NHL Rumor Mill – July 1, 2025
The NHL’s annual free-agent market opens at noon ET today. Check out the latest free-agent and trade speculations in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
THE LATEST ON NIKOLAJ EHLERS
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported Monday that the Carolina Hurricanes are considered the favorites to land Nikolaj Ehlers. The 29-year-old former Winnipeg Jets winger is among the few notable players potentially available in the unrestricted free-agent market.
NBC SPORTS BOSTON: Nick Goss believes the Bruins should pursue Ehlers. He cited the winger’s offensive consistency as a top-six forward.
Winnipeg Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders could also attempt to sign Ehlers. He could still re-sign with the Jets, but it appears he’s heading to market today.
COULD THE JETS TARGET BROCK BOESER?
THE CHRIS JOHNSTON SHOW: Johnston yesterday suggested Brock Boeser could be “Plan A” to replace Nikolaj Ehlers if the latter goes to market on Tuesday. The Jets have over $23 million in cap space, and Johnston indicated he wouldn’t be surprised if they pursue the former Vancouver Canucks winger today.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It was rumored the Oilers might attempt to sign Boeser. However, that seems unlikely without shedding significant salary after their recent signings of Evan Bouchard and Trent Frederic.
CANADIENS AMONG TEAMS INTERESTED IN JORDAN KYROU
THE ATHLETIC: Pierre LeBrun reports the Montreal Canadiens remain interested in Jordan Kyrou. The 27-year-old St. Louis Blues winger is signed through 2030-31 with an average annual value of $8.125 million. His no-trade clause begins on July 1.
LeBrun indicated the Blues had spoken with several teams to determine his value in the trade market before deciding if they’d move him or retain him after his NTC began. It would take multiple assets for the Canadiens to acquire him, and they’d have to free up more cap space to take on his contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kyrou’s NTC could prevent the Blues from shipping him to Montreal. The Canadiens are in the market for a top-six forward this summer, but they might have to consider other options.
UPDATE ON RASMUS ANDERSSON
TSN: Pierre LeBrun reports the thinning free-agent market for defensemen could rekindle trade interest in Rasmus Andersson. The 28-year-old Calgary Flames defenseman will be UFA-eligible next July and isn’t expected to re-sign with the Flames.
Teams like the Vegas Golden Knights, Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings are interested in Andersson. They would like assurances that he’d sign an extension with them, but the only club he’s willing to do that for is the Golden Knights.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Flames aren’t feeling pressured to trade Andersson this summer. They’re reportedly fine with going into this season with him still in the lineup. It remains to be seen if the Golden Knights remain interested after their expensive acquisition of Mitch Marner on Monday.
RANGERS STILL EYEING GAVRIKOV
NEW YORK POST: Mollie Walker reports the Rangers remain interested in signing Vladislav Gavrikov if the 29-year-old Los Angeles Kings defenseman becomes a UFA today. However, their inability to move blueliner K’Andre Miller complicates their pursuit of Gavrikov, who could command between $7 million and $8 million annually.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Gavrikov was seen as the Rangers’ replacement for Miller, who is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. They have around $13 million in cap space. Adding Gavrikov would eat up over half of it.
WILL JAKE ALLEN REMAIN WITH THE DEVILS?
DAILY FACEOFF’s Frank Seravalli reports the New Jersey Devils and Jake Allen remain in negotiations. He claimed the Devils had made progress, suggesting the 34-year-old goaltender could be re-signed before noon today.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers could be closely watching Allen’s situation.
