11 bold predictions for the NHL off-season

With an impressive 16-3 run through the post-season, on Sunday night the Carolina Hurricanes won their first Stanley Cup in two decades, putting a wrap on the 2025-26 season and officially opening the door to the off-season.

The possibilities this summer are endless. Many teams behind Carolina will be motivated to improve their rosters in an effort to be a stronger challenge next season. Others showed progress off rebuilding years that will want to keep pushing forward. Not many teams are in "rebuild mode" right now, as the majority of the league has designs on getting more competitive. And most teams are no longer facing cap issues, free to get creative with their trades.

In the next two weeks, rumours will build up to the NHL Draft on June 26-27, with free agency to follow days later. That free-agent class is not loaded with top-end talent, but there are interesting players in there. And looking ahead to the 2027 class, there are many great players who will be eligible to sign extensions this summer that could impact the rest of the league.

While the summer months after July 1 tend to be quiet, there is potential that the conditions this time are just right for more action in July and August.

With that, we sort through 11 predictions for this NHL off-season, from draft considerations, to trade potential and game-changing contracts.

Calgary Flames take Viggo Bjorck sixth overall

Picking sixth overall, the Flames will have no shortage of possibilities in front of them. If still on the board, should they take one of the right-shot defencemen, Keaton Verhoeff or Chase Reid? What about left-shot defender Carson Carels? Maybe a slight reach on Daxon Rudolph (ranked No. 8 by Jason Bukala) or the well-travelled Alberts Smits (No. 9)?

To be sure, if a run on defencemen happens after the Maple Leafs presumably take Gavin McKenna first overall and Ivar Stenberg is still around, he'd be Calgary's pick. That is very unlikely. But another Swedish forward, and a centre at that, very well could be there at No. 6.

Viggo Bjorck has been a prospect on the rise for some time with a strong season in Sweden's top league, a stellar showing at the WJC, and he didn't look out of place with six points in eight games at the senior men's world championship. He's short at five-foot-nine, but not small with a 180-pound frame. Adding a centre so high in the draft to Calgary's rebuild would be a great place to go, even if it means passing up on one of the top four defencemen available.

Chicago trades fourth-overall pick in an effort to push next year's team forward

The Blackhawks have made 11 picks in the first round over the past four years and will have another three in 2027. There has been a ton of losing here in recent years and though 2025-26 was a little step up (they reached the 70-point mark for the first time in six years), there is a long way to go for the playoffs to be in sight.

The Hawks hold the fourth-overall pick, which would net them another high-upside player. Perhaps if Stenberg is still there, it makes sense to take him to pair with Connor Bedard and watch a new top line take shape and rise. But if those top two forwards are gone, might Chicago trade the very valuable pick for some immediate roster help?

The Hawks aren't in "panic to rush forward the rebuild" yet, but if they could trade the pick for, say, an appealing NHL defender with experience and the ability to log big minutes, it might be the right time for such a deal so that Chicago can perhaps become a legitimate playoff threat in 2027.

Cale Makar signs an extension, beginning in 2027, that gives him the league's second-highest AAV

Fascinating contracts are coming up for two defencemen: Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes. Hughes was traded in December by Vancouver with two years left on his contract, knowing it wouldn't be able to extend him past the end date. Minnesota now has to feel out if it has a chance to do so, but if the Wild can't get it done this summer, they'll go into next season looking at the possibility Hughes could walk in 2027.

Makar will turn 28 in October and is also walking into the final year of his contract before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency. And, though the possibility of him leaving Colorado seems more faint than Hughes leaving the Wild, Makar will be due a hefty raise.

Both can sign extensions as of July 1 and are in place to set a new bar for NHL defencemen.

The current high bar in terms of AAV for a defenceman in the NHL is still Erik Karlsson's $11.5 million (he makes $10 million against Pittsburgh's cap after San Jose retained money in the trade). That contract was signed in 2019, before there was any idea the cap would stall for years. Since then, only Rasmus Dahlin's $11-million AAV and Evan Bouchard's $10.5-million AAV have approached Karlsson's number, and both of those players were RFAs when they extended their deals.

Makar is in a different boat for several reasons: he's UFA age, he's won a Cup, a Conn Smythe and two Norris Trophies. The sky is the limit.

Colorado played some kind of hardball with Mikko Rantanen in his walk year and ended up trading him, but don't expect that same outcome with Makar. Nathan MacKinnon at $12.604 million is Colorado's highest-paid player, but with cap inflation it's not reasonable to expect Makar will still come in under that contract. When MacKinnon signed his current deal in 2022, one year before his old contract expired, that number was 15.09 per cent of what the cap would be when Year 1 of the extension started. If Makar were to get the same 15.09 per cent against the expected $113.5 million upper limit in 2027-28, it would come out to roughly a $14.3-million AAV.

