Five Key Stories: 6/26/23 – 7/2/23

With the NHL electing to cram as much offseason activity as possible into a few short days, it was quite a busy week around the NHL.  We’ll recap the biggest stories here which are much too plentiful to summarize in just five headlines.

Draft Night: It was a draft that was supposed to feature plenty of intrigue, especially on the trade front.  Instead, not a single swap materialized.  However, there was a surprise at the beginning of the draft.  While Chicago picked Connor Bedard first as expected, Anaheim opted to not go with the consensus second choice, instead selecting Leo Carlsson.  That freed up Columbus to grab that consensus second choice, Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli.  The full results of the draft can be found here.

Chicago Adds Veterans: Following the addition of Bedard, the Blackhawks decided that they needed to bring in some quality veterans to help take some pressure off him (and also to get to the cap floor).  They did that by acquiring Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno from Boston in exchange for defensemen Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell.  Hall has two years left on his deal with a $6MM AAV and will give Bedard a legitimate top-six winger to play with.  Foligno, meanwhile, was a pending unrestricted free agent but quickly inked a one-year, $4MM deal to stick around; Chicago handed that same agreement to Corey Perry days later.  Boston, meanwhile, used that freed-up cap space to sign several players to short-term contracts early in free agency.

Busy Buyout Market: The buyout market started with a splash when Vancouver bought out Oliver Ekman-Larsson.  It ended with one too as Winnipeg was unable to find a taker for Blake Wheeler, instead buying out the final year and $8.5MM on his contract, taking on $2.75MM in dead cap charges for the next two years.  That wasn’t the priciest one of the week either as Nashville somewhat surprisingly bought out the final three years and $24MM of Matt Duchene’s contract, taking on more than $19MM in dead cap charges spread out over the next six seasons.  Detroit (Kailer Yamamoto) and Boston (Mike Reilly) also executed buyouts on the final day.

Dubois Traded: After many months of speculation, Pierre-Luc Dubois is on the move.  However, it wasn’t to Montreal where it was believed his preference would be to play.  Instead, he was dealt to Los Angeles in exchange for Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-round pick; as part of the trade agreement, Dubois signed an eight-year, $68MM contract.  Dubois will team up with Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault to form one of the deepest center groups in the NHL while serving as Kopitar’s eventual replacement when the captain calls it a career.  As for Winnipeg, they get a pair of top-six forwards headlined by the 23-year-old Vilardi who put up 41 points in 63 games last season.  They’re looking to stay in the playoff mix and while they don’t have a top-end talent in Dubois anymore, their forward group is certainly deeper now.

Eight For Meier: The Devils were in a situation where they skirted the $10MM qualifying offer owed to Timo Meier by filing for club arbitration but it put some pressure on them to get a long-term deal done before the hearings came around.  They did just that, signing the winger to an eight-year deal that carries an $8.8MM AAV, making him the highest-paid forward on the team.  Meier reached the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career last season with New Jersey making a big move to acquire him at the deadline.  They have found a way to fit in max-term deals for both Meier and Jesper Bratt now while they also quietly picked up Tyler Toffoli from Calgary to give them more firepower for next season.

Free Agent Frenzy: Buoyed by the addition of more than 100 players to the open market after a busy non-tender deadline, July 1st represented a very busy day on the NHL calendar with more than $650MM in contract commitments to 166 players.  The biggest signings by position in terms of AAV were the Hurricanes picking up Dmitry Orlov on a two-year deal with a $7.75MM price tag, a sizable overpayment in money to get a short-term agreement that better fits their pay structure.  Up front, Alex Killorn wasn’t able to work a deal out with Tampa Bay, instead landing a four-year pact worth $6.25MM per season with Anaheim, a surprise day-one spender.  Meanwhile, in goal, the biggest contract given to a UFA was Pittsburgh re-signing Tristan Jarry to a five-year agreement that carries a $5.375MM AAV, one of three contracts handed to goalies that saw NHL action last season.

Islander Spending Spree: The biggest contract of the first day of the new league year came from the Islanders who handed goaltender Ilya Sorokin an eight-year, $66MM extension that will begin in the 2024-25 season.  The 27-year-old has been nothing short of stellar since coming to the NHL in 2020-21, posting a 2.34 GAA with a .924 SV% and 16 shutouts in his first three seasons.  His deal ensures that the Islanders will have top-level goaltending for the long haul.  They also brought back veteran Semyon Varlamov on a four-year, $11MM agreement to serve as Sorokin’s backup.  The 35-year-old was one of the better options on the open market although few expected him to get four years.  Few also expected GM Lou Lamoriello to hand out a pair of seven-year contracts to keep Pierre Engvall ($3MM AAV) and Scott Mayfield ($3.5MM AAV) in the fold.  Both players are quality role pieces but it’s fair to say there’s some sticker shock on the length of those contracts.  All told, nearly 19% of the $650MM in commitments from Saturday came from the Isles.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.