NHL Free Agency Is Becoming Nothing More Than A Myth
Steph Chambers. Getty Images.There used to be a time when July 1st was the best day of the year. One of those days where you couldn't even go to sleep on June 30th because you'd be afraid you would miss something.
Big names hitting the open market, all about to sign some big tickets in NHL free agency. There were sources all over the place. Threads and forums galore all talking about the latest rumblings of each player's new destination. You'd wake up on the 1st and there would already be some reports of signings that would be official at noon. There was damn near half a billion dollars handed out on July 1st in 2014 with guys like Paul Stastny, Jarome Iginla, Ales Hemsky, and Ryan Miller all heading to new teams.
There was hope that this Canada Day could be equally as exciting. But that fire was quickly put out over the past couple of days by a barrage of re-signings.
The Florida Panthers managed to re-sign all 3 of Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand. 3 guys who would be total game changers in any new locker room they could have ended up in, but they're all remaining in South Florida long-term now. Bennett and Ekblad both signings for 8-years, and 37-year-old Marchand signing for 6.
Matthew Knies is staying in Toronto for the next 6-years after signing a $46.5 million extension. Evan Bouchard is remaining in Edmonton for 4 years at $10.5M AAV. Provorov is staying in Columbus. Giroux is staying in Ottawa. Patrick Kane is spending another year with the Detroit Red Wings.
And obviously the biggest move of the day was the sign-and-trade between Toronto and Vegas for Mitch Marner.
If we want to, we can treat this like a free agency signing. Vegas got the jump on being able to land Marner by making the deal a day early, and trading for him after he signed an 8-year extension with Toronto first. But something about it still feels like it has sullied the sanctity of free agency.
Sure, there are still a few bigger names to look out for today. Brock Boeser seems like he's 100% on the move. No team has ever handled their assets worse than the Vancouver Canucks over the last couple of years, and now they are losing Boeser for nothing.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Mikael Granlund will both be on the move. Jonathan Drouin and Corey Perry could be finding new homes. But going from what could have been, to now having Corey Perry be the 5th biggest name on the market? Well I just think NHL GMs and agents are being selfish as shit. The fans deserve chaos and mayhem on July 1st. Seems like the GMs and agents would rather just spend the holiday up in their cottage instead of working the phones all day. A damn shame.