Embrace the “dust settling” metaphor as Day 1 of 2022 NHL free agency draws to a close.
Not that we can say the dust has really settled, of course. Many of the biggest fish in the UFA pond, including Nazem Kadri and John Klingberg, are still unhooked.
We’ve seen significant roster turnover across the NHL since Tuesday’s action, however — numerous trades and 135 signings totaling nearly $850 million in committed money so far, according to CapFriendly — so we have a pretty accurate picture of the league’s new power structure going forward.
Judging teams mainly by what they’ve done over the last few days, including some 11th-hour re-signings, who are the biggest winners and losers after Day 1 of Free Agency?
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Disclaimer: This list is subject to change once we figure out where top-tier UFAs like Kadri, Klingberg and Ondrej Palat remain.
The winners
The Ottawa Senators
The 2022 offseason thus far belongs to Pierre Dorion. The Senators general manager already made a huge splash in the 2022 NHL Draft by making a blockbuster trade for sharpshooter Alex DeBrincat, doing so by giving up picks but no prospects. Earlier this week, Dorion unloaded goaltender Matt Murray’s contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Dorion then traded for Minnesota Wild veteran goaltender Cam Talbot, who is cheaper than Murray and has just a year left on his term.
Then, Tuesday’s pièce de résistance: a three-year deal for Claude Giroux, who already calls Ottawa home, worth $6.5 million AAV. Giroud, 34, forms an impressive projected top-six forward group alongside DeBrincat, Tim Stutzel, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Drake Batterson. Giroud, who has more than 1,000 NHL games and more than 900 points on his resume, can play any forward position and remains an excellent playmaker and faceoff dynamo. He will also bring much-needed leadership to a young core in Ottawa.
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It remains to be seen if the Sens do more to bolster their D-corps, but whatever happens, they’ve upgraded their overall talent significantly — without dipping into their potential reserve, led by guard Jake Sanderson, a legitimate threat to Calder Trophy in 2022 -23. Ottawa put the already stacked Atlantic Division on notice.
Edmonton Oilers
Just 10 days ago, as part of our Daily Faceoff Roundtable, the panelists pondered which GMs have been under the most pressure this offseason. I chose Ken Holland. I assumed the Oilers had so many question marks. Can they keep Evander Kane? Find a new #1 goalkeeper? Cross your fingers and hope for Duncan Keith’s retirement and Mike Smith’s LTIR? 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 Kane, one of the sport’s most powerful forwards when emotionally involved, to a four-year deal at a reasonable AAV of $5.125 million. He established himself as a true first-line scorer after joining the Oilers last season, scoring 35 goals in 58 games between the regular season and the playoffs, building real chemistry with Connor McDavid.
Retaining him, let alone 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 years. Securing a new No. 1 guard in Jack Campbell makes things even more interesting. Campbell struggles with his confidence at times and has his detractors, but he’s been good more often than not 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 pucks as well as the 40-year-old Smith did this past season. The Oilers are positioned as perhaps the best contender to win the Pacific Division next season, given the huge swing of Gaudreau’s departure from the Calgary Flames.
Carolina Hurricanes
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The Canes released Tony DeAngelo last week, trading his rights to the Philadelphia Flyers, and watched Vincent Trocheck leave for the New York Rangers on Tuesday. But Carolina enters Tuesday with 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 puck-moving right shot on ‘D’ who can more or less replicate what DeAngelo brought last season. A motivated (if grizzled) Burns, competing on the best team he’s played for in several seasons, could be a surprisingly useful piece. Then came the shocking “trade” of the end of the day, which consisted of the Vegas Golden Knights trading first-line left wing Max Passoretti and blue-liner Dylan Coghlan to Carolina for future considerations. Yes, future considerations. In Pacioretty, the Canes get the scoring wing they’ve been missing, and they added a top-9 power forward in Ondrej Kase also on Tuesday.
The Canes don’t seem ready to relinquish their status as elite contenders in the Metro Division just yet.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Any team that gets Johnny Gaudreau, who just finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting, should be considered a winner. Given his age and impressive numbers, he may be the greatest forward to ever hit the market as a UFA, at least in the salary cap era. It was absolutely awful to see Gaudreau walk away from more money and a chance at a Stanley Cup in Calgary to…not even really go that close to home in the end? Columbus is not that close to South Jersey.
Regardless, the Blue Jackets and GM Jarmo Kekalainen were clear winners Tuesday for landing “Johnny Hockey” for seven years at $9.8 million AAV. Gaudreau has a chance to supplant Rick Nash as the greatest player in franchise history — and perhaps help Patrik Laine finally reach the 50-goal ceiling he was always thought to possess, assuming Columbus is able to lock him in as an RFA. There’s no doubt that Gaudreau has put himself a long way from winning a championship on Tuesday, but from Columbus’ perspective, the arrow is pointing up.
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The murky environment
I wouldn’t classify these teams as outright winners or losers, but they deserve some discussion because they made some notable moves on Tuesday.
Detroit Red Wings
What? Putting the EXTREMELY BUSY Red Wings in the middle tier will probably cause some minor riots on Twitter, but noise and busyness don’t always mean good. Yes, the Wings did well by improving their goaltending with the acquisition of Ville Husso last week. And, yes, UFA signing David Perron should do wonders for their power play and arrives on a fairly low-risk contract considering it’s only for two years. But what about the big mandate given to Andrew Kopp and Ben Chiaro?
Copp, signed for five years at $5.625 million AAV, deserved the deal he got. He is an extremely versatile striker who can play center or wing and be deployed in all situations. However, it’s risky to count on him to match the career-best production he showed with the Winnipeg Jets and New York Rangers this past season, playing with the likes of Mark Scheifele and Artemi Panarin. Detroit desperately needs a long-term addition to Dylan Larkin at center, but is it Kopp? I’m skeptical. The Wings clearly 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 bottom pair blue line that at worst makes money with middle pair now.
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I don’t hate what GM Steve Yzerman did. The Wings will undoubtedly be more competitive in 2022-23. But handing out a lot of tenure to a mid-tier UFA 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 plenty of other promising youngsters in the system.
New York Rangers
Will seven years get old for Trocheck at $5.625M AAV? Maybe not, but that doesn’t make the Rangers losers on Day 1 of free agency. It’s an Eastern Conference finalist team adding now a physical two-way center, who joins coach Gerard Gallant, whom Trocheck calls one of his favorite coaches since he played with him for the Florida Panthers.
The Rangers also bolstered their goaltending two-deep behind Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin, signing Jaroslav Halak and Luis Domingue. However, they lost loan strikers Kopp and Frank Vatrano at the trade deadline, so perhaps the net result of their work on Tuesday is roughly clean. That’s not a bad place to be this far into the summer considering Kaapo Kakko is the only RFA left to sign. If he gets a bridge deal and leaves an extra few million, New York could still make another move to move into the winner’s bracket.
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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 shutout center Anthony Cirelli, all-around blueliner Mikhail Sergachev and injuring D-man Eric Chernak to eight-year deals on Tuesday. But it’s also been a tradition for Tampa to jettison important players over the board due to its annual cap crunch. It already sacrificed Ryan McDonough earlier this month in a trade with the Nashville Predators and informed UFA left wing Ondrej Palat on Tuesday that the cap space to hold him has simply run out.
We have no reason to doubt Tampa’s ability to keep teams competitive, but we certainly can’t say this team improved on Tuesday, despite…
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