The opening hours of NHL free agency didn't give us an answer as to where the two players would be skating in 2022-23, but there was no shortage of money being spent elsewhere. We were treated to some blockbuster trades, as the Carolina Hurricanes added two players in swaps and Johnny Gaudreau was traded to Columbus.
Whose summer is off to a good start? So far, which teams have done well? Before the fall, who are the best remaining players?
More: Tracker | Grades
Trade grades: Burns, Pacioretty, more
Draft recap: Every pick | Takeaways
Steve Yzerman signed a bunch of good players on contracts on Wednesday.
Andrew Copp is five years, $5.625 million AAV, Ben Chiarot is four years, $4.75 million AAV, and David Perron is two years, $4.75 million AAV. Yzerman has to be happy about how they'll complement the current group of young talent.
Chiarot has a chance to play with a player who will elevate his game. The Red Wings will be getting a versatile middle-six piece in Perron. After a successful post-trade tenure with the New York Rangers, the Michigan native is excited to join his hometown team. Which one is it? He didn't get a qualifying offer from Chicago, he was a 30- goal scorer. He will be motivated to prove he is still alive.
The Red Wings will look a lot more formidable with the addition of the newcomers. It would be great if that could keep them interested in staying with the Red Wings. Both players are unrestricted free agents after 2022-23 season and Yzerman is showing that Detroit will not be a pushover in the stacked Atlantic Division. Will that help with the extension of the two men? The Red Wings have had a rough season, but winning helps.
Yzerman's moves on Wednesday will make Detroit much more competitive, exciting and potentially exciting for the future.
They are still winning.
The reigning Stanley Cup champion went big on taking care of their own on a day where most teams are looking for new players. Josh Manson is back on a four-year deal, Artturi Lehkonen is back on a five-year pact, andDarren Helm is back on a one-year contract. It's been a great start to free agency for Colorado, because of what general manager Joe Sakic did previously.
The priority was done by Sakic. He let goaltender Darcy Kuemper walk (right on into a five-year deal with the Washington Capitals) by acquiring (and signing) Alexandar Georgiev. In order to chase another Cup, Colorado needed to keep who they had and how much they paid.
The talent they will lose from their most recent playoff roster doesn't seem to have taken a step back for the Avs. Through free agency, Sakic proved that he has a good feel for his group.
The Caps have more work to do in free agency, according to Brian.
On the opening day of free agency, the Hurricanes played. They are a better team for it.
The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forward Lane Pederson and goaltender Eetu Makiniemi from the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for forward Steven Lorentz. 34% of Burns salary was retained by theSharks in the swap.
That's a change for the Hurricanes. Tony DeAngelo was replaced on the right side by Burns. He will add depth and puck- moving ability to the attack. He had 10 goals and 44 assists last year.
Carolina's other Grade-A move came later in the day when they got Max Pacioretty from Vegas for nothing. After they struggled to generate in that respect during the playoffs, the Hurricanes wanted more scoring depth. Vegas' cap issues forced it into movingPacioretty's $7 million hit, and the Hurricanes jumped at a chance to bring in a regular 20-plus goal scorer who will have an immediate impact on their team up front.
Dylan Coghlan is a promising one to watch down the road and he was part of the deal.
The team didn't have to give up a lot to make it happen. General manager Don Waddell does a good job.
The city of Columbus really wanted some of the guy.
The veteran blue liner signed a four-year contract with the Blue Jackets. That's a big investment by Columbus in a 30-year-old defenseman who had 17 points in 78 games last season.
It's not an offensive defense. He's a physical, grinding player, he can kill penalties, and he's a right-handed shot, so he's a good fit for the Blue Jackets. Adding "size and toughness" to the blue line was a priority according to the general manager. Some of the young players in Columbus may be helped by the experience of the man. Positive things are listed here.
There is a real winner here. He made more than $1 million in the city. The raise is jaw-dropping. Will Columbus get anything in return for their stake? There's a lot of time to judge that. The person needs to be feeling great today.
There were some easy victories.
The cancer survivor signed a two-year, $5 million deal with the San Jose Sharks one day after he was released by Philadelphia.
A local cancer charity was the beneficiary of the $100,000 donation by the Philadelphia team. Lindblom's illness has slowed his play on the ice. It was necessary for Philadelphia to create cap space to have a chance of landing Johnny. The NHL is a business sometimes.
Lindblom landing on his feet was amazing. Lindblom was on track to be a top six player in Philadelphia.
Lindblom can focus on reestablishing his game now that he's cancer-free, and he'll get to do that now with the Sharks. That's awesome for him.
There is Marchment. Marchment's father died suddenly at the NHL draft in Montreal. Marchment was going through a crucial professional moment while reeling from his personal loss. He had a career year in Florida in which he scored 47 points in 54 games. He got a four-year deal with Dallas. It will be a fresh start for Marchment and will show how far he has come since he was an NHL player.
Father would be proud.
It's hard to imagine how fans of the team feel now that free agency has begun.
The general manager talked about an aggressive retool of his team. The signing of Tony DeAngelo to a two-year deal looked like a sign of that plan. TheFlyers have an excellent chance at the biggest prize on the market: Winger Johnny Gaudreau, who grew up in South Jersey and is a fan of the team. There was interest from both sides. The price to create any more of it for the only franchise player on the market was too high.
He said that they don't have enough room to pursue high-end free agents. Multiple contracts have to be moved. In some cases it's difficult to move players, and in other cases you don't want to move them.
TheFlyers have good forward depth, but they would like to get more high-end skill If only there was a forward on the open market who wore black and orange.
