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2022 NHL Free Agency recap: Biggest winners and losers so far

By Eric Treuden

CALGARY, AB - MAY 5: Johnny Gaudreau #13 of the Calgary Flames in action against the Dallas Stars during Game Two of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome on May 5, 2022 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Stars defeated the Flames 2-0. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images)
CALGARY, AB - MAY 5: Johnny Gaudreau #13 of the Calgary Flames in action against the Dallas Stars during Game Two of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome on May 5, 2022 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Stars defeated the Flames 2-0. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images) /
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Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Flyers host the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center. (Photo by Mark Makela/Corbis via Getty Images)
Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Flyers host the St. Louis Blues at the Wells Fargo Center. (Photo by Mark Makela/Corbis via Getty Images) /

NHL Free Agency recap: 3 losers so far

Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers entered the offseason as one of the favorites on paper to land Johnny Gaudreau in free agency. To the surprise of well, everyone, they did not even make an attempt to bring him aboard.

General manager Chuck Fletcher has gone on the record to say that a lack of cap space was the reason behind this questionable move, or lack of one. The Flyers did make a few moves though, but they were very marginal and do little to nothing to truly improve the squad, trading for and extending Tony DeAngelo and signing free agent Nicolas Deslauriers to a four-year, $7MM contract.

To make room for these moves, Oskar Lindblom had to be released and the Flyers are now left with nothing as they were looking to re-tool and return to playoff contention in the coming season. Barring some sort of miracle, not enough has been done to achieve either of these goals.

Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames are the “lucky” team that lost Johnny Gaudreau in free agency and are also set to lose Matthew Tkachuk after he let the front office know that he will not be signing a long-term extension. General manager Brad Treliving did everything he could to keep Gaudreau aboard, even offering him an eight-year, $76MM contract, but it proved to not be enough to sway him into re-signing.

The Flames are coming off of a season in which they surprisingly finished with the second best record in franchise history, winning the Pacific Division along the way. While the playoffs ended in disappointing fashion, there was still glimmers of hope for the future.

Now, Gaudreau is gone and Tkachuk is almost certainly gone as well. The losses of these two superstar-level players is a sign of dark, dark times ahead for the Calgary faithful.

New Jersey Devils

As previously mentioned, the New Jersey Devils truly thought they were one of two possible landing spots for Johnny Gaudreau in free agency To the shock of general manager Tom Fitzgerald, Gaudreau went elsewhere.

On top of that, the Devils missed out on Juraj Slafkovsky in the NHL Draft and have been having themselves a rough offseason all-around. The loss of Gaudreau is certainly the bigger disappointment here, as he represents the third big-name free agent that they have been linked to but failed to sign in recent years (John Tavares and Artemi Panarin).

The bright spot for the Devils this offseason, if there is one, is that they were at least able to check off a few boxes that they had entering free agency, acquiring Erik Haula and Vitek Vanecek in trades and signing both Brendan Smith and Ondrej Palat to free agent contracts.

Next. 3 potential landing spots for Matthew Tkachuk. dark

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