After having the final year of his contract bought out by the Arizona Coyotes earlier this month, veteran forward Antoine Vermette seems to have received quite a bit of interest on the free agent market and he could be getting closer to finding a new team for the 2016-17 season.
On Saturday Vermette’s agent, Allan Walsh, Tweeted that his client has received offers from five NHL teams and that he will be making his decision on where to play by Monday.
Obviously, he did not specify which teams have made the offers.
The Coyotes bought him out to help open up a roster spot for younger players like Dylan Strome or Christian Dvorak.
Antoine Vermette has received 5 offers from NHL teams and will be making a decision on the various offers by Monday.
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) August 13, 2016
The 34-year-old Vermette is coming off of a 2015-16 season with the Coyotes where he scored 17 goals to go with 21 assists.
He signed a two-year contract with the team before the season after being traded to Chicago (from Arizona) at the 2015 trade deadline.
It probably should not be much of a surprise that there has been interest in him as a free agent. He can still score at a decent rate and he is a veteran forward that is still very strong in the faceoff circle, a skill that teams are sure to still value. That interest also makes it worth wondering if the Coyotes could have potentially traded him for some sort of a return as opposed to buying him out and having a salary cap hit on the books for another year beyond this one as part of a buyout.