The first couple of days of NHL free agency have already thinned out the market, but there are still a few names left standing for teams with cap space and a need to add some veteran help.
Up front, the most interesting options are mostly older players who can still put up numbers. Anthony Mantha sits near the top of that group after a career year with the Pittsburgh Penguins, when he scored 33 goals and 64 points.
That came after a miserable stretch in Calgary the year before, when he played just 13 games and tore the ACL in his knee. The one-year, $2.5 million deal he signed in PIT came with $2 million in performance bonuses, including $250,000 for every 10 games played.
Teams may hesitate to go long-term because of the injury history that has followed him around, along with a 21.3 per cent shooting percentage that jumps off the page. Still, he’s got four seasons of 20-plus goals and 40-plus points on his ledger.
Patrick Kane is another big name still out there. The 37-year-old turned in a strong season in Detroit, finishing with 16 goals and 57 points in 67 games, which ranks second among the available players.
His resume does the talking: three Stanley Cups, a Calder, Art Ross, Hart, and Conn Smythe Trophy, plus 1400 points. But he’s also been on just two playoff runs in the last decade, and the question now is whether he wants one more shot.
Buffalo has been mentioned as a possible landing spot because it’s his hometown, though Detroit hasn’t been ruled out. Nothing is done yet.
Last season, he played on a one-year deal with a $3 million cap hit and collected $3 million in bonuses out of a possible $4 million.
Claude Giroux is still hanging around the market too, and he’s still producing. The 38-year-old played all 82 games for Ottawa and finished with 14 goals and 49 points.
He’s been with the Senators for four seasons, but they only have a little over $5 million in cap space, so a reunion is far from certain. Giroux will turn 39 in January, and his average ice time dipped to 16:18 per game, the lowest of his career.
He’s taking fewer draws as the years go by, but he still led the NHL in faceoff win percentage at 63.1 per cent. He signed last year for one year and $2 million, with up to $2.75 million available in bonuses.
Vladimir Tarasenko is also still searching for his next deal after scoring 23 goals and 47 points in a depth role in Minnesota. He recently changed agencies, and with the Wild holding just $2.3 million in cap space, this could be the start of his seventh team in five years. He turns 35 in December, so the money side of this one may matter as much as the fit.
There are a few other forwards still drawing interest as well: Eeli Tolvanen, Michael Bunting, Jamie Benn, Oscar Sundqvist, and James van Riemsdyk.
On the goalie side, Connor Ingram remains available after a season in which he worked through personal and family struggles and salvaged his NHL career. He became the Edmonton Oilers’ starting goalie last season and led all free-agent goaltenders who started more than five games with a .899 save percentage.
There had been interest in bringing him back to Edmonton, and there were also rumours about Ottawa, but he is still unsigned. New Jersey could be a possibility after moving Jacob Markstrom.
The defensive market is even thinner. John Klingberg and Logan Stanley are among the more recognizable names left, with Carson Soucy, Nick Blankenburg, and Ben Hutton also still available.
Matt Grzelcyk is another one to watch after a surprising 40-point season in 2024-25, but the market clearly wasn’t eager to pay for it. He ended up taking a one-year, million-dollar deal with Chicago late in the offseason after a fairly ordinary year.
A few seasons ago in Boston, he was making $3.687 million, so the question now is whether teams think there’s real value there.
In Other News...
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Connor Ingrams lone season in Edmonton has become part of a much larger summer scramble in net, with the Oilers still searching for answers after their talks with the veteran goalie failed to produce a new deal. The market has already started to sort itself out around the club, and Edmonton has been tied to a handful of different options as it tries to settle on a direction before the rest of the goalie carousel slows down.
Among the names linked to the Oilers are Sebastian Cossa, Devon Levi and Sergei Bobrovsky, a list that underscores just how wide the teams search has become. Ingram, meanwhile, is also drawing attention elsewhere, including from Ottawa as a possible backup option, leaving Edmonton to keep weighing its alternatives while one of last seasons familiar faces moves toward another stop. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Add Mathieu Joseph And Fans Will Debate What It Means
The Oilers kept busy on the roster front again, this time adding Mathieu Joseph on a one-year deal that gives the club another NHL-tested forward to sort into the mix. Joseph arrives with plenty of mileage on his rsum, having played 471 games in the league, and his path through St. Louis and Los Angeles last season only adds to the sense that Edmonton is still looking for useful pieces wherever it can find them.
For a team that has already layered in a string of other moves, Joseph is the kind of signing that invites debate because it says something about both fit and intent. Edmonton still has cap room to work with, but the real question now is how this latest addition slots into the larger plan as the Oilers continue reshaping the bottom of the lineup and trying to make each move count. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Just Made A Goaltending Gamble That Could Change Everything
The Oilers have taken another swing at solving the one area that has haunted too many of their recent runs, signing Frederik Andersen to a one-year deal and adding Devon Levi in a move that signals a real reset in net. Andersen comes in on a modest salary with performance bonuses attached, while Levi arrives as a younger piece with upside, giving Edmonton a different kind of depth chart heading toward the 2026-27 season.
What makes the decision interesting is the structure around it, because Edmonton is not treating this as a simple starter-and-backup arrangement. The plan is to carry Andersen, Levi and Tristan Jarry in a three-goalie setup, a rare approach for a team trying to build stability rather than just patch a hole, and it leaves the Oilers with plenty to sort out before opening night of that season. [Read more 🡒]