There seem to be an awful lot of NHL newbies this season. Many veteran players have gone to play in Europe, have retired (or are contemplating retirement), or are still looking for work. More than any other season in recent memory, there seems to be a changing of the guard in the NHL.

Well-know players who will be toiling across the Atlantic this season include Curtis Brown, Sergei Brylin. Ray Emery, John Grahame, Sean Hill, Jan Hlavac, Johan Holmqvist, Jaromir Jagr, Mike Johnson, Niko Kapenen, Sami Kapanen, Jon Klemm, Trevor Letowksi, Steve McCarthy, Ladislav Nagy, Martin Straka, Chris Simon, Martin Rucinsky, Jozef Stumpel, Dick Tarnstrom, Hannu Toivonen, Jozef Vasicek, Vitaly Vishnevski, David Vyborny and Andrei Zuyzin.

Prominent players who have hung up their skates are Stu Barnes, Dallas Drake, Domink Hasek, Trevor Linden, Tim Taylor and Glen Wesley, while Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg are still deciding if they want to continue their NHL careers.

Long-time NHLers still looking for work include Brendan Shanahan, Glen Murray, Mark Parrish, Bryan Smolinski, Bryan Berard, Brad Isbister, Alexei Zhitnik, David Tanabe, Petr Nedved, Dan Cloutier, Martin Lapointe and Geoff Sanderson.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember a year where so many familiar names have left the NHL in such a short period of time. I don’t want to get too sentimental but I’m going to miss some of these guys.