The biggest signing on the eve of the free agent frenzy was the Boston Bruins inking defenseman Torey Krug to a 4-year contract extension, just before he was to officially become a restricted free agent. The deal is reportedly worth $21 million, which works out to be a $5.25 million cap hit per season, which doesn't look too bad for the future face of the Bruins blueline.In 81 games last season, Krug finished with 4 goals and 44 points, ranking 21st among all defensemen in scoring. He may not have a great deal for goals, but he does have a good eye for offense and his 40 assists are a very good indication of that. He will certainly be one of those good defensemen that you can pick up in the middle rounds of the draft and count on him for 40-to-45 points, if all goes well with the Bruins in free agency.
The Bruins are right in the thick of their retooling/rebuild and as much as they have a core group of NHL regulars, they still have a lot of holes to fill, especially if they want to find their way back into the playoffs before too long. They should have no problems with their cap situation, because I currently have them at $19.2 million below the cap ceiling for the players in colour below, which is only 14 guys today.
| Forwards | Cap | Defense | Cap | Goalies | Cap |
| David Krejci | 7.250 | Zdeno Chara | 6.917 | Tuukka Rask | 7.000 |
| Patrice Bergeron | 6.875 | Torey Krug | 5.250 | ||
| Brad Marchand | 4.500 | Kevan Miller | 2.500 | ||
| Matt Beleskey | 3.800 | ||||
| Jimmy Hayes | 2.300 | ||||
| Ryan Spooner | 0.950 | ||||
| David Pastrnak | 0.925 | ||||
| Zac Rinaldo | 0.850 | Adam McQuaid | 2.750 | ||
| Frank Vatrano | 0.793 | ||||
| Zach Senyshyn | 0.894 | Rob O'Gara | 0.925 | Zane McIntyre | 0.925 |
| Jake DeBrusk | 0.894 | Jakub Zboril | 0.894 | Malcolm Subban | 0.925 |
| Danton Heinen | 0.873 | Matt Grzelcyk | 0.859 | Daniel Vladar | 0.743 |
| Austin Czarnik | 0.818 | Brandon Carlo | 0.789 | ||
| Sean Kuraly | 0.809 | Linus Arnesson | 0.818 | ||
| Noel Acciari | 0.793 | Jeremy Lauzon | 0.770 | ||
| Anton Blidh | 0.784 | ||||
| Colton Hargrove | 0.738 | ||||
| Colby Cave | 0.655 | ||||
| Seth Griffith | 0.625 | ||||
| Peter Cehlarik | 0.743 |
Pool worthy, non-pool roster players, injured/retired cap hits, in the system
The Washington Capitals avoided restricted free agency with forward Tom Wilson on the day before the markets opened, as the rough & tumble forward signed a 2-year, $4 million deal on Thursday. Wilson, known more for his trips to the penalty box, still chipped in with 7 goals and 23 points in all 82 games last season, not too far out from the pool worthy list. Wilson also finished up with 163 PIM on the year, so if there is another round of the PIM pool next season, he would be a good candidate for selection.
Well outside the pool worthy list, defenseman Michal Rozsival sits, having 1 goal and 13 points last season with the Blackhawks, but he re-signed with the club on Thursday, inking a 1-year deal, worth $600,000. This might be worth noting, since playing some minutes with the Hawks should earn a player some points and the Chicago blueline depth isn't quite there at the moment, so it could work out in his favour.
22-year old defenseman Jake McCabe signed a new deal with the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday evening, getting three years and $4.8 million in total, which should work out to be a very good bridge-like deal, taking him a little closer to unrestricted free agency. Last season, he featured in 77 games for the Sabres, scoring 4 goals and 14 points, which isn't too bad in his first full year, playing on a rebuilding team. I think he is certainly one we may have to bump up, getting closer and closer to being pool worthy.
With the signings yesterday, the other shoe was likely to drop and a buyout was likely to take place to help the cap situation for the Blue Jackets and indeed it happened, as Fedor Tyutin was indeed bought out of the last two years of his contract. Tyutin had a no-movement clause, so he didn't need to spend any time on the waiver wire and the buyout was complete right away.
There were a total of six players placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of the buyout and one of the headliners in that group was Boston defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who had two years left on his deal, each carrying a cap hit of $4 million. With this buyout, the Bruins will have his hit on the books for the next four seasons, will save a bit more than $2.8 million this season and $1.8 million next season, while a $1.2 million cap hit will weigh in for years three and four.
