NHL free agency live updates (2024)

With the NHL Draft just in the rearview mirror, our attention quickly shifts to free agency. At noon ET today, unrestricted free agents are free to sign a new contract, whether with their old team or a new one.

Sam Reinhart and Jake Guentzel were Nos. 1 and 2 on The Athletic's best free agents list, but Reinhart agreed to an eight-year deal to remain with the Florida Panthers, and the Tampa Bay Lightning swooped in on Guentzel on Sunday, trading for his rights and signing him to a seven-year contract.

Steven Stamkos (No. 3), Brady Skjei (No. 5) and Jonathan Marchessault (No. 7) all agreed to terms with the Nashville Predators.

Elias Lindholm (No. 4) is signing with the Boston Bruins and Brandon Montour (No. 6) with the Seattle Kraken.

The Ottawa Senators and restricted free agent Shane Pinto reached a two-year deal that carries a $3.75 million average annual value, the team announced Tuesday.

Pinto will receive $2.5 million this season and $5 million in 2025-26.

Pinto was handed a 41-game suspension in October after an NHL investigation determined he engaged in “activities related to sports wagering.” Pinto was allowed to rejoin the Senators at the end of January, and the team missed the playoffs with a 37-41-4 record.

The St. Louis Blues have signed forward Pavel Buchnevich to a six-year, $48 million contract extension, the team announced Tuesday.

Buchnevich, 29, has one year remaining on his current contract. The new deal, carrying an $8 million average annual value, takes him through the 2031-32 season.

The St. Louis Blues have made a pair of trades, acquiring center Radek Faksa from the Dallas Stars and right winger Mathieu Joseph from the Ottawa Senators, the team announced Tuesday.

The Blues are giving up no players or assets in the deals, providing the Stars and the Senators with “future considerations.” In the trade for Joseph, St. Louis is receiving a 2025 third-round pick. There was no salary retention in either transaction, according to a team source.

The Tampa Bay Lightning signed defensive stalwart Victor Hedman to a four-year contract extension worth an average annual value of $8 million, the team announced Tuesday.

The deal keeps Hedman, 33, in Tampa Bay, the only NHL home he’s ever known, through 2028-29. It comes on the heels of former 34-year-old captain Steven Stamkos’ signing with the Nashville Predators on Monday.

The Penguins continued to make small moves Tuesday. The latest: adding defenseman Sebastian Aho on a two-year deal at $775,000, the team announced.

This continues a tend of organization depth signings by general manager Kyle Dubas.

The Sabres signed goalie James Reimer to a one-way, one-year contract worth $1 million, the team announced Tuesday.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Devon Levi are in line to be Buffalo's goalie tandem, but Reimer gives the team some insurance if there's an injury or Levi, who finished the season in the AHL, isn't ready to make the jump to the NHL next season. With two young goalies, adding a veteran isn't a bad idea.

Reimer, 36, played 25 games for the Red Wings last season with a 3.11 goals against average and a .904 save percentage. He's not someone who can be leaned on, but the Sabres needed a No. 3 goalie in the organization.

5609070When you have barely any cap space heading into July 1, it’s easy to appear calm and collected. The New York Islanders didn’t sit back as the deals rolled by on Monday because they necessarily wanted to but because they had to — there was no way, with less than $5.5 million in cap space for 2024-25 and a slew of long-term deals on the books, that Lou Lamoriello would be in there swinging for the fences for top-six wingers like Jake Guentzel, Jake DeBrusk or Steven Stamkos, all of whom were gone before the bell rang at noon on long-term, big-money deals.

That Lamoriello was able to fill needs at all with the two signings he made was smart. Retaining Mike Reilly on a one-year, $1.25 million deal was smart; Reilly, claimed off waivers from the Florida Panthers in November, fit very well with what Patrick Roy wanted out of this team when he took over as coach two months after Reilly arrived. The 30-year-old ended up as the second-leading scorer among defensem*n with 24 points in 59 games.

And Lamoriello, as he always does, stuck to his price even as Reilly balked at a similar offer nearly two months ago, opting to see what he could get from another team. That search didn’t last long and the Islanders got their sixth defenseman, rounding out what will be a very familiar D-corps but one that should benefit from a full training camp under Roy and with a new assistant coach, longtime Lamoriello employee Tommy Albelin, coming in to run the defense.

The new addition, Anthony Duclair, is even smarter, especially on a four-year deal worth $3.5 million.

Read more about Duclair here.

Day 1 of NHL free agency got off to a chaotic start, with deals rushing in when the clock struck noon ET. Just after 5 p.m. ET, there were 121 signings carrying 290 contract years and $1 billion in salary, per CapFriendly.

With all of that offseason work done over the last few hours, who are the early winners and losers around the NHL? The Athletic's Shayna Goldman takes a look.

The Edmonton Oilers have re-signed left winger Mattias Janmark to a three-year, $1.45 million AAV contract, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun reported Monday. Janmark had just four goals in 71 regular season games but matched that total in the playoffs as the Oilers reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Two of those goals came on the penalty kill, the first time an Oiler has scored more than once in that situation in a postseason year since Todd Marchant did so in 1997. Janmark was a fixture on the PK alongside Connor Brown, who also re-signed on Monday.

