When the final pick of the 2024 NHL draft is selected, there could be less than 48 hours before the first unrestricted free agent formally switches teams in the offseason.
July 1 is when the “frenzy” begins, but the chaos should precede that for weeks. There are prominent players seeking new contracts, teams jockeying to solve significant lineup problems via trade and a salary cap that jumped a little higher than expected as a catalyst for even more player movement.
How much more will be entirely contingent on the teams.
“It depends on what some of these teams are going to do in the next two, three weeks contractually with their own players,” New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald said. “Do some guys hit the market or not?”
After conversing with NHL team executives and player agents over the past few weeks, here’s a glimpse of how they see the offseason landscape.
Salary cap surprise
The NHL and the NHLPA announced over the weekend that the salary cap for next season will be set at $88 million, slightly higher than earlier projected. The salary cap floor is $65 million.
“I know the general managers and the teams are excited to have more flexibility, and it means that the revenues are as robust as we’ve been telling you all along,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “I predict that it will continue to go up. I believe we’ll continue to have robust growth in the cap.”
That was welcome news to some.
“We moved through a rebuild and now the cap is growing. Just like we drew it up,” one NHL executive said, with a laugh.
NHL teams and agents weren’t shocked by the news. They’ve always been operating under a range of $87-88 million for this season. But the extra flexibility does go a long way.
“It could mean the difference between locking up a player or having him leave as a free agent,” one NHL player agent explained.
But it also means that those players who reach free agency could see the value of their contracts rise as the salary cap does.
“The free agent market is what it is, but now there’s more money in the system,” one team executive said. “I think you’ll see contracts where you’re going to go, ‘Oh my god’ based on the last five years under the cap.”
Of course, it doesn’t always come down to money.
Players want commitment and security. Contract term has always been the goal of the top-tier free agents, along with an increase in salary. But that’s become increasingly true for what can be considered role players. Teams are happy to lock in a player they like at a “fixed rate,” as it were. And the players get as much professional certainty as they can muster.
“Everybody is looking for term,” one NHL general manager said.
Betting on yourself?
A few agents expressed surprise that some pending unrestricted free agents haven’t already re-upped with their teams, given some of the contract numbers they’ve heard rumored.
There’s nothing wrong with betting on oneself. They’ve earned the right. It’s just that in many cases, the grass wasn’t just not greener, it was dead.
“I think there are some players who have gotten pretty solid offers to remain with their teams but might go and bet on themselves,” one agent said. “And there are number of players that did that and it didn’t work out.”
Taylor Hall is a cautionary tale. He sought a long-term deal in 2020, only to get a one-year deal at $8 million from the Buffalo Sabres. That led to a cap-friendly, four-year deal with the Boston Bruins, who eventually traded him to the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks.
John Klingberg is a cautionary tale, too. He bet on himself in 2022 and ended up with a one-year deal in Anaheim, followed by a one-year deal in Toronto, followed by free agency this summer with his stock low.
Sometimes hitting the market means hitting a wall when it comes to term.
The market outlook
What does the free agent field look like for Summer 2024?
“There are some wingers that can do some damage out there,” one NHL GM said.
Chief among them is Jake Guentzel, who the Carolina Hurricanes acquired at the trade deadline. He’ll make much more than his $6 million cap hit on his last contract as a play-driving goal-scorer who has shown he can hang with elite talents.
That last attribute is probably the reason why Guentzel’s name has been linked with the Blackhawks as an unrestricted free agent. Who better to be Connor Bedard‘s wingman than a guy who learned the tricks of the trade playing with Sidney Crosby?
At the NHL draft combine in Buffalo last weekend, Chicago GM Kyle Davidson wouldn’t address specific rumors, but indicated he would be open to adding a significant player in free agency even if it doesn’t sync with his team’s timeline.
“It would be a disservice not to consider every trade option or every free-agency option,” Davidson. “We did it last year and we kept it short, but you’re always open to longer. You have to be. In the NHL, it’s hard to acquire talent, so you have to be open to whatever comes up. But it can’t be something that limits what you’re doing.”
Rare is the 57-goal scoring winger who might be available as a free agent, but that’s Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers.
The team wants to keep him, from GM Bill Zito to Reinhart’s linemate Aleksander Barkov. They’ve pushed contract talks until after the Panthers’ playoff run ends.
