Stanley Cup winners aren't built during free agency. Contending teams can go fishing in the NHL's offseason waters in hopes of rounding out their squad. But, by and large, successful organizations build from within and use trades or free agency to fill perceived gaps and shore things up around the margins.
Yet we still see general managers go bonkers every time free agency opens to bid against each other. This past summer, against the backdrop of a pandemic that supposedly ravaged the league's financial landscape, teams spent over half a billion dollars during the first day of free agency alone.