Top-pair defencemen and Number 1 goalies. Bridge candidates and budding superstars who need to be locked up ASAP.
The 2024 class of restricted free agents offers a little of everything.
And while several potential ’23 RFAs avoided the drama and uncertainty by signing well before July 1 (Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek chief among them), plenty of intriguing young names remain unsigned for 2024-25 after the madness of July 1.
As these RFAs look to bank off their platform campaigns and managers wonder how to spend their newfound cap space, plenty of tense negotiations (or trades?) are on deck.
The situations in Carolina and Detroit are particularly compelling.
Salary arbitration hearings will be held from July 20 to Aug. 4. Players headed to arbitration cannot sign an offer sheet.
Here’s where things stand with the top 12 RFAs of 2024.
1. Jeremy Swayman (Boston)
Age: 25
Position: Goaltender
2023-24 salary cap hit: $3.475 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — but did not file
Bargaining chips: World juniors medallist. 2023 William Jennings Trophy co-winner. Career save percentage of .919. Three consecutive 20-win seasons. 2024 All-Star Game representative. Big hugger. Playoff stud.
The latest: Despite sharing the Boston Bruins’ crease with pal Linus Ullmark, Swayman played an integral role in the club’s run to the 2023 Presidents’ Trophy and took over as the club’s go-to goalie in the 2024 post-season.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in early March that Swayman and GM Don Sweeney had begun negotiating his next contract, which should be a biggie now that the goaltender has sparkled during his one-year prove-it pact.
Swayman politely declined comment on the report but did not deny that talks were underway.
The goalie, remember, went through arbitration last summer, where he said he was subjected to “hearing things that a player should never hear” before getting a one-year award.
The inevitable raise for Swayman prompted Boston’s trade of hug buddy Ullmark (locked into a $5 million cap hit) to Ottawa.
The price to keep Swayman happy only jumped with his .933 save percentage in the postseason.
He’s the real deal.
“Sway is a big part of this whole dynamic of what we’re trying to put together. It’s a priority for us. We’re going to continue to find a negotiated landing spot,” Sweeney said on July 1. “However long that takes. It’s not impacted by what we did (in free agency). We’re in a great spot to find the best-negotiated deal we can find for both sides.”
Swayman did not exercise his arb rights this time around.
2. Moritz Seider (Detroit)
Age: 23
Position: Defence
2023-24 salary cap hit: $863,333
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Top-six draft pick. 2022 Calder Trophy winner. Silver medallist at the 2023 World Championships. Named to the 2021 and 2023 World Championships all-star team. 6-foot-3, 205-pound right-shot horse with edge. Can run a power-play and kill a penalty. Led all Red Wings in ice time (22:22). Capable of 50 points while taking on hard matchups. Only NHLer with 200 blocks and 200 hits this season.
The latest: Seldom doing rebuilding clubs mess around trying to nickel-and-dime their young stud defencemen.
Consider how swiftly Ottawa locked up Jake Sanderson with an eight-year, $64.4-million extension. Or how Buffalo gave Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power monster offers they couldn’t refuse to secure their prime seasons.
Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman should be willing to ink Seider the maximum term of an eight-year extension and make the German his highest-paid defenceman by a mile.
“He battles hard every game,” Yzerman said after the season ended. “He blocks shots, gets hit, makes plays. We’re asking him to do a lot. He’s got the mental toughness to weather it all.
“As our team gets better around him, Mo’s role might change a little bit. He’ll be used a little bit differently, which I think will allow him to display the offensive side of his game.”
How does an AAV around $8.6 million sound?
That would tuck Seider in just below team captain and payroll leader Dylan Larkin ($8.7 million cap hit).
“It’s not a big secret I want to be a Red Wing,” Seider said.
“I’m also confident enough that I could be a good asset for this organization, and that really matters to me. I think then you can talk about numbers, lengths and how long the contract should be, but those two first parts fit well — and they do — then I’m pretty confident we’ve got something done.”
3. Lucas Raymond (Detroit)
Age: 22
Position: Right wing / Left wing
2023-24 salary cap hit: $925,000
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: Fourth-overall pick. World junior star twice over for Sweden. Two-time 20-goal, 57-point forward. His age fits well with Red Wings’ trajectory for improvement. Led Detroit in scoring in 2023-24 (72 points) and played all 82 games.
