Last year, they waited until March 6 to get Raymond Bourque from Boston. As it turned out, they kept Bourque, as they may well be planning to try to keep Blake. Rob Blake has been a career Los Angeles King. They didn't re-sign him, wouldn't meet his price. Once it became easy to pull a name off one jersey and put it on another, it was a whole new ball game.
Players change teams the way they used to change underwear.
The league could fix it. Let teams build in the off-season and tinker for three months. And your customers know the guys they're cheering today won't be guys they're booing tomorrow.