Not that we can say the dust has really settled, of course. Many of the bigger fish in the UFA pond, including Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg, have yet to be hooked. We’ve seen significant roster turnover across the NHL after Tuesday’s activity, though – multiple trades and 135 signings totaling nearly $850 million in committed money so far, per CapFriendly – so we’ve got a pretty accurate picture of the new structure strength of the league in the future. Judging teams mostly by what they’ve done over the past two days, including some repeat 11th-hour signings, who are the biggest winners and losers after Day 1 of Free Agency? Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Disclaimer: this list is subject to change once we learn where the remaining top-tier UFAs like Kadri, Klingberg and Ondrej Palat land.
The winners
Ottawa Senators The 2022 offseason belongs to Pierre Dorion so far. The Senators GM already made a huge splash in the 2022 NHL Draft by making a blockbuster trade for sharpshooter Alex DeBrincat, in the process handing over picks without prospects. Earlier this week, Dorion offloaded the contract of goaltender Matt Murray to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dorion then traded for Minnesota Wild veteran goaltender Cam Talbot, who is cheaper than Murray and has just one year left. Then the pièce de résistance on Tuesday: a three-year deal for Claude Giroux, who already calls Ottawa home, at $6.5 million AAV. Giroux, 34, forms an impressive projected top-six forward group along with DeBrincat, Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Drake Batherson. Giroux, who has more than 1,000 NHL games and 900 more points on his resume, can play any forward position and remains an excellent playmaker and dynamo. He will also bring much-needed leadership to a young core in Ottawa. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below It remains to be seen if the Sens do more to shore up their D-corp, but whatever happens, they’ve upgraded their overall talent significantly — without dipping into their roster, led by defenseman Jake Sanderson, a legitimate threat for the Calder Trophy in 2022-23. Ottawa has put the already stacked Atlantic Division on notice. Edmonton Oilers Just 10 days ago, as part of the Daily Faceoff Roundtable, panel members weighed in on which GMs were under the most pressure this season. I chose Ken Holland. The Oilers, I assumed, had so many question marks. Could they keep Evander Kane? Find a new No. 1 goalie? Cross their fingers and hope for a Duncan Keith departure and Mike Smith LTIR hiding? Find a way to re-sign underrated blueliner Brett Kulak? If you had told me then that the answer to all these questions would be yes in less than two weeks, I would have laughed. Hats off to Holland, who managed to lock up Kane, one of the sport’s top power forwards when he was emotionally committed, to a four-year deal with a reasonable $5.125 million AAV. He established himself as a true first-line scorer when he joined the Oilers last season, scoring 35 goals in 58 games between the regular season and the playoffs, forging real chemistry with Connor McDavid. Keeping him, not to mention Kulak, means the Oilers have a strong chance of maintaining the gains they made in 2021-22, when they upset the Calgary Flames in Round 2 of the playoffs and reached their first Western Conference Final since 2005-06. . Securing a new No. 1 netminder in Jack Campbell makes things even more interesting. Campbell occasionally struggles with confidence and has his critics, but he’s been good most of the time as a Toronto Maple Leaf, and there’s no shame in losing to Carey Price and Andrei Vasilevskiy in back-to-back postseasons. At worst, Campbell should be able to stop the puck like a 40-year-old Smith did last season. The Oilers are arguably the top contenders to win the Pacific Division next season given the huge pendulum swing of Gaudreau leaving the Calgary Flames. Carolina Hurricanes Advertisement – Continue Reading Below The Canes let Tony DeAngelo go last week, trading his rights to the Philadelphia Flyers, and watched Vincent Trocheck depart for the New York Rangers on Tuesday. But Carolina leaves Tuesday a better team than it was a week ago thanks to two trades. In Brent Burns, acquired from the San Jose Sharks, the Canes get a right tackle on ‘D’ who can more or less replicate what DeAngelo brought last season. A motivated (if grizzled) Burns playing on the best team he’s played for in several seasons could be a surprisingly useful piece. Then came the late-night shocker, which consisted of the Vegas Golden Knights trading freshman left wing Max Pacioretty and blueliner Dylan Coghlan to Carolina for future consideration. Yes, future thoughts. In Pacioretty, the Canes get the winger they lost with their lack of