“Honestly, really haven’t thought about it too much, certainly not now,” Reinhart said before the Stanley Cup Final. “I think right from the start we’ve had one goal in mind. We’ve kind of been on that mission. I think maybe personally you get off to a good start, it’s easy to keep everything else on the back burner in the back of your mind. I’ve had no issues with it. The team’s had no issues with it.”
Another fascinating name on the wing is Jonathan Marchessault, an original “Golden Misfit” who has reached unrestricted free agency with Vegas. The 33-year-old is one of a handful of UFAs for the Golden Knights — William Carrier, Alec Martinez and Chandler Stephenson among them. The difference is that none of them have a Conn Smythe to their names.
“It depends if this is important to them or not,” Marchessault said recently, when asked if he’ll get a new deal done with Vegas. “I want to be in an organization that wants me. I have a couple of years left. I don’t play it for fun. I play it because I want to win. I want to be in a place that’s going to help me win.”
The goalie market can be best described like this: It’s possible the best UFA goalie available is the same one the Maple Leafs are trying to upgrade, in Ilya Samsonov.
It’s hard to fathom a captain, franchise icon and player who potted 40 goals and tallied 81 points in 79 games this past season could be allowed to skate away from the only team he’s known — especially when that team is still in a competitive window.
Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois said that he’s “very hopeful” the team can re-sign Stamkos, and feels he’s part of their group.
This was the final year of his eight-year, $68 million contract. Stamkos, 34, said he had been “disappointed in the lack of talk” about an extension, having expressed a desire to get something done before the regular season started.
The executives and agents we spoke with uniformly expect him to remain with the Lightning.
“I think Stamkos is going to maybe flirt with it, but I suspect he’ll stay with Tampa,” one NHL agent said. “Instead of giving him a high average annual value, maybe they give him an extra year.”
“I think he stays, ultimately,” an NHL GM concluded.
One NHL agent felt that Stamkos might have a chance to dip his toe in free agent waters, by design.
“Knowing the people involved, they might be letting him test the market, see what’s there, with the understanding that they have a number and they’re sticking to it,” they said. “I think he heads back to Tampa. There’s loyalty. There’s good tax dollars there. But you never know for sure.”
The goalie carousel
Besides Stamkos, the biggest mystery of the offseason for those inside the game is the goaltending carousel via the trade market.
This should come as no shock, but the New Jersey Devils are in the market for a goaltender.
“For us, I want to really zone in on the priorities. Trying to find the right goalie for this team,” Fitzgerald said. “What is that going to cost us? Does this make sense? Does that make sense? What does a package look like?”
The teams seeking solutions in goal include the Devils, Los Angeles Kings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators and potentially the Carolina Hurricanes.
The two goaltenders most prominently named on the trade market: Calgary netminder Jacob Markstrom and Boston goalie Linus Ullmark. Markstrom has a full no-movement clause while Ullmark has a limited one that covers half the league, according to Cap Friendly.
Anaheim’s John Gibson could join that group. He’s signed through the 2026-27 season at a cap hit of $6.4 million per season. While it seems increasingly less likely, there’s also Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros, who is one year away from unrestricted free agency. But GM Barry Trotz seems more interested in retaining him.
“[Saros] wants to be here, and he’s been a big part of it. I’d like him to be here, so we’re going to work hard at getting something done with him,” Trotz said recently.
A lot of demand. Perhaps not a lot of supply.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how all that unfolds,” one executive concluded.
Welcome to Utah
Bill Armstrong is used to having the most open cap space in the NHL. He’s just not used to being able to potentially utilize so much of it.
Armstrong was hired in 2020 as the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes. He relocated with them to Utah and the world changed. His owner Ryan Smith has spent, spent and spent again to secure the franchise and try to make everything around it first-class. His team, for the first time, has a sense of stability — no one Armstrong signs is going to have worry about playing in a college hockey arena until a permanent barn is built.
“There are different conversations than we had in the past,” said Armstrong, regarding his chats with colleagues and player agents.
Do they suddenly see Utah as an NHL ATM?
“They do, they do,” Armstrong said, laughing. “They get excited when they talk to us, that’s for sure.”
