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NHL free agency winners and losers: Fourth-liners cash in, Kings keep getting older
By Shayna Goldman
July 1, 2026
In today’s NHL, free agency isn’t the place to build a team. It’s become a source of secondary talent that can round out the fringes of the lineup — and in a rising cap world, that often comes with an exorbitant price.
Sometimes, the big winner is the team that finds a player under the radar at the right price. But this year, it’s the team that has been able to sit out July 1 altogether so far.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers of Day 1 of NHL free agency.
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Losers
Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks already took a lot of flak for the Bowen Byram trade last week. It was an incredibly imbalanced trade that centers around the idea of Byram being able to develop into a true No. 1 defenseman, even though he doesn’t have a track record playing that role. Living up to the cost of acquisition, which included the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft, was always going to be a challenge. This contract extension puts the pressure level in another stratosphere.
It’s not like the Blackhawks didn’t know a $10-plus million price tag was coming, and Byram had a lot of leverage post-trade. But a $12.5 million cap hit is beyond that — it’s outright reckless spending for a team that has not seen what he can do in Chicago, or in this capacity. It makes even less sense with the Blackhawks’ timeline in mind. If the chances of Byram playing up to this value already feel slim in his prime, how will this look when Chicago finally turns the corner into a playoff team?
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San Jose Sharks
San Jose almost made it out of this unscathed after the Jacob Trouba contract, which was one of the worst free agent signings of the day. And then the team traded for Darnell Nurse, as well.
If you separate Nurse from his pricey $9.25 million cap hit, there is some bottom-four value there. He doesn’t have a ton of puck skills, but he has a long reach, is a good skater and is pretty battle-tested.
San Jose actually made sense as a landing spot with that in mind. The Sharks only had three defensemen signed heading into today, a lot of cap space to work with, and some experience with reclamation projects out of Edmonton. Nurse could help absorb big minutes so the Sharks can shelter their up-and-comers without necessarily blocking anyone’s path to a more meaningful role. And if he doesn’t appear to be a long-term fit in San Jose but gains some value there, the team could retain some salary and flip him to a playoff team closer to the deadline.
But once the Sharks acquired Trouba, another battle-tested, overpaid veteran defenseman, a Nurse trade stopped making sense. Now, the team has almost $18 million tied up in these two for the next four seasons. It’s just poor cap management before this playoff window officially started.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/741417 ... sers-2026/