Hello my Salary Cap-friendlies! This week is all about players who, for one reason or another, do not have a contract in place for the upcoming season, the same upcoming season that is now two weeks away. I think it's worth diving in here and see what might be causing the delay and can we forecast out a potential AAV and term for when these players eventually do sign.

Also totally related, this Friday is my main league's draft and I wanted to wish everyone out there nothing but the best luck in your draft(s) and this upcoming season. May the players you want fall to you and the draft go in your favor. Unless you're in my league reading this. Opposite of what I said if that's the case.

*For this article roster percentages will be omitted with most fantasy sites undergoing offseason maintenance as well as some fantasy leagues not yet renewed for the upcoming season. Data from CapFriendly.

Trevor Zegras – C, LW – 22 years old
Previous Cap hit: $925,00
Not Arb Eligible

So here I am taking a night stroll down Ducks Twitter and I run into speculation at every corner on why Trevor Zegras hasn't signed yet, and one user suggests that a potential leverage play is that he was on the cover of NHL23. I'm gonna double-down here, they got rid of the automatic two-on-one goal this past season and if Zegras is in any way responsible for that long overdue change then I think the Ducks need to open the vault for #11.

In all seriousness, I wrote in a previous article that I just smelled an offer sheet coming here and I still think that's the case, which if true is going to all but raise the price for Zegras who I'm not 100% sure the Ducks want to roll out the Brinks truck for.

Last season, Zegras and his agent did what most players do, they held off contract talks during the season which is admirable and honestly a nice thing to reduce distraction around a club. That said, this Ducks club currently has a little over $16 million in available cap space so it's curious why there wasn't a deal in place. However just cause we're here, let's compare some stats between three different players from last season.

Player A

GP          G             A             PTS         PPP        TOI       PPTOI    SOG       HIT         BKS

81           31           37           68           18           16:30     2:48        211         55           30

Player B
GP          G             A             PTS         PPP        TOI       PPTOI    SOG       HIT         BKS

81           31           32           63           26           18:30     3:48        255         65           26

Player C

GP          G             A             PTS         PPP        TOI       PPTOI    SOG       HIT         BKS

81           23           42           65           17           18:50     2:49        184         46           29

Any guesses here? Well, yes, context clues here, Zegras is Player C but who are Players A and B?  Player A would be Dylan Cozens who signed a seven-year $49.7M deal back in February and player B would be none other than Matthew Boldy, who in January signed a seven year $49M dollar deal. These are also the two forwards who were drafted close to Zegras in the 2019 draft that I totally don't revisit eight-ten times a month as Cozens was selected 7^th, Zegras 9^th, Boldy after him at 12. Not only were these players drafted pretty close together but just off the body of work from last season, the stats are similar too. Sure, the player style is different as any other degenerate who played Ducks1 as a filler line last season in DFS will tell you, but I think it's a good benchmark so-to-speak on what all of these players did last season and what two of them have similarly signed for.

My guess here is that Zegras and his agent have to be looking for term and AAV close to what we saw with Cozens and Boldy and maybe this is a Dallas Stars example from last season where days before the season, they signed a couple of their big-ticket free agents. I'm still not ruling out an offer sheet here but the longer this goes the more I speculate.

Jaimie Drysdale – D – 21 years old
Previous Cap hit: $925,00
Not Arb Eligible
*Ineligible for an offer sheet

We're going to stick out on the west coast here in Anaheim and talk about Jaimie Drysdale a bit. If you were rostering him last season than it was as simple as throwing him onto LTIR as Drysdale went down with a torn labrum in fewer than 10 games played. This means that he doesn't have the required service time to be eligible for group two RFA status, but it makes things tricky when forecasting his value this season. With nothing to go off last season and us just playing doctor and speculating about his health, we have to point to the season prior as any indicator on what his performance could look like. In 2021-'22 he played 81 games and got up past the 30-point mark at 32 which is a good indicator that he has talent at a young age to potentially be special.

Again, this one is tough. He's going to miss camp because he's not signed which also means that we have zero clue how healthy he is coming off of injury. I'd speculate he would be able to return but I'm jaded as we all know come training camp everyone is, "In the best shape of their life". I do worry here though for the player and the club as I think missing time and missing camp is only going to slow his progress down. This could be a player that either gets it together early or maybe bounces around until he finds his spot after a somewhat rocky start to his career. With that same cap space number just north of $16.6M coming into the season, it's anyone's guess as to where the two sides meet. With that I wouldn't be shocked here if it's a short term "show-me" deal.

Shane Pinto – C – 22 years old
Previous Cap hit: $925,00
Not Arb Eligible
*Ineligible for an offer sheet

Hand up, I sort of thought Shane Pinto had signed already. Maybe it all just got lost in the shuffle as the Sens went on a spending spree for Joonas Korpisalo, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Travis Hamonic. To me, bringing back Pinto is a win-win and I think something that makes this club so much better with a really young and talented third line center. Plus, just outside looking in, the rest of what I assume will become the Senators young core has signed previously so what's the holdup here?

The problem Ottawa now faces in getting a deal in place is cap space as the Sens right now have $120,953 available to them and unless I'm missing something, their only LTIR-eligible player right now is Josh Norris. So, what's step one? Float a couple player's names out there and see if anyone bites. My guess here is that Pinto would probably cost the Senators around $3M which is going to involve a lot of moving parts to make that happen. Remember this always and forever when it comes to the cap, getting too creative will burn you more times than it will help. If this were, say, Tampa Bay or Vegas in this situation I wouldn't

*For continued fantasy news and notes, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz.