Every July 1^st, the NHL’s general managers act like bargain seekers set loose in a mall on Boxing Day. They think that they can find a bargain, but in reality, most of the purchases end up being things that they didn’t need. At that point, they then have to make an effort to get rid of them with term still on the contract.

Nothing changed this summer.

The star forwards get bid up, the goalies play musical chairs to find the few teams left searching for a partner, and the defencemen that hit the market take no time at all to be snapped up. The only real bargains to be found are the low risk contracts given to older players who actually have a chance of out-performing the deal. Let’s try to break these groups down so you can get a sense of what I mean.

The Star Forwards

This year a lot of the big names re-signed early, and left slim pickings for the big day. All that means is that teams have fewer options to spend their money on, so they have to overpay to get what they want. Dallas had a lot of money to toss around, and after signing Ben Bishop last month, they had to round out their roster for contention. Signing star forwards (pun not intended) Alexander Radulov and Martin Hanzal at a combined $11 million per year certainly gives them a big boost in the short term, but if Dallas wants to be competitive past the second year of these contracts, then a cap-crunch is coming. This is especially true given they will need to re-sign Tyler Seguin after his team-friendly contract expires in the summer of 2019. Taking into account a possible adjustment year with all the new faces and a new coach in Dallas, and the window of contention appears to be quite narrow. That was all even without mentioning how competitive the Central Division is.

Over on the Pacific side, two San Jose forwards from last season were also heavily overpaid on July 2^nd. Joe Thornton re-upped with San Jose for one-year at $8 million. The saving grace is that this contract is short, so there is little harm done long-term. However, if San Jose is trying to take one last kick at the can during the Thornton era, then having him take up more than 10% of their cap space at the age of 38 is not exactly a shrewd move. That being said, it is nowhere near as puzzling as the decision of the Maple Leafs to sign Thornton’s former teammate Patrick Marleau to an oversized deal. Marleau will be making a cool $6.25 Million over each of the next three seasons to be (at most) the Leafs’ fourth best winger on the ice. In year three of this contract, the young core of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, along with William Nylander in year two, will all be up for new contracts. It is tough to envision a scenario in which Marleau is still on the team for that third year, because if he is, cuts will have to come elsewhere for the dollars to make sense. At that point, the Leafs will likely have to pay another team to take on the last year of his deal. Since the deal was signed after Marleau turned 35 (he will be 38 when the season starts) there is no cap-hit benefit from a buyout, further reducing the long-term options on this contract.

The Defencemen

At the time of writing, the biggest defenceman signing after July first was Xavier Ouelett. If that doesn’t tell you how fast even the decent defencemen go, then I don’t know what will.

The big fish, Kevin Shattenkirk didn’t waste much time signing with his childhood team, the New York Rangers. Even at a hometown discount of a $6.65 million AAV each of the next four years, Shattenkirk signed one of the most lucrative deals of a free agent this offseason. With an already expensive blueline (even after the failed overpayments of Keith Yandle and Dan Girardi from previous campaigns), the writing seems to be on the wall here that this contract will turn out to be more of a burden than an asset. Hopefully these two turn out to be a good match, but there are a lot of question marks, especially for a team whose window of contention can only be propped open so long by signing free agents.

Many other defencemen followed suit and signed quickly on the dotted line. Three defencemen from the cup-winning Penguins team alone got big raises. Justin Schultz almost quadrupled his previous paycheck with his breakout season to $5.5 million a year for three years, forcing Pittsburgh to use up all of the cap space they saved by moving out M.A. Fleury. Trevor Daley and Ron Hainsey both signed contracts near the $3 million mark, which actually bucks the trend of any defenceman who can skate and chew gum getting $4 million or more. Those two may actually manage to provide decent real world value at that price, though their fantasy upside is still limited at best.

Around the rest of the league, Karl Alzner inked a five-year deal with the Canadiens, but he is not the puck moving defenceman they needed after not re-signing Andrei Markov. Dmitry Kulikov also signed for much more than he should have been offered by getting three years at $4.3 million per campaign. Winnipeg seems desperate to help their blueline, and make a push for the playoffs, but this may go down as one of the worst contracts given out this summer. The Jets already have four, if not even six defencemen better than Kulikov in that lineup. Unless they are shopping restricted free-agent Jacob Trouba, then this deal makes very little sense.

Netminders

The goalies weren’t much of a surprise. Philadelphia and Winnipeg were the two main cities looking for a starter to platoon, and Steve Mason had already worn out his time in Philadelphia. Brian Elliott landing with the Flyers should be good value for under $3 million (or at least no worse than his final stats from last season). Mason is a little pricier at just over $4 million per season, and will be pushed more by the youngster Hellebuyck with the Jets. Mason has the better team in front of him though, and has put up some very good numbers over the last few years.

Other more relevant signings have Antti Niemi getting new life with a great gig in Pittsburgh, Chad Johnson returning to Buffalo with starter’s experience, so that Robin Lehner won’t just have the starting job handed to him, and Jonathan Bernier tries to save another bottom of the barrel team (because that went so well last time with the Leafs). The landing spot is good for all three of those goalies, and they can all provide some good value behind injury prone starters.

Ryan Miller also gets a shot behind an injury prone starter in Anaheim, and with John Gibson seeming to miss 20 games per-season like clockwork, it is good for the Ducks to have a backup that knows how to carry a team. Anaheim even knows that they need the insurance for Gibson’s injuries, and also signed Reto Berra to a small contract. Berra will fill in as backup when one of the starters misses time. There is little to no fantasy relevance here.

The Bargain Bin

As dreary as the above few paragraphs may have been, there were some good bargains signed to one-year deals to round out the free agency period. Chris Kunitz will no longer be riding shotgun with Crosby, but should he find himself anywhere near a scoring line in Tampa, they have enough firepower to keep his value afloat. This is a great add for the Lightning, and Kunitz hits enough to be relevant in fantasy leagues for that stat alone.

Scott Hartnell returns to Nashville, and was enough to prompt the Predators to part with long-time winger Colin Wilson. Hartnell brings some more size to the lineup, and at $1 million, should be a great bargain for both the Preds and your fantasy teams. Also getting signed to a $1 million deal was Patrick Sharp, who is heading back to Chicago. The familiarity there may be the only thing Sharp now has going for him. There is little risk here for the Blackhawks, but there is also a very low ceiling on the reward.

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I will get to the contract extensions next week, as Carey Price, Connor McDavid and Evgeni Kuznetsov all signing massive deals deserves its own article. In the meantime, you can find me on twitter @alexdmaclean where I will try to put up some thoughts on these deals in the meantime.