As I thought more about the next contracts for Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, I wondered which other high-profile players coming out of their entry-level deals are still unsigned around the league?
The handy filtering tools at
CapFriendly delivered a list of 29 names. Sorting by points from the 2020-21 season, Kirill Kaprizov is at the top of the list. His situation is certainly a lot more contentious than what Pettersson and Hughes are going through, with talk of contract demands north of $10 million a year and threats to re-sign in Russia after making such a franchise-changing impact on the Minnesota Wild this season.
But he's not the only significant player who's unsigned. Some other pretty big names are also still out there, and don't seem to have generated much ink at all.
Let's start with the three players from Hughes' 2018 draft class who have outscored him — and who have all played three complete NHL seasons compared to Quinn's two-and-a-bit.
Exhibit A: Andrei Svechnikov of Carolina, who has 140 points in 205 games. Earlier in the summer, I seem to recall hearing talk that one of the reasons the Hurricanes were reluctant to commit money to players like Dougie Hamilton and Alex Nedeljkovic was because they wanted to make sure they had ample cap space to ink Svechnikov. According to CapFriendly, he's Carolina's last significant unsigned player, and they have about $12 million in cap space to work with.
Pettersson has outperformed Svechnkikov, with 153 points in 165 games, and he's a centre while Svechnikov is a winger. Those two facts suggest that Petey's deal should come in above Svechnikov's.
Exhibit B: Brady Tkachuk of Ottawa, who has 125 points in 198 games. Also a winger, but Tkachuk has quickly established himself as a do-everything power forward who can hit, fight and lead just as easily as he can score and set up goals. The Sens are rich in young talent, but Tkachuk is arguably at the top of their mountain.
After trading away Evgenii Dadanov, Ottawa's highest-earning forward is currently Colin White, with a cap hit of $4.75 million. Even with more than $3.5 million on the books next season for Bobby Ryan's buyout, they're still rich in cap space, with more than $28 million to spare.
Tkachuk is repped by Craig Oster of Newport Sports. He's also the agent for Brady's brother Matthew, who signed a three-year bridge deal as his second contract, with a cap hit of $7 million per season.
Drake Batherson is also coming out of his entry-level deal and will need a new contract from Ottawa. Drafted in the fourth round in 2017, he doesn't have the pedigree of top-five picks like Svechnikov, Tkachuk or Pettersson. But he had a breakout season last year with 34 points in 56 games, finishing just two points behind team leader Tkachuk in the Sens' scoring race.
Exhibit C: Rasmus Dahlin of Buffalo, who has 107 points in 197 games. With the Sabres struggling as they have been over his three NHL seasons, it's easy to discount Dahlin. But as a first-overall pick who has put up decent numbers despite his situation, he should still command a decent second deal. Hughes has 97 points in 129 games, so his points-per-game are better than Dahlin's. That, presumably, would put Hughes ahead in terms of negotiating power.
Here are a few more RFAs whose names you'd know, still unsigned out of their entry-level deals.
Forwards:
Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Montreal - picked third overall in 2018 - 62 points in 171 games - griped about being scratched by the Canadiens in the playoffs
Robert Thomas - St. Louis - 87 points in 169 games - also a centre - already has a Stanley Cup ring - like Pettersson, he was limited by injuries last season, putting up 12 points in 33 games
Defensemen:
Filip Hronek - Detroit - 80 points in 167 games - at 23:48, he averaged more ice time than Hughes (22:48) last season - solid offensive production, but not quite at the level of Hughes or Makar
Henri Jokiharju - Buffalo - 35 points in 153 games - his offensive game isn't as strong, but the Sabres leaned heavily on Jokiharju last season after acquiring him from Chicago in exchange for Alex Nylander - he averaged 18:22 of ice time last season.
My takeaway from this analysis — Petey and Quinn are not alone. When you consider the shorter offseason, the extra wrinkle of the expansion draft, and the fact that teams and agents are sort of cramming two offseasons worth of player movement into one after the uncertain post-bubble break in 2020, it's no wonder that many of these RFA deals are still on the to-do lists.
If you're a subscriber to The Athletic, Harman Dayal has a new article up that goes a little deeper into the Canucks' salary-cap situation as they work to get those two contracts settled.
Dayal's calculations line up pretty closely with the back-of-the-envelope math from
my last blog. Without going into the minutiae of how long-term injured reserve space is calculated, I estimated the Canucks have a maximum of $16.6 million to allocated to Petey and Quinn. Dayal figures that $16.3 million is the absolute upper limit — and goes into a bit more detail about why it's best to leave some wiggle room if possible.
I expect that will be the case when the deals are signed. And I do still expect they'll be completed and announced together, since one clearly impacts the other. I don't imagine the agents would be comfortable making one commitment without knowing exactly what their other client would be receiving.
Finally, one other note from The Athletic before I sign off for today. Scott Wheeler released his annual list of the Top 50 Drafted Prospects this week.
The list covers skaters only — no goalies. Players must be under 23 and, for all intents and purposes, not in the NHL. That bends a bit with a player like Cole Caufield, who comes in at No. 2. His No. 1 pick, Quinton Byfield, also played six NHL games last year.
It's a crowded field, with players from the 2017 to 2021 drafts jockeying for position. The Canucks have two players on the list.
I was a bit disappointed to see Vasily Podkolzin all the way down at No. 39. Last year, Wheeler had Podkolzin at No. 34, and he ranked him at No. 25 in 2019. He's trending the wrong way, in Wheeler's eyes, but I'm still very interested to see what he brings to Vancouver when he comes over this fall.
The good news is that Jack Rathbone also made the list for the first time, at No. 47 — and is the lowest-drafted player on the list at 95th overall in 2017. Wheeler is full of praise for Rathbone, calling him 'stronger than he looks on his feet' while lauding him for how he has exceeded expectations to date, both at Harvard and during his brief stint in the AHL.
Wherever he lands this season, he is going to be fun to watch.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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