Money flew freely at the beginning of NHL free agency on July 1 as teams partied like it was 1999. (Er, there were only like five teams that spent in 1999, and they spent five times what everyone else did, which is why we have a salary cap today. But I digress.)
The first meaningful salary cap increase since before the pandemic had teams partying like sailors on shore leave, with agents and players all too happy to oblige.
Along the way, the New York Islanders were...conservative and dare we say smart?
Granted, the Isles didn’t really have any other choice, as their past Seven Years For Everyone ways left them with very little cap room to play with (and still more to cut, somehow).