The hockey world is slowly but surely preparing for free agency on July 1. On Monday, all 31 NHL teams sent qualifying offers to their restricted free agents, those players that are no longer on their entry level deals but have yet to become unrestricted.
NHL free agency 2017: The top 20 restricted free agents
Qualifying offers have been sent, and here are the biggest names in restricted free agency.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
If that made no sense to you, don’t worry. Restricted free agency is a different animal than unrestricted free agency. Teams still own the rights to restricted free agents — unlike unrestricted ones — and have a period of time to send them qualifying offers. If they go unqualified, they become unrestricted.
Players have until July 15 to sign a contract or they can go to salary arbitration with their teams in late July.
While the deadline for qualifying offers has passed, we’ve put together the biggest list of restricted free agents. It is very likely most of these players will be re-signed by their teams, but you never know! The NHL offseason is a fickle beast sometimes, so keep track of the biggest names in restricted free agency right here.
Top NHL Restricted Free Agents
Player | Team | Position | Age | Games Played | Points | Cap Hit | Signed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Johansen | Predators | Center | 24 | 82 | 61 | $4 million | |
| Leon Draisaitl | Oilers | Center | 21 | 82 | 77 | $925,000 | |
| David Pastrnak | Bruins | Right Wing | 21 | 75 | 70 | $925,000 | |
| Viktor Arvidsson | Predators | Left Wing | 24 | 80 | 61 | $631,667 | |
| Mikael Granlund | Wild | Center | 25 | 81 | 69 | $3 million | |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | Capitals | Center | 25 | 82 | 59 | $3 million | |
| Ondrej Palat | Lightning | Left Wing | 26 | 75 | 52 | $3.33 million | |
| Tyler Johnson | Lightning | Center | 26 | 66 | 45 | $3.33 million | |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Canadiens | Center | 23 | 61 | 44 | $2.80 million | |
| Nino Niederreiter | Wild | Right Wing | 24 | 82 | 57 | $2.67 million | |
| Mika Zibanejad | Rangers | Center | 24 | 56 | 37 | $2.63 million | |
| Alexander Wennberg | Blue Jackets | Center | 22 | 80 | 59 | $925,000 | |
| Colton Parayko | Blues | Defenseman | 24 | 81 | 35 | $858,750 | |
| Dmitry Orlov | Capitals | Defenseman | 25 | 82 | 33 | $2.57 million | |
| Calvin De Haan | Islanders | Defenseman | 26 | 82 | 25 | $1.97 million | |
| Andre Burakovsky | Capitals | Left Wing | 22 | 64 | 35 | $894,167 | |
| Tomas Tatar | Red Wings | Left Wing | 26 | 82 | 46 | $2.75 million | |
| Marcus Foligno | Sabres | Left Wing | 25 | 80 | 23 | $2.25 million | |
| Justin Schultz | Penguins | Defenseman | 26 | 78 | 51 | $1.40 million | |
| Jean-Gabriel Pageau | Senators | Center | 24 | 82 | 33 | $900,000 |
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