2025 NHL Free Agency winners and losers: Panthers, Golden Knights break the game
We knew 2025 NHL free agency would be interesting. It featured the backdrop of a rising salary cap, spiking from $88 million to $95.5 million for next season, $104 million for 2026-27 and $113 million for 2027-28. Teams had motivation to hand out big term with max contract lengths shrinking by a year when the next collective bargaining agreement kicks in for 2026-27. We knew the roster activity would be plentiful and interesting league wide.
But did it play out exactly how we all expected it to? No. Turns out giving all 32 teams an extra $7.5 million to work with helps them retain many of their players rather than chase new ones. As a result, so many of the top names, from Sam Bennett to John Tavares to Aaron Ekblad and many more, re-signed in the days leading up to July 1.
In assessing winners and losers of free agency, we’re largely considering which teams got better by keeping their pieces intact, plus which teams actually managed to hook new UFAs on the open market.
A few disclaimers before we dive in:
(a) For the sake of this exercise, Free Agency refers to UFAs, not RFAs. The likes of Noah Dobson and JJ Peterka don’t count. I’m not breaking down offseason winners and losers, only who fared best in the July 1 UFA frenzy, so improvements made via trade aren’t considered here in the winners section; teams who improved via the trade route do escape the losers section, however. The Montreal Canadiens, for instance, are having a fantastic offseason via the trade route. They don’t “win” free agency but they don’t lose it, either, as they didn’t need to search for big signings July 1.
(b) If you acquired and signed your big UFAs before July 1, as the Vegas Golden Knights did with Mitch Marner, that counts.
(c) If your favorite team isn’t mentioned at all in this space: it means they survived but didn’t thrive and thus didn’t fit the criteria of the winner or loser bucket. The Vancouver Canucks, who didn’t add much but kept several core players from their middling roster, are a prime example.
WINNERS
Florida Panthers
These guys are simply breaking the game right now – and I mean that as a compliment. Yes, they seemingly have every advantage in their favor to help them woo or keep players, from no state income tax in Florida to a warm climate that offers its players relative anonymity. But we can’t sell GM Bill Zito short. The man is a virtuoso. He understands his team has plenty of prime-year stars still at the peak of their powers, from Matthew Tkachuk to Aleksander Barkov to Gustav Forsling, and that goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky enters the final season of his deal. The Panthers’ have propped their contention window open by retaining Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Brad Marchand for below market value. None of those contracts will age well; Bennett and Ekblad have already been nicked up throughout their careers, and Marchand will surely ride off into the LTIR sunset halfway through his pact. But who the hell cares? The Panthers have kept their wagon together and look like the Stanley Cup favorite for 2025-26.
New York Rangers
The Blueshirts only made one UFA signing of consequence Tuesday, but it was a crucial one. Vladislav Gavrikov was the best shutdown defenseman on the market, and they landed him slightly below his expected value at $7 million annually for seven years. In two seasons, when the salary cap is $113 million, $7 million will be the equivalent of making $5.45 million in 2024-25. Gavrikov provides a stalwart to pair with Adam Fox and reduce the chaos in front of superstar goaltender Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers still have a talented enough roster to re-enter the playoff picture next season, and Gavrikov will help a ton, even if his deal takes on water in three or four years. I don’t love them giving up on K’Andre Miller in the trade to Carolina, but they secured a good young prospect in Scott Morrow in the process, and Gavrikov is a great get on the UFA market. As a bonus: the Rangers escaped an offer sheet by securing emerging power forward Will Cuylle on a two-year bridge deal at a $3.9 million AAV. He may command a lot more on his next contract, but that would be a fun problem to have, right?
Vegas Golden Knights
Tampering, schmampering. Oh, we want to go after the Golden Knights for it? When dozens of free agents sign within minutes of the market opening July 1 despite the fact they “can’t be negotiated with” before then? What would you call that?
Moving on.
The Golden Knights are devoted to winning like no franchise this generation. Of 11 first-round picks in their history, exactly one, Trevor Connelly, remains in their system. They’ve repeatedly, ruthlessly slit the throats of their core players in the name of big-game hunting over the years. The bucks mounted on their wall include Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Tomas Hertl and, now, Marner. He gives the Golden Knights something they’ve never had: a 100-point scorer. Over the past five seasons, he’s seventh league-wide in points, third in assists and first in takeaways. Adding an elite all-around forward, who plays both special teams, to an already-great team pushes Vegas to the front of the Pacific Division pack and maybe even the entire Western Conference field. Playoff struggles for Marner, you say? Well, it’s a good thing he just signed with a team boasting more than a dozen Stanley Cup winners in its dressing room, eh?
