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.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.
It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”
In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.
“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”
The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.
“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”
Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.
“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”
Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.
The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.