Mike Hoffman is taking a huge risk on the free-agent market!

It’s been three weeks since the free agency season has opened in the National Hockey League and fans are stunned to see that top forward Mike Hoffman is still available for teams across the league. 

We thought we were close to seeing him sign with a club last week when interest in Hoffman “had been very strong,” his representative Robert Hooper told The Athletic’s Adam Vingan, revealing that 13 teams have inquired about Hoffman, five or six of which he described as having serious interest.

Since then… nothing. There is no doubt that Hoffman is the most coveted forward still available on the free agency market this offseason, though he might be asking for a lot especially in these uncertain times. While Tyler Toffoli signed for an annual average value of 4.25 million on a four-year contract in Montreal and Evgenii Dadonov for a three-year, $5 million deal in Ottawa, TSN reporter Frank Seravalli recently reported that Hoffman is looking to get a deal with an annual value of $5.5 to $ 6.5 million per season, depending on the length of the contract.

On Thursday night finally, Pierre LeBrun provided an update on Hoffman, who has decided to wait it out some more for a better offer to come his way. This is how LeBrun explained it on Insider Trading on TSN: 

“Yeah, really continues to be quite the story. Three weeks [ago] Friday that free agency opened and the top goal-scorer in the UFA class is still out there. I spoke to his agent, Rob Hooper of Octagon, on Thursday and I said, ‘listen, how patient are you guys willing to be here as this drags on’ and his answer was … very patient. That’s because they know what they have in their client. They think teams are eventually going to circle back and make the kind of offers that their client should be getting. And part of that is some teams finding cap room. Now, I think there are some LTIR situations that could come into play here, eventually closer to December or January. Boston (Bruins) with the David Pastrnak injury, Edmonton (Oilers) with (Oscar) Klefbom, St. Louis (Blues) with (Vladimir) Tarasenko. I think those are situations that the Mike Hoffman camp looks at as potential opportunities, over time. In the meantime, if a team like Florida (Panthers) where he played the last couple years or Nashville (Predators), which is called a bunch, if they finally step up and make better offers than they have been, then perhaps there’s a deal there as well. But the bottom line: They’re not going to panic, Mike Hoffman’s going to wait for the right opportunity.”

This might be a huge risk, especially if other free agents get signed and take away the money he’s hoping to get from teams trying their hardest tp respect the flattened salary cap.