Any discussion to do with Free Agency.

Is this just me, or is this one of the best years for UFAs we've seen in a while? And no, I don't say this every year, but this year in particular is full of great players who are to-be-UFAs still unsigned.

i would say UFA wise it depends on position. However due to cap being flat for 2 years... i think this crop is going to be the best crop due to teams not having the space to make the moves they would have if cap had gone up.

The UFA market is going to be saucy.

I’ll edit this post with the latest rumours (when I’m able to).

UFAs (Teams interested)
Mattias Janmark - COL, TOR, NSH, MTL, NYR
Erik Gustafsson - WSH, BOS
Alex Pietrangelo - STL, VGK, CBJ, TOR
Wayne Simmonds - TOR, MTL, CGY (Signed)
Jacob Markstrom - VAN, EDM, CGY, DET (Signed)
Mike Hoffman - BUF
Tyler Toffoli - BUF
Taylor Hall - CGY, MTL, CBJ, NSH, BOS, BUF
Braden Holtby - CGY, EDM, MIN, VAN (Signed)
Trevor Lewis - Several teams
Derek Forbort - Several teams
Sami Vatanen - ANA, BOS, CGY, TOR
Joe Thornton - Switzerland
Cam Talbot - CGY, DET, DAL, NJD, MIN, VAN (Signed)
Jesper Fast - TOR, NYR
Alex Wennberg - MTL
Tyson Barrie - VAN
Thomas Greiss - EDM
Corey Crawford - EDM

Rumoured Contracts
Dylan Strome - 2 years x around $2.5 M

Confirmed Contracts
Henrik Lundqvist - 1 year x $1.5 M, WSH
Victor Mete - 1 year x $735 K
Malcom Subban - 2 years x $850 K, CHI
Wayne Simmonds - 1 year x $1.5 M, TOR
Bobby Ryan - 1 year x $1 M, DET
Patrick Maroon - 2 years x $900 K, TBL
Luke Schenn - 1 year x $800 K, TBL
John Hayden - 1 year x $? , ARI
Radko Gudas - 3 years x $2.5 M, FLA
Tyler Motte - 2 years x $1.225 M
Dominik Kubalik - 2 years x $3.7 M
Tobias Rieder - 1 year x $700 K, BUF
Mark Boroweicki - 2 years x $2 M, NSH
Derek Grant - 3 years x $1.5 M, ANA
Jack Johnson - 1 year x $1.15 M, NYR
Kevin Shattenkirk - 3 years x $3.9 M, ANA
Tyler Ennis - 1 year x $1 M, EDM
Keith Kinkaid - 2 years x $875 K, NYR
Mark Jankowski - 1 year x $700 K, PIT
Evan Rodriguez - 1 year x $700 K, PIT
Tyler Pitlick - 2 years x $1.75 M, ARI
Matt Murray - 4 years x $6.25 M, OTT
Alexander Wennberg - 1 year x $2.25 M, FLA
Anton Khudobin - 3 years x $3.33 M, DAL
Braden Holtby, 2 years x $4.3 M, VAN
Kyle Turris - 2 years x $1.65 M, EDM
Jacob Markstrom - CGY
Matt Benning - 2 years x $1 M, NSH
Dakota Mermis - 1 year x $700K, MIN
Joseph Cramarossa - 1 year x $700K, MIN
Cam Talbot - 3 years x
Carter Verhaeghe - 2 years x $1 M, FLA

Trades
Stastny to WPG for a 4th and Carl Dahlstrom
McKenzie Weegar available
Jackets shopping Savard
CGY might move Gaudreau for a defenseman if they land Hall
MIN, PIT, & NJD potentially involved in a Fleury trade (either acquiring him or retaining salary)
Pacioretty and Martinez are available.
OEL isn’t moving
Tyler Johnson on waivers
TBL looking to trade Brayden Coburn

gotta think toffoli to bruins could happen too, theyve wanted him for like 3 years.