A player taken in last season's draft, but didn't have a particularly good season, was Tampa Bay's Matt Carle, as the 31-year old defenseman only picked up 2 goals and 9 points in 64 games. The last two years of his deal will be bought out on Friday, as he was one of the six placed on waivers on Thursday morning. He has two years left on his deal and a cap hit of $5.5 million each. The cap hit for all four years of his buyout comes in at $1.83 million, which means there is some significant savings in those first two seasons.
Another notable defenseman was on waivers today, as Barret Jackman was notified of his impending buyout on Friday from the Nashville Predators. His deal only had one year left on it and it carried a $2 million cap hit. The cap hit for the two years of the buyout will only be $666,667, so there isn't a great deal of savings, but it does open up another roster spot for some of the Predators youth or a new free agent.
The last major buyout of the period came in the afternoon on Thursday, as the Carolina Hurricanes officially bought out defenseman James Wisniewski, who had one year left on his deal at $5.5 million against the cap. A knee injury ended his season before the first game was even over, so he really didn't get to show off his wares at all in 2016. His knee injury must have been sufficiently healed, as the Hurricanes would not have been able to buy him out otherwise.
As we draw closer and closer to the frenzy, we now have a pretty good idea of who's heading to market, barring a last minute push, trade and/or signing of a player. So far, many of the names that were scheduled to appear in free agency, have stuck around to this point, which gives us lots of points of interest to talk about. This post, however, we'll just go over the top 10 pool worthy players, which may or may not exactly be the top 10 most exciting players to move.
The biggest prize of them all is Steven Stamkos, who may have suffered a little bit of frost bite from the team in recent seasons, as differences with the coaching staff and the roster's ability to win games, even in the playoffs, without him, may have caused an irreparable rift. The Lightning have kept their cards close to the vest, leading up to free agency, but with all the talk that the Lightning have reached out to the Stamkos camp, the numbers were not exactly working in their favour, so it seemed more and more likely that the team's captain would head to the open market.
It has been expected for a couple of weeks, that Kyle Okposo was set to head to unrestricted free agency, after the Islanders' management team apparently wished him well through the free agency process. A pretty good sign, right? The 28-year old American has played in nine NHL seasons, all with the Islanders and now might be a really good time for him to make a change and collect a few extra bucks doing so.
One of the more interesting trigger men to possibly hit the open market would be Boston's Loui Eriksson, a 30-goal scorer in the 2016 season. The Bruins have some holes to fill and can't seem to close the gap between offer and demands between themselves and the player, ahead of unrestricted free agency. There is little doubt that Eriksson will find what he's looking for on the open market and the days that have led up to free agency opening tomorrow has probably been filled with many suitors, so I would imagine that he will be one of the first to go tomorrow at Noon ET.
The Los Angeles Kings, no matter how much they thought they could be, were not really going to be in the market to re-sign forward Milan Lucic, unless some moves were made, previous to the open market going live tomorrow. Between his age and scoring comparable players, Lucic was actually in some pretty distinguished company, so it was going to be hard for Los Angeles to work around some of their cap issues for him.
Frans Nielsen quietly goes about his business and manages to post some very respectable numbers and I would bet that he would like it to stay that way. Unfortunately, being a high profile unrestricted free agent may change things this Summer, as he ranks 5th on the list this year, as the clock ticks over to the flood gates opening. In 2014, he posted 58 points, 2015 was 43 points and then in the 2016 season, he got back up to 52 points and was a 20-goal scorer as well for the Islanders.
The well-traveled Lee Stempniak is heading back to the open market, as his brief stint with the Boston Bruins was only just a rental agreement, by the look of things. There might still be a home for him in Beantown, but the Bruins are probably going to exercise their options before coming back to the 33-year old in the early part of the Summer. Last season, his cap hit was a fine bargain at $850,000 and he finished 107th overall in pool scoring, so there is certainly some value there, but the Bruins are not going to get him that cheap again, hence the wait.
It's hard to imagine a talent like Mikkel Boedker would be a rental player, but heading into the frenzy, the Colorado Avalanche have announced that Boedker will go to free agency, but that isn't to say that they won't be a big player in the bidding process for his services. 
