NHL agent makes bold trade prediction after week 1 of free agency.

The 2025 free agency period in the National Hockey League has been a little bit of a dud, with most teams seemingly left with more money to spend and relatively little talent to spend it on.

This isn't some unique observation on my part but instead something that just about everyone who follows the sport closely appears to be noticing, although some believe that it is merely the quiet before the storm. Recently, NHL player agent Alan Walsh, who represents high profile clients such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonathan Huberdeau, JJ Peterka and many more, made a bold prediction about the conditions that this rather unique offseason will have on the trade market in the NHL.

This is the first offseason since the Covid era that teams are flush with cap space and actively looking to use that space, but the lack of free agents has left them unable to do so. Walsh, who would know what he's talking about here, believes that several trades are now coming down the pipeline as teams look for other avenues to fill holes on their roster.

There is approximately $275 Million of available cap space remaining within the system for next year. The most common comment from NHL teams right now - “we have the cap dollars but no players to spend them on.” Watch for the trade market to heat up next week.

Walsh of course has already had a ringside seat to one of the bigger trades we will likely see this summer, the deal that sent former Buffalo Sabres forward JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan.

It is unclear if Walsh is speaking with personal knowledge of other deals that might be being worked on right now or if he is purely speculating based on what he is hearing around the league. Either way Walsh is someone extremely well connected, directly to several NHL players in fact, and if he believes there is a trade frenzy on the horizon it's probably for good reason.