The recent flurry of free agents being signed brought some surprises, especially the signings of Vermette and Michalek by the Arizona Coyotes. This tells me that either other free agents were being cautious about where they would hang their skates, due to the Glendale Gila River arena fiasco, or the team was being conservative (as usual) in their choices due to financial constraints.
The team is at $51.958M, still below the cap basement, but close to it. Today, it was announced that Mikkel Boedker was going to salary arbitration, since he was not able to work out a deal with the Arizona Coyotes.