In a long overdue nod to sanity, the NHL moved its starting time for the opening of the free agent market from midnight to noon.

The question is whether the usual insanity will reign come the opening of the bidding at midday today or whether the new $39 million salary cap and $7.8-million individual salary maximum will spark a league-wide waiting game.

Most general managers admit they have no idea how many of the more than 200 free agents will be signed in short order.

But the consensus among those team builders and rebuilders is that they plan to be patient rather than pounce, hoping the glut of available players will depress the market and create bargains.

"It depends on how the market goes," Rangers GM Glen Sather said. "You can speculate - we've been speculating for a year. But (today) speculation will turn into reality. And I don't know whether stuff is going to happen in the first 24 hours of free agency or whether it's going to be spread out."

Islanders GM Mike Milbury suspects there will be a bit of both.

"I think most people are uncertain as to what's going to happen come (today) - I know I am," Milbury said. "And I think we're just going to prepare and wait and see how it unfolds."

Among the more attractive names available to the highest bidder are forwards Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund, boyhood friends interested in playing together for the first time in the NHL.

Throw Mike Modano, Alexei Kovalev, Pavol Demitra, Teemu Selanne and Ziggy Palffy into the mix and there's loads of firepower to choose from going into a season in which the league is determined to encourage offense via a package of rules changes.

Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer figures to be the most coveted of all the unrestricted free agents and perhaps the only one who could command the $7.8 million individual cap. But there are plenty of other top-tier defensemen, such as Brian Leetch, Adam Foote and Adrian Aucoin of the Islanders and Brian Rafalski of the Devils.

Nikolai Khabibulin, who backstopped Tampa Bay to the 2004 Stanley Cup, is the class of the goaltending crop.

"I've said from Day 1 that I think the way to win the Stanley Cup is to grow your own," Sather said. "But that doesn't mean you can't surround those guys with good, quality players."