NHL Signings & Free Agents

The Oilers have signed Mark Fayne to a four-year, $14 million dollar deal.

Fayne, 27, had 11 points in 72 games with the Devils last season. He heads to Edmonton where he will be one of the older players on what is a very young and inexperienced blueline. He plays a solid defensive game but is not fantasy relevant.

Mark Fayne
The Oilers have signed Benoit Pouliot to a five-year deal worth $20 million.

Pouliot scored 15 goals and 21 assists (36 points) in 80 games with the Rangers last season. He was also a part of arguably the Rangers best line in the playoffs. He finished the postseason with 10 points (5G / 5A) in 25 games. He could find himself on the wing with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2014-15.

Benoit Pouliot
The Penguins have signed Christian Ehrhoff to a one-year deal with $4 million.

Ehrhoff is coming off of a long-term deal. He signs a short-term deal to get a shot at winning a Stanley Cup after spending the last three seasons in Buffalo. Ehrhoff had six goals and 27 assists (33 points) in 79 games last season. He is a good puck moving defenseman who will fill-in for losing Matt Niskanen in free-agency. After finishing minus-27 last year, expect a much better plus/minus in Pittsburgh next season.

Christian Ehrhoff
The Red Wings have signed center Riley Sheahan to a two-year contract extension worth $950,000 per season.

Sheahan, 22, is coming off a solid rookie season. Recalled from the Grand Rapids midway through the season due to the Red Wings' rash of injuries, Sheahan quickly established himself a dependable two-way player. He provided more offense than was expected, with nine goals and 15 assists, along with a plus-6 rating, in 42 games. Sheahan was one of the club's restricted free agents.

Riley Sheahan
The Blackhawks have re-signed Jeremy Morin to a two-year contact worth $1.6 million.

Morin had 11 points (5G / 6A) in 24 games with the Blackhawks this season. While with Rockford (AHL) he scored 24 goals and 23 assists (47 points) in 47 games. The 23-year-old has a strong chance of making the Hawks out of of training camp in 2014-15.

Jeremy Morin
The Blue Jackets have given goaltender Curtis McElhinney a one-year contract extension worth $600,000.

The 31-year-old journeyman back-up played his most games in one season in 2013-14 . After Sergei Bobrovsky went down with injury, McElhinney stepped in. He started 21 games, his previous career-high was 16 in 2010-11 with Anaheim. He finished the season 10-11-1 with a 2.70 GAA and .909 SV%. For the first time 2009-10, McElhinney will not be with a new team to start next season.

Curtis McElhinney
The Red Wings have agreed to terms with goaltender Jonas Gustavsson on a one-year contract extension worth $1.85 million.

Gustavsson has spent the last two seasons as the Red Wings back-up while earning $1.5 million. He gets a raise heading into 2014-15 after turning in a 16-5-4 record with a 2.65 GAA and .907 SV%. Jimmy Howard is the Red Wings clear number-1, but The Monster was as steady a number-2 as there was last season. Should Howie struggle again next season, Gustavsson's fantasy value will once again be on the rise.

Jonas Gustavsson
The Kings have signed Marian Gaborik to a seven-year contract extension worth $34.3 million.

The Kings acquired Gaborik for a very reasonable price at the trade deadline and what they got in return was 16 points (5G / 11A) in 19 regular season games and then he went on to lead the playoff in goals with 14, while adding eight assists en route to a Stanley Cup win. The longterm deal has him signed until he is 39, which is alarming, but the annual cap-hit of just $4.9 million is reasonable for a player of Gaborik's caliber.

Marian Gaborik
The Oilers have signed defenceman Nikita Nikitin to a two--year deal worth $9 million.

The Oilers acquired Nikitin's rights from the Blue Jackets in exchange for a fifth-round pick. The 28-year-old Nikitin has had a very difficult time staying healthy. He missed 16 games this season with a combination of upper and lower-body injuries. He has missed a total of 54 games over the last three seasons (25.5% of games). However, when he is in the lineup he has shown flashes of top-4 defenseman. He had 32 points in his first year with the Blue Jackets but saw his production fall to two goals and 13 assists (15 points) last year.