With the so-called UFA Frenzy opening today at Noon ET severely depleted by yesterday’s pre-frenzy, which also included a bunch of RFAs not extended qualifying offers – making them UFAs – here is the current cap space available to each team from most to least and showing, where applicable, remaining RFAs
San Jose $44,090,832 – RD Jack Thompson; C/LW Thomas Bordeleau
Anaheim $35,988,812 – C Mason McTavish; RD Drew Helleson
Carolina $26,715,958 – No RFAs
Winnipeg: $23,513,810 – C/RW Gabriel Vilardi; LD Dylan Samberg; C Morgan BarronC/RW Rasmus Kupari
Chicago $22,495,357 – LD Wyatt Kaiser; RD Louis Crevier; G Arvid Soderblom
Columbus $20,957,502 – LW Dmitri Voronkov; RW Mikael Pyyhtia
Buffalo $20,840,319 – C Ryan McLeod; G Devon Levi; LD Bowen Byram; RD Jacob Bernard-Docker;
LW Tyson Kozak; RD Connor Timmins
Calgary $19,820,000 – C Morgan Frost; C Connor Zary
Los Angeles $19,693,333 – RW Alex Laferriere
Pittsburgh $19,616,904 – No RFAs
Utah – $18,407,143 – C Jack McBain
Seattle $18,057,621 – RW Kaapo Kakko; C/LW Tye Kartye; LD Ryker Evans
Detroit $17,211,628 – LW/RW Elmer Soderblom
Philadelphia $15,141,905 – LD Cameron York
NY Islanders $14,693,334 – RW Simon Holmstrom; LW/RW Maxim Tsyplakov; C/RW Marc Gatcomb; LW/RW Emil Heineman
New Jersey $14,394,167 – LD Luke Hughes; C/RW Cody Glass
NY Rangers $13,138,809 – LD K’Andre Miller; LW Will Cuyle
Minnesota $12,961,835 – C Marco Rossi
Boston $12,743,333 – No RFAs
Nashville $12,091,039 – RW Luke Evangelista
Colorado $7,550,000 – No RFAs
Ottawa $7,369,286 – LD Donovan Sebrango
Vancouver $7,031,667 – No RFAs
Washington $6,950,000 – C Hendrix Lapierre
Toronto $5,795,581 – LW/RW Nick Robertson
Tampa $5,480,001 – LW/RW Gage Goncalves
St. Louis: $1,625,150 – No RFAs
Florida $1,275,000 – RW/C Mackie Samoskevich; G Daniil Tarasov
Dallas $980,084 – No RFAs
Edmonton $550,834 – No RFAs
Montreal $3,394,166 OVER THE CAP – G Jakub Dobes; LD Jayden Struble
Vegas $6,813,571 OVER THE CAP – RW Alexander Holtz; C/RW Cole Schwindt; RW Jonas Rondbjerg
Crazy amount of work, George. You contribute a ton to this site.
Thanks
Thanks LJ. I enjoy doing it, especially if it can generate discussions – pro or con
With limited cap space and more pressing needs, I am surprised by the Allen news. Unless Fitz has more cap moves coming, will he really basically roll back the same team and pray for no injuries? That’s a lot of hope there and not much GMing.
With Kyrous NTC now in effect, I don’t see him going anywhere. The Blues obviously didn’t get the deal they wanted so they’re holding on to him, good decision on their part.
Looks like Dach getting another chance at 2C, hope he stays healthy and picks up his game. Granlunds price will likely spiral out of control and Hughes wisely won’t bite. I don’t see the Habs going for Khuznetsov either. The Habs will hopefully try to pick up some bottom six pieces if Dvorak and/or Armia don’t return. I think Kapanen and Beck need another year in the minors. Bugstad may be of interest, along with Perry or Jeannot. Ehlers or Boeser at 7 years and $8m.+ would be a bad idea.
With the top defensemen mostly being snapped up, the teams losing out on Gavrikov may have to circle back to their trade targets. If Hughes decides to trade Matheson, he may be able to get a solid forward.
Ehlers will stay in Winnipeg at 7m
I would love it if he signs in Winnipeg but he will be in line for 8.5 X 7 plus on the open market
8 for 8 in Winnipeg
I hope you’re right Don. Ehlers contributes too much to the team to let him walk.
Howard, with the Habs cap situation I will be very surprised if they sign a UFA of any impact. Indeed, Hughes emphasized any additions are likely to come via trade.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the Habs did nothing today, as I anticipate teams taking stock of where they are before making any more moves.
Van just gave Demko a 3 year extension at $8.5M per.
Next year goalie salary is $13M annually.
That’s nuts.
Is a goalie trade incoming?
Staios MIGHT do a bit of UFA shopping today with his $7.3 mil in cap space … but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
His top 3 lines look set with Tkachuk – Stutzle – Batherson forming line 1, Perron – Cozens – Giroux line 2, and Greig – Pinto – Zetterlund line 3.
The 4th line will have Nick Cousins at LW and Amadio at RW, with a ? at C. That COULD be filled by someone like Stephen Halliday from Belleville or even Adam Gaudette, who may or may not get the term he’s seeking today as a UFA. If he doesn’t, Staios could re-sign him to a 1-year deal to fill that role. He did pop 19 goals this past season. Failing that, and doubts about Halliday being the answer, he might try and find a decent, experienced 4th-line type C today.
