Over the weekend we finally had some resolutions to all those RFA negotiations we’ve been waiting for with bated breath! Let’s go through them, starting with Friday evening for those that were at the cottage early...

First, the Rangers signed Jacob Trouba to 7 years at $8M AAV.

Not to be outdone, the Jets signed Neal Pionk to 2 years at $3M AAV. Pionk is the main piece the Jets got back in dealing the rights to Trouba.

Then we had one of those “why are you even here?” contracts that Katya loves so much, with Brock McGinn re-signing with Carolina for 2 years at $2.1M AAV.

Last, the St. Louis Blues re-signed Oskar Sundqvist to 4 years at $2.75M AAV.

Hopefully we all get some rest and recovery after that flurry of major signings and hockey news.

More seriously, there’s still an absurd amount of young star players who have yet to resolve their RFA contract negotiations. Sebastian Aho got solved pretty quick thanks to the Habs, Timo Meier signed for a pretty team friendly deal early on with San Jose, but otherwise there are:

  • Mitch Marner
  • Brayden Point
  • Mikko Rantanen
  • Matthew Tkachuk
  • Kyle Connor
  • Brock Boeser
  • Patrik Laine
  • Zach Werenski
  • Charlie McAvoy
  • Travis Konecny/

And we haven’t really heard a peep about any of them, aside from people getting entirely too mad about Marner giving a non-answer to questions about the negotiations.

Oh, and also that Rantanen is totally going to sign with Ak Bars in the KHL or something.

Break’s over, time to get Back to Excited (episode 68) for Arvind and Fulemin’s second part analysis of the league’s various moves by team so far this off-season.

Report: Maple Leafs to sign UFA Garrett Wilson | by Katya

Marner’s contract talks with Maple Leafs a roller-coaster of anticipation | by Luke Fox at Sportsnet, a case study of a) why we can’t have nice things, and b) anyone can lose their golden boy status really quickly in this age of being too concerned with the salary cap.

‘Second quick’: How the Jets and assistant Todd Woodcroft build, coach and use their centres | by Scort Whiler at The Athletic

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