At almost the same exact time that the New York Islanders inked goaltender Rick DiPietro to an eye-popping 15-year contract last week, the Philadelphia Flyers raised a bit of controversy of their own, signing Vancouver Canucks restricted free agent Ryan Kesler to a one-year deal worth $1.9 million. While the Isles’ move was seen by most in the hockey world as yet another example of owner Charles Wang’s eccentricity, the Flyers’ maneuver sent shock waves throughout the National Hockey League.

Until the signing of the current collective bargaining agreement, the NHL was by far North America’s most restrictive professional sports league with regard to the retention of player rights. From the time players were drafted at age 18 until they turned 31, their NHL clubs held exclusive rights to their services. Although restricted free agency ostensibly gave clubs the opportunity to poach under-31 players from other teams, the penalties for pursuing those players was so severe that it rarely happened.

In the most egregious case, the St. Louis Blues were forced by an arbitrator to send Scott Stevens to the Devils as compensation after the Blues signed Brendan Shanahan away from New Jersey.The most recent RFA offer sheet came back in February 1998, when Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos took his feud with Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch public. Karmanos’s Hurricanes signed Wings center Sergei Fedorov to a sixyear deal worth $38 million, with huge bonus incentives that front-loaded the payments on the contract. The thenabysmal Hurricanes offered to give Fedorov a $14 million signing bonus, and another, $12 million bonus if they reached the Cup Finals. The Wings matched that offer and went on to win the Cup in 1998, paying Fedorov more than $26 million for playing in only 43 games.

With the new bargaining agreement, the rules have changed dramatically. Now players can become unrestricted free agents at age 27, and even younger if the required seven years of NHL service begins during their teenage years. Last season, Sidney Crosby topped the 100-point barrier as an 18-year-old rookie, and he will be eligible to test the market as an unrestricted free agent during the summer of his 25th birthday — so each decision about which youngster to invest in becomes more and more critical.

Of course, there’s also the salary cap to consider. With player salaries capped at 54% of total league revenue, and with each team limited to a $44 million payroll in 2005–06, it has become all but impossible for the more spendthrift clubs to assemble a “dream team” every summer. This was never more apparent than in early July, when the well-heeled Philadelphia Flyers watched talented defenseman Kim Johnsson sign with the Minnesota Wild, consistently among the league’s most conservative spenders.Today, parity reigns supreme, with all 30 teams essentially equal players in the free agent marketplace.

Conspiracy theorists wonder if perhaps the Kesler signing was a different form of payback, Bobby Clarke style. Rumors swirled that the Flyers’ GM was in talks with the Canucks about a blockbuster trade that would have sent Markus Naslund and Kesler to Vancouver in exchange for Simon Gagne. That the Flyers inked Gagne to a five-year, $25 million deal the same day they signed Kesler only added credence to that theory.

But if Clarke was in fact exacting revenge on Canucks GM Dave Nonis for reneging on the rumored trade, he was playing with fire. By signing Kesler to a $1.9 million deal following a 10 goal season, Clarke without question made it more expensive for him to retain talented young Flyers forwards Jeff Carter, R.J. Umberger, and Mike Richards — who have thus far shown themselves to be better than Kesler. He also made it a lot more likely that one of that trio — or coveted defenseman Joni Pitkanen — will be the recipient of a similar offer sheet if and when Clarke cannot get them under contract.

If other NHL GMs decide to follow Clarke’s lead and pursue restricted free agents, that will raise some very interesting possibilities for team building. And in the short term, the Devils appear to be the team most vulnerable to such an attack. Currently bumped up against the salary cap, New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello has some incredibly difficult decisions to make in the next two weeks. Brian Gionta remains unsigned, hopeful of securing a long-term deal with the Devils and attending training camp protected by an insurance policy. But there isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t improve itself dramatically by adding Gionta, a feisty 48-goal score. And it probably wouldn’t take much more than a $3 million-a-year offer to take him away.

For Lamoriello, the best escape might well be a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets. The supremely talented Nikolai Zherdev is holding out, and it is becoming increasingly likely that he’ll be playing in Russia this season. If the Devils could pull off a trade in which they send Gionta to Columbus in exchange for Zherdev, they could use whatever remaining cap room they’ve got to resign defensemen Paul Martin and David Hale. Next season, Zherdev could return to the NHL, when the Devils will be relieved of the $7.1 million they are paying Alexander Mogilny and Vladimir Malakhov.

Lamoriello has earned his reputation as one of the NHL’s shrewdest GMs. But the landscape has changed dramatically with the new bargaining agreement — that Lamoriello actively helped to craft — and it’ll be very interesting to see whether he can pull off a Houdini-like escape from his current predicament.

Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of Inside Hockey.com.