Free agency re-caps

[Jiri Hrdina]

We have one more open batch but the good players are all but gone, so would be fun to read re-caps from teams on how they did.

For the Wild, we really had to grind away to fill out our roster but ultimately happy with who we got for reasonable prices:

- We chose to re-sign Phillip Danault. I find two-way players like him to be really valuable and at 31 years old and 6M per season it seems ok.
- Our first UFA was Casey DeSmith. I hate paying too much for a back-up goalie as I just don't play them much in the sim. So I always want someone <1M which he is. Good enough
- We then followed up with Nino Niederreiter. We traded so many of our top forwards this off-season (Marner, McTavish, Connor, Hyman) and while Nino will play higher than he should, I'm hoping he can be a stop-gap on the top line until others come along. $3.7M is a little high but not too bad.
- Brendan Gallagher will also be a stop gap on the 3rd line. I've always liked him and he brings some physicality we lack. At $2.02 even if I have to buy him out at some point, it won't be hugely punishing. Took a chance at a fairly strong offer to get him.
- After striking out on a bunch of depth forward, we finally landed Derek Ryan who returns to the Wild, where he originally signed many years ago as a guy returning from Europe. $0.75 is all I had, and while his rating isn't great, he can take face offs and kill penalties.
- Ivan Fedotov is a guy I'm excited about. I think he could be Philly's #1. At worst he becomes a cheap back-up for 2 years after this one but I think there's a chance he becomes more.

[Harry Lime]

Last season, I had a couple of guys that seemed to have negative value, for no reason other than their contract. This also seemed to permeate the league to some extent, as 1-way players making above their value seemed to be a bit of a virus. So I decided that this UFA season I was going to not overpay at all, and see where the chips landed. I'm not sure if this was a successful tactic or not, as I was outbid by only a smidgen, on a couple of players that I would have really liked to have.

Matt Zuccarello - yes, he is old, but his NHL contract outlives his CPHL contract, and he has been a fixture on Minnesota's top line for a while.
Alex Killorn - The dude plays the same way, year in a year out. Pretty safe get.
Adam Larsson - stay at home top pairing defensman, playing on a much better team in front of him than last year. Expect a lot of secondary assists.
Matt Dumba - reckless player in real life, but the SIM don't care. Also on a real life showme contract, so I'm expecting him to bring his A game this season.
Connor Clifton - steadying presence, and a shot at being Owen Powers partner for a long time.
Ville Husso - picked him up as a backup for a million. Injured last year, but could steal the crease in Detroit, as that goalie situation is a mess.
Mike Hoffman - on a league minimum 2-way contract. I think that he is done in the league after this year, but 68OV and will play his role.

In retrospect, I wish that I had been more aggressive, to build up some trade fodder. A lot of teams are running on skeleton crews, and warm bodies might have value. Depending on the contract!

[Swayze11]

Devils struck out hard this year with a little under 12 million to spend and seeing a good amount of players leave due to going all in to try and win back to back - it was not good.

First was re-signing JT Miller. It would have been really hard to let him walk after his 103 point season last year. Which meant I had to let Chris Kreider and Gabe Landeskog walk.

Striking out on the first 2 batches I had to over bid going forward.
I was happy to get 2 players who I think have potential to rebound in Huberdeau, Couturier and Taylor Hall.

Since I had to go all in on ensuring I got a few of these guys, it left me with 0 cap and a roster spot to still fill. Thanks to the newly appointed Panthers GM, I was able to bring in Johnny Hockey and a new backup goalie in Jake Allen for Mrazek and a pick.

Losing guys in the off season like Kreider, Landeskog, and Bunting and replacing them with Huberdeau, Hall and Johnny Hockey has me concerned going into next season but we will see how it goes.

