of them are the CBA's fault - that's reality.

- Edmonton. Did they offer Ryan Smyth the kind of money the Avalanche did? No. Could they have? Yes. They chose not to. Did they make Pronger a big signing two years back? Yes. did he leave because of the money? No, from all accounts he left because his wife thought Edmonton was a crappy place to live. Is that the fault of the CBA? Hardly.

- Last but not least, a salary cap that is based on an average of league revenues, and that has both a basement and a ceiling ensures that no team will spend far in excess of any others, but it also means that some teams will for fiscal reasons not be able to spend all the to the limit every year. This means a 'small market' team like Nashville won't be in the running to sign two or three big name free-agents every off-season - but they will be in the running to sign at least one or two if they choose. Is this a way for Bettman to screw the small market teams as lowered free-agency eventually prices them out of the market? Hardly. Iginla will sign at around the $7M mark. Thornton already has. Smyth could have been signed by the Oilers for 5/6ths what he ended up with in Colorado. Seems fair to me.