Many inside the NHL expect Utah to be an X factor of the offseason. There are areas where they expect the team will be active in free agency or in the trade market; it could use some talent upgrades in its defense corps and could use a veteran center. But as a franchise looking to be competitive quickly in a new market, many are wondering how aggressive it will get with the cap space and all that draft pick capital.
It’s possible Utah won’t take a giant swing in Year 1. It doesn’t want to be handcuffed with a big contract right off the bat. It seems comfortable with players like Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley being “the posters on the arena” like Marc-Andre Fleury was for the Vegas Golden Knights, rather than importing a star.
“We’re going to open up our doors and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a sellout,” Armstrong said.
But the temptation will be there to add familiar names.
So might the opportunity. The fact is that with a strong owner, good facilities and plenty of enthusiasm, Utah could be a place that attracts players beyond the finances.
“Don’t underestimate the power of intrigue,” one agent said. “You’re going to have guys that simply want a change that are going to be attracted to Utah, for the team and the geography. It happened in Seattle and I think it could happen there too.”
In his first start since agreeing to a $170 million, six-year contract, the left-hander pitched a career-best eight innings as the Red Sox shut out the Baltimore Orioles 3-0 on Wednesday night. Crochet also threw 102 pitches, one shy of his career high.
“My first start in college I went eight, and I haven’t sniffed it since,” Crochet said.
Crochet (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out eight in his first victory since the offseason trade that sent him from the Chicago White Sox to Boston.
“That’s the reason he’s here,” manager Alex Cora said after the game. “That’s the reason we committed to him.”
Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA last season, a bright spot on a Chicago team that lost 121 games. He threw 146 innings, which was double his previous career total since his debut in 2020.
Then Crochet was dealt to the Red Sox, and they made their long-term commitment to the 25-year-old earlier this week.
“Going back to when the trade went through, we knew Boston was a place where we would love to be long term,” Crochet said. “Credit to the front office for staying diligent, and my agency as well.”
Now the question is less about where he’ll pitch and more about how well. He’s off to a nice start in that regard.
“I can’t think of the last time I played baseball for pride. In college, you’re playing to get drafted, and once you’re in the big leagues, you’re playing to stay in the big leagues,” Crochet said. “So to have this security and feel like I’m playing to truly just win ballgames, it takes a lot of the riff-raff out of it.”
The news all around was good for Boston on Wednesday.
It reached a $60 million, eight-year deal with young infielder Kristian Campbell, and he went out and doubled twice against the Orioles.
And Rafael Devers ended a 21-at-bat hitless streak to start the season with an RBI double in the fifth inning. He finished with two hits and no strikeouts.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
LOS ANGELES — Aside from his ability to pitch and hit and stretch the boundaries of imagination, Shohei Ohtani has displayed another singular trait in his time in the major leagues: an ability to meet the moment. Or, perhaps, for the moment to meet him.
And so on Wednesday night, with his Los Angeles Dodgers looking to stay unbeaten, the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, and more than 50,000 fans standing and clenching the Ohtani bobbleheads they lined up hours in advance for, Ohtani approached the batter’s box — and his teammates expected greatness.
“He’s going to end this right here,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said he thought to himself.
“We knew,” starting pitcher Blake Snell said. “It’s just what he does.”
Validation came instantly. Ohtani stayed back on a first-pitch changeup from Raisel Iglesias near the outside corner and shot it toward straightaway center field, 399 feet away, for a walk-off home run, sending the Dodgers to a 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the reeling Atlanta Braves.
“I don’t think anybody didn’t expect him to hit a walk-off home run there,” Dodgers utility man Tommy Edman said. “It’s just a question of where he’d hit it.”
The Dodgers are now 8-0, topping the 1933 New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth for the longest winning streak to begin a season for a reigning champion. The Braves, meanwhile, are 0-7, the type of record no team has ever recovered from to make the playoffs. And Ohtani, with three home runs and a 1.126 OPS this season, just keeps meeting moments.
“He’s pretty good, huh?” Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “It’s Shohei. He’s going to do that. He’s going to do things better than that.”
