News and analysis from around the NHL on Day 2 of free agency

The conditions Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes has not moved one inch from what he originally said about trading Jeff Petry. Any deal would have to make sense for Petry, but also for the Canadiens.

That the Canadiens would have to come out of the trade improved, either now or in the future.

Now that free agency has opened, a bunch of teams spent a bunch of money on players and the already small market for Petry might have gotten even smaller, Hughes has not changed his tune.

(Photo: Jean-Yves Ahern / USA Today)

Now that the dust has settled following a hectic opening day of free agency, the Washington Capitals’ 2022-23 depth chart is starting to come into focus.

The opening night lineup is, too — assuming, of course, general manager Brian MacLellan’s renovations are complete.

With that caveat in mind, this feels like a good time to take stock of all the changes and project how the lineup might look when Alex Ovechkin and Co. take the ice Oct. 12 vs. Boston.

(Photo: Geoff Burke / USA Today)

The Sharks had already made major changes off the ice, along with a few medium-sized alterations to the roster, in the past two weeks before the start of the NHL’s free agency period Wednesday.

Then general manager Mike Grier went from tinkering with the layout of his new living room to knocking a wall down.

(Photo: Derek Cain / USA Today)

Free-agent forward Dylan Strome is signing with the Washington Capitals on a one-year, $3.5 million contract, Sportsnet reported Thursday.

Read more.

Kevyn Adams has been clear about his plan.

The Sabres’ general manager didn’t want to do anything in free agency that would jeopardize what the team is trying to build over the long term. And when it came to the team’s need at goaltender, Adams wasn’t going to fling himself desperately into the market at the position.

That’s why when free agency opened on Wednesday afternoon, the Sabres settled on a different kind of signing, one they’d been thinking about for months. While Jack Campbell inked a hefty deal with the Oilers and Darcy Kuemper signed for big money in Washington, the Sabres took a chance on Eric Comrie on a two-year deal worth $1.8 million per year.

(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / USA Today)

When Reilly Smith first arrived in Las Vegas in 2017, he viewed it as just another pit stop along the road of his NHL career. After bouncing from Dallas to Boston to Florida and then to Vegas in a span of only six years, who could blame him?

The Ottawa Senators and center Josh Norris have agreed to an eight-year, $63.6 million contract, the team announced Thursday. He was a restricted free agent.

Norris is coming off a breakout season with career highs in goals (35) and assists (20) in 60 games.

Read more here.

(Photo: Perry Nelson / USA Today)

It is appropriate that the Canadiens’ biggest signing of the opening day of free agency was Juraj Slafkovsky. It is appropriate that the most eventful thing to happen at the Canadiens’ practice facility was not a news conference by general manager Kent Hughes explaining one signing or another, but rather Slafkovsky scoring roughly 20 seconds into development camp’s first scrimmage, or Lane Hutson scoring twice and basically stealing the show.

And it is appropriate that Hughes is hamstrung with a salary-cap situation he inherited that paralyzed the Canadiens on the opening day of the market.

(Photo: Eric Bolte / USA Today)