Maybe he's on to something, or maybe he just likes to watch the world burn. In any case, Mat Barzal says he's having fun following all the unsigned RFAs from around the league and believes the situation is generating good buzz for the NHL.
"It's just crazy how many guys are left on the board," Barzal told Chris Johnston of Sportsnet. "I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen."
While it may be fun for the Islanders forward to watch now, Barzal's entry level contract runs out at the end of the 2019-2020 season, so it may be his turn next summer, unless the organization pushes hard to get him signed before then.
While the league has experienced some holdouts before, there has never been a crop of talented restricted free agents still without contracts this close to the regular season as there is right now. The list contains several young stars, such as Toronto's Mitch Marner, Tampa Bay's Brayden Point, Winnipeg's Patrik Laine, Calgary's Matthew Tkachuk, Vancouver's Brock Boeser, Colorado's Mikko Rantanen, and Philadelphia's Ivan Provorov, just to name a few. With training camp starting next week, unless something happens quickly, we may see more RFAs skipping the lead up to the regular season than ever before. On top of that, with less than a month to go before the regular season starts, it's quite possible that a few could sit out some games if a new deal doesn't get done.
As for Barzal, Capfriendly shows the Isles with around $4.6 million in cap space at the moment. That will change before he becomes RFA, which is a good thing. The 22-year-old has 147 points in 166 NHL games and will certainly want more than the Islanders are currently able to afford.
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