The Best and Worst of NHL Free Agency so far

Why are teams extra cautious this free agency? Which micro-risks will actually pay off?

We’re almost one week into NHL free agency 2025, and we can see by now that the name of the game this time around isn’t to make the most moves or acquire the hottest names no matter the cost. The name of the game is to make as few mistakes as possible.

We’ve seen several big in-house extensions, like Bill Zito completing the hat trick with Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad staying in Florida, Ivan Provorov extending in Columbus, and Brock Boeser (!) running it back in Vancouver. We’ve seen some of the other big moves occur via trade, like Mitch Marner’s sign-and-trade to Vegas and K’Andre Miller to Carolina. Of course we’ve had some straight up free agent signings, but few have been of that “maxing out for a big name” nature, and it’s funny, because many teams in the mix actually have the cap space to do so for once.

As I’m checking in with folks all around the league about the happenings (or lack thereof) so far, there are a few main explanations for the way it’s all been shaking out.

1. This free agency market is particularly barren

We’d been discussing the lack of big names hitting the market for months leading up to July 1, so it’s no surprise the Marner deal and the Florida extensions — the most anticipated moves of the deadline — got done the night before the agents were freed. Vegas and Florida are also two teams that simply take care of business, and they weren’t about to prolong their dealings and risk their guys getting away. That means less “fun” (read: chaos) for us, but it also lets us know what it looks like when two competent front offices are at the forefront of the biggest decisions in the league. They set a tone of competency for this free agency period that the rest of the league (for the most part) has no choice but to follow.

2. The paradox of choice and the rising cap

With the cap rising significantly for the first time since pre-COVID, you’d think teams would be chomping at the bit to do things even more disastrous than usual. In reality, majority of teams were anticipating the cap rising, and they used it to justify disastrous decisions of the past.

It was more of a “Don’t worry, we might be overpaying for this guy right now, but when the cap rises in two years it’ll look fine” type of thing. There were also a lot of anticipatory bridge deals and RFA dealings over the past few seasons, along with a lot of longterm goaltending extensions so teams didn’t have to pay goalies more on the current free market. It’s more like teams can actually take care of their unfinished, in-house business with slightly more room to breathe. It’s also more like teams locked down a bunch of players before this to avoid paying players more money.

3. Everyone is terrified of becoming the 2024-25 Nashville Predators

Thanks, Barry.

Given this year’s unique circumstances, which teams have done the best in free agency so far? Which teams are somehow still managing to screw it up?