The hockey world has been swirling around David Pastrnak for the past few days, as negotiations with the Boston Bruins drag on late into the summer. Fans of the team are beginning to get nervous that there might be something standing in the way of a long-term deal, even while the Bruins’ front office assures everyone that they won’t be moving on from their young star. It’s not just Pastrnak though, as this summer seems to have a disproportional amount of high-level restricted free agents still unsigned into the middle of August. Leon Draisaitl, Alexander Wennberg, Bo Horvat, Connor Brown, Damon Severson and Andreas Athanasiou and many more are waiting for their next contracts and inching closer and closer to missing some of training camp.
Naturally, anyone’s instinct is to think that the longer the negotiation goes on, the more animosity can be built between the two sides. This is simply not true, and it’s been shown time and again that some RFAs—especially those who are coming off exceptional seasons—are in for long negotiations. It’s hard to remember how many players make it late in the summer without contracts once the season begins, so here is some of the history of some high profile late-summer RFA signings the last few years:
2016
Sean Monahan signs on August 19th. Seven years, $44.6MM.
Cody Ceci signs on August 23rd. Two years, $5.6MM.
Ryan Strome signs on September 20th. Two years, $5.0MM.
Johnny Gaudreau signs on October 10th. Six years, $40.5MM.
Nikita Kucherov signs on October 11th. Three years, $14.3MM.
Rasmus Ristolainen signs on October 11th. Six years, $32.4MM.
2015
Jonathan Bernier signs on August 2nd. Two years, $8.3MM.
Brock Nelson signs on September 16th. Three years, $7.5MM.
2014
P.K. Subban signs on August 2nd. Eight years, $72MM.
Tyson Barrie signs on September 7th. Two years, $5.2MM.
Danny DeKeyser signs on September 20th. Two years, $4.4MM.
Nino Niederreiter signs on September 20th. Three years, $8MM.
Ryan Ellis signs on October 5th. Five years, $12.5MM.
Jaden Schwartz signs on October 5th. Two years, $4.7MM.
Ryan Johansen signs on October 6th. Three years, $12MM.
2013
Adam Henrique signs on August 27th. Six years, $24MM.
Mikkel Boedker signs on September 7th. Two years, $5.1MM.
Marcus Johansson signs on September 8th. Two years, $4MM.
Nazem Kadri signs on September 10th. Two years, $5.8MM.
Alex Pietrangelo signs on September 14th. Seven years, $45.5MM.
Derek Stepan signs on September 26th. Two years, $6.2MM.
Hampus lindholm and Richard rakell both held out into the season last year
They did. Trouba as well.
For 2016, it just lists up to the start of the season.