Am I crazy or is there quite a bit of high-quality RFAs left unsigned? With training camp right around the corner, and the World Cup already being started, it seems to me like there are a lot of contract disputes and potential headaches for teams:
Hampus Lindholm, Rickard Rakell, Tobias Rieder, Rasmus Ristolainen, Johnny Gaudreau, Nikita Kucherov, Dmitry Orlov and Jacob Trouba are all good to great young players who do not have a contract for the upcoming playing season, and they are all playing in the World Cup. Rakell just got injured and sent home. Are they all unsigned because teams want to see if they're healthy after the WC? Doesnt make much sense.
Valeri Nichushkin, Ryan Strome and Nikita Nesterov are all three unsigned as well. Nuke and Nesterov don't seem to have much leverage in my opinion, and should have been signed already at around $1M each for 1-2 seasons. I'm not sure what's the hold up. Strome could be worth a bit more, and whatever the dispute is it should have already been settled.
So what's holding all those contracts up?
Hampus Lindholm, Rickard Rakell, Tobias Rieder, Rasmus Ristolainen, Johnny Gaudreau, Nikita Kucherov, Dmitry Orlov and Jacob Trouba are all good to great young players who do not have a contract for the upcoming playing season, and they are all playing in the World Cup. Rakell just got injured and sent home. Are they all unsigned because teams want to see if they're healthy after the WC? Doesnt make much sense.
Valeri Nichushkin, Ryan Strome and Nikita Nesterov are all three unsigned as well. Nuke and Nesterov don't seem to have much leverage in my opinion, and should have been signed already at around $1M each for 1-2 seasons. I'm not sure what's the hold up. Strome could be worth a bit more, and whatever the dispute is it should have already been settled.
So what's holding all those contracts up?