This is the time of year when everyone in the NHL starts with a clean slate, which is a particularly important for those players coming off seasons they'd rather forget. Here's a look at a dozen who come into training camp with something to prove.
1. Paul Kariya, St. Louis Blues: The Blues opened their wallets last summer for Kariya to the tune of $18 million over three years and were looking for him to spark an anemic offense. Instead the veteran left wing scored just 16 times, his lowest career total in a full season. More troubling was Kariya's second-half slide, when he scored just four times as the Blues won only 11 of their final 41 games and plummeted out of the playoff picture.
2. Jason Blake, Toronto Maple Leafs: The best news for Blake this summer was that doctors told him he is winning his battle with chronic myelogenous leukemia, the treatable form of cancer he was diagnosed with early last season. Now he's trying to beat the rap that his four-year, $20 million contract was a major mistake by Toronto. The Leafs signed him as a free agent last summer after he scored 40 goals for the Islanders, but he managed just 15 last season despite playing all 82 games.
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The Canucks are hoping a change of scenery will work wonders for Pavol Demitra.
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3. Wade Redden, New York Rangers: The Ottawa Senators chose to keep Redden rather than Zdeno Chara after the lockout ended and regretted it for the next three seasons. Although he is a decent puck mover, Redden often plays soft and tends to give the puck away at bad times. Still the Senators likely would have hung on to the veteran defenseman had he taken a 50 percent cut from the $6.5 million he made a season. But the Rangers matched his previous salary and gave him a six-year deal, which is a gamble for a 31-year-old whose best days might be behind him.
4. Pavol Demitra, Vancouver Canucks: He was supposed to find a spark with fellow Slovakian Marian Gaborik in Minnesota, but Demitra managed just 15 goals and often blamed the defensive leanings of Wild coach Jacques Lemaire for his problems. What Demitra seems to have overlooked coming to Vancouver is that Canucks coach Alain Vigneault approaches the game from a similar perspective. Fortunately for Demitra, he has a history with Vancouver GM Mike Gillis, who used to be his agent and gave him a two-year, $8 million deal. But Todd Bertuzzi had a history with Anaheim GM Brian Burke when he signed the same kind of deal with the Ducks last summer, and that didn't work out very well.
5. Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks: The big and talented captain has been the subject of trade rumors for most of the past two seasons, in large part because the Sharks have been a consistent playoff disappointment and Marleau tended to be the lightning rod for public criticism from coach Ron Wilson. Last season was particularly disappointing for Marleau because he had just 48 points, by far his worst since the lockout. But Wilson was fired after the season, and Marleau is still around with a chance to reward GM Doug Wilson for his faith in him.
6. Peter Budaj, Colorado Avalanche: The No. 1 goaltending job was Budaj's to lose last season -- and he did. Now the fourth-year player gets another chance because Colorado really has little choice. Budaj's numbers last season didn't look bad on the surface -- he was 16-10-4, and his 2.57 goals-against average was lower than the previous season -- but dig a little deeper and you'll see that he couldn't stop a beach ball when his team was shorthanded or in overtime. No wonder Jose Theodore was allowed out of the dog house after Christmas. But Theodore took off for Washington this summer, and Andrew Raycroft, who was bought out by the misfit Maple Leafs, is the only other goalie with real NHL experience on the Avs roster.
7. Michael Ryder, Boston Bruins: Apologists say his lack of ice time with Montreal hurt him last season, while detractors argue he deserved to sit as much as he did because of his play. Whatever the reason, Ryder scored just 17 goals -- only four at even strength -- on the second-best offensive team in the league. And that was in his contract year after he notched 30 goals in each of the previous two seasons. So it was no surprise the Canadiens let him walk, but there were a few eyebrows raised by the $12 million Boston gave him.
8. Bryan McCabe, Florida Panthers: McCabe had a miserable time last season in the fishbowl environment in Toronto, in part because of injuries and in part because Leafs fans needed a scapegoat for the team's failings. He was an easy target thanks to big five-year, $29 million deal he signed in 2006, although he often brought it on himself with his play. McCabe gets a fresh start and some obscurity after being traded to the Panthers, but at age 33 he'll have to prove that it was circumstances rather than declining skills that brought on his problems.
9. Doug Weight, New York Islanders: Weight is one of the top American-born players of his generation, but his star has been fading since the lockout and he seemed to hit rock bottom last season. Although Weight was supposed to be a leader with the Blues, he had a horrible start and then appeared to get lucky when St. Louis traded him to reigning Stanley Cup champion Anaheim in midseason. But Weight couldn't adapt to the support role with the Ducks and struggled the rest of the way before being released over the summer. There wasn't really a market for him, so he ended up signing with a team most players tend to shun, insisting he has something left. We'll see.
10. Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes: He was the toast of the Triangle when he was the playoff MVP as a rookie during Carolina's 2006 Stanley Cup run, but Ward struggled the following season after being officially designated as the Hurricanes' No. 1 goalie. Still, the club rewarded him with a new three-year, $8 million deal, but Ward was unable to display the kind of consistency he did during the Cup run. Ward had a habit of losing his focus and allowing weak goals, something the Hurricanes can't afford from a No. 1 goalie if they are to get back to the playoffs for the first time since winning it all.
11. Ryan Smyth, Colorado Avalanche: With a five-year deal for more than $31 million, Smyth was one of top free agents signed last summer, but he disappointed Colorado by scoring only 37 points. Injuries that limited him to 55 games played a part, but Smyth never really seemed comfortable in his first year with the Avs, bouncing from line to line. The biggest problem seemed to be his inability to establish himself as a presence in front of the net, which was always the best part of his game. That's one reason he managed only eight points on the Avs power play, which ranked 28th in the league.
12. Nikolai Khabibulin, Chicago Blackhawks: The veteran goalie will be paid $6.75 million this season, which puts him among the top tier earners at his position. But even that kind of salary didn't prevent Chicago from signing free agent Cristobal Huet this summer to presumably be the No. 1. GM Dale Tallon says he envisions a role for both, but the reality is Khabibulin has been mediocre at best since coming to Chicago after the lockout and will be around to keep Huet on his toes and to hopefully become trade bait around the deadline. Khabibulin is in the last year of his contract, so in essence he'll be trying to prove he deserves another deal next season, when he'll be 36.
