The National Lacrosse League today announced the 2005 free agent class, which includes both restricted and unrestricted free agents.

As usual, the restricted group is the larger of the two, comprising players with at least three years of experience (including at least 23 games played) who have met one of several specific criteria, including pay below the league average.

A restricted free agent may be retained by his current team if, within 72 hours, that team matches an offer sheet signed by the player.

The unrestricted class, added in recent years, includes all unsigned players who will be 32 years or older by 1 January 2006 and have previously played in at least six seasons.

Although there is no right to match offers to unrestricted free agents, each team is allowed to designate two such players as Franchise Players. The franchise tag, similar to that used in the NFL, ends the player's free agency but guarantees a salary fifteen percent higher than he otherwise could have received under league rules.

Two players have already been publicly tagged -- Colorado Mammoth forward Dan Stroup and Philadelphia Wings goaltender Dallas Eliuk -- with others expected to be named in the coming days.

Franchise players who have not yet been publicly named are not on the list NLL released today. This indicates that Buffalo Bandits forward John Tavares, Rochester Knighthawks goaltender Pat O'Toole and Toronto Rock forward Jim Veltman will be named as franchise players.

Because of the top-level pay given to franchise players, teams are not required to use the designation. Some may only name one franchise player, or none at all.

Free agents are listed below, by team (unless noted, players are restricted free agents):

ARIZONA STING
    Ken Montour
BUFFALO BANDITS
    Troy Bonterre
    Cory Bomberry
    Aime Caines
    Drew Candy
    Roy Colsey (Unrestricted)
    Tyler Francey
    Derek General (Unrestricted)
    Jon Harasym
    Kyle Jamieson
CALGARY ROUGHNECKS
    Rich Catton (Unrestricted)
    Kevin Dostie
    Travis Gillespie
    Matt Green
    Grant Hamilton
    Andrew Leyshon
    Andrew McBride
    Andy Ogilvie (Unrestricted)
    Rob Williams (Unrestricted)
    Jason Wulder (Unrestricted)
COLORADO MAMMOTH
    Pat Coyle (Unrestricted)
    Chris Prat (Unrestricted)
    Ben Prepchuk
    Brian Reese
EDMONTON RUSH
    Pat Campbell
    Sandy Chapman
    Brad Dairon
    Kevin Howard
MINNESOTA SWARM
    Bruce Alexander (Unrestricted)
    Tony Henderson
    Andrew Martin
    Eric Pacey
    D'Arcy Sweet
PHILADELPHIA WINGS
    Bryan Barrett
    John Gagliardi
    Peter Jacobs (Unrestricted)
    Tom Ryan (Unrestricted)
    Dallas Squire (Unrestricted)
PORTLAND LUMBERJAX
    Adam Bysouth
    Pat Jones
    Matt King
    Brock Robertson
ROCHESTER KNIGHTHAWKS
    - None -
SAN JOSE STEALTH
    Mike Law
    Spencer Martin
    Matt Oglesby (Unrestricted)
TORONTO ROCK
    Glenn Clark (Unrestricted)
    Chris Driscoll (Unrestricted)
    Dan Ladouceur (Unrestricted)
    Patrick Merrill
    John Rosa (Unrestricted)
    Matt Shearer (Unrestricted)
    Nick Trudeau
    Phil Wetherup
    Aaron Wilson