It isn't exactly a banner year for goaltending on the open market, as the hot commodities, which are number one goalies, are generally locked up for the long-term and are rarely available this late into the Summer. It is definitely more about goalies who believe they have earned a shot at being a number one elsewhere, enter Chad Johnson. Johnson did an admirable job in Buffalo, while Robin Lehner recovered from an ankle injury, but Lehner has been identified as their number one, so Johnson will try and find a shot elsewhere through free agency.
Could this be the Summer where Shane Doan finally leaves the Coyotes organization to try and win himself a Stanley Cup before the end of his loyal career? Would you believe that he is already coming off of his first 35+ contract, which was a 4-year deal at the time? The 39-year old forward was still producing in the 2016 season, scoring 28 goals and 47 points in 72 games for the dogs, so he still carries a lot of value to a team, especially in the leadership department.
The curious case of Andrew Ladd and what his value might be moving forward. There was a lot of chatter that if Winnipeg was to re-sign him to a contract extension, it would have cost them an arm and a leg. After the trade to Chicago and the Blackhawks' exit from the playoffs, combined with the role Ladd played, he demands may not be quite as high for a team to sign him on.
The World Cup of Hockey will face-off on September 17th and we should be seeing camps open for all the announced rosters in the couple weeks before that. That should give us ample time for us poolies, however many there may be, to scout the teams and prepare a list for drafting.
The second deal of the day had a lot to take in as well, as the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators swapped their top defensemen in an exceptionally bold move.
Now, on the other hand, the loss of Carey Price to injury really showed how much of a free wheelin' team the Canadiens were and in Shea Weber, I don't think they will give up nearly as much offense to get some much needed steady defense in front of whoever is in net for the team.
The Minnesota Wild have announced that they signed forward Jason Zucker to a brand new deal, 2 years worth $4 million. The 24-year old forward hasn't quite excelled enough in Minnesota to earn himself a long-term deal, rather they continue to bridge him into a very reasonable deal, as he eats up minutes with marginal offensive success.
The first of two tremendous hockey deals dropping on Wednesday afternoon saw the Edmonton Oilers finally move one of their key core players for some defense, when they traded Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for Adam Larsson. Hall, the 1st overall pick in 2010, Larsson the 4th overall pick in 2011, these were two very highly touted players and both could have been Oilers, 
In Larsson, the Oilers will get some quality help on their blueline, but he hasn't quite blossomed into the guy that could have gone with the 1st overall pick in that 2011 draft just yet. Certainly, the Devils were not exactly a bustling hub for a lot of offense over the years, but even still, Larsson has had his ups and downs and his ups have been pool worthy, including the 2016 season.
The San Jose Sharks were working on their housecleaning before the free agency period officially opened up, inking trigger man forward Tomas Hertl to a new bridge deal, giving him a 2-year deal, reportedly worth $6 million.
With only a couple more days for buyouts, the Calgary Flames announced that they were joining in by placing Mason Raymond on unconditional waivers for the purpose of buying him out. Cap savings on this move will be $2.1 million, but will carry a cap hit of $1.05 million, both this year and next. His buyout deals are here, 
The fear of offer sheets got the best of the Columbus Blue Jackets or so we're supposed to think. With Seth Jones, potentially their best defenseman here shortly, they needed to get a deal done before the floor opened up to restricted free agency and the vultures (or other NHL teams) couldn't put the pressure on.
Andrew Shaw... signed, sealed and stickin' around Montreal for six seasons.
Much being made about the restricted free agents that were not qualified on Monday, one signing almost fell through the cracks, as the Arizona Coyotes didn't have to extend a qualifying offer to goaltender Louis Domingue, as he signed a 2-year, $2.1 million deal.
It isn't too often that a pool worthy player isn't qualified as a restricted free agent, but that is indeed the case for defenseman Justin Schultz, who wasn't qualified by the Penguins by today's deadline and he will become an unrestricted free agent on Friday.
Adding to this list is forward Brandon Pirri, who wasn't qualified by the Anaheim Ducks, as teams continue to clean house a little. Pirri was ranked 195th among all forwards in scoring in 2016, as he finished up with 14 goals and 29 points on the season. One would have to believe that Pirri would be a player that lands on his feet in this off-season, getting a new job somewhere. His 14-goal total is nothing to be sneezed at.
On Monday, the Vancouver Canucks announced that they have placed forward Chris Higgins on waivers for the purpose of buying out the remaining year of his contract. As per 
The Nashville Predators have locked up their featured forward, as Filip Forsberg has taken the team by storm and will do so for the foreseeable future.