from James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail,

There’s a state of panic out there for NHL free agents.

Ten days in, the promise of a huge payday has largely evaporated. Now many players are worried about getting a deal at all.

Several executives surveyed this week weren’t all that reassuring, either.

“They should be [desperate],” said one. “The money’s gone.”

A cursory look at cap situations around the NHL tells a different story. At generalfanager.com, for example, there are only 11 teams within $6-million (U.S.) of the $71.4-million salary cap. And only Chicago, Tampa Bay, San Jose and St. Louis are obviously capped out.

In fact, the 20 highest-spending teams have a combined $110-million sitting there, waiting to be spent.

Those numbers don’t tell the full story, however. Many teams still need to sign their key restricted free agents, and with young players getting paid like never before, GMs have been forced to allocate more dollars and term for those contracts.

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