Top-pair defencemen and No. 1 goalies. Productive centres and dynamic wingers. Bridge candidates and future superstars that must be locked up before the big breakout.
The 2025 class of restricted free agents offers a little bit of everything enticing.
And while most big-name RFAs avoided drama and uncertainty by signing before or on July 1 (Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard, Toronto’s Matthew Knies, the Rangers' Alexis Lafreniere, Dallas's Jake Oettinger and Wyatt Johnston, Minnesota's Brock Faber chief among them), plenty of intriguing young names remain unsigned for 2025-26.
As these RFAs look to bank off their platform campaigns and managers wonder how to spend their dollars against a spiking salary cap, plenty of tense negotiations (or a couple trades?) are still on deck.
Here is the updated compensation chart for RFAs who chose to sign an offer sheet.
And here is where things stand with this summer’s top 12 RFAs.
Player-elected arbitration was filed Saturday. Teams have until Sunday evening to file for club arbitration.
Salary arbitration hearings will be held from July 20 through Aug. 4.
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1. Luke Hughes
Age: 21
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $925,000
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Fourth-overall draft pick. Legit hockey family. World junior medallist. Already repped Team USA twice at world championships. Calder finalist. Named to 2024 NHL All-Rookie Team. EA Sports coverboy. Impressive 47-point rookie campaign and instant top-four D-man in the pros.
The latest: After hiring a new coach and making a ton of UFA noise in the summer of '24, New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald's top priority is now clear: Get Hughes locked up for a team-friendly rate.
The Devils did just that with Hughes' older brother, Jack, and a great long-term comparable for Luke emerged when fellow 2024 Calder Trophy finalist Brock Faber re-upped in Minnesota for eight years at $8.5 million per season.
Such a deal would elevate Luke's salary over Jack's $8 million, which is excellent value.
Luke missed the first few weeks of his platform campaign rehabbing his shoulder, but rebounded strongly and stepped up down the stretch with injuries to Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler.
Bridging the young defenceman at, say, $5.1 million per season, could save money now but set the Devils up for a monster bill when Hughes approaches UFA status and the salary cap has gone through the roof.
The smart money says buy big now, and the vibes are positive.
“I talked to his agent (on July 1). We said, ‘Let’s enjoy the holiday weekend, and we’ll start talking after,’” GM Tom Fitzgerald told reporters. “He’s excited. He wants to be a Devil long term — just like his brother. We’re excited about that.
“Players want to stay here. They want to be in New Jersey. They want to be part of something we’re creating. The standards are getting higher with each year, which is exciting. I don’t sense anything other than Luke wants to be a Devil for a long time.”
Age: 25
Position: Centre / Right wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $3.44 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: First-round pick. 2021 IIHF world champion with Team Canada. Traded a significant asset to obtain him. Three straight 20-goal seasons. Integral player in Presidents’ Trophy bid. Hot off career season (27 goals, 61 points, two playoff rounds).
The latest: A major reason why trading Pierre-Luc Dubois to L.A. a couple of years back looks so good on GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, the versatile Vilardi has flourished as a Winnipeg Jet.
Not only has the forward grown from a third-liner to a top-six staple, but he has become one of the more dangerous power-play threats in the league.
Another two-year bridge deal would walk Vilardi straight to free agency, so we suspect Cheveldayoff aims for term here. The fit with core forwards Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor has been fantastic.
Cheveldayoff keeps his cards close to vest, but when he was asked about doling out big raises for UFAs like Nikolaj Ehlers, the executive said that he must sort out extensions for his younger RFAs.
“The contracts, that’s going to take care of itself,” Cheveldayoff said of Vilardi and fellow RFA Dylan Samberg. “We’ll work on that. We’ll find a way to find common ground. But those are the guys that we’re challenging.”
By letting Ehlers walk, Winnipeg has nearly $20 million in cap space to take care of its RFAs.
Vilardi filed for arbitration
3. Lukas Dostal
Age: 25
Position: Goaltender
2024-25 salary cap hit: $812,500
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: Gold (2024) and bronze (2022) medallist at world championships. Crowed Best Goaltender at ’24 worlds. AHL All-Star. Clear successor to John Gibson as Anaheim’s No. 1 goalie. Fantastic traditional and underlying stats despite playing behind a subpar team of skaters. Ducks sure can use saves.
The latest: With Gibson sidelined by an appendectomy to begin 2024-25, Dostal happily carried the workload in Orange County and began performing among the league’s elite at his position.
Dostal’s strong track record has met opportunity at the perfect time, and the goalie is putting himself in line for a massive payday.
GM Verbeek was in no panic to extend Dostal before the season began, but the way Dostal has performed, the executive may wish for a time machine.
“We’ll take our time on that,” Verbeek stated at the start of training camp when asked about extensions for his pending RFAs. “To me, that’s far down the road.”
Well, now that the end of the road is here, Verbeek has begun discussions with Dostal’s agent, Michael Deutsch.
That Gibson’s salary was shipped to Detroit — the Ville Husso trade midseason was foreshadowing — only clears more space for a significant commitment to Dostal.
