Five Teams Interested In Antoine Vermette

It appears that it won’t be much longer before free agent center Antoine Vermette finds his new home.  On Saturday morning, his agent Allan Walsh tweeted that the 34 year old has received offers from five NHL teams (none were specified) and will make a decision on which of those to take no later than Monday.

Vermette posted his second straight 38 point season in 2015-16, recording 17 goals and 21 assists in 76 games while averaging 16:39 per night, his lowest ATOI since 2006-07.  He also continued his strong play at the faceoff dot, winning 55.8% of the 1,351 draws he took.

Despite that, the Coyotes opted to buy him out at the beginning of the month when a second window opened up following the pre-arbitration settlement with defenseman Michael Stone.  It’s believed that Arizona intends to use Vermette’s old roster spot for top prospects Dylan Strome or Christian Dvorak next season.

Arizona is paying Vermette $1.25MM in each of the next two years (with an equal salary cap charge) and will not receive any relief from those amounts when he signs with his new team.