While we are awaiting final word on the arrangements for the 2020-21 NHL season, two things are for certain. First of all, the announcement will becoming very soon. It needs to, if the NHL is going to be able to start by the second or third week of January. Second, given the flat salary cap with so many teams having very limited space, there are a lot of nervous agents and still-unsigned players.
"It would be one of the best buyers' markets in a long time if there was more liquidity in the system. Right now, cap space is THE number one asset," said one NHL team front office executive. "Thing is, it's hard to create cap room this offseason and a lot of teams have already used up most or all of their offseason budget for acquisitions. Even a lot of teams that technically have wiggle room below the cap ceiling are working against budget limitations from upper management because of the lost revenues over this year."
I asked him if he thought the trading and sigining marketplaces would open up imminently, because I've been hearing there's all sorts of discussions going on between clubs and between teams and agents. The likelihood of brief training camps with no exhibition games (or one at maximum) also complicates the chances of bringing in players on PTOs. There just won't be much time to fairly evaluate tryout players.
"I think it will open a little once there's a season," he said. "But for right now, I think there's going to be some good players without deals when the season starts. You could see some increased dealing in-season, especially for clubs that have banked cap space."
As I've noted in several blogs, there's a lot of interest out there in Mike Hoffman, Erik Haula, Sami Vatanen and some others. But the price has to be right, and likely only for one year.