Young goalies who can play 54 games are hard to find. You gotta keep them.
Dostal filed for arbitration.
4. Marco Rossi
Age: 23
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $883,334
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Top-10 pick. Ontario Hockey League MVP. Austrian national team captain. Put up 21 goals and 40 points in first full NHL season, then followed with a 60-pointer. 2024 NHL All-Rookie Team. Can never have enough skilled centres.
The latest: Sure, Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin is squirming out from the weight of the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyout payments, but only to face requests for significant pay bumps from integral forwards.
While Rossi’s raise is a priority, Guerin’s cap planning must begin with locking in team MVP, Kirill Kaprizov, to an eight-figure deal. Kaprizov is now eligible to re-sign, and locking in his number will help inform how Minnesota allots the rest of its dollars.
Considering Minnesota’s tight budget and other centre prospects coming (Danila Yurov, Riely Heidt), things will get tricky here.
The best route is likely a short-term, kick-the-issue-down-the-road solution. Think something along the lines of Cole Perfetti’s two-year, $6.5-million extension in Winnipeg.
Rossi says he “100 per cent” wishes to stay in Minnesota.
Guerin denied any thoughts of trading Rossi to The Athletic in late December. He also said there is “no rush at all” to re-sign the improving asset.
“I’m very happy with Marco. Oh, my God, yeah,” Guerin said. “Just his pace of play, his engagement every night, he has been one of our best players. I think the biggest thing, too — and I know this is the hardest thing for young players — is his consistency.
“He’s one of our better net-front presence guys. And he’s not the biggest guy, but he stands in there and that’s why he’s getting rewarded. All his goals are from 10 feet and less. He’s doing all the right stuff.”
And yet, Rossi’s ice time plummeted in playoffs (11:18), and trade rumours swirled in mid-June. Guerin’s high price was not met, though.
The Athletic’s Chris Johnston reported on June 30 that Rossi is now more likely re-sign in Minnesota. Centres are too hard to come by.
Age: 22
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $894,167
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Third-overall draft pick. Olympian. 2022 world junior gold medallist, MVP, and author of the “McTavish Miracle.” Three straight 40-plus-point seasons in the NHL. Key piece of Anaheim Ducks future.
The latest: The seven-year, $49-million contract Verbeek issued young RFA centre Troy Terry in 2023 might tell us something about the type of deal the Ducks GM may wish to strike with McTavish, the next young stud centre on his to-do list.
The Terry deal took time to come together, however.
The executive has cap space to play with but is mindful of the number of players he’ll have knocking at his door for raises. He has a track record of patience, playing out situations where he holds the hammer.
That McTavish hasn’t earned arb rights hurts. That he has improved defensively while remaining an offensive threat and reaching a career-high 52 points helps.
So, how are talks going?
“Nothing yet. I'm sure it’ll kind of happen as the summer goes on. Obviously, I love it here, and hopefully I can stay here,” McTavish said in mid-April. “They believe in me. (No numbers, but) I think that's more between my agent, me, and Pat.”
A comparable for McTavish’s next contract could be Quinton Byfield’s recent five-year extension in Los Angeles, which carries a $6.25-million AAV.
Here’s Verbeek on Apil 19 talking about McTavish and Dostal: “They’re very important players to our organization, and the hardest thing is going to be to figure out what the contracts look like.
“I've actually had conversations with both agents before the season had ended, so we're just going to kind of pick up where we had left off. I spoke to two young players as well, and they’re excited. They're excited to get going and so hopefully we can work through this expeditiously.”
By mid-June, however, no numbers had been exchanged.
The new contracts for pending RFAs J.J. Peterka in Utah and Matthew Knies in Toronto serve as recent comparables for negotiating a mid-term deal here.
Another comparable for McTavish’s next contract could be Quinton Byfield’s recent five-year extension in Los Angeles, which carries a $6.25-million AAV.
“We’re still starting to work on that a little harder now, kind of wanting to get through free agency,” Verbeek told reporters on July 1.
“We’ve got some time now to really get after it and get both (Dostal and McTavish) under contract.”
6. Bowen Byram
Age: 24
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $3.85 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — team elected arbitration
Bargaining chips: Fourth-overall draft pick. World junior gold medallist. Stanley Cup champion. Logs 22-plus minutes a night. Posted career-high 38 points in 2024-25.
The latest: The Buffalo Sabres’ acquisition of defencemen Conor Timmins on draft weekend and Michael Kesselring in the J.J. Peterka trade only added to the assumption that Byram will be on the move this summer.
“He’s an elite defenceman in the league right now,” GM Kevyn Adams told reporters on draft weekend. “It’s kind of like the situation with JJ. If it’s the right trade that we think helps our team, we’re definitely open to that.
“In saying that, I love Bo Byram as a player and as a person, and I’d be more than fine with him part of our D corps. Right now, with how our D corps looks on paper with Bo in there, I think it’s very, very good. So, if it’s the right thing and the right trade comes across, we’ll definitely be open to it. But not something that I’m going to force.”
