I signed Marc-Eduoard Vlassic as a UFA when I was Devils GM once upon a time ago. Thats the best player I ever found as a UFA. Silly thing about Backstrom was that 29 GM's let him through waivers after the Wild signed him.
David Perron was a UFA guy the Wild signed as an overaged guy who wasn't drafted.
Johan Franzen was drafted by the Thrashers though in 2004 as we didn't have the passed over draft guys as UFA's until Agents came about during the summer of 2004.
No doubt things are a lot more competitive these days to sign undrafted free agents. It's hard to compete in the league when you have a full time job it seems now! Thankfully I don't anymore so I should be able to make my team better.