To quote Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park: hold onto your butts. Historically, significant changes in the rules surrounding NHL free agency have yielded truly bananas activity when the market opens. We saw it in 2005 when the salary cap was created. It happened in 2013 after the NHL introduced the early negotiation window, which has since been eliminated. This summer: we’re seeing an NHL-record $7.5 million jump in the cap, from $88 million to $95.5 million. Not only that, but the cap will rise to $104 million next summer and $113 million in 2027. General managers have their most bountiful war chests yet.
Also factoring in that the 2025 offseason represents the final opportunity for players to sign eight-year deals internally and seven-year deals on the open market before the max terms shrink to seven and six years, respectively: we’re set up for fireworks. As one player agent told Daily Faceoff, “Teams are going to blow their brains out” this summer.
It’s already happening – because so much of the activity has involved teams re-signing players and/or jumping the market to land them via trade. The Top 75 free agent board has said goodbye to big-ticket targets Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad, Ivan Provorov and more in the past few days.
So who’s left? Here’s final update of our top 75 for July 1.
Before you dive in, some background reading:
UFA All Value Team – The best bargains on the market
Buyer Beware – The big-ticket UFAs in danger of being overpaid
The Goalie Market – Who’s available? Who’s shopping?
UFA Matchmaker: Finding ideal fits for the top 10 free agents
Grading the Mitch Marner trade: Maple Leafs save face as Golden Knights add superstar
The players on the list below are ranked based on my personal evaluation of quality. The board includes contract projections from AFP Analytics.
| Rank | Player | Pos | Age | Cap Hit | GP | G | PTS | AFP Project |
| 1 | Nikolaj Ehlers | LW | 29 | $6M | 69 | 24 | 63 | 6 x $8.1M |
| 2 | Vladislav Gavrikov | LD | 29 | $5.9M | 82 | 5 | 30 | 7 x $7.6M |
| 3 | Brock Boeser | RW | 28 | $6.7M | 75 | 25 | 50 | 6 x $8.5M |
| 4 | Mikael Granlund | C | 33 | $5M | 83 | 22 | 66 | 2 x $5M |
| 5 | Dmitry Orlov | LD | 33 | $7.8M | 76 | 6 | 28 | 3 x $5.8M |
| 6 | Jonathan Drouin | LW | 30 | $2.5M | 43 | 11 | 37 | 4 x $5.9M |
| 7 | Jake Allen | G | 34 | $3.9M | 31 | 2.66 | 0.906 | 2 x $3.5M |
| 8 | Pius Suter | C | 28 | $1.6M | 81 | 25 | 46 | 4 x $5M |
| 9 | Jack Roslovic | RW | 28 | $2.8M | 81 | 22 | 39 | 3 x $4.1M |
| 10 | Corey Perry | RW | 40 | $1.2M | 81 | 19 | 30 | 1 x $1M |
| 11 | Nate Schmidt | RD | 33 | $800K | 80 | 5 | 19 | 2 x $3M |
| 12 | Brandon Tanev | LW | 33 | $3.5M | 79 | 10 | 22 | 2 x $2.1M |
| 13 | Nick Perbix | RD | 26 | $1.1M | 74 | 6 | 19 | 2 x $2.7M |
| 14 | Anthony Beauvillier | RW | 28 | $1.25M | 81 | 15 | 25 | 3 x $3.22M |
| 15 | Matt Grzelcyk | LD | 31 | $2.8M | 82 | 1 | 40 | 3 x $3.8M |
| 16 | Max Pacioretty | LW | 36 | $1.5M | 37 | 5 | 13 | 1 x $921K |
| 17 | Evgenii Dadonov | RW | 36 | $2.3M | 80 | 20 | 40 | 2 x $3.3M |
| 18 | Andrew Mangiapane | LW | 28 | $5.8M | 81 | 14 | 28 | 2 x $3.9M |
| 19 | Alex Lyon | G | 32 | $900K | 30 | 2.81 | 0.896 | 2 x $1.8M |
| 20 | Anton Forsberg | G | 32 | $2,75M | 30 | 2.72 | 0.901 | 2 x $1.69M |
| 21 | Victor Olofsson | RW | 29 | $1.1M | 56 | 15 | 29 | 3 x $3.4M |
| 22 | Joel Armia | LW | 31 | $3.4M | 81 | 11 | 29 | 2 x $2.5M |
| 23 | Adam Gaudette | RW | 28 | $0.8M | 81 | 19 | 26 | 1 x $1.1M |
| 24 | Ryan Lindgren | LD | 27 | $4.5M | 72 | 4 | 22 | 3 x $4M |
| 25 | Mason Appleton | LW | 29 | $2.2M | 71 | 10 | 22 | 3 x $3.2M |
| 26 | Tony DeAngelo | RD | 29 | $775K | 35 | 4 | 19 | 1 x $2.05M |
| 27 | Gustav Nyquist | RW | 35 | $3.2M | 79 | 11 | 28 | 2 x $3.3M |
| 28 | Brent Burns | RD | 40 | $8M | 82 | 6 | 29 | 1 x $5.3M |
| 29 | Michael Eyssimont | RW | 28 | $800K | 77 | 9 | 16 | 2 x $1.35M |