I think he ends up in Nashville.

Where did you see Savard is being shopped?

So, what is everyone's opinion on the whole money thing? Overall, I'm not a big fan of players trying to get as much money as they can, but when I think about it, I don't think it's about the money itself ... I think it's seen as a way that the players are being valued. Although I still don't particularly agree with it ... some players care more about getting paid a lot than others, and an example of someone who doesn't seem to care about anything other than the money is Torey Krug.

If you think about it, this contract is what is going to be supporting them and their families for the next 50+ years of their life. So I don’t mind players going for money, especially if they want to go to where they’re signing anyways.

Hearing #CBj shopping Dman David Savard. 1 year left at $4.25 hit https://t.co/AiXNiDz6GA

— Andy Strickland (@andystrickland) October 9, 2020

I think the high-end guys - the Pietrangelos, Halls, etc - are going to get their due. The money-pinching is really going to affect the guys in the middle-tier and lower: you'll see less of the $2.5M-range deals we typically see in favour of a lot of shorter deals closer to $1.5M.

This is a mentality that I genuinely hope that sticks moving forward: the biggest thing that keeps so many teams from being competitive is having to overpay for middle-of-the-road talent. I think it's the genuine first step towards having a "luxury cap": if more stars are being paid accordingly and are becoming more and more available thanks to improvements in drafting, the league is going to eventually be forced to either continuously raise the cap or allow teams to exceed it. This might come at the cost of having to relocate or contract franchises, but it's a net positive growth for the NHL.

Well the league has been raising the cap, and everything was going well, until the global pandemic.

Most of the players already have enough money that they don't need any more of it for their whole life lol ... if Matthews never signed that contract in Toronto, Marner would have signed way sooner IMO.

Also, where did you get the Gaudreau rumour from ... I know tons of people are throwing his name out there but has anyone who is a good source even mentioned his name in trade talks recently?

Dave Pagnotta on TSN 1290.

yeah but its all about being valued with your peers. It happens in any workplace. you think your value is higher than their value... happened with my last job i was in actually. i was there 3 years less than a person, we both got promoted to senior within a year and i was making 5k more than her. Now im a decent person so i told her to go get that bag from management but you get my point.

The way the NHL has historically raised it's salary cap more closely correlates to inflation than it does league revenues. Between 2018 and 2019, the math follows as such:

2018/19 Season:
Revenue = $4.86B
Cap = $79.5M (50.71% of revenue when x31)

2019/20 Season:
Revenue: $5.09B
Cap = $81.5M (49.64% of revenue when x31)

The league's revenue grew by 4.73%, the cap rose by 2.52%, and inflation in the US dollar between both years was 1.7%. If the league had strictly adjusted for inflation (which it should be doing annually anyways), the 2019/20 cap would have been $80.85M, which is much closer than if the owners and players were seeing the equal split they keep banging on about.

This is a discussion for another thread though, I just think the correlation between the flat cap, the unequal sharing of financial assets across the league, and how it's going to affect the middle-class NHL player suggests that we're headed towards a massive financial reform during the next CBA.

i dont think its a rumor as much of if they bring in hall someone is the odd man out there to create depth. gaudreau and hall are similar players at the same position. would make sense to trade gaudreau if hall is brought in.

Calgary shouldn’t try and replace Gaudreau w Hall

Hoping ya boy Dubas does something today. Leafs need that D; hoping they're looking into guys like Weegar, Brodie and Savard.

Don't think Johnsson or any other guys are getting moved until after today.

Is it j me or does anyone feel like it’s gonna take a while for signings to start happening, there hasn’t been many concrete rumors ab who’s going to where, I feel like it may take a bit, maybe even a day or 2

I mean, we'll see quite a few today, I'm sure, but maybe not as much as most years because teams can't talk to players whose rights belong to other teams until 12:00 PM ET today.

That was exactly my point.

FA has begun