{"id":94723,"date":"2025-07-26T18:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/94723\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T18:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:26:09","slug":"hockey-insider-david-pagnotta-outlines-why-nhl-trade-market-has-been-so-quiet-this-summer-the-urgency-just-isnt-there-for-teams-to-get-rid-of-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/94723\/","title":{"rendered":"Hockey insider David Pagnotta outlines why NHL trade market has been so quiet this summer: \u2018The urgency just isn\u2019t there for teams to get rid of guys\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NHL offseason was expected to be one marked by many trades, as several<\/a>\u00a0hockey<\/a>\u00a0insiders<\/a> had predicted an increase in activity for weeks, dating back to the draft in late June. Unfortunately for hockey fans, less than a week away from the summer calendar flipping to August, the exact opposite has been the case.<\/p>\n

After the first day of free agency, just seven trades have been recorded by the league\u2019s official tracker<\/a>. A few of them have just been pure salary-cap-related contract dumps.<\/p>\n

In a recent appearance on TSN 690 Montreal\u2019s Melnick in the Afternoon<\/a>, The Fourth Period\u2019s David Pagnotta<\/strong> outlined why he believes the market has been so quiet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I, along with a lot of people, expected a little more activity to this point, but you mentioned the cap space,\u201d Pagnotta said. \u201cThere aren\u2019t many teams in significant cap trouble at the moment. They\u2019re fixable. Montreal\u2019s over; they can fix that with putting Carey Price on LTIR. Vegas is over, but they can fix that by putting Alex Pietrangelo on LTIR.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a full market that is trying to improve, everyone\u2019s buying. Well, a buyer\u2019s market makes things a little bit more difficult. So, these conversations, I believe, are still ongoing throughout the league. Teams are still looking to improve and find ways to make their clubs better, but it\u2019s going to continue to be spread out because of the lack of urgency from teams to sell off pieces while they also want to maintain being better, outside of probably Pittsburgh. There are a lot of teams that are looking; it\u2019s just a buyer\u2019s market. Things slow down from that side of things because the urgency just isn\u2019t there for teams to get rid of guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to PuckPedia<\/a>, as Pagnotta points out, only three teams in the league are currently over the increased $95.5 million salary cap. The Canadiens and Golden Knights will quickly solve their issues with in-season use of long-term injured reserve, while the Florida Panthers are likely just one move away from being cap compliant and don\u2019t need to be until the last day of their fall training camp.<\/p>\n

Pagnotta\u2019s mention of the Penguins as the only genuine sellers this offseason echoes earlier reporting from The Athletic\u2019s Pierre LeBrun in June<\/a>. LeBrun also predicted that many teams were seeking to emulate the same turnaround success the Washington Capitals managed with their on-the-fly retool last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a more traditional offseason, several teams would be entering a rebuilding phase, saying, \u2018Take our veteran players off our roster\u2019 for future assets,\u201d Lebrun wrote<\/a>. \u201cBut there really isn\u2019t a single franchise ready to implode its roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals are expected to be buyers again this year, especially after missing out on potential top-line winger Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency<\/a>. According to PuckPedia<\/a>, the Capitals have $4.125 million in cap space and, as things currently stand, are bringing back just 10 of their 12 regular forwards from the playoffs this past season.<\/p>\n

The Eastern Conference\u2019s top club this past season has made several smaller moves so far, acquiring forward Justin Sourdif<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0defenseman Declan Chisholm<\/a>, as well as\u00a0re-signing Anthony Beauvillier<\/a>. However, they haven\u2019t made the signature move for the \u201cskilled player\u201d that general manager Chris Patrick\u00a0hinted at during his end-of-season media availability in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 NHL offseason was expected to be one marked by many trades, as several\u00a0hockey\u00a0insiders had predicted an…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":94724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-94723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114920946715939058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}