Now add another great core contract to the mix with Ivan Demidov\u2019s extension that starts next July. An eight-year deal worth $9.15 million a year is fantastic value for a rising-star winger, who projects to be worth an average market value of $11.2 million over that span. Incoming cap growth will make that number even more cost-effective, especially in those later years. Those later years are important because if the team waited to sign this contract, it wouldn\u2019t have been able to tack on that eighth year under the new CBA.<\/p>\n
The Canadiens are only in the early stages of what should be a long playoff window. So to have this many core players signed to great value deals, through their primes, is just incredible work. The future is bright in Montreal.<\/p>\n Free-agent fourth-liners<\/p>\n No team has gone completely off the rails like the Oilers did last summer with an eight-year, $30.8 million contract for Trent Frederic. But a lot of cap and term have been handed out to a handful of fourth-line players.<\/p>\n A.J. Greer got the trifecta of term, cap and trade protection with a four-year deal in Anaheim<\/a>. It pays to shoot 16 percent in a contract year and have a Stanley Cup ring. So did Beck Malenstyn, with a six-year deal carrying a $2.92 million AAV. Toronto handed out three multi-year deals<\/a> to fourth-line caliber players in Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime and Colton Sissons (and the latter came with a pretty steep price tag of $4.25 million). Jeffrey Viel cashed in on a breakout postseason with a five-year deal in Tampa Bay, worth $2.5 million on average.<\/p>\n Fourth-liners have a thin free agent class and a rising cap world to thank for these contracts. While none are back-breakers for their respective teams, overspending on bottom-six talent can prove costly. Sometimes, those dollars and cents can be what stops a team from acquiring top-end talent when it\u2019s available.<\/p>\n Florida Panthers<\/p>\n Signing Radko Gudas until he\u2019s 42-years-old obviously doesn\u2019t scream winner of the day, but 1) the $1.5 million cap hit is extremely manageable, 2) this team knows how to maximize his game within its system and 3) knowing Florida, management will find a way to bury the contract when the time comes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, it\u2019s the rest of the Panthers\u2019 work that lands them here.\u00a0<\/p>\n It starts with the decision to let Sergei Bobrovsky walk, instead of signing a soon-to-be 38-year-old to a multi-year contract with a $7 million AAV. A Jacob Markstrom-Akira Schmid tandem isn\u2019t without its risks. Markstrom is coming off a tough year in New Jersey and isn\u2019t that much younger than Bobrovsky. But his contract is shorter and cheaper than Bobrovsky\u2019s ask. Schmid has potential, and this team doesn\u2019t need to over-invest in goaltending, anyway. The Panthers can be such a dominant team in front of the blue paint that they just need average enough goaltending in the regular season to get by.\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida moved out contracts and cap from its surplus of forwards in the Markstrom trade and flipped Greer\u2019s signing rights to avoid an overpayment on a fourth-liner to make room for Eetu Luostarinen\u2019s next contract (which lines right up with his market value).\u00a0<\/p>\n Sunny Mehta and the New Jersey Devils<\/p>\n Flip to the other side of the Markstrom trade, and the Devils are having a really strong start to the offseason. Sunny Mehta, formerly of the Panthers, has come into New Jersey and quickly addressed major areas of need.\u00a0<\/p>\n It starts with the decision to dismiss Dave Rogalski, the Devils\u2019 goaltending coach, considering how many netminders have either struggled after joining the team or left to succeed elsewhere. Management could have waited on the Markstrom trade to see if he could rebound with some new direction. But goalie trades are pretty difficult to pull off in-season, and had Markstrom struggled out of the gates, it could have tanked his value.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the Devils have a clean slate for a new No. 1 goaltender, much-needed forward depth in Evan Rodrigues and Jesper Boqvist, and assets from the \u0160imon Nemec trade to do some more damage this summer. Then the team kicked off July 1 with a very cost-effective extension for captain Nico Hischier, who is a pivotal part of this team\u2019s attack on both ends of the ice. New Jersey still has a lot of work to do this summer, but this is a really promising start for a team that seriously disappointed last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0LosersChicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n The Blackhawks already took a lot of flak<\/a> for the Bowen Byram trade last week. It was an incredibly imbalanced trade that centers around the idea of Byram being able to develop into a true No. 1 defenseman, even though he doesn\u2019t have a track record playing that role. Living up to the cost of acquisition, which included the No. 4 pick in this year\u2019s draft, was always going to be a challenge. This contract extension<\/a> puts the pressure level in another stratosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like the Blackhawks didn\u2019t know a $10-plus million price tag was coming, and Byram had a lot of leverage post-trade. But a $12.5 million cap hit is beyond that \u2014 it\u2019s outright reckless spending for a team that has not seen what he can do in Chicago, or in this capacity. \u00a0It makes even less sense with the Blackhawks\u2019 timeline in mind. If the chances of Byram playing up to this value already feel slim in his prime, how will this look when Chicago finally turns the corner into a playoff team?