Inside the 2026 NHL Offseason: The Contract Situations Still Unresolved
A Summer That Isn’t Quite Finished
Most of the NHL’s offseason business is done. The draft has come and gone, the opening rush of free agency has settled, and rosters around the league are mostly set for the 2026-27 season. But as camps approach, a handful of storylines remain genuinely unresolved — and they’re the ones front offices and fan bases are watching most closely as August gets underway.
The Red Wings’ Larkin Question
Dylan Larkin’s situation in Detroit has been one of the summer’s more closely tracked stories, with reporting indicating the veteran center has made his preferences known to the organization as his contract timeline moves forward. It’s the kind of captain-and-franchise conversation that doesn’t resolve overnight, and how it plays out will shape the Red Wings’ direction heading into training camp.
Trades and Signings Still Reshaping Rosters
Elsewhere, the roster shuffling hasn’t fully stopped. A reported trade involving Ohio State product and NHL winger Marchenko has generated its own follow-up coverage and scrutiny around the terms, while depth moves like the Raddysh signing continue to round out bottom-six mixes across the league. In Chicago, the arrival of a partner for Connor Bedard has been one of the more scrutinized additions of the summer, with Patrick Kane’s return generating real anticipation about what a Kane-Bedard pairing could look like once the season starts.
Star-Level Situations Still in the Background
Beyond the day-to-day transaction news, several bigger-picture contract and trade conversations remain part of the offseason backdrop — the kind of situations involving core, franchise-level players that tend to linger until camp forces a resolution one way or another. Teams that came away from the summer without addressing a clear need are already being pointed to as candidates who may still need to make a move before the puck drops on the new season.
Teams Still Searching for a Move
Analysts have also started identifying clubs that came out of the primary free-agency and trade windows without addressing an obvious roster need — teams that missed out on the top targets at a position of weakness and may still be shopping as camp nears. That kind of late-summer activity rarely makes the biggest headlines, but it can matter just as much to a team’s outlook as the splashier moves that closed out July.
What It Means Heading Into Camp
None of this changes the fact that the bulk of 2026 NHL offseason business is behind us. But the situations still in motion — Larkin’s future in Detroit, the ripple effects of the Marchenko trade, how new-look lines like Chicago’s come together, and which teams still have work left to do — are exactly the storylines worth tracking as teams report to camp in the coming weeks. Broadway Sports Network will continue following each of these as they develop.