ASSIGNMENT INCOMPLETE
Anaheim Ducks
There’s good reason to feel excited about the Ducks’ medium- and long-term future. They already have one of the more impressive young nuclei in the NHL, led by Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish up front, with Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger on defense and Lukas Dostal maturing in goal. Whether we approve of the hiring or not, Joel Quenneville is an all-time great coach on the ice and makes this team better. The Ducks have additional exciting prospects coming down their pipeline in Beckett Sennecke and Roger McQueen, too. So there’s nothing to worry about with Anaheim’s big-picture forecast. But as July 1 wrapped up, even after landing one of the better forwards available in Mikael Granlund, GM Pat Verbeek had more than $28 million in cap space, with McTavish’s and Dostal’s new contracts the only major ones to account for on the 2025-26 payroll. The Ducks were positioned to add a big name and fast-forward their trajectory. Mitch Marner would’ve been an ideal fit. Unless they can land Nikolaj Ehlers, it will feel like a slightly disappointing offseason, albeit it isn’t all Anaheim’s fault given so many top-tier UFAs re-signed before even going to market. Adding a useful but overpriced Granlund and a declining Chris Kreider and downgrading your No. 2 goalie from John Gibson to Petr Mrazek (and Ville Husso) can’t be the end result of this offseason. I’m willing to skeptically place the Ducks in the incomplete tier since I can’t fathom this being all they do.
Carolina Hurricanes
The Canes started the day strongly, locking up feisty 22-year-old right winger Logan Stankoven on an eight-year, $48 million pact that could age extremely well. They moved on from Dmitry Orlov and replaced his cap hit with the eight-year contract for Miller on the sign-and-trade with the Rangers, which is a fascinating buy low. But I’m still expecting the Canes to address their most important need and bag a high-end scorer. They can maintain their Metropolitan Division dominance and maybe make the Panthers sweat a little by winning the Ehlers sweepstakes, which I’ve been expecting them to do, but I can’t assess their outlook until we know what GM Eric Tulsky does with that remaining cap space. There has to be another forward coming.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Argh. The Jackets looked like they’d be fun on paper this offseason. They were a team on the rise with a bursting prospect pool and some exciting young NHLers taking steps forward. They had more than $40 million in cap space. Surely trading for center Charlie Coyle, inking depth pivot Isac Lundestrom and re-signing UFA defensemen Dante Fabbro (great deal) and Ivan Provorov (not-so-great deal) won’t be it? Come on, Don Waddell, you’ve still got more than $20 million to play with.
Toronto Maple Leafs
We need to pump the brakes on the Brad Treliving masterclass a bit. Yes, he got UFA John Tavares and RFA Matthew Knies locked up on excellent deals. Yes, it was a coup to secure a third-line center from Vegas in Nicolas Roy rather than lose Marner for nothing. But a question for the “We solved our third-line center problem” crowd: uh, what about your first-line right winger problem? Matias Maccelli can bring a fraction of Marner’s playmaking to the middle six, fine, but Toronto still needs another impact forward. You’re not replacing a 102-point scorer, I get it, but you need to try and replace 75 percent of him. If you aren’t going to bid on Ehlers, you must wade into the trade market. I fully expect the Leafs to do something with their $5 million plus in remaining cap space, and Treliving said late Tuesday afternoon he’s still on the hunt for another top-six-forward, so they don’t get a winner or loser designation just yet.
Washington Capitals
Not every team can push their poker chips around as the bully at the table every summer. The Caps built a first-place team largely because they were so active last season, adding the likes of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun and Logan Thompson. So, fine, GM Chris Patrick wasn’t positioned to replicate the splashy moves this time around. It was a mostly dormant July 1 in D.C. aside from extending blueliner Martin Fehervary’s contract. Washington has morphed back into a win-now operation, particularly entering the final year of Alex Ovechkin’s contract and perhaps his NHL career, so I can’t imagine the $6.95 million in cap space goes unused.
LOSERS
Boston Bruins
Weren’t the Bruins supposed to be one of the more interesting teams to watch this offseason? They had a weaponizable amount of cap space. With top defenseman Charlie McAvoy coming back healthy next season, they were positioned to bounce back in the Atlantic Division after taking a dive late last season, with new No. 1 prospect James Hagens keen on making the team for 2025-26. Instead, GM Don Sweeney handed out not just money, but term to a brigade of grinders. Tanner Jeannot, five years, $3.4 million AAV? Michael Eyssimont and Sean Kuraly got multi-year pacts chewing up a combined $3.3 million in cap space. Factoring in the extension for RFA Morgan Geekie and trading for all $4 million of Viktor Arvidsson, the Bruins burned up their cap space for a pu pu platter, Geekie excepted. Not only are they emerging from the fog of free agency war not looking like a playoff team, but they’ve saddled themselves with one of the most head-scratching deals in recent memory in Jeannot’s. He has scored six, seven and seven goals in this past three seasons following his 24-goal rookie campaign.