This is the first multi-year deal Janmark has signed since his entry-level contract, which expired in 2017, and the first raise he's received since 2020. The Oilers now have less than $1.35 million in cap space with RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg still unsigned. Trade candidates to provide more financial flexibility are Evander Kane, Ryan McLeod, Cody Ceci and Brett Kulak. It's worth noting that Kane has a full no-movement clause until March 1 at which point it becomes a partial no-trade.

One billion dollars later, the first day of the annual free-agent frenzy has come to a close. The NHL’s wildest day of the year did not disappoint with over 100 signings on the books. Now it’s time to pick out the best and worst of the bunch.

Based on the projected surplus value and the general vibe of the deal, The Athletic's Dom Luszczyszyn breaks down the five best and five worst free-agent contracts signed today.

Ages of the new Blackhawks, who got real old real quick:

Ilya Mikheyev: 29

Tyler Bertuzzi: 29

Teuvo Teravainen: 29

Laurent Brossoit: 31

TJ Brodie: 34

Craig Smith: 34

Alec Martinez: 36

Pat Maroon: 36

Already on the team:

Andreas Athanasiou: 29

Seth Jones: 29

Connor Murphy: 31

Petr Mrázek: 32

Nick Foligno: 36

The Pittsburgh Penguins continued to address forward depth at a short term and low cost with the signing of Blake Lizotte. The 26-year-old forward signed a two-year contract that carries an average annual value of $1.85 million, the Penguins announced Monday.

GM Kyle Dubas has targeted players on lesser terms and lower AAVs as he tries to navigate building a Cup contender in the waning years of the Sidney Crosby era while also guarding against long-term deals for the future that might include Crosby, but very few others.

Ryan Lomberg went viral yesterday for his Stanley Cup celebrations with Florida Panthers fans, drinking beer from a mini model Stanley Cup and even crowdsurfing with no shirt on. All the while, he had done everything possible to keep himself from worrying about his future. Even if he knew there was a “pretty big” possibility he’d be changing addresses on Monday.

“It’s been weird for sure,” Lomberg said. “A roller coaster of emotions, I would say. Definitely way more ups than downs. Obviously bittersweet having to leave this group and this city and this organization. They’ve done so much for me. When I first signed here, it was my first real shot at being an NHLer and a steady NHLer.

"Winning with this group and the bond that comes with that, it’s special. Because now this group that from the looks of it is going to be pretty broken up, we’re going to live on together for the rest of time because we have that moment together. So it’s kind of tough to turn the page right now”.

Granted, he’s still excited about returning to Calgary, where he played the first 11 games of his NHL career. He joins on a two-year, $4 million contract.

LAS VEGAS — For seven years, it seemed as though every time the Vegas Golden Knights needed a goal in the worst way, Jonathan Marchessault delivered.

It will have to be someone else moving forward.

After not reaching a contract extension, Marchessault hit the free-agent market on Monday morning and quickly signed a five-year deal with the Nashville Predators worth $5.5 million per season.

Signing the 33-year-old winger to a long-term contract obviously carries risk for Nashville, and apparently it was one that Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon wasn’t willing to take. Marchessault will be 38 when this contract expires.

That’s the business of professional hockey with a salary cap. Vegas opted not to pay Marchessault into his late 30s, and only time will tell if it was the correct decision. They’ve moved on from several fan favorites in the past, and many times it’s worked out in their favor.

One thing is certain, though: replacing Marchessault won’t be easy.

The initial wave of the annual free agent frenzy has slowed down, so let’s take a breath and ask the big question: Class, what have we learned today?

Lesson: Being heartless is the new market inefficiency

Jonathan Marchessault not being in Vegas feels wrong. Steven Stamkos not being in Tampa feels worse. Both players leaving on the same day, and essentially admitting that it was the teams’ call and not theirs, is enough to make even the most hardened cynic need a moment.

Lesson: The Predators are back, baby

By landing Stamkos and Marchessault, not to mention signing Brady Skjei today and extending Jusse Saros a few days ago, the Predators are making it clear that they expect to be right in the mix for the Central and beyond.

Lesson: As always, term is what matters

Whenever a new deal gets signed, hockey fans want to know the AAV. That’s important, but for a lot of contracts, it’s not the most important number. Once a player gets out of their mid-20s, it’s the term that often matters most.

In related news, NHL teams don’t seem to have any issue giving out big-time term to guys who are really old.

Read the rest of lessons learned on the first day of free agency.

Want a recap of the biggest deals from the opening hours of NHL free agency, including the Predators making a huge splash with a trio of signings, Sam Reinhart staying with the newly-crowned Stanley Cup champion Panthers on a team-friendly contract, Jake Guentzel finding a new home in Tampa Bay and more?

Listen on The Athletic Hockey Show.

The Montreal Canadiens and forward Juraj Slafkovský have agreed to terms on an eight-year, $60.8 million contract, general manager Kent Hughes announced Monday. The contract carries an average annual value of $7.6 million and will kick in next season and carry over to 2032-33.

Slafkovský was drafted by Montreal with the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and leads the 2022 draft class in total games played (121), goals (24), assists (36) and points (60).

Signing Slafkovský was the No. 1 priority of the offseason for the Canadiens, and to get it done on the first day he was eligible to sign an extension, and get it at this number, is a big win for the Canadiens.