[savardandjokinen]

We came into free agency with something like 23M and expected to spend it all, which we did, and also did not want to overpay for guys (acquired hague which took up a chunk as well)

Justin Faulk: 4.12m for 3 years, we needed someone to play on the top pair and at the age of 32 he still has some career left, feels like a decent contract for a guy like him

Jeff Skinner: 4.81m for 3 years, stinky oiler but he is going to put up big numbers this year, only a year removed from being ppg

Rickard Rakell: 4.86m for 3 years, maybe a bit of an overpay here but we missed out on a lot of guys and think he will bounce back being on either sid or geno's line

Calle Jarnkrok: 2.99m for 3 years, good to get a versatile guy who can play pp, pk, and anywhere in the lineup for less than 3M

Andreas Athanasiou: 1.12m for 3 years, low risk contract for a guy who probably has a decent bounce back in chicagos top 6

[JonDuke]

The only UFA we kept was Viktor Arvidsson. It cost us a conditional 3rd but I think his stats will get heavily padded in Edmonton.
We lost Eric Staal, Marc Staal and Ryan Lomberg but didn't shed any tears. Thanks for nothing, see ya never.

We did land some decent veteran presence in ME Vlasic, Phil Kessel and Tomas Tatar, who come in with 94, 91 and 81 for EX stats.
The goalie we signed will be forever referred to as his SIM assigned moniker, player #5679, so we can try to shed our guilt.

But overall, our story was how many players we struck out on with low ball offers:
Monahan, Karlsson, Coyle, Lowry, Foligno, Savard, Leddy, Larsson, Staal, Jensen, Dumolin, Eller, Iafallo, Wheeler, Mayfield, Hall, Couturier. I was sad to miss out on a few of those but not at the prices they were signed to.

[Harry Lime]

I was of this mindset, as well. There were only about three players who I was kicking myself over not bidding that extra 500k. Every other player that I would have loved on the team, but not at the price they ended up at. A good half dozen players fit that category.

[MJK]

Panthers skipped rounds 1-4 leading to the firing of the other GM before MJK the savior was brought in to save the day.

Got a bunch of plugs to dress a team in batch 5 and 6

[simmer2]

After realizing how much $ was out there, we proceeded trade $5M for futures.

Our big need going into UFA was goalies. We filled that fairly reasonably with MAF at 2.4M and Wedgewood at 1.3M.

The other needs were a bottom defensive pairing and another forward.

Landed Dumoulin at 3.42M. Fun fact, I am pretty sure I signed Dumoulin as a free agent when he first joined the league...or drafted him. Can't remember.

Traded for Brodie at 2.25M for 1yr. So between Dumoulin and Brodie they can move up if injuries occur.

Only thing I really struck out on were forwards. We just couldn't pay what was needed.

Overall though, we have some key contracts coming up and want to keep our core if possible...so needed to be cost conscious and added no big contracts.

Cash is king.

[Tilley]

Chicago entered free agency with decisions to make on some top players and address weaknesses from a down year last season.

After grids were released the Hawks chose to re-sign Zibanejad, Trocheck, and Devon Toews securing two top six centers and a top-pairing dman.

It was clear from last season that goaltending would need to be upgraded as well as finding depth for forwards. In batch 1 the Hawks successfully signed the top available goaltender in Cam Talbot on a reasonable deal (4.77 mil) as well as solidifying our top 4 defense with the addition of Jeff Petry at a team friendly 2.65 mil per season.

Batches 2-5 were exercises in fiscal responsibility. Despite the need for bottom six forwards, the Hawks were unable to sign a single skater as prices exceeded what the team was willing to pay.

Batch 6 resulted in two new additions to the team with forwards Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Gabriel Landeskog coming in on bargain contracts. Landeskog represents a calculated risk at 1.01mil per season. If he is able to return to the NHL next season, he will be a fantastic value. If he is unable to play again, his buy-out won't handcuff the team in the future.
It doesn't appear to be much left in the free agent pool, so Chicago will be looking to fill gaps in the lineup with players from the AHL or look to acquire depth using picks and prospects.

In summary, the team looks to be improved from last year although the lack of depth could be an issue. Pleased to have signed players on value contracts that hopefully will age well for the next couple of seasons. The Hawks will look to be more competitive this year and will be heavily relying on the top forwards and dmen to carry the team.

[TheScorpion]

I've already traded one of the guys I signed but here's who I got:

Jamie Benn - Will play on our top line with Keller. Sim beast who should still have a few good years ahead of him. Given how expensive the early batches were, I was pretty excited to get him for $4.75m.

Ryan Suter - Got him for cheap but honestly never really wanted him. Traded him to get Nikita Chibrikov, who I really like.

