No. 1 defencemen, No. 1 centres, No. 1 wingers and No. 1 goalies. Bridge candidates and future superstars that need to be locked up before the big breakout.
The 2025 class of impending restricted free agents offers a little bit of everything enticing.
And while several potential RFAs avoided drama and uncertainty by signing well before July 1 (the Rangers’ Alexis Lafreniere, Dallas’s Jake Oettinger and Wyat Johnston, Minnesota’s Brock Faber, St. Louis’s Jake Neighbours, Utah’s Dylan Guenther chief among them), plenty of intriguing young names remain unsigned for next season.
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 of trades?) are still on deck.
The situations in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Anaheim are particularly compelling.
Here’s where things stand with the top 12 RFAs of 2025, as the flurry of trades and signings at the deadline settles.
1. Evan Bouchard
Age on July 1: 25
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $3.9 million
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: Top-10 draft pick. Right shot. Releaser of the Bouch Bomb. Key power-play contributor. Stanley Cup finalist. Followed an 82-point regular season with 32 points in a 25-game playoff run. Holds record for most assists by a D-man in one playoff year (26).
The latest: The Edmonton Oilers haven’t dressed such a productive offensive defenceman since Paul Coffey, and Bouchard’s performance — particularly come postseason, where he is better than a point per game — has set him up to flip his bridge deal into a whopper.
“Nothing on that yet,” GM Stan Bowman told reporters. “He’s still a very big priority for our team, he had a fantastic season, he’s a great player, and I think his best years are still ahead of him.”
Bouchard’s pricy extension took a back seat to that of Leon Draisaitl’s over the 2024 off-season, and Connor McDavid’s raise lies right around the corner.
Bowman knows he must squeeze in another superstar salary on the back end (somewhere in the $10-million range?) for Bouchard, which is partly why St. Louis’s offer sheets for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway were successful last summer.
Because Bouchard has his defensive lapses, however, the idea of committing eight figures and locking him up long term has divided the fan base.
“Bouch does get a lot of criticism — I think a lot unfairly so,” Bowman told Frank Seravalli on Feb. 26. “He’s a great player. He really is a big part of our team. He’s very effective, and I think sometimes when… your mistakes get spotlighted, for whatever reason, then maybe there’s more attention given to it.
“But he’s played well. He’s very good at complementing our best players. That’s an important role. When you got really creative offensive players who are forwards, you need to have someone who can help them score.”
Bouchard saw his point total drop from 82 to 67 in the regular season, but he has again been a major contributor when it matters most and was impactful without security blanket Mattis Ekholm early in the 2025 playoffs.
2. Luke Hughes
Age on July 1: 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 cover boy. 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 underwent off-season shoulder surgery, missing the first few weeks of his platform campaign, but rebounded strong and stepped up down the stretch with injuries to Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler.
Fitzgerald said he would begin negotiating with Hughes’s agent in January, but concrete updates have been scarce.
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.
3. Noah Dobson
Age on July 1: 25
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $4 million
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: Right-shot blueliner with tremendous vision. Top-12 draft pick. One of two Islanders defencemen to record 60 assists in a single season. First Isles D-man to hit 70 points since Denis Potvin. Seldom takes penalties. Member of Team Canada at 2025 worlds.
The latest: General manager Lou Lamoriello got ahead of his most important RFAs, forward Mathew Barzal and goaltender Ilya Sorokin, in off-seasons past. But Dobson has entered 2024-25, the final year of his bridge pact, with uncertainty in the air.
The aging Islanders can ill afford not to invest in young talent.
Hampered by injury in 2024-25 and struggling at both ends of the ice, Dobson’s production got chopped in half. A disappointing season for all involved.
Dobson switched agents, from Andrew Maloney to Wasserman’s Judd Moldaver and Olivier Fortier, ahead of this critical negotiation.
Another cautious bridge deal, and the Isles could walk a top-four right shot straight to UFA.
Should the Islanders go long-term here, the player could be pushing for an eight-year deal nearing $8 million per season.
Dobson should soon become the highest-paid player on the team’s back end.
4. Matthew Knies
Age on July 1: 22
Position: Left wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $925,000
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Top-line power forward who skates on both special teams. Meshes well with superstars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Biggest, youngest player on the Maple Leafs. Strong playoff showing. Easily crushed career highs in goals (29), points (58) and minutes (18:31). Net-front presence. Fights own battles. Olympian.
The latest: So much for the sophomore slump.
Knies packed on 10 pounds over the summer, then got shot out of cannon. The second-year pro instantly gained trust (and ice time) from new Toronto coach Craig Berube and has been one of the Leafs’ best stories of 2024-25.
“He’s a beast,” confirms fellow Arizonan Auston Matthews.
