The 5 Best Free Agency Signings This Summer in the Entire NHL
Five Best Deals This Summer
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a few signings in this free agency, mostly to address their blueline.
While I wouldn't say any of the Toronto Maple Leafs signings have been great value, I do like some of the signings they've made.
In this article, I'm not going to focus on the Leafs. I'm going to focus on the five best signings throughout the league.
Like my last article, which was the five worst signings, I will be looking at the money, term and the fit on the team. (All salary info from puckpedia.com).
Viktor Arvidsson
Arvidsson signed a two-year deal in Edmonton with an AAV of 4 million dollars.
I love this bet for the Oilers. Coming off a great Stanley Cup final where they fell just short they add a player who is pretty much a lock for a 20-goal season and could possibly post a 30-goal year.
It's a gamble for Edmonton because Arvidsson has struggled with injuries throughout his career. In 10 seasons where he played in NHL games, Arvidsson has never played a full 82 games and last year he was only able to play 18 games. There is a ton of upside if he can stay healthy, which adds to this unreal forward core (All stats from NHL.com).
The other great thing about this signing is that if Arvidsson does unfortunately deal with injuries again this upcoming season, the Oilers can place him on long-term injury reserve. Once he's on LTIR, they have that 4 million dollar cap hit to work with around the deadline.
Jeff Skinner
Skinner was bought out of the eight-year deal he signed with the Sabres back in the 2019-20 season that carried an AAV of 9 million dollars.
With him being paid out by Buffalo, he signed a cheap one-year deal with the Oilers that has an AAV of 3 million dollars.
Although he was overpaid, Skinner was never a bad player.
Skinner played 74 games last season, scoring 24 goals and recording 22 assists for 46 points. Adding another solid goal scorer to this Oilers forward core on top of already the best offence in the league just makes it so much scarier for the opponent.
This deal is a low-risk, high-reward option for the Oilers and the type of deal you usually don't have the opportunity to get on July first.
Skinner has played 1006 games in the NHL but has shockingly never played a playoff game in his career.
It'll be interesting to see how Skinner performs in the playoffs this upcoming season.
Jake Guentzel
The Carolina Hurricanes traded Guentzel's signing rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick.
Once the trade was completed, Guentzel signed a seven-year deal with an AAV of 9 million dollars in Tampa Bay.
Lightning general manager Julien BrisBois has had an interesting offseason. He let a franchise icon in Steven Stamkos walk and traded away one of the cornerstones of their blueline in Mikhail Sergachev to Utah.
Guentzel will certainly fill the hole in terms of production that the Lightning will lose from Stamkos' departure. The money they gave them is reasonable and being able to lock up a talent like Guentzel is huge, especially after losing a guy like Stamkos.
We'll see how this season plays out for Tampa Bay. Vasilevskiy missed some of last season after going through back surgery and will be able to have a full offseason to recover from it. The blueline will look different after losing Sergachev and bringing back Ryan McDonagh, as well as bringing in J.J Moser.
Not having a guy like Stamkos around the dressing room could affect the team as well, but just analyzing this signing in particular is very good.
Jonathan Marchessault
This was one of the biggest signings this summer.
The Vegas Golden Knights let Marchessault walk to Nashville on a five-year deal with an AAV of 5.5 million.
Marchessault has been pretty open since signing with the Predators that he is upset with how Vegas didn't offer him a respectable deal.
He's coming off a 42-goal season and now has a chip on his shoulder.
That is a career-high for him. I don't think he will replicate that, but I can see him scoring 30 goals next season in Nashville.
Marchessault is 33-years-old so he is on the older side, but with what Nashville is doing, it fits their window. They have O'Reilly, Stamkos, Josi and Marchessault who are all past the age of 30 so they are committing to winning a cup within the next two or three seasons.
While I usually don't like handing out five-year deals to 33-year-olds I like the fit in Nashville with what they are trying to do.
Anthony Duclair
I haven't seen much talk about this contract but I'm a big fan of it.
Duclair signed a four-year deal with the New York Islanders with an AAV of 3.5 million dollars.
This era of Islanders hockey has always been defence first and not much scoring. Adding Duclair gives the lineup more speed and last season he scored 24 goals and recorded 18 assists for 42 points in 73 games between his time in San Jose and Tampa Bay.
As of right now, DailyFaceoff.com has him listed as the first-line left-wing slot on this roster. I can see a line of him and Barzal being pretty effective with all that speed.
The Isles haven't done much this offseason, but this is a tidy bit of business for former Maple Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello.
As for the Leafs, they didn't have any players on this list, but they also avoided handing out any of the worst contracts, so that's something.
The problem with the Leafs picks is that while they offer some high rewards if they work out, the risk-reward ration seems off because, for example, Chris Tanev has to avoid both injury and decline, while they are giving the net to Joseph Woll during Auston Matthew's prime and even if he manages to avoid injury, we have no idea what kind of goalie he really is because he has such limited experience.
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It could work out, but the risk factor keeps it from making this list.