Although it seemed as if the talk of the town was the record hype surrounding the NBA’s free agent class with the likes of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George all seeking new homes, I will not allow that to take away from this years wild and crazy NHL Free Agency class. Some of the more notable names across the league have been on the move. For starters we will go with the local teams, my NY Islanders have been quite busy by trying to retain the young core of their lineup which includes the likes of Anders-Lee, Brock Nelson, and Jordan Eberle which were all successful transactions. Unfortunately there is a salary cap in the NHL, which makes it near impossible to sign or resign everyone. That being said, the Islanders were unable to retain one of their starting goalies in Robin Lehner who signed a 1 year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks, but to make up for the loss the Islanders went out and inked the veteran goaltender from the Colorado Avalanche Varlomov to a 4 year deal. Now, the cross town rivals, the New York Rangers, well we all know the big splash that they went out and made. The signing of Panarin who was sought after by most of the NHL, and that includes specifically their rival NY Islanders, but for undisclosed reasons he went with the NY Rangers, because it’s attractive to most athletes to attempt a big bite out of the Big Apple. This will also fuel the fire that is the NY Islander/NY Ranger rivalry.
Some of the other notable free agency signing from around the league include Sergei Bobrovsky to the Florida Panthers on a 7 year deal and the signing of Anton Stralman, which will serve as a huge boost to their defense. Some notable signings from the west include the big name Matt Duchesne
who will be leaving Columbus after a simply stellar campaign with the Blue Jackets and will be heading to Music City (Nashville, TN) where he was born and raised. While the Predators made the big splash offensively in landing Duchesne they unfortunately were unable to keep their defense in tact with the loss of Co-captain, PK Subban. Some of the other moves include the Blues resigning the young phenom goaltender in Jordan Biddington to a 2 year deal, Kucherov re upped with Tampa Bay on an 8 year deal, Eric Karlsson will remain with the San Jose Sharks as will Evandro Kane for the foreseeable future. So there you have it NHL fans, we are poised for an exciting, hard hitting, hard fighting 2019-2020 regular season, which kicks off the first week of October. Buckley up friends, it’s going to be a season to remember!!!!!!
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