The latest: While Yzerman keeps his plans under lock and key, the Detroit GM’s previous actions may tell us where things may go with Raymond.
When Yzerman signed stud RFA Alex DeBrincat to a four-year contract averaging $7.875 million per season, he suggested a preference for mid-term commitments instead of longer deal — like, say, the seven-year, $49-million whopper Anaheim gave to RFA Troy Terry last summer.
“You’re starting to see more players, at least this offseason, and I think it might be a trend, signing shorter-term contracts, not necessarily going the full seven, eight years,” Yzerman said.
“I’m not sure I have a hard-set philosophy on contracts. There’s risk in every deal. There’s the short-term risk you lose control of the player. On the back end, the long-term risk is a lot of things can happen that affect a player’s ability to perform on a long-term deal.
“What is my philosophy? I try to make a deal with the player and try to understand what they’re looking for and what’s important to them, but ultimately, I’m comfortable. I like these mid-term deals.”
Something to keep in mind when talks heat up.
“What I do know is that I love this team,” Raymond said. “I love the city, and I want to be here.”
At his pre-draft availability, Yzerman raised eyebrows when discussing the unsigned Seider and Raymond.
“Ultimately, I can’t force anything. They’ll get done in due time,” the GM said. “I prefer to have them done. But to be quite honest, I don’t anticipate that happening at this stage. And we’ll just work around it and make decisions along the way fully aware… that we will try to get them under contract or plan to get them under contract.”
4. Seth Jarvis (Carolina)
Age: 22
Position: Right wing
2023-24 salary cap hit: $894,167
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: First-round pick. Always produces in the playoffs. Ripped career highs in goals (33), points (67) and plus/minus (+23). Hurricanes need his offence. Carolina has gobs of cap space opening for 2024-25.
The latest: The benefits of buying out Patrick Marleau’s Maple Leafs contract are now paying off big-time for the Hurricanes. Jarvis — drafted with the pick Carolina obtained from Toronto to take an aging Marleau’s bad money — is emerging as an impact winger who delivers on the power play and in clutch situations.
While rookie GM Eric Tulsky already oversaw a slew of roster turnover in unrestricted free agency, keeping Jarvis in the fold is a no-brainer.
Because Jarvis is just now emerging from his entry-level deal, the team holds the hammer.
Does Tulsky wish to go bridge?
Or will the Canes bet big that Jarvis could break out and lock him up long-term the way they did with Andrei Svechnikov as he wrapped his ELC?
Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal reported that based on deals regarding similar players, Jarvis’s camp could ask for an eight-year extension with an $8.35 million AAV.
Tulsky has said publicly that he is “not worried about offer sheets” because the Canes have the cap space to match: “It’s not really a route I expect anyone to take.”
5. Thomas Harley (Dallas)
Position: Defence
2023-24 salary cap hit: $863,333
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: First-round pick. Youngest roster player in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final. 2021 world junior silver medallist for Team Canada. Superb showing for the Stars during their 2023 run to the Western Conference final. Breakout 47-point campaign with career highs in all categories. Only Miro Heiskanen logs more minutes for Dallas.
The latest: The emergence of a slowly groomed Harley has an incredible subplot for the Dallas Stars this season as they sped toward another Western Conference final.
GM Jim Nill, you’ll recall, bridged his last breakout RFA, Jason Robertson, so he may well do the same with Harley — who only has one full NHL campaign on his resume and lacked the arbitration leverage of Ty Dellandrea (traded to the Sharks) and Sam Steel (re-signed).
Whether it’s this summer or one down the line, Harley is building a sturdy case for a significant windfall.
Nill already has veteran lefties Heiskanen and Esa Lindell under contract for 2024-25 and supplemented the loss of Ryan Suter and Chris Tanev with Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin. But Harley’s youth and offensive acumen will be needed.
Nill, you may recall, bet big on a young John Klingberg coming out of his entry-level deal in 2015, securing that D-man’s best seasons at a bargain rate.
6. Quinton Byfield (Los Angeles)
Age on July 1: 21
Position: Centre / Left wing
2023-24 salary cap hit: $894,167
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: World junior gold medallist (2020). World junior silver medallist (2021). Second-overall pick. Enjoyed breakout season hitting 20 goals and 55 points. Scored best highlight goal of 2024. Earned more trust from coaches as the season progressed and promotion to the top power-play unit. Teams generally like six-foot-five, 220-pound centremen with skill.