Buffalo Sabres
I almost feel guilty kicking the Sabres and their fans when they’ve been down for 14 years. But as my colleague Matthew Barnaby said during Daily Faceoff’s live free agency show Tuesday: bet on the playoff drought to reach 15 years. Last week, GM Kevyn Adams got a passable but still underwhelming trade return for Peterka in Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring. The Sabres still had a lot of ground to make up on their Atlantic Division competition. July 1 yielded little other than signing Alex Lyon to back up Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal and Justin Danforth for their bottom-six forward group. After re-signing RFA Ryan McLeod, the Sabres have more than $13 million in cap space, with the Bowen Byram (offer sheet?) and Devon Levi contracts to figure out. There’s still time to make some big adds via trade, but Adams has to earn our trust at this point. The Sabres go into the loser bin until they inspire any confidence that they can ascend.
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings improved a lot offensively in 2024-25 after Todd McLellan took over as coach, finishing with a top-four power play in the NHL. It’s almost forgivable if re-signing Patrick Kane and bringing in James van Riemsdyk for a second tour of duty are the only major moves at forward for GM Steve Yzerman. But it’s a disaster to be this far into the offseason without having fixed a woeful blueline. It’s not necessarily Yzerman’s fault that Dobson was traded elsewhere, that Ekblad and Provorov re-signed or that Gavrikov went to Manhattan. But it doesn’t make Detroit any less of a loser this offseason. Nine years into its playoff drought, this team seems to be falling further behind rather than making ground in the Atlantic Division. The Ottawa Senators and Canadiens were in the same tier as Detroit a year ago and are definitively better now. There simply aren’t many available upgrades left on defense league wide, so it will be difficult for the Wings to emerge from the summer market having addressed their needs at this point.
Edmonton Oilers
I’ll shoutout the boss man, Nation Network owner and diehard Oilers fan Jay Downton, who tweeted that he “has legit concerns about next season.” Valid. The Oilers got two big swings at the Stanley Cup and missed. Now Leon Draisaitl’s and Evan Bouchard’s new deals kick in at a combined $24.5 million, and voila, you’ve squeezed Corey Perry, Connor Brown, Evander Kane, Arvidsson and John Klingberg from your roster while adding nothing on July 1. It’s not an utter catastrophe given the Oilers’ top-end stars remain aboard, but when your depth gets decimated and you don’t address your goaltending problem…we have to call it like it is and say the Oilers are a significantly weaker team now than they were even two weeks ago. Andrew Mangiapane helps, but the overall roster losses still outweigh the gains To top it off: divisional rivals Vegas and Anaheim, and probably Utah, got better.
Los Angeles Kings
Woof. The Kings finished 2024-25 as the Western Conference’s best defensive team. It was clear the path to finally conquering the Oilers to was to find some finishing ability with a game-breaking forward. And new GM Ken Holland’s July 1 consisted of (a) watching one of his key top-four D-men, Gavrikov, leave for the Rangers; (b) not adding any bona fide scoring forwards; and (c) burning through millions of dollars on 40-year-old Corey Perry, consistently overvalued defensive black hole Cody Ceci, aging blueliner Brian Dumoulin, penalty killing forward Joel Armia and backup goaltender Anton Forsberg. The Kings now have just less than $6 million left and haven’t re-signed RFA right winger Alex Laferriere yet, so it appears we can count them out of the Ehlers sweepstakes. The Kings may be the day’s biggest loser of all given how big the stakes were and how clear their needs were. A day of unforced errors.
Seattle Kraken
If Jason Botterill is going to corner the market on Mid, what was the point of moving on from Ron Francis as GM? The NHL’s youngest franchise needs to built up its pipeline and maybe even live life as a lottery team. Trading for Mason Marchment and Frederick Gaudreau suggested Seattle wanted to do the opposite, and they tripled down July 1 in handing Ryan Lindgren a four-year contract at a $4.5 million AAV. He’s only 27 but has a lot of mileage on him for that age and has been in major decline as a shutdown defenseman over the past couple years. If Seattle gave him a one- or two-year pact, fine, he’s a depth asset you can flip at the Trade Deadline, but four years means you’re stuck with him. The Kraken have been arguably the NHL’s most confusing franchise for the past several years. Unexpectedly making the playoffs in their second season of existence really hurt them, as it warped the organization’s expectations.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning had a good run as the evil geniuses everyone wanted to emulate, but the Panthers have the mantle now. The Lightning are paying for their monkey’s paw transactions, enjoying their Stanley Cup rings but very much in cap hell now. They simply weren’t positioned to do much of anything aside from re-sign diamond in the rough forward Gage Goncalves and add defensive fourth-liner Pontus Holmberg Tuesday. They have to fall into the loser bin given they’ve gained no ground on the team that has trounced them in the first round two consecutive postseasons. They also lost the underrated Nick Perbix from their D-corps after he signed with the Nashville Predators July 1.
Winnipeg Jets
The Presidents’ Trophy winners need an edge if they want to get past the Dallas Stars and win the Central Division bracket in 2025-26. The Jets have the cap space to find help, but Jonathan Toews and Tanner Pearson aren’t nearly enough at their respective ages, especially with Ehlers going to market. The Jets need to add a scorer of consequence simply to replace Ehlers and break even before they can think about improving. The good news is that Dallas the Colorado Avalanche haven’t improved, either.
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POST SPONSORED BY bet365
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