On Aug. 23 last year, Ohtani reached the 40/40 club with a walk-off grand slam. Five days later, the Dodgers staged a second giveaway of his bobblehead — one that saw his now-famous dog, Decoy, handle the ceremonial first pitch — and Ohtani led off with a home run. On Sept. 19, Ohtani clinched his first postseason berth and ascended into the unprecedented 50/50 club with one of the greatest single-game performances in baseball history — six hits, three homers, two steals and 10 RBIs. Barely two weeks later, he homered in his first playoff game.
When Ohtani came up on Wednesday, he had what he described as a simple approach.
“I was looking for a really good pitch to hit,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t get a good pitch to hit, I was willing to walk.”
Of course, though, he got a good pitch.
And, of course, he sent it out.
“You just feel that he’s going to do something special,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I just like the way he’s not pressing. He’s in the strike zone, and when he does that, there’s just no one better.”
The Dodgers began their much-anticipated season with a couple of breezy wins over the Chicago Cubs from Japan, even though Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did not play in them. They returned home, brought iconic rapper Ice Cube out to present the World Series trophy on one afternoon, received their rings on another and swept a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. Then came the Braves, and the Dodgers swept them, too — even though Freeman, nursing an ankle injury caused from slipping in the shower, didn’t participate.
The Dodgers already have two walk-offs and six comeback wins this season.
Wednesday’s effort left Roberts “a little dumbfounded.”
A nightmarish start defensively, highlighted by two errant throws from Muncy, spoiled Snell’s start and put them behind 5-0 after the first inning and a half. But the Dodgers kept inching closer. They trailed by just two in the eighth and put runners on second and third with two out. Muncy came to bat with his batting average at just .083. He had used the ballyhooed “Torpedo” bat for his first three plate appearances, didn’t like how it altered his swing plane, grabbed his usual bat for a showdown against Iglesias and laced a game-tying double into the right-center-field gap.
An inning later, Ohtani ended it.
“Overall, not just tonight, there is a really good vibe within the team,” Ohtani said after recording his fourth career walk-off hit. “I just think that’s allowing us to come back in these games to win.”
The Dodgers’ 8-0 start has allowed them to stay just ahead of the 7-0 San Diego Padres and the 5-1 San Francisco Giants in the National League West. Tack on the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) and the Colorado Rockies (1-4), and this marks the first time in the divisional era that an entire division has combined for at least 25 wins and no more than seven losses, according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers’ and Padres’ starts mark just the fifth season in major league history with multiple teams starting 7-0 or better, and the first time since 2003.
The Dodgers famously overcame a 2-1 series deficit to vanquish the Padres in the NL Division Series last year, then rode that fight to their first full-season championship since 1988.
That fight hasn’t let up.
“It feels like this clubhouse is carrying a little bit of the attitude we had last year that we’re never out of a game and we’re resilient, and we’ve been carrying it into this season,” Muncy said. “It’s been fun to watch. The guys don’t give up. Bad things have happened, and no one’s really been down or out on themselves. Everyone’s just, ‘All right, here we go, next inning, let’s get after it.’ The whole team, top to bottom, has been doing that. It’s been making it really, really fun to play.”
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of death of the teenage son of former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, authorities in Costa Rica said Wednesday night.
Randall Zúñiga, director of the Judicial Investigation Agency, said 14-year-old Miller Gardner was tested for carboxyhemoglobin, a compound generated when carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin in the blood.
When carboxyhemoglobin saturation exceeds 50%, it is considered lethal. In Gardner’s case, the test showed a saturation of 64%.
“It’s important to note that adjacent to this room is a dedicated machine room, where it’s believed there may be some type of contamination toward these rooms,” Zúñiga said.
The head of the Costa Rican judicial police added that, during the autopsy, a “layer” was detected on the boy’s organs, which forms when there is a high presence of the poisonous gas.
Gardner died March 21 while staying with his family at a hotel on the Manuel Antonio beach in Costa Rica’s Central Pacific.
Asphyxiation was initially thought to have caused his death. After an autopsy was performed by the Forensic Pathology Section, that theory was ruled out.
Another line of investigation centered around whether the family had suffered food poisoning. Family members had reported feeling ill after dining at a nearby restaurant on the night of March 20 and received treatment from the hotel doctor.
Brett Gardner, 41, was drafted by the Yankees in 2005 and spent his entire major league career with the organization. The speedy outfielder batted .256 with 139 homers, 578 RBIs, 274 steals and 73 triples in 14 seasons from 2008 to 2021.