<\/p>\n Dallas Stars<\/p>\n Before Zach Werenski announced<\/a> that he wants to stay with the Blue Jackets, one team already became collateral in the fallout of that situation: the Stars.<\/p>\n The Jason Robertson situation was already a knock for Dallas this summer. The team isn\u2019t willing to pay fair value for one of its most important players and can\u2019t seem to figure out an agreeable trade path, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Kraken are also collateral in that situation, and come out as free agency losers for 1) Robertson turning down a $15 million offer because the team has been spinning its wheels over the last few years, and 2) thinking they are a Robertson away from contending.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the Kraken aren\u2019t facing the same pressure as a contender like the Stars, who need to start showing something for this playoff window. And the failed Werenski deal, on top of the Robertson situation, just opened up a second can of worms.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that Werenski wasn\u2019t willing to accept a deal to Dallas, which would have solved a lot of problems; that could have given the Stars the cap savings to pay Robertson a little more while bringing in an ace on the blue line. The problem is now that the team\u2019s willingness to trade Thomas Harley, before his extension even kicked in, is officially public. So management may now have to deal with whatever waves that just created for someone signed to be a very important part of this window of contention.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ken Holland and the Kings<\/p>\n Losing to the Oilers year after year didn\u2019t teach the Kings enough. Apparently, neither did a Round 1 exit to the Avalanche because Ken Holland is at it again with more contracts for aging players.<\/p>\n Erik Haula helps address the Kings\u2019 need for help down the middle, but he\u2019s 35 years old. Corey Perry still has some game as a net-front presence, but he\u2019s 41. Mats Zuccarello\u2019s one-year contract is the exception<\/a> to this because his contract is great value, but it doesn\u2019t change the fact that he will be 39 when the season starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a continuation of a concerning trend in Los Angeles under Holland, after Cody Ceci (32) and Brian Dumoulin (34) signed multi-year deals, joining Joel Edmundson (33) and Drew Doughty (36). And it\u2019s the wrong direction for a team that ranked in the 17th percentile in speed bursts over 20 miles per hour. The NHL is only getting faster, and the Kings simply haven\u2019t been able to keep up.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Jose Sharks<\/p>\n San Jose almost made it out of this unscathed after the Jacob Trouba contract, which was one of the worst free agent signings of the day. And then the team traded for Darnell Nurse<\/a>, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you separate Nurse from his pricey $9.25 million cap hit, there is some bottom-four value there. He doesn\u2019t have a ton of puck skills, but he has a long reach, is a good skater and is pretty battle-tested.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Jose actually made sense as a landing spot with that in mind. The Sharks only had three defensemen signed heading into today, a lot of cap space to work with, and some experience with reclamation projects out of Edmonton. Nurse could help absorb big minutes so the Sharks can shelter their up-and-comers without necessarily blocking anyone\u2019s path to a more meaningful role. And if he doesn\u2019t appear to be a long-term fit in San Jose but gains some value there, the team could retain some salary and flip him to a playoff team closer to the deadline. \u00a0<\/p>\n But once the Sharks acquired Trouba, another battle-tested, overpaid veteran defenseman, a Nurse trade stopped making sense. Now, the team has almost $18 million tied up in these two for the next four seasons. It\u2019s just poor cap management before this playoff window officially started.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2014 Data via Evolving-Hockey<\/a>, HockeyViz<\/a>, HockeyStatCards<\/a>, All Three Zones<\/a>, Dom Luszczyszyn, Natural Stat Trick<\/a>, CapWages, PuckPedia and AFP Analytics. This story relies on shot-based metrics; here is a primer<\/a> on these numbers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In today\u2019s NHL, free agency isn\u2019t the place to build a team. 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