The NLL's list of free agents was released today, and the runaway leader isn't the team you might expect.

After leading the league in players eligible to fly the coop for two years running, the Toronto Rock slowed down a bit last offseason, yielding way to teams with plenty of draft holdouts.

This time, it's age catching up with the top club. Six New Jersey Storm players are unrestricted free agents, and another two are restricted free agents.

Toronto, as it turned out, tied for the fewest free agents. The Rock joins the Calgary Roughnecks, Columbus Landsharks and Vancouver Ravens with just two apiece. None of the four clubs has more than one unrestricted free agent.

This year's free agency list, published by the Professional Lacrosse Players' Association, does not include the draft holdouts which were included in Summer 2001. The unsigned draftees, unrestricted after having sat out two seasons, dramatically (and artificially) bulked up many teams' free agent classes a year ago.

However, many of these free agents were American field players with little interest in playing indoors, especially since they can satisfy their hunger to play lacrosse professionally in Major League Lacrosse, a summer field league.

Returning for a second year is the unrestricted class. Players who are at least 32 years old and have played six seasons can sign with any team, but each team can designate two of its own as franchise players, preventing the player from entering free agency but ensuring that he is paid ten percent more than the maximum salary otherwise permitted in the collective bargaining agreement.

Franchise players have not been announced, so several of the potential unrestricted free agents will be removed from eligibility.

The oldest free agency class, and the one with a majority of the eligible players, is the restricted group. By league rules, a veteran player who has played for at least three seasons and played or dressed for at least twenty-three scheduled regular season games before the beginning of a season becomes eligible for restricted free agency if he meets one of the following three conditions:

1. The player does not agree to terms with the club owning the right to his services and sits out for one full year;
   
   
2. The club owning the right to the player's services offers compensation lower than that which the player earned in a previous season;
   
   
3. The player is not offered compensation at or above the league-wide per-game average salary for the last season.

A team has seventy-two hours after receiving an offer sheet to match or beat the offer in order to retain the player's rights. No compensation will be awarded to teams that lose free agents.

The following players are eligible for free agency. Players are unrestricted free agents unless otherwise marked.

ALBANY ATTACK
    Brian Beisel (RFA)
    Mark Cochrane (RFA)
    Ryan Sanderson (RFA)
BUFFALO BANDITS
    Steve Dietrich
    Randy Fraser
    Rich Kilgour
    John Tavares
CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
    Todd Katanchik (RFA)
    Jason Wulder
COLORADO NO-NAMES
    Paul Cantabene
    Neil Doddridge
    Jesse Hubbard (RFA)
    John Rosa
    Rob Shek
COLUMBUS LANDSHARKS
    Chris Levis (RFA)
    Neal Powless (RFA)
MONTREAL EXPRESS
    Bruce Codd (RFA)
    Jason Crosbie (RFA)
    Ted Dowling
    Matt Giles (RFA)
    Dean Harrison (RFA)
NEW JERSEY STORM
    Cam Bomberry (RFA)
    Michael Busza (RFA)
    Derek Graham
    Matt Panetta
    Andy Piazza
    Gordon Purdie
    Steve Sombrotto
    Paul Talmo
NEW YORK SAINTS
    Tim Langton (RFA)
    Darren Lowe (RFA)
    Kevin Lowe (RFA)
OTTAWA REBEL
    Ross Cowie (RFA)
    John Fay (RFA)
    Charlie Lockwood (RFA)
PHILADELPHIA WINGS
    Tom Phair
    Tom Ryan
    Greg Traynor (RFA)
ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS
    Pat Cougevan (RFA)
    Duane Jacobs
    Rodney Tapp
TORONTO ROCK
    Terry Bullen
    Darryl Gibson (RFA)
VANCOUVER RAVENS
    Dwight Maetche
    Rob Williams (RFA)