Following up on a report from last week that there had been increased interest in free agent defenseman Cody Franson, Rick Dhaliwal of News 1130 reports that the former Buffalo Sabres player could “possibly sign this week.” While that doesn’t sound like much, it does put the spotlight back on an interesting offseason case.
Franson went through a long period of free agency in 2015 before finally signing with the Sabres, and again this summer hasn’t seemed to be able to drum up much interest. The 30-year old defenseman has vocal supporters and detractors among hockey fans, but does have a history of putting up points at the NHL level. In 527 career games, Franson has registered 205 points, a better per-game rate (0.39) than players like Morgan Rielly, Hampus Lindholm and Matt Niskanen. Though he’s obviously not as mobile as those three, his overall possession contribution is still quite high.
The question is how effective Franson can be in his own end or without receiving much powerplay time. With most rosters all but set for their special teams contributors, Franson faces a similar situation as Thomas Vanek: able but not needed. It will be interesting to see what kind of guaranteed money a team gives him, or if he has to settle for a professional tryout. Drew Stafford recently settled for just $800K, but will be expected to play a fairly substantial role on the New Jersey Devils. A training camp injury could help Franson’s case, but waiting that long puts him in jeopardy of not finding any work in the NHL this season.