The Panthers knew this would be a hard day to keep their Stanley Cup-winning team intact, and they couldn’t do it. But they kept some important pieces, signing forward Sam Reinhart to an eight-year contract and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to a four-year deal.
But Florida lost Montour, Ekman-Larsson, Kevin Stenlund (Utah) and Ryan Lomberg (Calgary Flames). The Panthers replaced them by signing forwards Tomas Nosek (one year), A.J. Greer (two years) and Jesper Boqvist (one year), as well as goalie Chris Driedger (one year) .
The Panthers’ remaining UFAs are forwards Vladimir Tarasenko, Kyle Okposo, Nick Cousins and Steven Lorentz.
The Boston Bruins made two major moves to keep pace in the Atlantic Division, signing center Elias Lindholm (seven years, $7.75 million AAV) and defenseman Nikita Zadorov (six years, $5 million AAV).
Lindholm’s signing ended a two-year pursuit of the center by the Bruins. He’s not Patrice Bergeron, but he’s Bergeron Lite, and he fills a major need at center for Boston.
Zadorov gives the Bruins more size and experience on the back end, a potential defense partner for Charlie McAvoy. That would be Boston’s top pair.
The Chicago Blackhawks continued to build around center Connor Bedard by insulating him with more experienced players, including three players who have won a combined seven Stanley Cup championships in forwards Teuvo Teravainen (three years, $5.4 million AAV) and Pat Maroon (one year, $1.3 million AAV), and defenseman Alec Martinez (one year, $4 million AAV).
Teravainen won the Cup with the Blackhawks in 2015. Maroon won it three times (2019, 2020, 2021) and Martinez also won it three times (2012, 2014, 2023).
In addition, Chicago signed forwards Tyler Bertuzzi (four years, $5.5 million AAV), Craig Smith (one year, $1 million AAV) and Joey Anderson (two years, $800,000 AAV), defenseman T.J. Brodie (two years, $3.75 million AAV), and goalie Laurent Brossoit (two years, $3.3 million AAV).
The signings push the Blackhawks in the right direction. It’s a stretch to say it will push them to the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season.
The Edmonton Oilers did some work even without a general manager, signing forwards Viktor Arvidsson (two years, $4 million AAV) and Jeff Skinner (one year, $3 million AAV), and defenseman Josh Brown (three years, $1 million AAV), while also re-signing Adam Henrique (two years, $3 million AAV), Mattias Janmark (three years, $1.45 million AAV) Corey Perry (one year, $1.4 million AAV) and Connor Brown (one year, $1 million).
Staying in the Pacific Division, the San Jose Sharks got two veteran players to buy into their rebuild, signing forwards Tyler Toffoli (four years, $6 million AAV) and Alexander Wennberg (two years, $5 million AAV).
Toffoli and Wennberg, along with center Barclay Goodrow, who was claimed off waivers from the New York Rangers last month, will help the Sharks insulate and develop top-pick Macklin Celebrini and rookie Will Smith.
There were some other big moves on this big Monday in the NHL, including Sean Monahan to the Columbus Blue Jackets (five years, $5.5 million AAV), Anthony Duclair to the New York Islanders (four years, financial terms undisclosed) and Jake DeBrusk to the Vancouver Canucks (seven years, $5.5 million AAV).
And this was just Day 1 of the offseason.
What a day, indeed.
