Around the NHL: A Busy Opening Day of Free Agency

When noon hit on Friday, the free agent market opened and business was booming.

Some 20 deals or so were finalized in the first hour of free agency alone, with several more filtering in over the course of the day.

Here are the highlights.

Before the market even opened, Darren Helm of the Detroit Red Wings and Brian Campbell of the Chicago Blackhawks were among two of the potential free agents to re-sign with their teams in the closing hours before hitting the open market. Helm received five years and $19.25 million while Campbell receiving a one-year, $2 million deal.

Then the market opened and everything started to unfold. Here are some of the big deals made on Friday:

• RW Andrew Ladd to the New York Islanders for seven years, $38.5 million.
• LW Milan Lucic to the Edmonton Oilers for seven years, $42 million.
• C Frans Nielsen to the Detroit Red Wings for six years, $31.5 million.
• LW David Perron to the St. Louis Blues for two years, $7 million.
• C David Backes to the Boston Bruins for five years, $30 million.
• RW Loui Eriksson to the Vancouver Canucks for six years, $36 million.
• RW Kyle Okposo to the Buffalo Sabres for seven years, $42 million.
• RW Troy Brouwer to the Calgary Flames for four years, $18 million.
• C Eric Staal to the Minnesota Wild for three years, $10.5 million.
• G James Reimer to the Florida Panthers for five years, $17 million.
• LW Jason Chimera to the New York Islanders for two years, $4.5 million.
• D Ben Lovejoy to the New Jersey Devils for three years, $8.1 million.
• RW Chris Stewart to the Minnesota Wild for two years, $2.3 million.
• LW Jamie McGinn to the Arizona Coyotes for three years, $10 million.

As the day settled down after the first two hours of free agency, the deals still kept coming. Forward Matt Martin signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs for four years, $10 million. Winger Thomas Vanek signed with the Detroit Red Wings for one year, $2.6 million. Winger Mikkel Boedker went to the San Jose Sharks for four years, $16 million.

The Flyers made two deals at the NHL level, signing Dale Weise to a four-year deal and Boyd Gordon to a one-year deal. Former Flyer Ryan White signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Arizona Coyotes.

As Day 1 starts to come to a close, there are several solid players still available. Calgary Flames forward Jiri Hudler remains unsigned, as does P.A. Parenteau and Brandon Pirri. Former Flyers R.J. Umberger and Sam Gagner also remained unsigned.

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.