Nikita Nikitin
The Lightning have signed Ryan Callahan to a 6-year contract extension worth $34.8 million.

Callahan was acquired with a pair of draft picks for Martin St. Louis at the trade deadline. In 20 games with the Lightning he had six goals and five assists (11 points) to go along with a plus-4 rating. Callahan did not see a ton of playing time with Steven Stamkos next season, but that is something that may change heading into 2014-15. He is typically good for 20-plus goals and 20-plus assists, but regular ice-time with Stamkos and we could see those numbers inflate.

Ryan Callahan
The Canadiens have signed Andrei Markov to a three-year contract extension with an annual cap-hit of $5.75 million.

Markov, 35, had seven goals and 36 assists (43 points) in 81 games. After a couple of tough years battling injury, Markov has only missed one game over the last two seasons. He is getting up there in age, but 2013-14 was one of the best offensive years of his career. He heads into 2014-15 as a top-20 fantasy blueliner.

Andrei Markov
The Islanders signed Jaroslav Halak to a four-year deal worth $16 million back on May 22.

Halak was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent July 1. The Islanders acquired his rights from the Washington Capitals on May 1 in a trade for a fourth-round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. Halak won 29 games this season. He was fourth in the NHL with five shutouts and eighth with a 2.25 goals-against average.

Jaroslav Halak
On Tuesday, the Sharks re-signed tough-guy Mike Brown to a two-year deal worth $2.4 million.

Brown totaled two goals and three assists with 94 penalty minutes in 56 games between the Oilers and Sharks. The Sharks acquired Brown from Edmonton in late October in exchange for a fourth-round pick.

Mike Brown
The Sharks re-signed goaltender Alex Stalock to a two-year deal worth $3.2 million on Tuesday.

In his first season as a full-time NHLer, Stalock proved to be a more than capable backup to Antti Niemi. Stalock pushed Niemi for the starting job all season, finishing up the year 12-5-2 with a 1.87 GAA and .932 SV%. He also saw some playing time in the postseason, where he turned aside 52 of 56 shots (.929 SV%).

Alex Stalock
The Flyers signed 39-year-old defenseman Kimmo Timonen to a one-year, $2 million dollar contract extension last Friday.

During his seven seasons with the Flyers, Timonen has won five Barry Ashbee trophies as the team’s best defenseman, including the last three in a row. Timonen finished the 2013-14 season with six goals and 29 assists (35 points) in 77 games. In seven years with Philly he has averaged 38.6 points per season, that is including 29 points in 45 games in the lockout shortened season. Despite getting up there in age, Timonen has only missed a total of 21 regular season games in his tenure with the Flyers. He should be a reliable blueliner yet again in 2014-15.

Kimmo Timonen

NHL Free Agents: Best Available Players in 2025

Once the dust settles on the Stanley Cup Final, the NHL offseason officially commences as the latest wave of free agents hit the market as teams and players alike reevaluate their current situation and plot their next steps toward success.

With a plethora of talent up for grabs every summer, Stanley Cup contenders can be formed as well as broken up through free agency. With NHL signings going down at a breakneck pace throughout the opening days of free agency, we’ll keep you in the loop with our 2025 NHL free agency tracker. You can find all of the latest NHL signings of the free agency period as players switch teams, sign extensions, and change the outlook of the league with a single decision.

Whether you’re a diehard fan of your favourite team and are looking to stay up to date with every move made by the front office, or are an avid daily fantasy sports bettor that wants to prep for their wagers, our NHL free agency tracker is the best destination for all your free agent market news.

Types of Free Agent Markets

Each NHL free agent holds their own unique distinction when signing with a team. These distinctions are made based on a number of factors including age, NHL experience, as well as their current contract situation. NHL free agents are divided by restricted and unrestricted free agents, with each classification of player holding varying rights, including how teams are able to offer them contracts, and the results of receiving an offer.

Below, we take a deep dive into each type of NHL free agent so you can get a thorough understanding of each free agent market type, how they are able to sign with teams, and the possible outcomes from each offseason acquisition.

