The Real Winners and Losers from the 1st Day of 2022 NHL Free Agency | News,

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AP Photo/Craig Lassig

The last teams are off the draft clock.

And the season’s first puck drop is still three months away.

But if you think that means it’s a slow time in the NHL, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Noon ET on Wednesday signaled the start of perhaps the most impactful period on the competitive calendar (outside of the actual games, of course) with the arrival of the signing period for the annual cadre of unrestricted free agents.

As usual, big names and big deals were all the rage, and the B/R hockey team was primed and ready to see how things went while compiling a definitive list of winners and losers from the chaotic opening hours.

Scroll through to see what we came up with, and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

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AP Photo/Chris Seward

It hasn’t been an ideal stretch for the Calgary Flames.

The southern Alberta residents won a Pacific Division title but were bounced in the second round of the playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers in the first postseason meeting of the provincial rivals in 31 years.

And as soon as the handshake lines dispersed, the clock began ticking toward the imminent free-agency statuses of prolific forwards Johnny Gaudreau (unrestricted) and Matthew Tkachuk (restricted).

Gaudreau’s clock ran out on Tuesday night when he informed general manager Brad Treliving that he’d be testing the free agency waters despite the eight-year offer on the table from the Flames. Treliving subsequently said that it was unlikely Gaudreau would circle back and wind up with Calgary once the market opened on Wednesday.

He was right. Gaudreau signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets for seven years.

Meanwhile, the long-term status of Tkachuk is also in question.

The 24-year-old received a $9 million qualifying offer from the Flames that’ll keep him from unrestricted free agency this season, but he’s become the subject of trade rumors now that Gaudreau is gone, and he could become unrestricted himself after the 2022-23 season.

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AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

Though the biggest headlines on free-agency day are often reserved for stars changing addresses, this year’s version was equally and perhaps more noteworthy for the players and teams that extended relationships rather than those that ended them.

Toward that end, a pair of blockbusters were made official several hours before the 12 p.m. starting gun, with Pittsburgh veteran Evgeni Malkin and recent Edmonton acquisition Evander Kane deciding to stay with their respective teams.

Malkin, a 35-year-old with three Stanley Cups on his resume, was set to test free agency for the first time in his career before agreeing to a four-year, $24.4 million extension that’ll presumably allow the Russian-born star to stay in the Steel City for the rest of his NHL stay.

Meanwhile, Kane, who went to northern Alberta in January after his existing contract was terminated by the San Jose Sharks, took to social media overnight to say that he’d agreed to his own four-year deal that’ll keep him in Edmonton for a cool $20.5 million.

In addition to Malkin and Kane, two other high-profile players decided in the days before the deadline that they’d stay put with new deals rather than testing the market.