The Real Reason These NHL Free Agents Are Still Unemployed

More than $1.4 billion committed since July 1, over 270 contracts signed — and yet a genuinely useful group of NHL players is still sitting by the phone. The interesting story here isn’t who’s left. Several veterans with a solid track record haven’t landed. This isn’t a crop of unproven names that teams can’t predict their production. These are players who have been there and done it before.

The problem is their expiry dates.

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Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Reilly Smith are all still producing — Kane led all UFAs with 41 assists, Tarasenko scored 23 goals in Minnesota — but each comes bundled with an age tax that makes term a non-starter. Nobody’s questioning the skill. They’re questioning how many good years are actually left to buy. We saw it with Anonthy Mantha. He wanted four years, he got two in New Jersey. We saw it with Sergei Bobrovsky. He wanted six years, he got three in Toronto.

For some, it’s not about talent, but the inconsistency of that talent.

Eeli Tolvanen‘s goal total was cut in half year-over-year, Patrik Laine barely played at all, and Philipp Kurashev has one big season buried under two quiet ones. These aren’t declining players so much as unpredictable ones, and teams would rather wait them out than guess wrong on term.

Kane is a little different in that he’s believed to be choosing between one of two teams. Both seem to want him, he just hasn’t decided.

Logan Stanley is another outlier worth watching. He’s 28, coming off a legitimate breakout, and reportedly asking for up to $25 million over four or five years — the kind of term teams are happy to hand a proven veteran, but not yet a player with one good contract-year sample. If he doesn’t blink on price soon, he risks becoming this summer’s Michael Bunting: a useful player who waits so long his market shrinks to one-year, prove-it offers.

The Surprising List of Unsigned UFAs

Then there are players who might be waiting until the end of the summer. They’ll either sign cheap deals or have to accept PTOs. Evander Kane, David Perron, Adam Henrique, Connor Ingram, Carson Soucy, Jeff Skinner.. That some of these players haven’t landed yet is a little surprising.

It’s not that the NHL doesn’t want these players — it’s that front offices have gotten disciplined about exactly what kind of risk they’re willing to commit real term to. The players still unemployed are still weighing their options or have run out of them.

Next: NHL Trade Talk Recap: Oilers, Maple Leafs & Red Wings Larkin’s Spat