No Mitch Marner. No Aaron Ekblad. No Brad Marchand.
No frenzy?
With a majority of the NHL’s top-projected free-agent talent already off the market, the 32 teams face relatively slim pickings entering the league’s annual signing period.
A record $7.5 million jump in the NHL’s salary cap led to many teams locking up their own talent to long-term deals in advance of free agency.
The Vegas Golden Knights proved the big winners, acquiring Marner in a sign-and-trade deal with Toronto to land free-agency’s most prized player. And the two-time defending champion Florida Panthers took Ekblad and Marchand off the board by re-signing each to a lengthy contract.
The Panthers weren’t done securing their Cup core, re-signing Tomas Nosek to a one-year contract. The 32-year-old center played a valuable defensive role on Florida’s checking line against opposing teams’ top talent.
With Marner’s departure, the Maple Leafs announced the signing of pending restricted free agent forward Matthew Knies to a six-year, $46.5 million contract. The 22-year-old Knies is from Phoenix. He had 29 goals and 58 points in his second full season in Toronto.
The Vancouver Canucks announced reaching an agreement to sign forward Conor Garland to a six-year, $30 million contract extension. The seventh-year player had one more year left on his existing deal, and is coming off his second career 50-point season (19 goals, 31 assists).
As the dust settled, the top players entering the market include forwards, Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers and Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, Los Angeles defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, and New Jersey goalie Jake Allen. Teams are expected to turn to the trade route in bids to improve their rosters.
The Buffalo Sabres are among the candidates to be involved in those moves, not ruling out the possibility of dealing 24-year-old defenseman Bowen Byram. Another, and older, defenseman, Erik Karlsson, could be on the move from Pittsburgh. And Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi’s name has come up in trade buzz.
By no means is this year’s free agency period expected to generate the headline-grabbing moves made a year ago, when the Nashville Predators spent a combined $115 million in salary to secure forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, defenseman Brady Skjei and goalie Scott Wedgewood.
But plenty of money is set to be spent. San Jose is nearly $20 million below the salary floor, and teams from Anaheim to Carolina and beyond have room under the cap to get better.