Calgary, Vegas, Columbus, St. Louis, and L.A. are among the teams poking around on Byram.
Considering the dearth of D-men available and the pressure to make Buffalo relevant again, Adams needs to knock this one out of the park.
In any potential trade, the Sabres are looking for players that can help them now (preferably a scoring forward) over the future.
Byram did not file for arbitration, however, the Sabres elected to file for team-elected arbitration on Sunday.
7. Kaapo Kakko
Age: 24
Position: Right wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $2.4 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: Second-overall draft pick. Gold medallist at world juniors and world championships, where he led Team Finland in goals. Posted career-high 44 points in 2024-25. Front-line winger in Seattle.
The latest: The Kraken didn’t give up two draft picks and useful defenceman Will Borgen to acquire Kakko just to let him go.
The high-pedigreed forward — so frustrated/frustrating as a New York Ranger — began to find his groove as a top-six contributor in Seattle, where his production jumped and his ice time reached a career high of 17:03.
Kakko’s file has been pushed to the back burner slightly as the Kraken underwent off-season changes to its front office and coaching staff while pursuing trades and unrestricted free agents.
“Eventually, we’ll certainly get something done,” new GM Jason Botterill assured.
Kaako filed for salary arbitration.
8. Dylan Samberg
Age: 26
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $1.4 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: Born and raised in nearby Minnesota. Two-time world junior medallist. Set career highs in points (20), plus/minus (+34), blocks (120), takeaways (33), and ice time (21:08) for Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2024-25.
The latest: An unsung contributor to the Winnipeg Jets’ incredible regular season who elevated his game in the postseason, Samberg is a must-keep.
The left-shot blueliner continues to take steps in his effectiveness and dependability, and now that Ehlers’ money is off the books, there is no reason for Cheveldayoff not to lock up an integral piece of an excellent D corps.
Samberg’s plus-34 rating this past season led all Jets, despite his taking on tougher forward assignments.
“The exciting thing for us is that we have some of those players that are on this side of the 30-plus years,” Cheveldayoff told reporters. “Those are some of the guys that have capacity to grow. We’ll work on that. We’ll find a way to find common ground.”
Samberg filed for arbitration.
9. Cameron York
The latest: York signed a five-year deal with the Flyers worth $5.15 million per season.
10. Alex Laferriere
Age: 23
Position: Right wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $875,000
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Harvard lad. Recorded career highs in goals (19), assists (23), and plus/minus (+22) in 2024-25. Projected second-liner for a team that wants to contend. Important piece of Kings’ youth.
The latest: Laferriere does not yet wield the arbitration hammer, so he may need to exercise some patience this summer.
A short-term bridge contract appears to be the best solution for both sides, as the Kings splurged in free agency and the player would be wise to bet on himself for a breakout.
“We have had communication,” new GM Ken Holland told reporters of Laferriere.
“There’s a number of players that are kind of in a similar experience, trying to find a fair deal, a short-term deal for both sides [that they] think is fair. We’re going to find a solution. I can’t tell you exactly when. But he wants to be here. He likes it here.”
11. Connor Zary
Age: 23
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $863,334
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: First-round pick. World junior silver medallist. Age aligns with Calgary rebuild. Promising stats through first 117 NHL games (27 goals, 61 points). Everyone is looking for young centremen.
The latest: General manager Craig Conroy is working his way down his to-do list, already extending more senior RFAs Morgan Frost and Kevin Bahl before drilling down on Zary’s file.
The fit is a nice one, but with Zary taking a step back production-wise from his rookie campaign, short-term might be the wise play this summer.
No huge rush at this point, considering Zary lacks arbitration rights.
“We've been in contact,” Conroy told reporters on draft weekend. “We’re just working away at it. But with all the draft stuff, it's been a busy week. But hopefully we can get it done sooner than later.”
Age: 22
Position: Right wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $925,000
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: First-round draft pick. Stanley Cup champion. Hot off breakout season in which he scored 15 goals and 31 points in 72 games. Veteran Panthers need to keep young, affordable talent.
The latest: Bill Zito is playing chess, not checkers.
Because the ascending Samoskevich has yet to accrue enough games played, he falls under the 10.2.c category as a restricted free agent and is thus ineligible for an offer sheet.
That’s important this summer because Zito and the two-time champions are currently over the cap ceiling.
Samoskevich was a healthy scratch for the bulk of Florida’s title run due to inexperience and the health of so many veteran forwards, but both Zito and coach Paul Maurice are bullish on the winger’s potential.
Zito pulled off the unthinkable — re-signing UFAs Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad — but those priorities pushed Samoskevich to the back burner.
With a short resume, no leverage, and little budget for management, the player must look toward a bridge deal.
More notable RFAs: Devon Levi, Luke Evangelista, Alexander Holtz, Nick Robertson*, Maxim Tsyplakov*, Conor Timmins*, Ryker Evans, Morgan Barron*, Drew Helleson*, Jayden Struble*, Arvid Soderblom*
All salary info via the excellent PuckPedia.com.
*Filed for arbitration
**Team filed for arbitration
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