There was no Plan B when it came to the roster. John Tortorella will love Nicolas Deslauriers. They did not have a Plan B because they did not want to change their expectations from an aggressive retool to a wait and see season.
This season, we will find out. "We're going to see how we progress." We will look at which players can be a part of our future. A lot needs to be learned about our group. We have more cap space than we did this year.
That isn't a quote for the brochure.
The Flames aren't in this category. They put an offer on the table that was well north of $10 million a year and they did everything they could to keep him. He was wanted back by them. He wanted to return. It looked like they might have been correct. They were until they were not.
We did everything we could to keep him here. "My strong belief is that this is a family decision, and I respect that completely." There was a lot of memories for him. We have to move on in this business.
They didn't stop. The offense that walked out the door with Gaudreau was not addressed. There was no haste in reacting to this shocking news. It's understandable. Maybe in a week, we're reexamining their offseason and they don't spend that money on Gaudreau, it looks like a happy accident.
The Flames looked like a team who had an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup last season, lost in five games to their archrivals from the Eskimos and now could end up losing Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk in consecutive summers. The life comes at you fast.
Max Pacioretty was traded by the Golden Knights to the Hurricanes. They had to clear his cap hit in order to get under the ceiling and sign forward Reilly Smith.
It's understandable that they traded for nothing since he's an unrestricted free agent. It's almost embarrassing when this type of move defines the Golden Knights.
They wanted to swap Dadonov for two injured players. They traded him to Montreal for Weber's contract.
The ECHLer they traded for is now playing overseas.
The trade was for a third-round pick.
They swapped Stastny for a fourth-round pick. So on.
The flat cap is to blame, but it was there when they broke the bank. It goes beyond the sell-offs. They traded Tomas Tatar for a first-, second- and third-round pick, as well as a second- and a third-round pick, and then just traded him to Carolina for nothing.
They would walk away if this was a casino game.
Some teams did well in the market for goalies. Kuemper is a legit starter for the Caps. Campbell is a good goalie. The Red Wings and Senators had better tandems. Eric Comrie might have been the best signing of the day for the Sabres.
There were teams that tried to get on the carousel and fell off the ride. It began with the Wild, who re-signed Fleury and angered Talbot so much that the GM decided to trade him to the Senators. They were praised as a key to the Wild's success. I want to win. "We have a pretty good chance if we have either of those guys in the net."
They have Fleury and Gustavsson, who have played 27 NHL games. It's a risk and not just a downgrade.
The Maple Leafs are the toughest to fall off. They had two years ago. Campbell and Mrazek were injured last year. The Caps didn't qualify as a restricted free agent because they didn't have a first-round pick.
Kyle Dubas said that they will give them the runway to see if they can become the long-term solution in net.
The Senators did not get more than 25% of Murray's contract. Dubas said they would have liked to have done a better deal. We chose to make the deal, but it was either make that deal or go somewhere else.
It's amazing that the Leafs are trying to win the Stanley Cup, and Dubas is likely to be the one to lose. When you can't hop on the carousel at the right time, it's like that. They are not the only team that can't.
They are not doing a rebuild. They're doing a controlled demolition like when they blow up a building and it falls to the ground.
Alex DeBrincat, Kirby Dach and Brandon Hagel are part of the solution, not part of the problem, as the NHL has never seen before. The Hawks brought on stop-gaps like Athanasiou and Domi on one-year deals that all but end their chances of being traded at the trade deadline.
Kane, Toews and Jones are thinking about this.
The three star players, who all have no-movement clauses, are waiting to make the best decisions for their careers. They don't necessarily agree with the direction of the team.
The contracts of Toews and Kane are coming to an end. Eight years is how long Jones has. They could either ask out or stick through the rebuild. The Hawks are in tank mode.
Is it possible that it's anything but Gaudreau to the Blue Jackets?
The Flames gave Gaudreau eight-year contract proposals with an average annual value of over $10 million. They believed they had a chance to keep him. He told them that he was moving on.
They lined up for him when he hit the market on wednesday. There were rumors that the Blue Jackets could be a stealth option. They won the derby with a contract that averaged $9.75 million annually, under the $10 million AAV threshold and less than other teams' offers.
They were expected to be aggressive. They were in on Ryan McDonagh before the trade happened. They were watching the draft. In the end, they made the biggest splash of all the teams in the off-season. A team that made the playoffs for the first time in two years last season has a real star on its roster.
Columbus doesn't win a lot of these. The canon should be fired because they won.
There are still some big fish in the water.
The bell rang at noon that allowed the two unrestricted free agents to sign anywhere.
There are some details about where those players will not be going. Colorado used a lot of cap space on other extensions, so it looks like Kadri is out. Dallas doesn't seem to be in a good position to retain him.
The lack of a landing spot for the top three UFAs may have had a domino effect on other players waiting to be signed. Ondrej Palat is still on the market. How soon will deals for those skaters come about? They will be connected. We're all waiting to hear about those questions.
It was a big deal for Claude Giroux to go to the capital city. Alex DeBrincat, Matt Murray, and now Giroux have all been brought in by the Senators.
The veteran has a lot left to offer and he will inject that franchise with much-needed optimism for the future. Giroux will help the team build towards being a playoff team. Giroux is from the area and who doesn't like good stories?
He'll be a great addition to the lineup, even though he didn't get a lot of attention.
The Ducks have a ton of highly skilled talent up front already, and Vatrano will put some weight behind them with a more physical game and goal- scoring prowess. Anaheim just got a versatile player for their middle six for less than $4 million per season if Vatrano continues to play like he did in the playoffs.
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