Ahead of the noon start to the free agency frenzy and orgy of signings, there were a few moves that are of interest.
The New York Rangers signed former Winnipeg Jets goalie, Ondrej Pavelec to a 
one-year deal worth a little north of a million dollars.
Pavelec will back up Henrik Lundqvist after the trading of Anntti Raanta to the Arizona Coyotes.
The Toronto Maple Leafs re-upped with Curtis McElhinney to a two-year deal. The total value of the deal is just under $2 million.
The Minnesota Wild made a big move by trading Marco Scandella and his big contract along with Jason Pominville to the Buffalo Sabres.
“It was a situation where we wanted to make some adjustments to our defense corps,” Sabres general manager Jason Botterill said on NHL.com. “We had a lot of discussions with Minnesota leading up to the [NHL] Expansion Draft and also in and around the [2017 NHL Draft]. Discussions continued on this week and we just sort of came to fruition with a deal. From our standpoint, we’re very excited to bring Marco into our group. We think he has that two-way game, helping to improve our penalty kill with his reach and mobility, but also be a player that can contribute more offensively and lug larger minutes for us here.”
Pominville returns to the Sabres, the team who drafted in 2001.
Steve Mason is reported to have signed with the Winnipeg Jets after spending time with the Philadelphia Flyers. His experience will be used to bring along the younger Jets’ netminders.
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