goals, and they also added a miserable nine-forward in Ondrej Kase on Tuesday. The Canes don’t seem ready to relinquish their status as elite contenders in the Metro Division just yet. Columbus blue jacket Any team that beats Johnny Gaudreau, fresh off finishing fourth in the Hart Trophy voting, has to be considered a winner. Given his age and impressive numbers, he’s arguably the best forward to ever land a UFA, at least in the salary cap era. Was it incredible to see Gaudreau walk away from the most money and the chance at a Stanley Cup in Calgary to…not even come that close to home in the end? Columbus is not that close to South Jersey. Regardless, the Blue Jackets and GM Jarmo Kekalainen are clear winners Tuesday for landing “Johnny Hockey” for seven years at an AAV of $9.8 million. Gaudreau has a chance to supplant Rick Nash as the greatest player in franchise history — and maybe help Patrik Laine finally reach the 50-goal ceiling he’s always been believed to have, assuming Columbus is able to lock him up as an RFA. There’s no doubt Gaudreau put himself a long way from winning a championship on Tuesday, but from Columbus’ perspective, the arrow is pointing up. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
The blurry waist
I wouldn’t label these teams as clear winners or losers, but they warranted some discussion because they made some notable moves on Tuesday. Detroit Red Wings What; The placement of the EXTREMELY BUSY Red Wings in the middle tier will likely incite some minor Twitter commotion, but loud and busy doesn’t always equal good. Yes, the Wings did well to upgrade their goaltending by acquiring Ville Husso last week. And, yes, UFA signee David Perron should do wonders for his power play, and he arrives on a fairly low-risk contract considering it’s only for two years. But what about the significant tenure given to Andrew Copp and Ben Chiarot? Copp, who signed for five years at $5.625 million in AAV, was worth the deal he got. He is an extremely versatile striker who can play center or wing and thrive in all situations. That said, it’s risky to deal him to match the career-best production he showed with the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers last season, playing with the likes of Mark Scheifele and Artemi Panarin. Detroit desperately needs a long-term fill-in for Dylan Larkin under center, but is it Copp? I’m skeptical. The Wings obviously had cap space, but is this the kind of contract that could prevent them from pursuing a superstar in a future offseason? The same goes for Chiarot, who will be 35 when his four-year, $4.75 million cap hit contract expires. He has a tendency to take bad penalties and get caught out of position. He’s more of a junior blueliner making, at worst, middle pair money now. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below I don’t hate what GM Steve Yzerman did. The Wings will undoubtedly be more competitive in 2022-23. But dishing out multiple stints to mid-tier UFAs is a recipe for long-term mediocrity. At least he has an exciting core to build around in Larkin, Calder Trophy-winning D-man Moritz Seider, slick winger Lucas Raymond and several other promising youngsters in the system. New York Rangers Will seven years age well for Trocheck at $5.625 million AAV? Maybe not, but that doesn’t make the Rangers losers on Day 1 of free agency. This is an Eastern Conference finalist team that currently adds a natural two-way center returning coach Gerard Gallant, who Trocheck calls one of his favorite coaches, having played with him for the Florida Panthers. The Rangers also shored up their goaltending two-deep behind Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin by signing Jaroslav Halak and Louis Domingue. However, they lost rental forwards Copp and Frank Vatrano, so perhaps the net result of their work on Tuesday will be roughly a tie. Not bad to be this far this summer, given Kaapo Kakko the only RFA left to sign. If he gets a bridge deal done and leaves an extra few million in cap space, New York could make another vault move in the Winner tier. Advertisement – Continue Reading Below Tampa Bay Lightning The Bolts and GM Julien BriseBois are wizards when it comes to keeping their team competitive year after year. They deserve a lot of credit for re-elevating shutdown center Anthony Cirelli, bruiser Mikhail Sergachev and D-man Erik Cernak to eight-year deals on Tuesday. But it’s also tradition for Tampa to throw important players overboard because of its annual cap. He already sacrificed Ryan McDonagh earlier this month in a trade to the Nashville Predators and informed coveted UFA left winger Ondrej Palat on Tuesday that the cap space to keep him had simply run out. We have no reason to doubt Tampa’s ability to keep teams competitive, but we certainly can’t say that this team got better on Tuesday than…
