The first day of NHL free agency didn’t disappoint. After weeks of rumors and speculation, several big names changed teams including David Backes, Troy Brouwer, Milan Lucic, Kyle Okposo, Loui Eriksson, Andrew Ladd and many others.
Just how much money was spent and how many players were on the move? An insane amount.
119 Players…more than 630 million dollars today.#SigningSeason
— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) July 1, 2016
That’s an incredible number of players with new deals and an even crazier amount spent by teams looking to add talent. The financial number could have been even higher had Steven Stamkos elected to explore different options outside of Tampa Bay. That could have easily inflated the $600+ million total to near $700 million all on its own.
Parity rules the day in the NHL and that’s a big reason why so much money was handed out on the first day of free agency.
