2025 NHL Free Agency Period Short On Star Power After Early Fireworks

A spiking salary cap turned Tuesday’s opening of the 2025 NHL Free Agency period from a frenzy into a yawn.

After the Florida Panthers succeeded in retaining Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand following their second-straight Stanley Cup run and Mitch Marner agreed to a sign-and-trade deal that makes him a member of the Vegas Golden Knights for the next eight years, the top names on Tuesday’s free-agent board included scoring wingers Nikolaj Ehlers and Brock Boeser and shutdown defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.

Even the top free-agent goalie, Jake Allen, took himself out of the market on Tuesday. The 34-year old elected to re-sign with the New Jersey Devils on a five-year deal with an average annual value of $1.8 million, per PuckPedia.

Then, so did Boeser. Thought it was widely assumed that he’d be moving on from the Vancouver Canucks, the 28-year-old became the first big name off the board at about 12:30 p.m. ET, when he agreed to a seven-year deal worth an AAV of $7.25 million to stay in Vancouver. That’s a small raise from his previous contract, a three-year deal at $6.65 million.

That contract, and Marner’s new 8×12 deal with the Golden Knights, easily eclipsed Day 1’s biggest mover, Gavrikov. The 29-year-old signed a seven-year deal with the New York Rangers with an AAV of $7 million.

That number also falls short of some of the other contracts that have been handed out to top defensemen over the last few days. Fellow Russian Ivan Provorov, 28, also a pending UFA inked a seven-year deal with a cap hit of $8.5 million to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets. But while the Rangers offer a desirable market and are already tight to the salary cap, the Blue Jackets have traditionally had some trouble re-signing players. With oodles of available cap space, they could afford to pay a premium to keep a top-pairing defenseman in the fold.

By the end of the first hour, just eight free-agent deals worth $89.55 million had been signed, according to TSN. That was a massive drop-off from the 27 contracts worth $470 million and 64 signings of all types worth over $740 million in 2024, and the smallest total since nine deals worth $19 million were signed in the midst of the pandemic-induced flat cap when free agency opened in October of 2020.

Ehlers, 29, is taking his time deciding on his landing spot. Market forces may work in his favor, as he’s in a class of his own among the remaining free agents as a scoring winger.

Rising Cap Changes The Landscape

This year, the NHL salary cap took its biggest jump in history, from $88 million in 2024-25 to $95.5 million in 2025-26. More large increases are already locked in for the next two seasons.

That gave previously some previously cap-strapped teams more room to move early, re-signing players and making key trades. Major potential UFAs like Mikko Rantanen and Leon Draisaitl came off the board months ago.

Leading up to July 1, we saw some big deals for younger defensemen including Evan Bouchard, 25, who got four years at $10.5 million as an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent with the Edmonton Oilers. In a similar situation, Noah Dobson was traded from the New York Islanders to the Montreal Canadiens on draft day last Friday, then inked a new eight-year deal at $9.5 million.

As Day 1 wore on, some depth defensemen were able to snag strong AAVs and significant term by joining new teams. After losing Gavrikov, new Los Angeles Kings GM Ken Holland gave 31-year-old blueliner Cody Ceci four years at $4.5 million and 33-year-old defender Brian Dumoulin three years at $4 million, while 33-year-old Nate Schmidt picked up three years at $3.5 million from the Utah Mammoth after raising his stock during the Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup run.

Trades

Following the Marner and Dobson trades, two noteworthy deals went down on Tuesday. The Oilers cleared cap space by moving the last year of Victor Arvidsson’s $4 million cap hit to the Boston Bruins in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2027, while the Montreal Canadiens traded defense prospect Logan Mailloux to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Quebec-born scoring winger Zach Bolduc.

No Extension News Yet For Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel

With one year remaining on their deals, the biggest names who became eligible for contract extensions on July 1 were Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, Minnesota Wild dynamo Kirill Kaprizov and Vegas pivot Jack Eichel.

All franchise cornerstones, it would be a shock if any of the three weren’t locked up before the beginning of next season, but those extensions may take some time to be finalized.

In addition to bringing back Boeser, the Canucks kicked off their day on Tuesday by announcing extensions for two of their franchise cornerstones. Thatcher Demko, the 2024 Vezina Trophy runner-up, inked a deal for three additional years at $8.5 million while Conor Garland extended for six additional years at $6 million.

The Washington Capitals also extended defenseman Martin Fehervary, 25, on a seven-year deal at $6 million. In Carolina, 22-year-old Logan Stankoven re-upped with the Hurricanes on an eight-year-deal with a cap hit of $6 million following his March trade from the Dallas Stars.

More deals will be agreed upon as the 2025 NHL free agency period continues through the summer.