There are only eight more Monday’s to go until the NHL kicks off, which is the nicest way I can say we’re still about two months away from the regular season starts. On one hand that feels like forever (especially since not much happens in August) but for a small group of young players time is growing short to sign a new deal.
While the Lightning have taken care of all of their restricted free agents (at least the ones that haven’t absconded to Europe), other teams aren’t so lucky. There are just over a dozen RFAs that need to sign new deals, including a couple of rather big names. Colton Davies at The Daily Faceoff listed 10 of the top RFAs still without contacts and they include some familiar names:
Trevor Zegras (Anaheim Ducks)
Shane Pinto (Ottawa Senators)
Evan Bouchard (Edmonton Oilers)
Alexis Lafreniere (New York Rangers)
Most of the teams should be able to find away to lock up their young players without having to worry about additional moves to free up cap space. For instance, the Ducks, who have Zegras and Jamie Drysdale to sign, have over $19 million in cap space. Others may have to figure some things out. Ottawa currently has $895,953 worth of space according to Cap Friendly. That could be a problem with Evolving Hockey projecting Pinto, who had 20 goals last season, to sign a two-year contract with an estimated $1,780,000 cap hit.
If Lafreniere signs for his projected $2,694,000 cap hit than the Rangers will be over the cap as well. Luckily, those are problems for other general managers to deal with. Could things get spicy with an offer sheet at this point? Let’s say a team thinks they could get Lafreniere on track and lobs a $3.5 million offer at him. It would only cost them a second round pick if the Rangers don’t match. If New York does match then things get really dicey for them. Of course, this is the NHL, and no one likes to have fun so it’s doubtful that anything that interesting will happen.
Lightning / NHL News
Steven Stamkos on Clearing the Crease [YouTube]
Stammer got some “Dad Work” in this summer. While he was disappointed to go back to Canada early, he welcomed the mental and physical break.
NHL may ask for emergency relief from Diamond Sports Group contracts [Awful Announcing]
Diamond Sports Group has the broadcast rights to 12 NHL teams (including the Lightning) and the league is prepared to ask a bankruptcy court for emergency relief from those contracts if DSG doesn’t have a valid reorganization plan by the end of September. With preseason games starting September 23, the teams need to know if Diamond can broadcast the games or if they will have to come up with alternative plans.
Canucks sign Pius Suter [NHL.com]
The Vancouver Canucks are a NHL hockey team. Are they a good hockey team? Don’t know. Are they a bad hockey team? Also, don’t know. Are they slightly better defensively after signing center Pius Suter to a two-year, $1.6 million AAV contract? Maybe?
Ovechkin happy with Carbery signing [Russian Machine Never Breaks]
It’s good that the team’s captain is happy with the new coach. Hopefully, that remains the case as the season wears on.
