The fear of the unknown has pervaded daily life in 2020, and the hockey world is feeling that, too, as the NHL wades into its first off-season in the COVID-19 era with a Free Agent Frenzy unlike any other.

Talk to NHL general managers, agents and even free agents themselves and the truth is that no one knows exactly what to expect. There are more questions than answers, without even a definitive date for the start of next season.

Last year, when Free Agent Frenzy was on Canada Day rather than Thanksgiving weekend, more than $708 million was doled out to 126 players on the first day alone.

Make no mistake: Money will be spent. Trades will be made. Players will be moving. 

It just won’t be exactly like it was before. Teams are expected to be cautious in this brave, new world. The NHL’s salary cap is frozen at $81.5 million for the upcoming season and 2021-22. Damaging contracts are more difficult to move than ever.

It’s possible, if not likely, that Alex Pietrangelo, the premier Stanley Cup winning defenceman who is the No. 1 ranked player in this free agent class, is the only player whose paycheque will be unfazed by the pandemic. He also may not sign on Friday, instead choosing to make a more informed decision with site visits possible in the coming days. He is in no rush.

Former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall may have to consider a short-term deal if the dollars don’t meet his expectations elsewhere. That would have been unimaginable one year ago. The same goes for defencemen Tyson Barrie and Kevin Shattenkirk, the dueling power-play quarterbacks who round out the Top 10.

The players at the very top of the food chain and the bottom – serviceable players ready to sign for little more than the league minimum and in the $1 million range – will be the most in demand. It’s the players in the comfortable middle class, making more than $3 million and less than $6 million, who could well be squeezed.

Some free agents may be forced to wait days or weeks to find their new home, while others may struggle to stay in the league at all. Some teams, like Columbus and Nashville, have been successful in moving money. Other teams, like Vegas and Tampa Bay, are still trying with the players on TSN's Trade Bait board​.

Take this week’s action as proof. The free agent market was flooded by players who did not receive minimum qualifying offers, a list headlined by Ottawa’s Anthony Duclair, Vancouver’s Troy Stecher and Edmonton’s Andreas Athanasiou.

Then there are free agents who were bought out and paid to go away, their old contracts too rich for a frozen cap world, including Henrik Lundqvist, Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris, Alex Wennberg and Karl Alzner.

The game of goaltending musical chairs has teams scrambling to secure starters, with Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver all on the hunt after Ottawa became one of the first to lock down their position by acquiring two-time Cup winner Matt Murray from Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

There was a palpable buzz throughout the NHL on Friday morning. But it’s a buzz of nervous energy. A league that has entered Free Agency with so many deals predetermined in prior years is about to engage in a public chess match on live television.

Welcome to a different kind of Free Agent Frenzy. Here are TSN Hockey’s Top 100 Free Agents Available:

1 Alex Pietrangelo
2 Taylor Hall
3 Torey Krug
4 Jacob Markstrom
5 Mike Hoffman
6 Tyler Toffoli
7 Evgenii Dadonov
8 Erik Haula
9 Tyson Barrie
10 Kevin Shattenkirk
11 Braden Holtby
12 Corey Perry
13 Mikael Granlund
14 T.J. Brodie
15 Anthony Duclair
16 Anton Khudobin
17 Chris Tanev
18 Sami Vatanen
19 Troy Stecher
20 Corey Crawford
21 Zdeno Chara
22 Andreas Athanasiou
23 Wayne Simmonds
24 Nick Cousins
25 Cam Talbot
26 Craig Smith
27 Carl Soderberg
28 Pat Maroon
29 Bobby Ryan
30 Henrik Lundqvist
31 Thomas Greiss
32 Dominik Kahun
33 Lucas Wallmark
34 Kyle Turris
35 Alex Wennberg
36 Travis Hamonic
37 Jesper Fast
38 Ilya Kovalchuk
39 Cody Ceci
40 Erik Gustafsson
41 Matt Martin
42 Kyle Clifford
43 Vladislav Namestnikov
44 Justin Schultz
45 Derek Grant
46 Tyler Ennis
47 Radko Gudas
48 Derick Brassard
49 Conor Sheary
50 Tyler Pitlick
51 Tomas Nosek
52 Trevor van Riemsdyk
53 Jimmy Vesey
54 Matt Nieto
55 Michael Frolik
56 Mike Smith
57 Jack Johnson
58 Mark Borowiecki
59 Mattias Janmark
60 Jon Merrill
61 Colin Wilson
62 Mirco Mueller
63 Mikko Koivu
64 Alex Galchenyuk
65 Carter Verhaeghe
66 Cody Eakin
67 Melker Karlsson
68 Dominik Simon
69 Trevor Lewis
70 Ben Hutton
71 Ryan Miller
72 Luke Schenn
73 Andy Greene
74 Ron Hainsey
75 Johan Larsson
76 Michael Del Zotto
77 Joakim Nordstrom
78 Drake Caggiula
79 Madison Bowey
80 Zach Bogosian
81 Matt Benning
82 Jan Rutta
83 Nate Thompson
84 Malcolm Subban
85 Aaron Dell
86 Brian Boyle
87 Karl Alzner
88 Michael Grabner
89 Mark Jankowski
90 Evan Rodrigues
91 Frederik Gauthier
92 Riley Sheahan
93 Jimmy Howard
94 Dmitry Kulikov
95 Josh Leivo
96 Brad Richardson
97 Mark Pysyk
98 Derek Forbort
99 Craig Anderson
100 Patrick Marleau