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The NHL’s free agency period is here, and the league’s player movement has begun. It likely will move fast and furious.
On Monday, Mitch Marner was traded to Vegas, and Brad Marchand re-signed with Florida.
Tuesday, Brock Boeser re-signed with Vancouver, Carolina signed Logan Stankoven to an eight-year deal and New Jersey re-signed Jake Allen.
More moves are certainly coming so follow along with all of our coverage from our staff of NHL experts and check out our latest NHL free agency big board from Chris Johnston here.
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Live NHL free-agent big board: Where the Top 100 targets are signing and who’s left
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Brock Boeser stays with Canucks, agrees to 7-year, $50.75 million contract
The Boston Bruins have signed Jordan Harris to a one-year, $825,000 contract, according to a source associated with the transaction. The former Northeastern defenseman reached unrestricted free agency after the Columbus Blue Jackets declined to issue him a qualifying offer.
Harris, 24, averaged 11:23 of ice time per game for Columbus. The left-shot defenseman from Haverhill is a depth addition.
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Brandon Tanev has signed with Utah Mammoth on a three-year deal worth $2.5M in AAV.
Sammy Blais signs a one-year deal with the Montreal Canadiens worth $775,000.
A wild-card name to monitor: Maxim Shabanov, a 24-year-old forward who had 67 points in 65 games for KHL Traktor Chelyabinsk last year.
I'm told the Rangers are interested, though I assume other clubs are as well.
Kaapo Kahkonen signs a one-year deal with the Montreal Canadiens worth $1.15M.
First reported by Frank Seravalli.
Columbus Blue Jackets have made the Ivan Provorov signing official.
7 years, $8.5 million per year.
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A veteran left-shot defenseman with two Stanley Cups already on his resume, Dumoulin profiles as a nice depth addition for a contender. Big and mobile, he can be trusted to move the puck effectively while handling a steady workload. He’s not known for being overly physical, but he also won’t be pushed around.
Ethan Bear is signing with the New York Islanders on a two-way contract, per source.
Beauvillier has quite a collection of sweaters in his closet after playing for six teams in the past three years. He went from Long Island to Vancouver to Chicago to Nashville to Pittsburgh to Washington. A skilled winger with decent puck-handling skills, he didn’t find much post-deadline success with the Capitals and will likely need to find another new home.
The Boston Bruins have signed Tanner Jeannot to a five-year, $17 million contract, according to a source associated with the transaction. The 28-year-old strongman scored seven goals and six assists in 67 games for the Los Angeles Kings while averaging 11:01 of ice time per appearance. Jeannot led the Kings with 89 penalty minutes.
Jeannot made his NHL mark as the centerpiece of one of the league’s most recent eye-opening trades. On Feb. 26, 2023, the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired the left-shot wing from the Nashville Predators for a 2025 first-rounder, 2024 second-rounder, 2023 third-rounder, 2023 fourth-rounder, 2023 fifth-round pick and Cal Foote. Jeannot was coming off a 24-goal breakout season with Nashville in 2021-22.
Jeannot did not make the impact the Lightning expected. He scored one goal in 20 games for the Lightning following the trade. Tampa traded Jeannot to the Kings on June 29, 2024, for a 2025 second-round pick and 2024 fourth-rounder.
The Bruins are making a significant investment considering Jeannot’s limited ice time with the Kings. As such, they may consider Jeannot more of a third-line wing and willing enforcer, taking the place of Trent Frederic. The Bruins have always made intimidation a roster priority.
Free agent defenseman Ryan Lindgren has signed a four-year, $18-million contract with the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, league sources told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. The deal carries an average annual cap hit of $4.5 million.
Lindgren, 27, has value as a physical, relatively young right-handed shot. He’d look best on a third pair but isn’t far removed from a stretch with the New york Rangers when he showed potential to be more. Lindgren played five full seasons in New York, and part of a sixth before a March 1 trade sent him to the Colorado Avalanche.
Boston drafted Lindgren 49th overall in 2016. Two years later, he was part of a trade that netted the Rangers Rick Nash before he made his NHL debut in 2019. With the Rangers, he regularly played on the top pair with Adam Fox, but injuries, declining results and a poor fit within then-coach Peter Laviolette’s system took their toll.
Colorado acquired him, along with forward Jimmy Vesey and prospect Hank Kempf, from New York at this past season’s trade deadline for forward Juuso Parssinen, defenseman Calvin de Haan, a 2025 second-round draft pick and a 2025 fourth-round draft pick.
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The St. Louis Blues have signed center Nick Bjugstad to a two-year free-agent contract.
Bringing Corey Perry back after last season looked a gamble for the Oilers. He’d been scratched six times during the 2024 playoffs, and it seemed like age was catching up to him.
But Perry wound up being one of the few Oilers who met or exceeded expectations during the regular season as the team underachieved for various stretches. He scored 19 goals in 81 games. His playoff run was just as good, if not better. He scored 10 times, second only to Leon Draisaitl among Oilers, and often got time first-unit power-play minutes and time on the top line next to Draisaitl and Connor McDavid.
Those two superstars gushed about having Perry on the roster, especially his smarts and gamesmanship. Though the Oilers wanted him back, bonuses were believed to be a sticking point. They’re now looking for younger middle-six wingers to fill or improve the void left by Perry.
A steady winger who doesn’t do anything flashy, Appleton is a veteran who can be trusted to handle his own on the defensive side of the puck. He also has a little offense in his stick, primarily as a playmaker. Appleton will likely find a raise on the $2.1 million he was earning.
With Christian Dvorak in Philadelphia and Joel Armia in Los Angeles, the Canadiens have lost half of their top-four penalty killing forwards from this past season, and they also lost their only reliable left-shot faceoff guy in Dvorak. By trading Emil Heineman in the Noah Dobson deal, they also lost a potential replacement for Armia on the PK.
I would imagine they are looking to replace those elements on the free agent market right now. By trading for Dobson and Zachary Bolduc the Canadiens have definitely improved, but those are holes they will need to fill.
Connor Brown’s Oilers tenure can be split into two parts. He was their only free agent signing two summers ago but struggled in his return from a torn ACL. It took him midway through March to score his first goal in 2023-24 and he was even scratched for the first round of the playoffs. Upon his return to the lineup, however, Brown became a penalty-killing ace and team leader as the Oilers reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
This Brown was steadier and more reliable with his production this season and recorded five goals and nine points in 20 playoff games before being slowed by an injury late in the Western Conference final. The Oilers would have liked to have the 31-year-old back – his former agent Jeff Jackson oversees hockey operations – but he wound up pricing himself out. The Oilers have roughly $5 million in cap space but need more scoring punch on the wings and might want to address their goaltending.
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Flyers are basically out of cap space now if you assume Cam York gets market value. One thing I've been told is they don't want to start the season over the cap — in other words, they don't want to have Ryan Ellis on LTIR to start the season. Same way they operated last season.
Bought out by Winnipeg a year ago, Schmidt found a home on the Panthers' third pairing and was a steady contributor during their Stanley Cup run. The affable puck-moving defenseman brings life to the dressing room and keeps the game moving in the right direction when he’s on the ice. Florida had 59 percent of the expected goals during his five-on-five minutes in the regular season. He’ll be looking for a raise after playing for $800,000 with the Panthers.
The Senators have made it official: Nick Cousins is back on a one-year deal with a $825,000 contract. Cousins played 50 games scoring six goals and 15 points with Ottawa. He missed significant time due to a knee injury, having surgery partway through the season. With Cousins back in the lineup, that’s one-third of their fourth line coming back.
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