There are two major factors that will shape NHL free agency when it officially begins on July 28.
The first takes place a week before the market opens for business: the Seattle Kraken expansion draft, in which every team not named the Vegas Golden Knights offers up a player to the NHL's 32nd team on July 21. In turn, the Kraken will open up salary cap space for many of those teams, and will open up even more as a landing spot for veteran players whose contracts teams want to shed -- sacrificing draft picks and prospects in order to do so.