The next two weeks in the NHL are absolutely jam-packed. By the end of it, some teams will look vastly different. Others will look about the same. Teams will have been working since the regular season ended to have their draft boards sorted, the needs of their roster made clear, identified free agency targets, and preparing for the Seattle Kraken to take one of their unprotected players.
Welcome to the starting line of the sprint.
It starts today with the first of the NHL’s two buy-out windows. With a flat salary cap for a few more years thanks to the lost revenues experienced by teams due to COVID-19, some teams might consider utilizing this tool to get out from under some undesirable contracts and give themselves some roster flexibility.