Teams have turned their attention to the opening of free agency following the completion of the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft on Saturday.
There could be a lot of activity beginning Tuesday at noon ET with the NHL salary cap increasing $7.5 million to $95.5 million next season. That’s the largest season-to-season jump since the salary cap was implemented in 2005, giving teams more money to spend to upgrade their rosters.
“I think it'll be busy,” San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said last week. “There's a lot of things that go into it. You have some teams that are coming out of their rebuild. You’ve got some teams that want to take the next step as far as playoffs-wise, stuff like that.
“And you have maybe a situation where it's not the strongest free agent class, so I think you kind of combine all these things with the cap going up.”
The list of players who could be available as unrestricted free agents include forwards Mitch Marner, Brad Marchand, Nikolaj Ehlers, Brock Boeser and Mikael Granlund, and defensemen Vladislav Gavrikov and Ivan Provorov.
Here are the top storylines to watch with the market set to open:
Marner headed to Vegas?
The 28-year-old appears destined to leave the Toronto Maple Leafs after nine seasons. According to multiple reports Saturday, the Maple Leafs are discussing a sign-and-trade deal that would send Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights. Toronto GM Brad Treliving wouldn’t confirm there have been discussions with Vegas, but he acknowledged the benefit of trading Marner’s rights.
“Well, I think you’d always like to get something, right?” Treliving said. “That’s not always the case.”
Marner would be the top forward available if not signed before Tuesday; he was fifth in the NHL with 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists) in 81 regular-season games this season. He is coming off a six-year, $65.358 million contract ($10.9 million average annual value) he signed with the Maple Leafs on Sept. 19, 2019.
Can the Florida Panthers re-sign Marchand?
After they defeated the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive season, Panthers GM Bill Zito said they would try to re-sign Marchand, defenseman Aaron Ekblad and center Sam Bennett. Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, signed an eight-year, $64 million contract ($8 million average annual value) with Florida on Friday. Ekblad followed that up by signing an eight-year contract on Monday.
Marchand remains unsigned, but Zito remained hopeful Saturday he will be back.
“I have an idea,” Zito said. “If what I think isn’t accurate, and it might not be, we have a Plan B and a Plan C. But my preference, and maybe I'm hoping, is that there's enough for guys to want to stay to be a part of this and be treated fairly and be happy. And that’s the most important thing.”
Defenseman Nate Schmidt, forwards Tomas Nosek and Nico Sturm and backup goalie Vitek Vanecek also could leave as unrestricted free agents, so the Panthers will need to restock some of their depth.
How do the Maple Leafs replace Marner?
It won’t be easy. Marchand, a longtime rival, could be a target if he doesn’t re-sign with Florida. The 37-year-old had 51 points (23 goals, 28 assists) in 71 regular-season games with the Boston Bruins and Panthers before he had 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 23 playoff games.
After Marner, Granlund had the most points this season among the forwards expected to become unrestricted free agents with 66 (22 goals, 44 assists) in 83 regular-season games with the Sharks and Dallas Stars. Ehlers was next with 63 points (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games with the Winnipeg Jets.
Brock Boeser and Pius Suter of the Vancouver Canucks tied for the second-most goals among potential UFA forwards with 25 each (Marner leads with 27). Boeser scored an NHL career-high 40 goals in 2023-24 and has scored at least 25 four times in his nine seasons with Vancouver.
Rangers looking to rebound
The New York Rangers had Stanley Cup aspirations entering this season after reaching the Eastern Conference Final last season but fell well short, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2021. New York has a new coaching staff headed by Mike Sullivan, who replaced Peter Laviolette, and is expected to be aggressive in continuing to revamp its roster with the hope of returning to Cup contention next season.
The Rangers cleared some salary cap space by trading forward Chris Kreider ($6.5 million AAV) to the Anaheim Ducks on June 12. Strengthening their defense and forward group will be priorities.
Competition in defenseman market
With Ekblad re-signing with the Panthers, the next best right-shooting defenseman available could be Brent Burns, who is 40 years old.
Gavrikov and Provorov are left-handed shots. The Los Angeles Kings have been trying to re-sign Gavrikov; the 29-year-old had 30 points (five goals, 25 assists) and was plus-26 in 82 regular-season games, and he had two assists in six playoff games. Provorov will also be in demand after the 28-year-old had 33 points (seven goals, 26 assists) and was plus-11 in 82 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets this season. He averaged 23:21 of ice time.
Among the teams expected to be looking to upgrade on defense are the Stars, Rangers, Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings and the Utah Mammoth.
“It's no secret, everybody looks at the same list that we're looking at with all the free agents out there, particular (on) defense,” Columbus GM Don Waddell said. “It's not like a plethora of players. There's a lot of players, but not a lot of top players.”
McDavid’s next deal
Connor McDavid is the biggest name among a host of big ones allowed to sign a new contract beginning Tuesday. The Oilers captain is entering the last of an eight-year, $100 million contract ($12.5 million AAV) he signed July 5, 2017, and is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent July 1, 2026.
