Congratulations to the Florida Panthers on winning the Stanley Cup! Are we happy that former Blue Jackets like Bill Zito, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Kevin Stenlund won, or envious that they achieved such great success while the Jackets continued to struggle? Or maybe we can just enjoy the continued long title drought for fans of Canadian teams?
Here’s your open thread for discussing all of the news of the off-season. There is a busy week coming up:
June 26-June 30: First buyout window
June 28: NHL Entry Draft, First Round
June 29: NHL Entry Draft, Rounds 2-7
July 1: Free Agency begins
In addition to hiring a new head coach and finding a trade partner for Patrik Laine, GM Don Waddell will have to deal with the pending RFAs and UFAs:
RFAs:
Kirill Marchenko
Alex Nylander
Cole Sillinger
Alexandre Texier
Kent Johnson
Jake Bean
Tyler Angle
Marcus Bjork
Jake Christiansen
Jet Greaves
UFAs:
Carson Meyer
Josh Dunne
Brendan Gaunce
Nick Blankenburg
Billy Sweezey
Jakub Zboril
Malcolm Subban
The first bit of business was taken care of on Friday, as Yegor Chinakhov signed a two year deal with an annual cap hit of $2.