Free Agency 101: What to Know Before the Market Opens Wednesday

One of the most exciting days of the NHL offseason is just hours away as a number of players around the League become unrestricted free agents and hit the open market.
Players who have reached unrestricted free agent status can receive new contract offers from any of the NHL's 32 clubs starting Wednesday at 11 a.m. CT, which opens the door for the Predators to potentially make some exciting acquisitions before the 2022-23 season.
But what is free agency - and how does it work?
The process - with all its terms and acronyms and qualifying offers and salary caps - can be a bit confusing, so below is what we hope provides the simplest explanation.

What is an Unrestricted Free Agent?
A player can become an unrestricted free agent - typically referred to as a UFA - in a few different ways.
First, said player's contract with his current team must expire and he must have played for at least seven seasons or be 27 years old. Teams have until 11:59 p.m. ET to resign their potential unrestricted free agents.
If the player's team does not resign him before this deadline, he enters free agency.
Consider Filip Forsberg, who would have become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday had he not signed his new eight-year deal with Nashville on Monday.
Forsberg has played for 10 seasons in the NHL - check - and is 27 years old - check.
If Forsberg had not received a deal from the Predators before Wednesday, July 13 at 10:59 CT, he would have hit the open market at that time and been available to any team.
At that point the UFA can sign with any NHL club he chooses, but that club can only offer him at most a seven-year contract.
Again, let's consider Forsberg's eight-year deal. The Predators were able to leverage an additional year in Forsberg's contract, simply because other teams would only be allowed to offer seven in free agency.
With Forsberg now off the table, who else on Nashville's roster could become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday?
Right now there are seven: forwards Nick Cousins, Rocco Grimaldi and Kole Sherwood, defensemen Matt Benning, Ben Harpur and Jeremy Davies and goaltender David Rittich.
What is a Restricted Free Agent?
Another way to become an unrestricted free agent occurs when a restricted free agent - more on them later - does not receive a qualifying offer from his club before a set deadline.
This type of scenario happens more frequently with the League's younger players, who are classified as restricted free agents because of their age and shorter time spent playing in the National Hockey League.
Let's recontextualize again.
On Monday, the Predators announced that qualifying offers were sent to RFA's Yakov Trenin, Cole Smith, Thomas Novak, John Leonard, Jimmy Huntington and Devin Cooley.
Qualifying Offer?
These qualifying offers - think of these like one-year contracts - will keep these six players on Nashville's roster as RFA's for the time being, should they accept.
Qualifying offers also give teams the right of first refusal or draft choice compensation should the player accept a signing offer - these are called offer sheets - from another team.
So which RFA's on Nashville's roster didn't receive qualifying offers?
There are two: forward Matt Luff and defenseman David Farrance.
As a result, Luff and Farrance will hit the unrestricted free agent market tomorrow.
Who are some UFA's around the NHL that Nashville could get tomorrow?
It's safe to assume that with Juuse Saros in net and a number of viable backup options in Nashville's deck, the Predators likely won't be targeting any goaltenders tomorrow.
Additionally, with the recent signing of veteran defenseman Ryan McDonagh, a veteran pair in Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm, as well as plenty of young talent on the blueline like Alexandre Carrier and Jeremy Lauzon, it's probably safe to assume Nashville won't be eyeing any UFA defensemen either.
That leaves forwards, and there are a number of notables in those positions possibly entering free agency tomorrow.
Here's a short list:
Patrice Bergeron, Boston
Andre Burakovsky, Colorado - Acquired by Seattle, 1:51 p.m. CT
Andrew Copp, New York - Acquired by Detroit, 11:34 a.m. CT
Max Domi, Carolina - Acquired by Chicago, 11:41 a.m. CT
Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary - Acquired by Columbus, 7:40 p.m. CT
Claude Giroux, Florida - Acquired by Ottawa, 11:01 a.m. CT
Nazem Kadri, Colorado
Evander Kane, Edmonton - Resigned with Edmonton
Phil Kessel, Arizona
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh - Resigned with Pittsburgh
Mason Marchment, Florida - Acquired by Dallas, 1:10 p.m. CT
Ilya Mikheyev, Toronto - Acquired by Vancouver, 11:52 a.m CT
Nino Niederreiter, Carolina
Ondrej Palat, Tampa Bay
David Perron, St. Louis - Acquired by Detroit, 2:50 p.m. CT
Evan Rodrigues, Pittsburgh
Reilly Smith, Vegas - Resigned with Vegas
Paul Stastny, Winnipeg
Dylan Strome, Chicago
Ryan Strome, New York - Acquired by Anaheim, 8:07 p.m. CT
Vincent Trocheck, Carolina - Acquired by New York, 11:26 a.m. CT
Many of these big name players look enticing, so why don't the Predators stack the deck and go after four or five?
They can't because of something called a salary cap.
Salary cap?
After the NHL lockout of 2004-05, the NHL and its clubs agreed to implement a salary cap - put simply, a hard limit on how much each team can spend on their roster each season.
In theory, the salary cap keeps larger market teams from gobbling up all the talent with hefty contracts smaller markets wouldn't be able to compete with - effectively leveling the playing field in that regard.
The Predators salary cap currently sits just beneath $10 million. Keep in mind, that number could shrink if Nashville decides to sign any more players before tonight's deadline.
Let's imagine that number stays at $10 million entering tomorrow.
While Nashville won't be able to load up on free agents, it does leave a good amount of wiggle room to make at least one acquisition.
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