The latest: Byfield is a prime example of patience paying off.
The second-overall choice of the 2020 draft failed to make the instant splash that the player selected immediately after did (Tim Stützle), but the Los Angeles Kings let their impact forward develop in the AHL and are now reaping the benefits.
“He’s really stepped up there, just his overall game. The pace that he plays with, it definitely helps our team,” Rob Blake said in March.
The general manager must decide here: Attempt to lock up Byfield long-term ($6.5 million or $7 million AAV?) and bet the player outperforms his cap hit? Or bridge a player ($3.5 million AAV?) that has only had one good NHL campaign under his belt?
By virtue of his performance, Byfield has pushed his file to the top of the priority list in L.A., and the trade of Pierre-Luc Dubois to Washington has cleared up cap space and opportunity down the middle.
7. Martin Necas (Carolina)
2023-24 salary cap hit: $3 million
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: First-round draft pick. Calder Cup champion. Star forward for Team Czech Republic at three world juniors and a world championship. Two-time 20-goal man on a team that needs offence. Capable of 70 points.
The latest: The difference between RFA top-six forwards Necas and Jarvis is that the former has arbitration rights and has already made good on his bridge contract.
OK, time to get paid, Necas must be thinking, as he filed for arbitration.
The dynamic playmaker is one of a dozen Hurricanes on an expiring contract. His asking price is on the rise, and arbitration power is in his favour, which is why the Canes are exploring the trade market here.
The New Jersey Devils, aggressive this off-season, were said to be front-runners in a Necas trade. New Jersey scooped affordable UFA forwards Tomas Tatar and Stefan Nosen in the meantime, plus has an RFA of its own to settle.
A bunch of other teams —Bruins, Blackhawks, Red Wings, Blue Jackets, Flames — are keeping an eye on the situation.
File Necas under “Most Likely on This List to Get Traded.”
8. Matty Beniers (Seattle)
Bargaining chips: 2021 world junior gold medallist and world championships bronze medallist, as the youngest player on both teams. 2022 Olympian. Second-overall draft pick and first-ever selection by the Seattle Kraken. 2023 Calder Trophy winner. Scored 24 goals and 57 points as a rookie.
The latest: If Beniers could swap last season’s stat line and this season’s, he probably would.
A victim of the sophomore slump, Beniers’ down year production-wise (15 goals and 37 points) aligned with the Kraken’s tumble out of the playoff picture and resulted in an underwhelming platform campaign.
His bargaining position is compromised, which has us betting that a short-term deal is the solution here.
GM Ron Francis revealed at his trade-deadline press conference that he held preliminary extension discussions with Beniers’ camp over the summer. Those were tabled until the off-season.
“I have no concerns about Matty’s game long-term. He’ll be a big part of this organization for a lot of years moving forward,” Francis assured upon season’s end.
For the Kraken to excel, the club needs Beniers to live up to his promise.
“He’s definitely felt the pressure since he came into the organization, since Day 1. We were a struggling team, and he was kind of looked at as the saviour of our team. And I’m sure he’s been hearing that a lot and knowing that is going to have a prominent role ever since he’s been drafted,” teammate Vince Dunn said.
“When you see a guy maybe going through a little slump or going through hardships, I just try to get ’em going. Make him realize how important they are to the team and how much potential they do have, and hopefully, they can bring that out in themselves.”
Francis settled a two-year extension with RFA Eeli Tolvanen on July 5, so the Beniers file sits alone atop the heap.
9. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo)
Arbitration rights: Yes — and filed
Bargaining chips: World junior gold medallist. Red Tilson Trophy winner. Set career highs this season in games played, wins, and save percentage. Winning record for a struggling squad. GMs love big goalies, and UPL stands 6-foot-5, 217 pounds. The Sabres have plenty of cap space.
The latest: Luukkonen is enjoying a breakout season in a year that was originally billed in Buffalo as prospect Devon Levi’s coming-out party.
Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has been doling out long-term extensions to RFAs lately (Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Dylan Cozens), banking on improvement and building a young core.
As well as Luukkonen has performed this season, we don’t see a similar deal in the cards here. His sample size of excellence is as small as it is encouraging.