Nick Jensen - Exactly my kinda guy. Strong two-way D who skates well and can play anywhere from the first pair to the third. At $3.25m, he was a no-brainer for me. I think he'll have a huge year in Ottawa.

Simon Benoit - Identified him and Beck Malenstyn as open batch targets from very early on. Was determined to get him, not because I'm all that high on him as a player but because the value proposition was just too good.

Teddy Blueger - Similarly, I had my sights on Blueger and Derek Ryan as ideal bottom-six C candidates early on. I definitely invested more in Teddy and feel like he could play on my third line. He's got a really good thing going in Vancouver, so I think this contract will end up being pretty good.

Liam O'Brien - Isn't a player who I particularly like, but he has a pretty long contract in Utah and is well-liked by the coaching staff there so I don't think he'll be without his uses. Got him for as cheap as possible for as long as possible. He's also decently rated.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

Flames entered UFA with a boatload of cap space but several gaps in our roster.
We were able to sign the following players:

Alex Pietrangelo - 6.55M x 3 years
Adam Lowry - 3.51M x 3 years
Jordan Eberle - 3.51M x 3 years
Tyler Myers 2.57M x 3 years
Trevor Van Riemsdyk - 2.05M x 3 years
Frederick Gaudreau - 1.32M x 3 years

Overall we were thrilled to add AP, Lowry and Eberle especially. All at 3 year deals that are very palatable for the long term. Eberle was almost signed prior to UFA so was happy to add him at a lower rate then required by grid.

The depth players also come in and per year values should be reasonable moving forward. Special mention to Cody Ceci who was signed and then dealt in the larger package to get Eriksson Ek.

[flambers]

Had money, Coyotes had several near misses.

Lots were close, just was not our year in free agency.

[Quigz17]

The sim loves veteran players so the Leafs decided to lean into that more than ever before by inking Dowd, Iafallo, Coyle, Fast, Paul, Hathaway, Kreider, Martinez, and Trouba.

Particularly fond of the Kreider signing as we've never had a winger that can keep up offensively alongside Tavares/Nylander, so hoping he can.

Coyle, Paul and Iafallo should all be solid top 6 or top 9 skaters, while a 4th line of Dowd, Hathaway and Fast should work well.

Also like the additions of Trouba and Martinez to give us a fairly good group on the blueline.

Our only problem will be juggling pregame naps with early-bird buffets.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by flambers

Had money, Coyotes had several near misses.

I'm sorry, who?

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

I'm sorry, who?

Garnett Hathaway

Jonathon Huberdeau (I changed my mind, lowered the offer... bang it was missed)

Were two of them,

[Ped]

I thought his "who" meant who are the Coyotes?

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by Ped

I thought his "who" meant who are the Coyotes?

He clearly misspoke, and meant to say the "Clubs".

[flambers]

Ah, Utah team with no name

[BagoPucks]

The Columbus Blue Jackets approached the 2024 UFA period like a team that is tired of have garbage assets and also not performing very well over the long run ready to make some noise. They brought in a mix of experienced veterans and depth players to shore up their roster.

Key Signings:
Defensive Reinforcements: The Blue Jackets added one Dman in Ilya Lyubushkin in the open batch, aiming to tighten up their defense, which was shakier than a rookie’s first shift last season. More Dmen were added through trade but these additions bring stability and experience, hoping to support their young stars and improve their goals-against numbers.

Forward Depth: Columbus also signed a versatile forward in Lars Eller, Ryan Johansen, prospect Akil Thomas, Joey Anderson and a few depth prospect. These aren’t flashy signings, but they’re the kind of players who can chip in with timely goals and solid two-way play, something the Jackets need more of.

Goalie Depth: Columbus added Elvis Merzlikins who might end up being a started in the NHL. This was a value signing and a player we had targeted as the organizational depth at this position is relatively weak.

Overall Impact:
Columbus didn’t land any of the big fish, but they made some value bets, calculated moves that could help improve the franchise value base. The biggest news of free agency was probably the acquisition of their own 1st round pick from the flames. Following which, the jackets ended up trading for futures. The Blue Jackets are betting on team chemistry and a few breakout performances to get them back into the postseason conversation if we get there..

[Goffie]

Habs war room debating what free agents they wanted.