Four teams remain in the 2025-26 Stanley Cup playoffs, but the NHL Draft and free agency are just more than a month away. Even with the salary cap rising to $104 million, plenty of franchises find themselves in quagmires as they map out how to fit their top players under the cap and make room for contract extensions and/or roster additions.
As a result, we could see a handful of players, some declining but some relatively useful, forced off their teams as cap casualties.
Here are 10 names to monitor closely heading into the NHL’s summer silly season, with contract information courtesy of our pals at PuckPedia.
Age: 32
Cap hit: $5,500,000 through 2026-27
(Five-team no-trade-list)
Emerging superstar blueliner Lane Huton’s extension kicks in next season, spiking his AAV from $950,000 to $8.85 million. Patrik Laine’s $8.7 million comes off the books, but Montreal also needs to extend RFA forwards Zachary Bolduc and Kirby Dach and RFA defenseman Arber Xhekaj. They have a projected $9.18 million for that, but GM Kent Hughes also needs room to add. Montreal still doesn’t have a true No. 2 center, especially with top prospect Michael Hage opting to stay in college another year. Jettisoning Anderson’s cap hit would help a lot. Brendan Gallagher is another option, but Anderson is younger and has been a lineup mainstay this postseason, so he has more value. There’s a use for his blend of size and speed somewhere.
Age: 29
Cap hit: $4,000,000 through 2026-27
(12-team no-trade list)
The Avs are trying to remain atop the NHL’s mountain coming off a Presidents’ Trophy (and potentially Stanley Cup) win, which will be extremely challenging to do with $2.98 million in projected cap space and four defensemen hitting unrestricted free agency. Colton is an effective, physical middle-six forward who can play center or the wing, but $4 million is a luxury for someone who averages 9:45 of ice time this postseason and was even healthy scratched for a game. At 29, he still has plenty to offer an inferior club that could play him a lot more. He has some trade value.
Age: 29
Cap hit: $4,000,000 through 2026-27
(five-team no trade list)
The Sabres will likely clear at least one goaltender from their logjam, but GM Jarmo Kekalainen must do more than that if he wants to re-sign Alex Tuch and extend Zach Benson and Peyton Krebs with only $12.9 million in cap space. Greenway brings great size and has been an effective checker in the past, but, sheesh, $4 million is far too much for a fourth-liner with four goals across his past two regular seasons combined.
Age: 32
Cap hit: $9,000,000 through 2027-28
(10-team trade list)
The Tom Fitzgerald regime was interested in offloading Hamilton’s AAV, but the under-the-hood numbers showed Hamilton had a good all-round year, and his scoring rebounded massively from January onward with eight goals and 31 points in 41 games – a 16-goal, 62-point pace. Will Devils’ analytically-minded new GM Sunny Mehta appreciate Hamilton’s game more, or is it time for both sides to move on? Given his age, it might be wise to capitalize on his bounce-back year.
Age: 31
Cap hit: $4,000,000 through 2026-27
(10-team no-trade list)
The Wild want a top-end No. 1 center and to extend all-world blueliner Quinn Hughes. They thus need to move money out. Trading goaltender Filip Gustavsson, relegated to $6.8-million 1B status this postseason, would’ve been the logical play, but his hip surgery puts his status for the start of next season – and trade value – in flux. Plan B could be unloading Hartman’s cap hit, which would clear space for immediate help, though it wouldn’t impact any cap space for a Hughes extension in 2027-28. Hartman’s 15-team no-trade clause shrinks to a 10-teamer for the final season of his deal. He’s not the No. 1 scoring-line pivot he’s too often asked to be in Minnesota, but his blend of skill and agitation make him plenty useful. Averaging 23 goals and 49 points per 82 games over his past five seasons, he’s not overpaid at his AAV and thus shouldn’t be an overly difficult player to move with just a year left on his deal.
Age: 30
Cap hit: $6,250,000 through 2030-31
(10-team no-trade list)
You can’t justify paying a goalie $6.25 million to ride the pine. Carter Hart is Vegas’ starter now. The league’s most cutthroat franchise surely won’t want to keep Hill on the payroll any longer than it has to, especially with RFA Pavel Dorofeyev, the playoffs’ leading goal-scorer, vulnerable to an offer sheet and top-four blueliner Rasmus Andersson an RFA. Vegas has to move out some significant money to avoid having its roster pillaged. Any suitor would be buying extremely low on Hill, as he’s coming off a terrible and injury-shortened season, but his Stanley Cup-winning pedigree remains a potential selling point.
Age: 32
Cap hit: $3,250,000 through 2026-27
The Stars need to bolster the right side of their D-corps, yet they don’t even have enough cap space to re-sign RFA forwards Jason Robertson and Mavrik Bourque at the moment. They’ll have to jettison some money, and Lyubushkin hasn’t met their standard, but if you’re a non-contender, imagining netting a pick to take him on and securing a physical right-shot defenseman you can flip as a rental at next year’s Trade Deadline. Seems like a no-brainer deal to make, and Lyubushkin has zero movement restrictions on his contract.
Age: 25
Cap hit: $4,820,000 through 2029-30
(10-team no-trade list)
What’s more surprising: that Kotkaniemi is still just 25 or that he has four years left on his deal? He’s been buried in bottom-six work all year, so he’s a tough sell, but he’s young enough to have some perceived upside left in him. The Canes are also a rare elite team that is also asset rich in picks and prospects, so they could attach a sweetener. It’s also worth noting his contract is extremely buyout friendly; the cap hit for every season of a buyout would be south of $1 million. Carolina could explore that path or send a pick to a team willing to pay the buyout post-trade.
Age: 32
Cap hit: $5,400,000 through 2026-27
(10-team no-trade list)
At first glance, it may not seem like Columbus needs a sacrificial salary-cap lamb given it has $34.16 million in projected space. But look closer. Franchise center Adam Fantilli and starting goaltender Jet Greaves are RFAs; the team needs to re-sign or replace departing UFA forwards Mason Marchment and Boone Jenner as well. Greaves finally pulled away from Merzlikins as the No. 1 netminder this season, making Merzlikins (a) too expensive of a backup and (b) someone who might welcome a new team anyway. He’s lived south of a .900 save percentage for the past four years, so trading him might require some salary retention, but he could be an option for a thrift-shopping team without the capital to chase a top netminder.
Age: 31
Cap hit: $9,250,000 through 2029-30
(No-movement clause)
The Oilers simply must find a way. They barely have the cap space even to re-sign the UFAs and maintain status quo on a roster Connor McDavid called “average,” and the goal is to get better. If it means 50 percent retention on Nurse’s AAV, the Oilers have to consider anything that improves their Stanley Cup chances across McDavid’s two-year contract. Nurse would have to waive his NMC for any deal, of course, but after more than a decade in Copper and Blue, might he want a respite from the pressure cooker anyway?
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