NHL General Manager reveals what the hold-up is with the remaining free agents on the market
Free agency 2022 got off to a very fast start with a ton of money being spent on day one. The problem is, with all of that money flying around, teams are running out of space to address roster needs and to re-sign RFAs.
Blues rink-side reporter Andy Strickland, also of Cam and Strick Podcast fame, revealed on Thursday that he has been in contact with at least one GM who has confirmed that it has been more of a challenge than usual to free up cap space.
-GM to Strickland via text message on Wednesday night
There are teams with plenty of cap space to burn, but when it comes to taking on salary, GM's are valuing that space tremendously and looking to weaponize it to acquire premium assets.
This could be one of the big hold-ups in a Nazem Kadri signing. If there is mutual interest between Kadri and an NHL club who needs to free up space to get a deal done, that would explain the stalled market. I'd assume that a player like defenseman John Klingberg might be awaiting a Kadri decision to swoop in to attempt to maximize the AAV on his next deal by signing with one of the teams who missed out on Kadri.
Another important thing to note is that the Matthew Tkachuk trade will also probably create a bit of a log jam for teams, as every single contender who might be interested would need to free up space to be able to afford what should be a deal that carries a cap hit above the $9M mark.
By the sounds of things, if we were holding onto hope that there would be resolutions to the Kadri and Tkachuk deals sooner than later, we should probably prepare ourselves for the likelihood that things may drag on into the summer awhile longer.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 21 | 267 ANSWERS NHL General Manager reveals what the hold-up is with the remaining free agents on the market Who will be first to find a new home between Nazem Kadri and Matthew Tkachuk? | ||
| Kadri | 121 | 45.3 % |
| Tkachuk | 146 | 54.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