The D pairings look to be Sanderson – Zub, Chabot – Spence (until Jensen gets back early in the new season), and Kleven – Matinpalo, with the latter making way for Spence when Jensen returns. And there is also RD Carter Yakemchuk possibly in the mix.
So, Ottawa fans, don’t expect any major splash today.
Perhaps as a result of yesterday’s flurry of deals/signings, and the limited pickings today, sme teams will circle back to offer-sheets
https://www.nhl.com/news/top-nhl-restricted-free-agents-available-2025
If the free agent market of defensemen is thin, then what is the likelihood of defensemen being available for trade? Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson and Buffalo’s Bowen Byram have been mentions.
Dubas will sit back and see if anyone wants to trade with the Penguins.
HAPPY CANADA DAY!!
UFA season opens in about 3 minutes … can’t wait to see if some major signing is announced with all sorts of convoluted conditions, etc. literally seconds after teams were ostensibly allowed to even say hello to pending UFAs.
Tanner Jeannot.., good sign
Joe why not just keep Trent Frederic! He scored more goals than Jeannot.
Seeeney did a bad job with the 26 million
Every year, with the close of the UFA frenzy, I find it to be a dizzying situation as you try and take into account any changes made by the team you follow AND their closest rivals. Earlier today, heading into the event, I posted a list of every team in order of most cap space to least, combined with the names of any RFAs still not finalized. For what it’s worth, here is the list updated to take into account today’s transactions (as far as I’m aware of them through Puckpedia updates). You will note that a number of teams did absolutely nothing, starting with the first 3 on the list. This is their starting points to summer activities, with those at the bottom of the list potentially in danger of losing someone to an offer-sheet:
San Jose $44,090,832 – RD Jack Thompson; C/LW Thomas Bordeleau
Anaheim $35,988,812 – C Mason McTavish; RD Drew Helleson; G Lucas Dostal
Carolina $26,715,958 – No RFAs
Winnipeg: $23,513,810 – C/RW Gabriel Vilardi; LD Dylan Samberg; C Morgan BarronC/RW Rasmus Kupari
Columbus $20,957,502 – LW Dmitri Voronkov; RW Mikael Pyyhtia
Chicago $20,495,357 – LD Wyatt Kaiser; RD Louis Crevier; G Arvid Soderblom
Buffalo $22,840,319 – C Ryan McLeod; G Devon Levi; LD Bowen Byram; LW Tyson Kozak; RD Connor Timmins
Calgary $19,787,500 – C Morgan Frost; C Connor Zary
Pittsburgh $18,616,904 – No RFAs
Detroit $17,211,628 – LW/RW Elmer Soderblom
Los Angeles $17,193,333 – RW Alex Laferriere
Utah – $15,132,143 – C Jack McBain
Seattle $13,567,621 – RW Kaapo Kakko; C/LW Tye Kartye; LD Ryker Evans
Minnesota $12,961,835 – C Marco Rossi
NY Islanders $12,168,334 – RW Simon Holmstrom; LW/RW Maxim Tsyplakov; C/RW Marc Gatcomb; LW/RW Emil Heineman
Nashville $12,091,039 – RW Luke Evangelista
New Jersey $9,594,167 – LD Luke Hughes; C/RW Cody Glass
Colorado $7,550,000 – No RFAs
Ottawa $7,369,286 – LD Donovan Sebrango
Washington $6,950,000 – C Hendrix Lapierre
NY Rangers $6,138,809 – LD K’Andre Miller; LW Will Cuyle
Boston $5,343,333 – No RFAs
Toronto $5,008,081 – LW/RW Nick Robertson
Philadelphia $4,616,905 – LD Cameron York
Edmonton $4,550,834 – No RFAs
Tampa $4,280,001 – No RFAs
Vancouver $556,667 – No RFAs
Dallas $205,084 – No RFAs
St. Louis $911,516 over the cap – No RFAs
Florida $2,175,000 over the cap – RW/C Mackie Samoskevich
Montreal $3,382,500 over the cap – G Jakub Dobes; LD Jayden Struble
Vegas $6,813,571 over the cap – RW Alexander Holtz; C/RW Cole Schwindt; RWJonas Rondbjerg
Since looking up the above Puckpedia details earlier this afternoon, now I re-check and find that Ottawa has signed C Lars Eller for 1 season at $1,250,000 to be their 4th line C between Cousins and Amadio.
Now they have 21 signed with $5,069,286 to bring it up to 23.