Winner and losers in NHL Free Agency

We're now about 48 hours from the start of this year's free agency period, and if you feel like teams haven't given you much reason to take notice of that fact, you're not alone.

They kept flashing a graphic on TSN's free agent coverage about all the contracts that had been agreed on July 1 the last few years, and every one dwarfed 2025, in both dollars spent and total free agents signed. That trend got even worse on July 2, presumably because everyone was so excited for the release of Jurassic World Rebirth (my review? stay home!!!!). A big reason for the molasses-speed rate of notable transactions: So few top players got to market that the vast majority of deals signed over this two-day period were at or slightly above the league minimum.

While there were certainly some eye-popping and eye