Free agency can be the scariest time of year for many teams across the NHL. Whether a team has cap issues or not, any player who hits the free market can sign wherever they please and that can cause headaches for the teams that employed them.
Teams can always re-sign players or give them contract extensions to make sure they don't make it to free agency, but the lure of being able to land a big contract can be enough for players to give up the comforts of where they're at and sign with another team in another city to call home.