The NHL free agency signing period for 2023 is underway.
For each key deal, ESPN NHL reporter Greg Wyshynski will assess the player’s fit with his new team, weigh whether the terms of the deal make sense and hand out an overall grade for the team.
We’ll continue to grade the most notable moves through the offseason, so check back for fresh grades as deals are consummated; the newest grades will be listed first.
More: Tracker Free agent rankings
Team-by-team guides
Draft recap: Every pick | Winners, losers
Note: Advanced stats via Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Wild, unless otherwise noted.
Terms: Five years, $4 million AAV ($20 million total)
Where does he fit: In 2016, the Lake Erie Monsters won the Calder Cup as champions of the American Hockey League. In goal, they had a two-headed monster: Anton Forsberg played 10 games in their playoff run, while Joonas Korpisalo played nine games.
So this is an unexpected reunion: Forsberg is entering his fourth season with the Senators. Thanks to his free-agent signing on July 1, Korpisalo is now his crease-mate with the Senators, replacing Cam Talbot in the tandem.
Does it make sense? It does, but not completely. Obviously, the history between the two goalies should lead to instant harmony in the Senators’ nets. Korpisalo is also an improvement over Talbot: Even if you want to view his outstanding 2022-23 season — 39 games, .914 save percentage and a 2.87 goals against average with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings — as an aberration, his body of work over the last two seasons was better than the goalie he’s replacing.
The cap hit is great: $4 million would have made him the 22nd highest paid goalie in the league last season.
The term is not. Five years for a goalie with Korpisalo’s injury history is a risky investment. When he’s healthy, he can be very good. When he’s not, he either doesn’t play or can be quite ineffective — he had a sub-.900 save percentage in consecutive seasons with the Blue Jackets before 2022-23. Five years for any goalie is going to get a middling grade from us. That’s compounded for a goalie that’s been as fragile as Korpisalo.
Grade: C+
Terms: Four years, $4.5 million AAV ($18 million total)
Where does he fit: New Predators GM Barry Trotz went to work this summer by excavating the team’s center position. He bought out the last three years of Matt Duchene‘s contract. He traded Ryan Johansen to the Colorado Avalanche, retaining half his salary for the next two seasons. That meant clearing $4 million of Johansen’s $8 million off their cap. Hey, look at that: Ryan O’Reilly is making $4.5 million. Out goes Johansen, in comes “The Factor.”
O’Reilly isn’t a top-line center at this stage of his career. On a team like Nashville, he’s a strong second-line center. Ideally, he’d be what he was in Toronto — an outstanding third-line center on a deep Stanly Cup contender. But give the Predators depth chart currently, he might need to be more than that.
Does it make sense? There are probably fans around the NHL — certainly in Toronto — that are wondering how their teams couldn’t get O’Reilly in at $4.5 million against the cap. True, four years for a 32-year-old in offensive production decline might have scared away some teams.
But for Nashville, I love the fit. They’re a young team that can use the leadership and savvy that O’Reilly brings to the table, and a team that clearly needed help in the middle immediately. Cast in the right role, it’s a strong add for the Preds. He’s still one of the best two-way centers I the NHL.
Grade: A-