The Best Landing Spots for 6 NHL Restricted Free Agents

Go ahead, we dare you.

Imagine yourself as an NHL general manager in charge of a team looking to make a big splash on an impact player, but perhaps not in the manner everyone expects.

Instead of standing alongside everyone else on July 1 and taking turns wooing the big-ticket unrestricted free agents, you take a gunslinger’s stand and march right onto enemy turf.

Your quarry of choice? The restricted free agent.

A quick scan of the league indicates a plethora of talent could be available via nontraditional means like the offer sheet, a bold move that allows talent-seeking teams to toss out contract terms that the original teams must meet or lose a player in question.

Or perhaps another team suggesting interest could trigger a trade.

The B/R hockey team took a look at six eligible players and six new locales that could be ideal for them if the GMs in question are feeling lucky. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

Landing Spot: Washington Capitals

It was just three years ago that the Seattle Kraken used the second pick of the 2021 draft on Matty Beniers after he’d spent two years at the University of Michigan.

His results since reaching the NHL have been respectable if not transcendent, with a Calder Trophy in 2022-23 after a 24-goal, 57-point rookie season. Those numbers plummeted in year two, though, and Seattle missed the playoffs after its prized 21-year-old produced just 15 goals and 37 points in 77 games.

The 6’2″, 175-pound center is finishing a three-year, $5.5 million entry-level contract and the Capitals are looking to add skill and upside—both of which he has in droves—to position alongside Alex Ovechkin as he fades into the goal-scoring sunset.

Though it would be a tough sell given his numbers through 167 games, overpaying on a six-year deal with an average annual value of $7.25 million might be enough to prompt Seattle GM Ron Francis to let Beniers go.

Landing Spot: Utah

Another slide, another recent No. 2 overall pick.

Quinton Byfield, a towering forward at 6’5″, went second in the 2020 draft to the Los Angeles Kings after uber-hyped prospect Alexis Lafrenière was taken by the New York Rangers.

Intermittent duty across parts of three seasons was inconclusive on Byfield, but he blossomed in 2023-24, contributing 20 goals, 55 points and a plus-19 rating across 80 games with the Kings, followed by four points and a plus-four in the playoffs.

The 21-year-old is a big part of the long-range plan in southern California thanks to his youth, size and versatility, and he’ll be looking for a big raise from the three-year, $10.725 million deal he signed with GM Rob Blake a few months after the draft.

That provides an opening for the artists formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes, who have relocated to Salt Lake City as a franchise to be named later. It doesn’t have a name but what it does have is cap space and the suggestion here is it could use it—or perhaps six years and $39 million of it—to take a swipe at a Western rival.

Landing Spot: Carolina Hurricanes

Anyone else noticing a trend here?

We’re working our way back one year at a time and building a collection of No. 2 overall picks—first Beniers, then Byfield—that’s worked its way to Kaapo Kakko, the winger who went one pick after Jack Hughes was selected by the New Jersey Devils in 2019.

To say the Devils have gotten more out of Hughes than the Rangers have from Kakko is hardly hyperbolic given the Finn maxed out at 18 goals and 40 points last season before skidding to 13 goals and 19 points in just 61 games in 2023-24.

His underlying defensive numbers are excellent, though, which is an easy sell to the statheads but less so to the mainstream fanbase, which probably wouldn’t blink too much if GM Chris Drury allocated his cap space elsewhere.

That leaves an opening for the likes of Carolina’s front office, who could make a run at the 6’2″, 205-pounder with a three-year deal offering something in the neighborhood of $10 million in total.

Kakko, 23, seems as good a fit or even better with a franchise that covets players who blend offensive skill with defensive responsibility.

Landing Spot: New Jersey Devils

Suddenly, the Buffalo Sabres have a stash of young goaltending talent.

Devon Levi was a draft pick of Florida who was acquired by the Sabres in a deal that sent Sam Reinhart to the Panthers in the summer of 2021. And alongside him these days is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who was picked by Buffalo in 2017 and began carrying the starter’s share of the goal-crease minutes in 2023-24.

In fact, the 25-year-old was one of the league’s top-end goalies from January 1 onward, going 20-14-2 in the final 36 of his 51 starts and posting a save percentage (.919) and a goals-against average (2.31) that were both third in the NHL among players with at least 25 starts.

As the saying goes, though, if you have two starting goalies, you have none.

The premium paid to acquire Levi may make him the apple of GM Kevyn Adams’ eye and thus make it possible for a goalie-starved, cash-flush team like the New Jersey Devils to take a stab at one of the league’s emerging players.

If we were New Jersey GM Tom Fitzgerald, the bidding for Luukkonen would begin at five years, $26 million.

Landing Spot: Boston Bruins

It’s not the worst problem to have, but that doesn’t mean it’s ideal.

The good news is that the Carolina Hurricanes are knee-deep in talented forwards, but the bad news is that they won’t be able to pay all of them what they believe they’re worth.

Which means someone will have to go.

It won’t be Jake Guentzel and it probably won’t be Seth Jarvis, so that means Martin Necas, the center they plucked with the 12th pick of the 2017 draft, will be odd man out.

Now 25, the Czech is coming off 24 goals and 53 points across 77 games in 2023-24, which represented a sizable dip from the 28 goals and 71 points a season before.

The two-year, $6 million deal he signed in 2022 will expire soon, and his situation could be a boon for the Bruins, who’ve got better than $20 million to spend for 2024-25 and just two skaters younger than 30 due for a new contract.

That means GM Don Sweeney could make it academic with a seven-year pact worth $52.5 million and instantly plug Necas in as a pivot on a line with Brad Marchand.

Landing Spot: Edmonton Oilers

OK, maybe it’s the playoff buzz talking.

But every time the Oilers are prompted to start journeyman Calvin Pickard or suffer through a soft goal against Stuart Skinner, the calls for a legit No. 1 stud get louder.

And there are few, if any, studlier than Jeremy Swayman these days.

The fourth-round pick from 2017 has gotten incrementally better across the last several seasons, moving up from 23 to 24 to 25 wins while sharing the net with Linus Ullmark, earning the Jennings Trophy with him in 2022-23, and ranking 16th in wins (72) and sixth in both save percentage (.916) and goals-against average (2.41).

That’s where economics come in.

The Bruins are wrapping up the one-year, $3.475 million contract they agreed to with Swayman, 25, last summer and it’s no reach to suggest the numbers have gone way up with his performance in 2023-24.

Edmonton GM Ken Holland is likely to ride off into the sunset with whatever result the team generates this spring, and his successor can surely make a big impression with a gesture to Swayman along the lines of seven years and $49 million.