Autonomous player market: Max Pacioretty had received eight to ten offers

The National Hockey League’s free-agent market opened exactly 15 days ago, on July 1.

Since then, a good number of top-tier and second-tier free agents have signed contracts with their new teams for the 2023-2024 campaign.

However, there are still a few interesting free agents on the market who have yet to sign a contract for next season.

These include Vladimir Tarasenko, Matt Dumba and Patrick Kane.

As for Kane, we learned yesterday that he won’t be signing a contract for the time being and will wait to see how his health develops between now and the start of the season.

In short, some players still don’t have a contract, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have several offers.

The same applies to players who quickly found their new team.

The fact that they signed quickly doesn’t mean they jumped at the first offer – quite the contrary.

Such is the case with Max Pacioretty, who claims that eight to ten teams made him an offer when he was a free agent.

At least, that’s what Pacioretty’s agent Allan Walsh said in a recent episode of his Agent Provocateur podcast for the Steve Dangle Podcast Network.

Walsh explained that he and his client discussed all offers, including some from very surprising teams, before making the decision to accept the Washington Capitals’ offer.

Pacioretty’s agent left it a mystery as to which other teams were interested in his client, leaving us to ponder.

It makes you wonder which so-called surprise teams were interested in Pacioretty.

Just imagine if we learned that Kent Hughes and the CH had submitted a contract offer to Pacio.

In the end, Pacioretty says he made the best decision for himself and his family.

He wanted nothing to do with signing a contract with a team that had every intention of sending him elsewhere between now and the playoffs.

He wants stability for his family, and he wants to prove that he’s still capable of playing field hockey at the highest level and scoring goals the way he knows how.

With his recent troubling Achilles heel injuries, we really wondered if he’d find work in the NHL again, but it looks like a quarter of NHL teams were interested in his services.

We wish him all the best in Washington.

In a gust

– One last season left before the Karl Alzner buyout is behind us.

– There were no goaltending transactions as expected.

– Who will start for the Devils?

– Third defeat in a row for the Alouettes.

– Read more.

Why isn’t the World Cup smiling on the Canadians?

✍ @olitremblay https://t.co/ixvagVjWRI

– Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) July 15, 2023