Back in February, a few months after acquiring him, the Columbus Blue Jackets pivoted toward signing Mason Marchment to an extension, rather than trading him at the deadline. However, an extension was never agreed to, and Marchment is expected to reach free agency in one week, where he will likely have a very robust market.
According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, several teams will be interested in signing Marchment should he reach free agency on July 1st. However, LeBrun added that the Blue Jackets are still holding out hope they can sign him to an extension, with an 11th-hour final push on the horizon.
It was a tale of two seasons for Marchment. The 31-year-old winger struggled with the Seattle Kraken, scoring four goals and 13 points in 29 games. However, after the Kraken traded him to the Blue Jackets, he went on a tear, registering 15 goals and 32 points in 39 contests to close out the regular season. There’s little expectation that Marchment will continue to be a point-per-game player, but he has proven to be a quality secondary scorer for the past five years, and would be one of the better forward options on the free agent market.
Additional free agency notes:
- It’s been known for the last few weeks that winger Ilya Mikheyev would not be signing an extension with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks pivoted toward shopping Mikheyev’s signing rights to interested parties, but it turns out they didn’t get much traction there, either. According to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago is preparing to lose Mikheyev on the market for nothing next Wednesday. The middle-six forward has spent the past two years with the Blackhawks, scoring 38 goals and 70 points in 157 games with a +6 rating, averaging 16:32 of ice time per game.
- According to George Richards of Florida Hockey Now, General Manager Bill Zito hasn’t closed the door on signing netminder Sergei Bobrovsky to one last contract. Florida is in a similar situation to last offseason, when they were set to lose one of three key players in Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, or Aaron Ekblad. Somehow, the Panthers managed to keep all three. However, the situation is far different with Bobrovsky, who is nearly 38 years old, coming off the worst season of his professional career, and is reportedly seeking a six- to seven-year deal in the $42MM range.
- Although he’s not a huge priority for the Philadelphia Flyers, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reported that the team is interested in retaining veteran center Luke Glendening for the 2026-27 season. Glendening, 37, played admirably for the Flyers after they claimed him off waivers at last year’s deadline, scoring two goals and five points in 18 regular-season contests, with another goal through 10 games in the postseason.