That amount would make him the second-highest paid player by AAV in the league, ahead of Leon Draisaitl's $14 million and behind Kirill Kaprizov's $17 million.

Mavrik Bourque signs an offer sheet

We recently outlined the offer-sheet rules and possibilities, and Mavrik Bourque's name is front and centre. The Dallas Stars are one of the very few teams in a prickly position with the salary cap — if they extend RFA Jason Robertson, all of their available space will be gone. To keep Bourque at all, other creative moves will have to be made.

We should note that Bourque was on our list of offer-sheet candidates in 2025 as well, then he signed a one-year prove-it contract for less than $1 million to stay in Dallas before we even got to July 1. But he had an uptick in production this season — from 25 points to 41 and 11 goals to 20 — so something more stable is likely on the table this time.

With the compensation totals set, a team could offer Bourque between $2,387,832 and $4,775,666 and still only owe a second-round pick in compensation. Even though offer sheets do not often happen in the NHL, this is a scenario aching for one, and the Stars might not have the option to get another deal done with him before the market opens on Canada Day.

Jordan Binnington replaces Sergei Bobrovsky as Florida's No. 1 goalie

If the Panthers are to get back into the playoffs next season, they have to hope for health and to figure out who their starting goaltender is.

Sergei Bobrovsky is a pending free agent and one the team explored trading at this year's deadline. As far as an extension goes, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman has reported that, at one point, Bobrovsky sought a "Marchand-type" contract, which was a six-year deal for the 38-year-old forward. Bobrovsky turns 38 in September, but is coming off the worst statistical season of his career. The time might be right to make a change and Jordan Binnington is an intriguing, and available, possibility.

"What do the analytics tell you? They tell you Florida's a team that defends really well off the rush. When they won their two Stanley Cups, they didn't give up a lick off the rush," Steve Valiquette said on Kyper & Bourne back in April. "Binnington, he's really good when he gets to play the shooter and gets to over-challenge and just play his one-on-one hockey. He gets hurt on the backside when he over-challenges. Florida can protect him there."

What would it take? Florida has the ninth-overall pick to potentially use in a trade. Mackie Samoskevich, a 23-year-old forward and 2021 first-round pick, could be of interest to a tinkering team. But what makes sense in a goalie trade — a position that historically doesn't pull back a great return — especially one in Binnington, who will be going into the final season of his contract? We predict a deal will be found here, with Binnington heading to Florida, Joel Hofer taking over in St. Louis, and Bobrovsky going to market.

Los Angeles signs Sergei Bobrovsky to be their new starting goalie

That brings us to where Bobrovsky will end up next. The Kings might make some sense.

Los Angeles was 25th in team save percentage last season between Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg, 36- and 33-year-old goalies who will be heading into the last year of their deals. The Kings will have sights set on being a competitive club again next season, not wanting to waste two years with Artemi Panarin after trading for, and then signing him last season. Kevin Fiala will be part of that combination again after his Olympics injury took him out for the rest of this past NHL regular season.

It's hard to envision Bobrovsky getting a "Marchand-type" contract in this scenario, but might the Kings be open to a one- or two-year deal and bet on a recent back-to-back Cup winner coming in to take the lead with Kuemper or Forsberg? Bobrovsky is good friends with Panarin and the two have played together before in Columbus to some success. And Los Angeles might seek to find a way to a goaltending bump in 2026-27.

Montreal's Alexander Zharovsky is the centrepiece of a blockbuster trade for a centre

The explosive trade that nearly happened between Toronto and Montreal involving Matthew Knies to the Canadiens and prospect Alexander Zharovsky to the Maple Leafs is in all likelihood dead, now that the conditions have changed. Toronto has a new front office and a new outlook with the No. 1 overall pick falling in their lap.

That deal would have been for a winger, but Montreal's greatest need is a centre. The next step in the team's evolution is to find that player behind Nick Suzuki. Given the success Montreal had this season, the strength of the Atlantic Division heading into next year, and the realization that there is still a lot of work to do after their quick elimination against Carolina, we see plenty of reasons for GM Kent Hughes to be motivated to find that centre this summer.

The key part of this equation, of course, is that the right player be available. Does Dylan Larkin make sense? Is Mason McTavish still too much of a risk after he was a playoff healthy scratch? Is Robert Thomas even still available from St. Louis? If that centre is just not out there, can the Blues wait a year to shoot for the moon and see if anything has changed for a Connor McDavid or Sidney Crosby?

With so few teams capped out, the hope is that this could be a summer of hockey trades and while a few trade requests have already been made around the league, and rumours have been brewing, we should expect other names to come up that have not been mentioned yet.