Berube has gone so far as to compare Knies to power forwards like Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin and John Leclair — comments GM Brad Treliving hopes Knies’ agent didn’t catch wind of.
In speaking with Knies, he has made it clear that he loves being a Maple Leaf and has no thoughts of leaving Toronto.
He has politely declined to publicly discuss the state of extension talks, but there is no doubt Treliving wants to keep him in the fold, rebuffing rival GMs’ trade interest at the deadline.
“Matthew is just realizing how big and strong he is, and he’s getting more comfortable,” Treliving said of his top-line left wing on March 7. “He’s sort of grown right in front of our eyes. So, he’s a big part of our team now (and will) continue to be moving forward. And he’s a unique player. You know, that’s a big, strong man at 22 years old.”
Of course, the Leafs have monster decisions to make on UFAs Marner and John Tavares, but with the cap and Knies’s stock both on the rise, we can’t see a good reason not to lock him up for as long as possible.
5. Gabriel Vilardi
Age on July 1: 25
Position: Centre / Right wing
2024-25 salary cap hit: $3.44 million
Arbitration rights: Yes
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. Enjoying career season.
The latest: A major reason why trading Pierre-Luc Dubois to L.A. a couple 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 impending UFAs like Nikolaj Ehlers, the executive said that he needs to sort out extensions for his younger RFAs.
Reading the tea leaves, we’d say the odds of Vilardi — who wants to stay — getting his money in Winnipeg are greater than Ehlers’.
“The contracts, that’s going to take care of itself,” Cheveldayoff said of Viladri 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.”
6. JJ Peterka
Age on July 1: 23
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $855,833
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: 2022 AHL All-Rookie Team. Silver medallist and Best Forward at 2023 world championships. Superb skater. Sniper. Career-high 41 assists and 68 points in 2024-25.
The latest: In the case of his previous RFAs who showed early promise — Tage Thompson, Dylan Cozens, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelson — Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams has tried getting ahead of breakouts by locking up young Sabres for major term.
A scorer in the ballpark of Guenther’s capabilities, Peterka — one of the great bargain deals of 2023-24 — could be looking for an AAV north of $7 million should Adams wish to buy UFA years.
Failing that, a bridge deal would be the easier route.
Adams maintains that he is philosophically open to buying term, betting that the AAV would benefit the team against a rising cap.
“We’re always open. We’ve done it before, but we’ve also gone the other way,” the executive said, cautiously. “It’s always about what’s right for us and what’s right for the player.”
Despite a flurry of trade deadline rumours, Adams’ stated goal is to sign Peterka to an extension at season’s end. He planned to talk to Peterka’s agent, Allan Walsh, before the Sabres were eliminated.
“Zero, zero truth to that, anything around JJ in terms of looking to move him or any of that stuff,” Adams said. “We’ll get to his agent immediately, say, ‘OK, where do we go from here?’
“He’s one of our core young guys. We need him to continue to get better, and we need to make sure that we’re also explaining to him how we’re going to make the team better.”
Peterka’s strong production has done himself a favour, hanging back-to-back 20-goal showings on a talent-starved team with cap space to spare.
7. K’Andre Miller
Age on July 1: 25
Position: Defence
2024-25 salary cap hit: $3.872 million
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: First-round pick. World junior silver medallist. NHL All-Rookie Team. Durable. Great size and reach at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds. Productive despite limited power-play time. 43 games of playoff experience already. Excellent skater.
The latest: Big, strong, smart blueliners in their prime are essentially must-keeps.
So, while the New York Rangers were quick to re-sign power forward Lafreniere, elite goaltender Igor Shesterkin, and newly acquired defenceman Will Borgen, locking up Miller before he wraps his bridge contract should be imperative.
All these raises add up, and Miller survived the Rangers’ in-season salary purge that sent Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko, Ryan Lindgren, Reilly Smith, and Jimmy Vesey packing.
GM Chris Drury will be staring at a $4.65-million qualifying offer to retain Miller’s rights this summer; a long-term deal should push Miller’s AAV into the $6 million–to–$6.5 million range.
New York still holds a couple years of club control here, so Miller’s file has taken a back seat. That he survived the deadline bodes well for an extension, though Miller’s inconsistency puts that in doubt. He also needed surgery for an upper-body injury.
“Kind of hard to talk about my future here,” Miller told reporters as season’s end. “I have a great agent who is going to help me throughout this summer’s process. I love being a New York Ranger. I think this has been some of the best years of my life. These past five years have been unforgettable in about every aspect you can think of. That’s all I really have to comment on.
“I love New York, and I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else right now.”
8. Lukas Dostal
Age on July 1: 25
Position: Goaltender
2024-25 salary cap hit: $812,500
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: Gold (2024) and bronze (2022) medallist at world championships. Crowned 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 fast approaching, Verbeek has begun discussions with Dostal’s agent, Michael Deutsch.
