In the final hours before the start of NHL free agency, there was a growing sentiment that Johnny Gaudreau would sign with one of the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders or the Philadelphia Flyers.

As it turns out, he ended up committing to a team that almost nobody had on their radar prior to Wednesday afternoon.

Gaudreau signed a seven-year, $68.25 million contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets that will pay him an average of $9.75 million per season.

We’ll never know all of the details of his decision, but it appears the biggest free agent on the market agreed to take less money in order to sign long-term with a team that had the third-longest odds to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel at the start of Free Agent Frenzy.

Here’s the TSN EDGE Morning Coffee for Thursday July 14th, 2022.

Impact Of Free Agent Frenzy Stunner On Futures Market

In each of my previous two columns, I wrote about the gap between what I considered the best bets to win the Stanley Cup and the rest of the field.

The Colorado Avalanche, which stand alone as the favourite to win the Stanley Cup at +500 at FanDuel, signed Artturi Lehkonen, Josh Manson and Darren Helm after locking up Valeri Nichushkin long term.

As far as I’m concerned, the Avalanche are still the team to beat. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning are +1000 to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel.

The Lightning locked up Mikhail Sergachev, Eric Cernak and Anthony Cirelli with eight-year deals.

Tampa Bay is +1000 to win the Stanley Cup.

It will be interesting to see what their roster looks like come April, but the core group is locked up long-term including Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman.

The Lightning are still the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.

As for another team that could contend at a better price, I had the New York Rangers at 20-to-1 or longer as my third choice.

While the Rangers didn’t make the big splash that I’m hoping for, they did upgrade their No. 2 centre spot with the addition of Vincent Trocheck on Wednesday. 

New York still has nearly $6 million in cap space to work with and a deep prospect pool if they decide to add to their top-six forward group via trade.

Looking at the updated NHL futures at FanDuel this morning, the Rangers are down to +1600 to win the Stanley Cup.

They’re +350 to win the Metropolitan Division and +1000 to win the Eastern Conference.

All of this brings us to what happened on Wednesday, and the sentiment that a contender could instantly boost their chances next season with the addition of Gaudreau.

As it turns out, Gaudreau went to the team with the third-longest odds to win the Stanley Cup in the entire NHL.

Columbus, which was 100-to-1 to win the Stanley Cup on Wednesday morning, moved to 75-to-1 to win it all at FanDuel following the big signing.

The Blue Jackets are 30-to-1 to win the Metropolitan Division and 37-to-1 to win the Eastern Conference.  

So, what is going on in Columbus?

The Blue Jackets finished 19 points out of a playoff spot last season, they are right up against the salary cap limit, and they still have to sign restricted free agent Patrik Laine. 

Do the Blue Jackets have another move to make that can make them an immediate contender?

At this point, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Columbus made a splash trade to improve its chances next season.

As for the team that made the biggest move at the top of the board, the Carolina Hurricanes certainly look that much better on paper now following the additions of Brent Burns and Max Pacioretty.

The Hurricanes went seven games with the Rangers before they were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

That was without their No. 1 goaltender in Frederik Andersen.

If Andersen can stay healthy and their young core can take another step forward, the additions of Burns and Pacioretty certainly make Carolina a legitimate contender on paper.

The futures market reflected that sentiment, as the Hurricanes moved to +1000 to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel on Wednesday as the second choice behind only the Avalanche.

Meanwhile, the Edmonton Oilers went from +2000 to +1600 to win the Stanley Cup after signing Jack Campbell and Evander Kane.

The Oilers are +750 to win the Western Conference.

Edmonton will still have to get past Colorado in the West, but anybody that bets on the Oilers has to feel confident that they have upgraded their goaltending situation enough to contend next season.

I’m still rolling with the Avalanche, Lightning and Rangers as my three choices to contend for the Stanley Cup.

Still, Carolina and Edmonton are right there in the mix as well in their respective conferences after a good start to the free agent period. 

Blue Jays Fire Charlie Montoyo

The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo on Wednesday afternoon. 

Bench coach John Schneider will take over as Montoyo’s interim replacement for the remainder of the season.

The Blue Jays, which were +850 to win the World Series on the opening night of the season, are now +1800 to win it all.

Toronto went from +450 to +800 to win the American League.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays should gain a significant advantage for their four-game series with the Kansas City Royals that begins today.

The Royals will be without 10 players that have been placed on the restricted list for the series due to their vaccination status.

FanDuel made Toronto a -375 money line favourite for tonight’s series opener.

Kansas City is +300 to pull off the upset with several key pieces missing tonight.