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NHL free agency 2022 preview: Team needs, trade targets, salary-cap space, key dates

Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

NHL free agency officially begins on Wednesday at noon ET, but it's already been an absolutely wild offseason in hockey.

With the salary cap rising by only $1 million from last season, teams have been forced into difficult decisions, such as:

Still, some potential free agents removed themselves from the market by re-signing with their teams: Filip Forsberg (Predators), Kris Letang (Penguins) and Valeri Nichushkin (Avalanche) among them.

The offseason chaos is just getting started. Here's a guide to all 32 NHL teams, their free agents and what they should be doing as free agency officially begins.