| 30 | Dan Vladar | G | 27 | $2.2M | 30 | 2.8 | 0.898 | 1 x $1.5M |
| 31 | Cody Ceci | RD | 31 | $3.3M | 85 | 4 | 24 | 3 x $3.5M |
| 32 | Connor Brown | RW | 31 | $1M | 81 | 13 | 30 | 3 x $2.9M |
| 33 | Justin Brazeau | RW | 27 | $800K | 76 | 11 | 22 | 2 x $1.5M |
| 34 | Radek Faksa | C | 31 | $3.25M | 70 | 5 | 15 | 2 x $1.4M |
| 35 | James van Riemsdyk | LW | 36 | $900K | 71 | 16 | 36 | 1 x $1M |
| 36 | Jeff Skinner | LW | 32 | $3M | 72 | 16 | 29 | 1 x $2.5M |
| 37 | James Reimer | G | 37 | $1M | 24 | 3.04 | 0.896 | 1 x $ 1.14M |
| 38 | Luke Kunin | RW | 27 | $2.75M | 75 | 11 | 18 | 2 x $1.78M |
| 39 | Ilya Samsonov | G | 28 | $1.8M | 29 | 2.82 | 0.891 | 1 x $2M |
| 40 | Philipp Kurashev | C | 25 | $2.25M | 51 | 7 | 14 | 2 x $1.71M |
| 41 | Christian Dvorak | C | 29 | $4.45M | 82 | 12 | 33 | 2 x $1.77M |
| 42 | Brian Dumoulin | LD | 33 | $3.15M | 80 | 3 | 22 | 2 x $3.19M |
| 43 | Sean Kuraly | C | 32 | $2.5M | 82 | 6 | 17 | 2 x $1.5M |
| 44 | Lars Eller | C | 36 | $2.45M | 80 | 10 | 22 | 1 x $2.13M |
| 45 | David Rittich | G | 32 | $1M | 34 | 2.81 | 0.887 | 2 x $1.14M |
| 46 | Evgeny Kuznetsov | C | 33 | N/A | –– | –– | –– | N/A |
| 47 | Michael Carcone | LW | 29 | $775K | 53 | 7 | 19 | 1 x $965K |
| 48 | John Klingberg | D | 32 | $1.76M | 11 | 1 | 4 | 1 x $2.0M |
| 49 | Taylor Raddysh | RW | 27 | $1M | 80 | 7 | 27 | 3 x $2.65M |
| 50 | Joel Kiviranta | LW | 29 | $775K | 79 | 16 | 23 | 2 x $1.09M |
| 51 | Tanner Pearson | LW | 32 | $775K | 78 | 12 | 27 | 1 x $944K |
| 52 | Luke Glendening | C | 36 | $800K | 77 | 4 | 7 | 1 x $775K |
| 53 | Cole Koepke | LW | 27 | $775K | 73 | 10 | 17 | 2 x $1.38M |
| 54 | Tanner Jeannot | LW | 28 | $2.67M | 67 | 7 | 13 | 2 x $1.42M |
| 54 | Nico Sturm | C | 30 | $2M | 62 | 7 | 14 | 2 x $1.42M |
| 55 | Alexandar Georgiev | G | 29 | $3.4M | 49 | 3.71 | 0.875 | 1 x $1.96M |
| 56 | Justin Danforth | RW | 32 | $1.1M | 61 | 9 | 21 | 2 x $1.45M |
| 57 | Nick Bjugstad | C | 32 | $2.1M | 66 | 8 | 19 | 2 x $2.3M |
| 58 | Craig Smith | RW | 35 | $1M | 59 | 9 | 18 | 1 x $968K |
| 59 | Colin Blackwell | RW | 32 | $775K | 63 | 6 | 17 | 1 x $1.09M |
| 60 | Robby Fabbri | LW | 29 | $4M | 44 | 8 | 16 | 1 x $992K |
| 61 | Vitek Vanecek | G | 29 | $3.4M | 22 | 12 | 0.883 | 1 x $875K |
| 62 | Jeff Petry | RD | 37 | $6.25M | 44 | 1 | 8 | 1 x $1M |
| 63 | Klim Kostin | LW | 26 | $2M | 35 | 1 | 7 | 1 x $775K |
| 64 | Jakub Lauko | LW | 25 | $788K | 56 | 5 | 11 | 1 x $1.17M |
| 65 | Jan Rutta | D | 34 | $2.75M | 54 | 3 | 9 | 2 x $1.52M |
| 66 | TJ Brodie | D | 35 | $3.75M | 54 | 2 | 10 | N/A |
| 67 | Tomas Nosek | C | 32 | $775K | 59 | 1 | 9 | 1 x $916K |
| 68 | Pontus Holmberg | C | 26 | $800K | 68 | 7 | 19 | 2 x $2.4M |
| 69 | Philip Tomasino | RW | 23 | $825K | 61 | 11 | 24 | 1 x $1.43M |
| 70 | Jon Merrill | D | 33 | $1.2M | 70 | 2 | 6 | 1 x $1.28M |
| 71 | Nathan Bastian | RW | 27 | $1.35M | 59 | 4 | 10 | 1 x $1.32M |
| 72 | Parker Wotherspoon | D | 27 | $800K | 55 | 1 | 7 | 2 x $1.34M |
| 73 | Conor Sheary | RW | 33 | $2M | 5 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
| 74 | Daniel Sprong | RW | 28 | $975K | 30 | 2 | 7 | 1 x $924K |
| 75 | Arthur Kaliyev | RW | 24 | $825K | 14 | 3 | 4 | 1 x $867K |
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Get ready for wall-to-wall coverage of one of the biggest days in the calendar — the Daily Faceoff Live Free Agency Special goes live on July 1st at 11 AM EST. Host Tyler Yaremchuk is joined by Carter Hutton, Matthew Barnaby, Jeff Marek, Hart Levine, Colby Cohen, Jonny Lazarus, and insiders from across the Network for three hours of in-depth analysis, live reactions, and real-time updates on every major signing and trade. From blockbuster deals to under-the-radar moves, we’re breaking it all down as it happens. Don’t miss a minute — catch the full special live on DailyFaceoff.com and Daily Faceoff’s YouTube.
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