If the right player for the Habs' needs is there, Zharovsky is a highly interesting starting point in a return. Earlier this year, Jason Bukala ranked Zharovsky No. 2 of all the NHL-affiliated prospects who had yet to make the NHL. And now that James Hagens has played a game with the Bruins, Zharovsky would be your No. 1.

Ottawa makes an all-in move for a winger and acquires Jordan Kyrou

Previously showing interest in centre Thomas from the Blues, the Senators' greater need is for another scoring winger. While it's questionable if Thomas is still on the market, Jordan Kyrou very much seems to be. On our latest trade board, Nick Kypreos wrote: "It’s a lot more likely Kyrou will be traded this summer than most other players on the Blues’ roster."

The challenge for the Senators will be to meet an asking price that won't be small, even after a hugely disappointing season in which Kyrou fell from 36 goals to 18, and from 70 points to 46. There is risk here, but Kyrou is a prime-aged 28-year-old with three 30-goal seasons and three 70-point seasons in his past. A Toronto native, Kyrou does have full no-trade protection, but is signed through 2030-31 and would give Ottawa roster security. In the immediate future, he'd have the scoring upside they need on the wing, and in the long term he would provide shelter in case it ever does get to a point in the next year where Brady Tkachuk formally asks for a trade, or indicates he won't sign an extension.  

Pittsburgh takes a shot at UFA Patrik Laine

A return to the post-season won't discourage the front office guiding a team that is very much caught in the middle. Pittsburgh recently re-signed Evgeni Malkin to a one-year extension, so the band will be back for at least one more run together.

When GM Kyle Dubas has described the types of players he'd like to acquire, he talks about young-ish players or ones with upside. Just this past season, the Penguins acquired 25-year-old Yegor Chinakhov in-season and he was wildly successful with the Penguins. But it's not just young players with upside, but sometimes older ones with experience, too. Last summer, they signed Anthony Mantha to a one-year contract after a torn ACL ended his 2024-25 season just 13 games in. Mantha, who had only one 20-goal season since 2018-19, notched a career-high 33 with the Penguins at 31 years old.

Perhaps that sort of bet could be placed next on Patrik Laine. The 28-year-old played just five games with Montreal this season before being sidelined by a core muscle injury, but scored 20 times for them (in 52 games) the season before that. Heading to free agency, Laine shouldn't cost too much to sign, and while his best years are probably behind him, the potential remains. That formula might fit with the Penguins for one season.

Macklin Celebrini inks a long-term extension one year early, setting a new high bar for players coming off an ELC

The highest AAV for any player coming out of their entry-level contract is Connor McDavid's $12.5 million he signed on an eight-year contract in 2017. Given the current economic conditions in the NHL, and the state of the San Jose Sharks, Macklin Celebrini is a great candidate to break that mark this season.

Celebrini still has one more year left on his ELC, but can sign an extension as of July 1. Interestingly, Chicago's Connor Bedard will see his ELC expire on July 1, making him an RFA who needs to sign a new deal by next season. Both are the centrepieces to their NHL teams and No. 1 overall picks, but given Celebrini has broken out as an MVP candidate in the league and as a mainstay core member of Canadian best-on-best teams, he has a stronger case for a bigger contract.

With CBA rules changing in September that will cut the maximum length of contracts down from eight years to seven, Celebrini will perhaps seek to pounce before those rules change.

Say Celebrini inks a long-term deal worth $13 million AAV. That would be 11.5 per cent of what the salary cap is projected to be when the deal kicks in for the 2027-28 season. That cap percentage would not only still be considerably less than what McDavid's post-ELC deal was (15.72 per cent), it would also be a smaller percentage than the post-ELC contract Auston Matthews (14.27) and Mitch Marner (13.37) got when they signed their first extensions with the Leafs. So there is a case that Celebrini could push for an even higher AAV, especially knowing that the cap is anticipated to keep rising over the life of his next contract.

Easton Cowan is no longer a Maple Leaf by training camp

New front office, new direction, new players? After getting some luck to win the No. 1 overall draft pick, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in an interesting position this summer as they look to return in the fall as a competitive team in the Atlantic again. Many things contributed to last year's disaster, and with some better health luck, it's reasonable to suspect Toronto will be able to bounce back. They may not be the Stanley Cup threat they were perceived to be for nearly 10 years of the Core Four Era, but the playoffs are not an unrealistic goal.

And, who knows, with just the right summer trade or two, they could even surprise.

Morgan Rielly and one of the goalies are oft-discussed trade possibilities this summer, but what about 21-year-old winger Easton Cowan? If the Leafs are in the market for a sizeable deal, one that puts next season more into focus, they may have to consider moving the youngster to get a deal done. We're thinking the Leafs have a shot to be very active as John Chayka and Co. look to put their stamp on the team, and Cowan is an intriguing asset to use.