Restricted Free Agents

A restricted NHL free agent (RFA) is a player that is either under the age of 27 or has been in the NHL for less than seven seasons. Teams hold a form of protection over their restricted free agents, providing them with a sort of insurance if their RFA decides to sign with a new team.

While restricted free agents are technically eligible to sign a new contract with different teams, the process can become messy if a team other than their original squad makes them an offer and they accept. Restricted free agents are only able to sign a standard NHL contract with the team that currently owns the players rights, all other squads must submit an offer sheet if they want to lure away a player from their team. If an offer sheet is made to an RFA, the team who holds the players rights will be left with the option to either match the offer made to their player, or allow the player to sign with the team that made the offer sheet, in return receiving draft compensation depending on the value of the contract offered.

Qualifying Offers

In order for a team to retain a player’s rights heading into the free agency period, they must make a qualifying offer to the player. These offers are in the form of a one-year contract, with the amount offered being formulated depending on the value of their previous contract.

For any player who was on a deal worth $660,000 or less, the qualifying offer they receive must be worth 110% the amount of their previous season’s salary. For a player making between $660,000 and $1,000,000, they must be offered 105% their previous seasons salary. Finally, if a player was making more than $1 million in their previous year of duty, their team must offer them 100% of their previous season’s salary.

These offers are not final and players are eligible to receive greater or lesser valued contracts from the team that holds their rights once free agency begins. Players who reject qualifying offers remain restricted free agents.

Non-Qualified RFAs

If a team decides to not submit a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent on their roster, all non-qualified RFAs instantly become free agents and are welcome to sign contracts with any team come July 1st.

Unrestricted Free Agents

The other form of NHL free agent is the unrestricted free agent (UFA). UFAs have the right to sign their next deal with any team without restriction, as long as the offer they sign complies with league salary cap mandates and rules. Unrestricted free agents are truly what can shake up the free agent market, with many of the leagues top stars entering into the offseason as UFAs.

There are multiple forms of unrestricted free agents, each with their own unique classifications, but don’t necessarily affect the potential value of the contracts offered to them in the offseason. Below are two of the most common UFAs.

Group 3 UFAs

Common among NHL veterans, Group 3 comprises players entering free agency that are 27 or older, or have played in the NHL for more than seven accrued seasons. An accrued season is defined as a season in which a player has suited up for action on an NHL roster in at least 40 games (30 for goalies). Any player that fits this criteria will become an unrestricted free agent once their contract expires in the following offseason.

Group 6 UFAs

Another way that players can become an unrestricted free agent is by being 25 years of age or older and to have played three or more professional hockey seasons under an NHL contract (AHL, ECHL, Europe), but played in less than 80 NHL games (28 for goalies) in their career. Often, Group 6 unrestricted free agents are developing players that, for one reason or another, have not had the chance to crack into an NHL lineup, but still possess experience as a high-level player. There is no difference in the rights of Group 3 and Group 6 unrestricted free agents, but typically the latter will receive smaller contracts, both in terms of value as well as in duration.

Undrafted UFAs

The final way that a player may enter into free agency as an unrestricted free agent is by going undrafted in their three years of draft eligibility. If a player is not selected by an NHL franchise through the draft they are still eligible to crack into a final roster as a free agent.

NHL Free Agency FAQs

Who are the top NHL free agents in 2025?

Some of the top NHL free agents available this summer are Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Aaron Ekblad, Nikolaj Ehlers, John Tavares, Brock Boeser, Brad Marchand and Linus Ullmark.

This offseason will bring a stacked crop of free agents to the market that will shape the landscape of the 2025-26 NHL season. Not only will the final landing spots for each of the top 2025 NHL free agents shake up the framework of the league, but will also have major implications on the upcoming fantasy hockey season. Be sure to stay in the know in regard to the latest free agency updates with our NHL player news.

What time does free agency start?

On July 1st, 2025, at 12 PM EST, the 2025 NHL free agency period officially opens. While some players will have all but signed the dotted line up to this point, nothing can become official until noon on Canada Day.