2020 NHL UFA Top 75: Thomas Greiss, Erik Gustafsson, Cody Ceci, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Dustin Byfuglien
Welcome to the DailyFaceoff UFA preview. Over the next 15 days, I’ll be profiling the top 30 players in this years UFA class, as listed by TSN. Contract information is from our friends at Puckpedia. Full UFA list via puckpedia here. Analytics provided by hockeyviz.com and naturalstattrick.com. Contract projections are done by evolving-hockey.com with the presumption contracts are signed between Aug. – Oct. 11 with different teams.
Today, we’re looking at the 29th ranked Thomas Greiss, 28th ranked Erik Gustafsson, 27th ranked Cody Ceci, 26th ranked Ilya Kovalchuk, and 25th ranked Dustin Byfuglien.
@Thomas Greiss
Over the past five years, Thomas Greiss has proven to be an excellent tandem goalie with the New York Islanders, posting a .915 save percentage across 193 games.
He’s split the net with Jaroslav Halak, Robin Lehner, and, most recently, Semyon Varlamov. In 2018-19, he and Lehner combined to win the Jennings Trophy for producing the best save percentage among any goaltending tandem in the league.
Varlamov took Greiss’ role as the 1A goalie on the Island and the team has top-prospect Ilya Sorokin on the way, so it looks like Greiss will need to find a new home this winter. He fits perfectly on a team with another 40-game, 1B type goalie.
Contract projection: Three years, $3,000,000 AAV
@Erik Gustafsson
A 2012 fourth-round pick of the Oilers, Gustafsson went unsigned and ended up inking a deal with the Chicago Blackhawks as a UFA.
In 2018-29, he came out of the blue with a breakout season in which he posted 17 goals and 60 points for the Hawks, which was good for sixth in the league in scoring among defencemen.
Gustafsson’s production declined in 2019-20, as he scored 26 points in 59 games with the Hawks before getting traded to the Calgary Flames ahead of the trade deadline. With Calgary, Gustafsson scored three points in seven regular-season games and four points in 10 playoff games.
His 60-point showing might have been an anomaly, but Gustafsson is a nice low-key option for a team in need of a puck-moving defenceman who can produce offence.
Contract projection: Five years, $6,038,000 AAV.
@Cody Ceci
The former 15th pick of the Ottawa Senators, Cody Ceci never emerged as the top-pairing defenceman that the team hoped he would become.
Last summer, Ceci got moved to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a cap-clearing move that sent Nikita Zaitsev and his albatross contract to the Ottawa Senators. Now, after one year with the Leafs in which he scored eight points in 56 games and logged 20:32 per game, it looks like Ceci will hit the free-agent market for the first time in his career.
Ceci doesn’t provide any offence but he could be a nice fit for a team in need of a physical, bottom-pairing defenceman.
Contract projection: Three years, $4,338,000 AAV.
@Ilya Kovalchuk
After spending five years playing in Russia, Ilya Kovalchuk returned to the NHL in 2018-19 when he inked a three-year deal to join the Los Angeles Kings.
Things didn’t go well for Kovalchuk in L.A. as the team trudged through a rebuilding phase, so the two sides ultimately agreed to terminate the veteran’s contract mid-way through the 2019-20 season.
Kovalchuk ended up signing a cheap deal with Montreal where he resurrected himself, scoring 13 points in 22 games. That showing resulted in him getting shipped to the Capitals ahead of the trade deadline, where he would score four points in seven regular-season games and one assist in eight playoff games.
Though he’s 37 years old and struggled in the NHL’s summer tournament, the former No. 1 overall pick still has game and would be a nice add fo anybody looking for scoring depth.
Contract projection: One year, $2,328,000 AAV.
@Dustin Byfuglien
Prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, Dustin Byfuglien informed the Winnipeg Jets that he didn’t have anything left in the tank. A little while later, Byfuglien underwent foot surgery and said that he could make a return depending on how his rehab process went.
When it was all said and done, Byfuglien chose not to return to the Jets, and the two sides agreed to terminate his contract. Big Buff is now an unrestricted free agent.
There’s really no saying how he would look after more than a full year’s absence from the NHL, but Byfuglien has a load of skill and there are surely teams out there who would give him a chance. He scored 31 points in 42 games in 2018-19.
Contract projection: One year, 2,500,000 AAV.