McDavid said he wasn’t in a hurry to sign a new contract on June 19, two days after Edmonton lost to Florida in the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season, so this could take some time.
“I’m going to talk to my agent a little bit and family and all that, and make some decisions whenever that time comes,” he said. “But there’s no rush on anything like that.”
The No. 1 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, McDavid has won the Hart Trophy three times (2017, 2021, 2023), the Ted Lindsay Award four times (2017, 2018, 2021, 2023) and the Art Ross Trophy as the League’s leading scorer five times (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023) during his 10 seasons with Edmonton. His future will be an ongoing story until he signs his next contract.
"We’re very eager to do that whenever they’re ready,” Oilers GM Stan Bowman said on Saturday. “I think Connor has earned the right to choose when he wants to get into the details of it and we’re ready right now, he knows that.
“He’s right that the July 1 is a date where we can officially sign him to a contract, but besides that, it’s just another date and it doesn’t really change the process at all."
Among the other players eligible to sign new contracts beginning Tuesday are Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel, Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, Stars forward Jason Robertson, Kings forward Adrian Kempe, Rangers forward Artemi Panarin, Jets forward Kyle Connor and Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Hurricane warning
The Carolina Hurricanes are among the teams with lots of salary cap space who will be looking to improve after losing to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final.
“If there’s any chance to get better, we’re going to take it,” Carolina GM Eric Tulsky said earlier this month. “We have the full buy-in to spend to the cap if there are ways to do it to get better. We have so much space and such a strong team. There’s no guarantee we can find ways to spend all that money, but we’re going to spend all summer trying.”
One area of focus could be defense with Burns and Dmitry Orlov expected to become unrestricted free agents. But the Hurricanes have been trying to add a top-line forward for some time and could pursue Marner if he doesn’t end up with Vegas.
Carolina was unable to get Mikko Rantanen to agree to a new contract after acquiring the 28-year-old forward from the Colorado Avalanche in a three-team trade on Jan. 24 and subsequently traded Rantanen to the Stars on March 8. In return, Carolina received forward Logan Stankoven, a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, a conditional first-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, a third-round pick in the 2026 draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.
Those draft picks are assets that could be included in a trade for a forward if the Hurricanes can’t land one through free agency.
Another Mammoth move?
Utah already made a splash by acquiring forward JJ Peterka, who had 68 points (27 goals, 41 assists) in 77 games this season, in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan. It appears poised to do more to try to take the next step and qualify for the playoffs after going 38-31-13 in its inaugural season, seven points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card in the Western Conference.
“We’ll look at every option possible that will help us improve our team,” GM Bill Armstrong told NHL.com on Thursday. “I don't know if we’ll go down all the roads, do you know what I mean? Like, there are a lot of teams that win the summers and won’t win in the winter, right? We don’t want to be one of those teams.”
Restricted free agent offer sheets
Prior to last offseason, there had been only one successful offer sheet in the NHL since 2007, when the Montreal Canadiens opted not to match the Hurricanes’ one-year, $6.1 million offer sheet to forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in 2021. St. Louis might have opened the door for more, though, with two-year offer sheets last year to defenseman Philip Broberg ($4.58 million AAV) and forward Dylan Holloway ($2.29 million AAV) that Edmonton decided not to match.
Among the potential restricted free agents eligible to receive offer sheets beginning Tuesday are Maple Leafs forward Matthew Knies, Rangers forward Will Cuylle and Jets forward Gabriel Vilardi. The big increase in the salary cap could give more teams the space to do offer sheets, but the additional cap space will also help some teams match any offers.
“I’ve talked about it with other managers and some say, ‘Yeah, if you have guys you don’t want to get exposed get them (re-signed) early,’ and others think, ‘I don’t see it happening,” Washington Capitals GM Chris Patrick said. “And some have told me, ‘I hope my guy gets offer-sheeted, so we don’t to have to wait until September (to re-sign him). I’ll just match it and be done.’ So, it’s kind of across the board.”
Oilers’ goaltending dilemma
There were questions about Edmonton’s goaltending again after Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard took turns starting during the playoffs, including the Cup Final. Skinner was 7-7 with a 2.99 goals-against average, an .889 save percentage and three shutouts in 15 games; Pickard was 7-1 with a 2.85 GAA and an .886 save percentage in 10 games (seven starts).
“I don't want to single the goaltending out,” Bowman said on June 20. “I think it's something we'll look at and investigate to determine the best path moving forward for our team. It's really hard to predict where that's going to go.”
One reason for that is there are no goalies with proven playoff track records among potential unrestricted free agents. Options include Jake Allen (11-11-1, 2.06 GAA, .924 save percentage in 29 games), Alexandar Georgiev (9-10, 2.72 GAA, .906 save percentage in 20 games) and Ilya Samsonov (6-14, 3.05 GAA, .901 save percentage in 22 games).
A trade possibility was eliminated when the Red Wings acquired John Gibson from the Ducks on Saturday.
NHL.com staff writers Derek Van Diest and Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report
