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Let’s be honest here: The 2025 edition of “free agent frenzy” has been a total dud. Restricted free agent offer sheets? Not one to be seen. Now, maybe the JJ Peterka trade came about under threat of an offer sheet. We’ll never know. But it was officially a trade. Otherwise, it’s been radio silence on the RFA market.
Unrestricted agents? Yeah, there’s been movement. Nothing earth-shattering. The biggest news stemmed from the sign-and-trade agreement that sent impending UFA Mitch Marner to his new home in Las Vegas. There were a handful of other major trades, like Montreal obtaining Noah Dobson. from Montreal on Draft Day.
Team moving up in the Draft? That’s rumored every year. It rarely happens. The 2025 Draft was no exception. From picks one (Matthew Schaefer) to 11 (Ben Kindel), every club stood pat with their default pick. Finally, Philly moved up from 22nd to 12th to grab Jack Nesbitt to prevent Nashville (in a nearly finished move-up trade to 13th that fell through) or Vancover (15th). Three teams jockeying over one prospect? That was kind of interesting, perhaps.
However, overall, this has been a rather dull offseason. As the saying goes: Does the fun ever start? Not this summer, it didn’t.
