Following a crazy week that kicked off with the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup over the Edmonton Oilers in a memorable Game 7, and was followed up by a busy NHL Draft that saw several players move, the madness will continue on Monday, July 1st when NHL free agency hits.

With some teams already making moves to sign key players before midnight struck, a few free agents are off the board. For the Lightning, that meant trading away a third round pick to sign Jake Guentzel to an eigjt-year max deal. It’s likely to be a cap hit of $8 million.

He was their top target – leaving captain Steven Stamkos headed to free agency. It looks like the Lightning’s greatest player will leave. The Hurricanes, Predators, and Golden Knights are all interested. It’ll be strange to see Stamkos wearing another jersey. He deserved better from GM Julien BriseBois. Loyal Bolts fans like Morgan know it.

I was hoping Stamkos would stay. The former 2008 top pick has done it all there. His 555 goals, 1,137 points, and 1,082 games played rank first in franchise history. No Bolt has more even strength goals (336), power-play goals (214), game-winning goals (85), and hat tricks (13).

At 34, he still has something left. It shouldn’t take long for Stamkos to find a new team. It’s gonna be weird. The Lightning are focused on extending Victor Hedman. He’s next in line to become the captain. They dumped Mikhail Sergachev’s $8.5 million salary to Utah HC and moved Tanner Jeannot to the Kings. That allowed them to land Guentzel. Who else will they add?

Right before the deadline, the Panthers re-signed Sam Reinhart to an eight-year max deal. He led them with a career high 57 goals and had 10 more in the playoffs. I guess he prioritized winning. His center is Aleksander Barkov. Another great reason to stay.

Florida will try to re-sign key free agent Brandon Montour. They’ll likely lose Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Bottom six forwards, Ryan Lomberg and Kevin Stenlund could be kept. The champs will look different when training camp opens in late September.

The Maple Leafs were able to re-sign Max Domi to a four-year contract worth an average of $3.75 million. Tyler Bertuzzi isn’t returning.

Bertuzzi can help someone. If his ask is close to $6 million over four years, I’d pass. He is a streaky scorer who plays with edge.

Amongst the top forwards available include Jake DeBrusk, Jonathan Marchessault, Stamkos, Bertuzzi, and Elias Lindholm. DeBrusk is a player I’d like the Rangers to target. He’d be a good fit on the first line. Marchessault is a better finisher. But he’ll cost more. I doubt they’ll get him. He’s the definition of a clutch performer.

Patrick Kane decided to stay put in Detroit, agreeing to an incentive laden one-year deal that includes both performance and team bonuses that can total $6.5 million. So much for a reunion in the Big Apple. Kane probably thinks he can get them back to the playoffs. They were one point away. We’ll see what else they do.

Other free agents include Warren Foegle, Tyler Toffoli, Matt Duchene, Tarasenko, Teuvo Teravainen, Sean Monahan, Jeff Skinner, Anthony Duclair, Chandler Stephenson,Victor Arvidsson,  Jonathan Drouin, Adam Henrique, Nick Cousins, Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown, Alex Wennberg, Nikita Zadorov, Matt Roy, Sean Walker, and Erik Gustafsson.

It’s impossible to list everybody. I tried to limit it to players who can play key roles. This doesn’t include available players for trades. We’ll see what happens with Jacob Trouba. If I were him, I’d be livid.

I’ll have more later today.