On July 1st, spending prudently during free agency offers advantages, particularly access to the trade market where teams can acquire quality players at lower costs.
The St. Louis Blues excelled in this strategy by first acquiring center Radek Faksa from the Dallas Stars for $3.25 million, freeing up space for Dallas to re-sign restricted free agent Thomas Harley. Faksa has maintained a faceoff win rate of at least 54% over the past four seasons.
Subsequently, St. Louis obtained Mathieu Joseph from the Ottawa Senators for $2.95 million, enabling Ottawa to re-sign center Shane Pinto.
Other NHL teams, including the Montreal Canadiens, could follow St. Louis' lead. Recall that the Canadiens previously employed this strategy when acquiring Sean Monahan.
According to Jacob Stoller of The Hockey News, players like Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Ross Colton, Brayden McNabb, and Evan Rodrigues could be available for trade due to salary cap considerations.