That Gibson’s salary could still get moved this summer — the Ville Husso trade feels like 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 prioritized health over repping his native Czechia at the worlds.
“Lukáš still doesn’t have a contract, that was the main reason,” Czechia goalie coach Ondrej Pavelec told reporters. “To risk something would not be ideal, which we respect.”
Age on July 1: 26
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $2 million
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: Young, talented centre on a team in a reset. Improved his NHL production in five consecutive seasons. Hot off first 30-goal, 50-point season. Big frame (6-foot-3, 209 pounds). Net-front presence.
The latest: Geekie should see plenty of opportunity now that the Boston Bruins have entered a (hopefully quick) rebuild and have gotten thin up front.
The gradually improving pivot enjoyed a career high in ice time (16:55) in 2024-25, and the salary-shedding B’s now have cap space to spare.
In multiple interviews, GM Don Sweeney has expressed confidence that Geekie will be re-signed without much stress.
One catch here: Geekie’s offensive breakout was juiced by a 22 per cent shooting percentage, which is well above his average.
“Can he continue to expand his game and be one of the building blocks and core pieces moving forward?” Sweeney said to NHL.com’s Amalie Benjamin. “That’s what we’re going to try and find out this summer.
“He’s identified this as a place that he wants to play, and we’ve got work to do to find a contract, and that’s what we’ll do. I believe we’ll get one done.”
10. Marco Rossi
Age on July 1: 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 will soon be 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 eligible to re-sign as early as July 1, but knowing his number will help inform how Minnesota allots the rest of its dollars.
The longer Guerin waits to negotiate with Rossi’s agent, Ian Pulver, however, the more Rossi — already on pace for a career high in points — should ask for.
In light of Minnesota’s tight budget and other centre prospects coming (Danila Yurov, Riely Heidt), things could 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 there’s rumours of native Minnesotan and UFA centre Brock Nelson having mutual interest with the Wild.
From The Athletic: “The team made (Rossi) a contract offer a few months ago — one he didn’t accept. Is that offer still on the table? Does Rossi, a pending restricted free agent who is offer-sheet eligible, even want to re-sign when it looks like his future in Minnesota isn’t in the top six or on the top power play?… You live and learn when it comes to the postseason, so Rossi will likely be much better in his next try. The question is whether the next try comes with Minnesota.”
Age on July 1: 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 the Anaheim Ducks’ future.
The latest: The seven-year, $49-million contract Pat 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, and Verbeek’s other high-profile forward, Trevor Zegras, settled for less money and less term.
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.
“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.”
12. Dmitri Voronkov
Age on July 1: 24
Position: Centre
2024-25 salary cap hit: $925,000
Arbitration rights: Yes
Bargaining chips: Silver medallist at world juniors and Olympic Games. Star player for Ak Bars Kazan in run to 2023 Gagarin Cup final. Seamless transition to North American game. Set career highs in goals, assists, points, and plus/minus. Time as No. 1 centre on team in playoff race.
The latest: Voronkov has been a wonderful success story on an underdog Columbus Blue Jackets team brimming with them.
The fourth-round pick has made an immediate impact since flying across the Atlantic after developing his game for four seasons in the KHL. He hit the 20-goal and 40-point plateaus.
Asked to spotlight an under-the-radar player who has impressed him, GM Don Waddell pointed to his centreman.
“Well, I think Dmitri Voronkov has really taken a step forward. He’s a big guy. For a big guy, he’s got great hands. He goes to the net. He knows where to be,” Waddell told The Hockey Writers.
Columbus is flush with cap space, and Voronkov is the perfect age to grow with Waddell’s emerging core. He’s getting a top-six opportunity.
We see no reason why both sides won’t wish to extend the relationship here, but management is taking its time.
“The good and bad (news) is we’re done April 17, so we’ve got time on our hands here where we can really look at it,” Waddell told reporters upon elimination.
“It also gives us time to study the market and say, ‘OK, if we don’t sign player X, can we replace him with player Z?’ All of that will happen over the next four to six weeks.”
More notable pending RFAs: Ryan McLeod, Philipp Kurashev, Jakub Dobes, Fabian Zetterlund, Morgan Frost, Joel Hofer, Will Cuylle, Connor Zary, Devon Levi, Daniil Tarasov, Mason Lohrei, Tyson Foerster, Cameron York, Bowen Byram, Luke Evangelista, Alexander Holtz, Simon Holmstrom, Alex Laferriere, Hendrix Lapierre, Kaapo Kakko, Jack McBain, Jack Quinn, Adam Boqvist, Nick Robertson, Alexander Romanov, Pontus Holmberg
