NHL free agency opens with Stuart Skinner heading to Winnipeg as goalie carousel starts spinning

Stuart Skinner is heading to Winnipeg as the carousel of goaltenders moving around the NHL picked up steam Wednesday with the start of free agency.

Skinner agreed to terms on a two-year contract worth $7.5 million with the Jets, who have been listening to trade offers for three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck. Skinner helped Edmonton reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and '25 before losing to Florida each time, and spent the end of last season in Pittsburgh.

The goalie who beat Skinner and the Oilers, Sergei Bobrovsky, is arguably the top free agent on the market, regardless of position. The Panthers earlier this week traded for goalies Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid to solve their needs in the crease coming off missing the playoffs.

They also signed rugged defenseman Radko Gudas, who just turned 36, to a six-year deal worth $1.5 million annually for a total of $9 million. The 36-year-old Gudas played in Florida for three seasons from 2020-23 and spent last season with Anaheim.

The San Jose Sharks added veteran depth to their young blue line by signing Jacob Trouba to a four-year, $33 million contract. Trouba had 10 goals and 35 points for Anaheim last year, and previously captained the New York Rangers before being traded to the Ducks in December 2024.

The Los Angeles Kings landed forwards Erik Haula (Nashville) and Mats Zuccarello (Minnesota). Haula agreed to a two-year, $7.2 million contract, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Zuccarello’s contract is worth $1 million in base salary plus bonuses, according to another person with knowledge of that agreement.

Chicago got veteran defenseman Ian Cole (Utah) for next season at $4.75 million, according to a third person, also with knowledge of the deal. Division rival Colorado is bringing in winger Jaden Schwartz (Seattle) on a three-year, $9.75 million deal, according to a fourth person familiar with the contract. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contracts had not been announced.

Washington, which is still waiting on winger Alex Ovechkin’s decision about whether to return for a 22nd NHL season, signed defenseman Vincent Desharnais to a four-year, $16.8 million contract.

Detroit signed Swedish winger Viktor Arvidsson to a two-year contract worth $10 million.

With a shallow pool of free agents available, many teams are going the trade route to try to improve this summer. The New York Rangers got their backup goalie that way, sending minor leaguer Kalle Vaisanen and a 2028 fourth-round pick to Boston for Joonas Korpisalo.

Nashville acquired pending restricted free agent forward Mavrik Bourque from Dallas. The Predators sent a 2027 second- and a 2028 third-round pick to the Stars for Bourque and defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin.

“Mavrik Bourque is a quality, two-way player who will fit perfectly with what we are trying to build here in Nashville,” general manager Chris MacFarland said. “At just 24 years old, his age and style of play fits in with the type of players we are looking to bring in to help make us better.”

Dallas clearing salary cap space could allow the team to sign Jason Robertson, another restricted free agent who is ticketed for a long-term, lucrative contract. Robertson turns 27 this month and led the Stars in scoring with 96 points on 45 goals and 51 assists last season.

His younger brother, Nick, is going to Pittsburgh after the Penguins got him from Toronto for a fourth-rounder in '28.

The Blackhawks signed Bowen Byram to a six-year, $75 million contract extension in a deal that makes him the NHL’s top-paid defenseman in average annual salary and secures him through 2032-33.

The signing comes a week after Chicago acquired the sixth-year player by trading the No. 4 pick in the NHL draft to the Buffalo Sabres. Byram had one year remaining on his current contract, and his $12.5 million average salary surpasses Penguins blue liner Erik Karlsson ($11.5 million).

New Jersey locked up captain Nico Hischier for the long term, signing the Swiss center to a five-year extension worth $58.5 million with an annual cap hit of $11.7 million from 2027 through 2032.

“When I took this job, I knew that Nico was one of the core pieces that I definitely wanted as part of our future,” new Devils GM Sunny Mehta said. “The way he plays the game, his leadership and selflessness are qualities we value for this team.”

— Montreal agreed to re-sign Ivan Demidov to an eight-year, $73 million contract after the 20-year-old Russian forward led all NHL rookies with 62 points (19 goals, 43 assists) last season.

— Philadelphia got two extensions done, signing young forward Tyson Foerster to an eight-year, $56.8 million contract (2027-28 through 2035). The Flyers extended goalie Dan Vladar for five years at $27.5 million.

— The Buffalo Sabres signed newly acquired defenseman Olen Zellweger to a three-year, $9.3 million contract. Zellweger was a pending restricted free agent and acquired in a trade with Anaheim.

AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed to this report.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

FILE - Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram (4) looks on during the second period in Game 5 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes,File)

FILE - Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky lifts the Stanley Cup after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final June 17, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - Dallas Stars center Mavrik Bourque skates during the first period in Game 5 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoffs hockey series between the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild, April 28, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner takes a timeout during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars in Pittsburgh, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier gestures after overtime of an NHL hockey game against the Ottawa Senators, April 12, 2026, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)

FILE - Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas skates during an NHL hockey game against the Winnipeg Jets, Feb. 27, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tourists from Chattanooga check into beach resorts in Cancun. Canadian auto parts feed factories in the American Midwest — and vice versa. Happy hour revelers raise glasses of Mexican tequila and mezcal at bars in Seattle.

It adds up. The United States trades $1.9 trillion a year — $5 billion a day — worth of goods and services with its neighbors, Canada and Mexico. They have supplanted China as America's top two trading partners.

So the stakes are high when it comes to fiddling with the rules that govern trade between the three countries. And after a year of President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, many U.S., Canadian and Mexican businesses would welcome the return of stability across North America.

They are not likely to get it.

The regional trade pact — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA — that Trump negotiated and boasted about in his first term came up for renewal Wednesday, starting a process that is likely to last months, maybe longer.

And the path forward is lined with landmines.

“There’s going to be a lot of drama this summer," Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow in the America’s program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week at a USMCA forum sponsored by the Cato Institute.

The U.S. is making demands that could effectively force Canada and Mexico to surrender some automaking production to the United States. That might bring more auto factory jobs to the United States. But it would also upend established supply chains and would push up U.S. prices for new cars that now average nearly $50,000 at a time when American consumers are already furious about the high cost of living.

Trump, characteristically, has added to the tension by threatening to pull out of his own agreement altogether.

In 2020, the USMCA replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which tore down most trade barriers between the three North American countries.

Trump and other critics had called NAFTA a job killer because it encouraged U.S. companies to move factories south of the border to take advantage of low-wage Mexican labor, then ship goods back to the United States duty free.

His USMCA ended up being similar to NAFTA — though it pressured factories to pay higher wages and make sure that more of what they made originated in North America in an effort to prevent Chinese products from slipping across regional borders duty free.

The USMCA included a novel provision requiring the pact to be renewed every six years. That deadline was Wednesday, and the three countries met virtually. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the United States was not ready to renew the pact as it is for another 16 years — which would have been until 2042. The United States wants changes to the agreement to reduce its trade deficits with Canada and Mexico and to resolve specific disputes over issues such as Canada’s protection of its dairy industry.

The USMCA remains in effect while the three countries continue to work on ways to resolve their differences; they have until the current term ends in 2036 to reach an agreement. Otherwise, the pact expires.

Meantime, any USMCA country can pull out of the pact provided it gives its two partners six months’ notice — a red buzzer that Canada and Mexico, dependent on trade with the United States, fear Trump just might push.

Trump, after all, said in June that he was “not looking to renew" the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. "We don’t need anything that they have,” he said.

The United States and Mexico have held talks on renewing the trade agreement. But Canada has so far been stuck on the sidelines.

Patrick Childress, a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm and a former U.S. trade negotiator, said: “The danger for Canada is this: that the U.S. government and the Mexican government reach agreement on changes to core provisions of the treaty and then show up in Ottawa and say: ‘Here’s what we’ve agreed to. You can take it or leave it."’

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the three trading partners plan to meet virtually on Wednesday, adding: “I’m not looking for my pen.”

Carney later said in French his priority is to update the USMCA.

The U.S. wants a refreshed trade pact to do more to make sure that Chinese goods don’t get in through the back door.

But the most contentious issue is that the U.S. is also seeking a brand-new requirement: that 50% of cars be made in the United States, Carney confirmed in early June. Currently, none of the USMCA countries gets a guaranteed share of production. “It’s a red line for both Mexico and Canada, and it goes against the spirit and the letter of regional integration,” Ocampo said.

Marcos Carias, economist at the credit insurer Coface, said only 1 in 5 Mexican and Canadian cars imported into the United States would currently meet the 50% standard.

Vehicle models likely to be hit with higher costs under the plan, he said, include Ford’s Maverick compact pickup truck, Chevrolet’s mid-size Equinox SUV and some Nissan sedans — all made in Mexico. Carias’ “back of the envelope" calculations suggest that prices could increase 5% to 7% on the most-affected models.

AP Writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Rob Gilles in Toronto contributed to this story.

FILE - Prime Minister Mark Carney takes questions from journalists as he arrives on Parliament Hill in Ottawa before a meeting of the federal cabinet, June 2, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

FILE - An employee welds metal at a steel tank factory in Mexico City, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during an event at the White House to sign a new North American trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, Jan. 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - National flags representing the United States, Canada, and Mexico fly in the breeze in New Orleans where leaders of the North American Free Trade Agreement met on April 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)