The organization has high hopes for Levi and signed veteran James Reimer in free agency, so a mid-term deal makes more sense for UPL and would ease the pressure on Levi to elevate as an NHL No. 1 before he’s had a strong development run.
Adams began extension talks with Luukkonen’s agent, Markus Lehto, in March.
“We’re making good progress,” Adams told Frank Seravalli.
“It’s something I’m excited about because I know he wants to be here, and he loves this team, he loves the organization, and he loves his teammates. That’s a good place to start.”
Adams re-signed RFA defenceman Henri Jokiharju on the day UPL filed for arbitration.
10. Cole Perfetti (Winnipeg)
Bargaining chips: Top-10 draft pick. 2021 world junior silver medallist and world championships gold medallist. High hockey IQ. Creative playmaker. Posted career highs in goals (19) and points (38) in 2024-25.
The latest: Perfetti heads to the negotiating table after a healthy but uneven campaign that saw him thrive for stretches in the Winnipeg Jets’ top six, but he also endured a 23-game goal drought and 11 heathy scratches.
A superstar in junior, the forward admitted to struggling mentally with his inconsistent usage and performance. And as the Jets sped toward the postseason, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff went out and rented a couple more top-six forwards, Tyler Toffoli and Sean Monahan, to eat up meaningful minutes.
Rick Bowness coached to win and trusted his veterans more.
Perhaps, with Monahan and Toffoli walking out the door, Perfetti gets a fresh start under new coach Scott Arniel.
“I think Cole’s a guy that really stands to gain a lot,” Cheveldayoff said at the draft.
Perfetti’s appears like a classic bridge-deal case: The team needs to see more, and the player doesn’t want to negotiate long-term based on a stat line that should only escalate over the next two or three seasons.
12. Kirill Marchenko (Columbus)
Bargaining chips: WJC bronze medallist (2019) and silver medallist (2020). Led all Blue Jackets in goals (23) in 2023-24. Most shots among Columbus forwards (193) in 2023-24. Creative, fun player, full of swagger.
The latest: Don Waddell has begun to make his mark on the Blue Jackets, buying out 23-year-old defenceman Adam Boqvist and leaving RFAs Jake Bean and Alex Nylander unqualified.
There was no surprise that the new GM did qualify Marchenko, who will turn 24 later this month and showed promise of being a top-line player this past season. Marchenko earned a nice place on Columbus’ power play, finishing fourth among forwards in average power-play time per game, and finished second in scoring to Johnny Gaudreau with the man advantage.
Marchenko is turning into a nice get for the Blue Jackets, who took him in the second round back in 2018, though he didn’t arrive in North America until 2022-23. He led Columbus in goal scoring this past season, even though his goals per game average dipped from his rookie season.
With Patrik Laine’s future in Columbus doubtful, retaining talent on the wings is key.
Marchenko filed for arbitration, guaranteeing himself a nice raise from Waddell.
12. Dawson Mercer
Age on July 1: 22
Position: Right wing / Centre
2023-24 salary cap hit: $894,167
Arbitration rights: No
Bargaining chips: First-round draft pick. 2020 world junior gold medallist and 2021 world junior silver medallist. 2022 world championships silver medallist. Two 20-goal campaigns in three seasons.
The latest: Tom Fitzgerald has had a busy off-season, hiring new coach Sheldon Keefe, tweaking his blueline and goaltending via trade, and spending $15 million in the first two days of free agency.
The Devils GM now turns his attention to negotiations with his most valuable RFA, who has shined bright throughout his entry-level deal.
New Jersey still has roughly $5 million in cap space, so budget isn’t a great issue here.
Fitzgerald has been prudent with his spending and has a nice track record of getting his core forwards under contract for a reasonable AAV.
Mercer has little to no leverage here. And even if he were tempted to sign an offer sheet, Fitzgerald should be able to match.
More notable RFAs: Jack Drury*, Peyton Krebs, Simon Holmstrom, Cole Sillinger, Simon Holmstrom, Ryan Lindgren*, Barrett Hayton, Dustin Wolf, Nick Robertson, J.J. Moser*, Nico Daws, Arturs Silvos, Oliver Wahlstrom*, Joseph Veleno, Connor Dewar*
*Player has filed for arbitration.
Contract info via the excellent CapFriendly.com.
