 | Today we're giving you a primer on the NHL off-season. Plus, the Hockey Hall of Fame adds six new players, the Canadian men's soccer team plays an important match tonight, and more. | | | What to know for the NHL off-season
| | | While the Florida Panthers' Stanley Cup celebration goes on (and on and on), front offices around the NHL are rolling up their sleeves for a busy couple of weeks including the start of free agency, the draft and surely some trades. Here's what to look for:
Free agency
The annual feeding frenzy begins a week from today, on Canada Day, and non-thrifty teams will have some extra cash to throw around this year. The salary cap for next season is going up by $7.5 million US, to $95.5M. And, provided a new collective bargaining agreement is reached between the league and the players, the cap will rise to $113.5M by 2027-28.
A pair of Toronto Maple Leafs stars and three from the Stanley Cup champion Panthers headline the list of pending unrestricted free agents poised to cash in this summer.
Toronto's Mitch Marner is the top player on the market after finishing fifth in scoring with a career-high 102 points this season. The 28-year-old added 13 points in 13 playoff games, but the Leafs fell to Florida in the second round and their fans put a lot of blame on Marner for the team's chronic playoff failures. Some would prefer Toronto let the hometown star walk and use the savings to address their lack of depth.
The feeling could be mutual. Marner refused to negotiate an extension with the Leafs during the season, even though they were reportedly willing to give him an eight-year deal for $13.5 million per year at one point. On the other hand, Marner reportedly vetoed a trade that would have sent him to Carolina for Mikko Rantanen.
The Hurricanes have long been considered a top contender to land Marner in free agency, but more recently the Vegas Golden Knights seem to have emerged as the favourite to sign him. A return to the Leafs feels unlikely at this point.
Toronto could be saying goodbye to another hometown boy in John Tavares. The much-celebrated seven-year, $77-million contract that lured him from New York (remember those bedsheets?) never totally panned out for the Leafs, and Tavares surrendered the captaincy to Auston Matthews in an awkward public ceremony last summer. At 34, Tavares remains a productive and responsible player (he scored 38 goals this season) and seems to want to stay. But the Leafs are asking for a hometown discount, so something's gotta give.
Florida is also in a bit of a bind with three players who were integral to their second consecutive championship eligible to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
At the top of the list is gritty Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett, who followed his 25 goals in the regular season with 15 more to capture the playoff MVP award. All signs point to Bennett re-upping, and he all but promised it with his Wolf of Wall Street impression at one of the Panthers' (many) victory parties, but there's no deal yet.
Brad Marchand proved to be the perfect trade-deadline pickup for Florida, scoring 10 goals in the playoffs while his prickly playing style meshed seamlessly with his new teammates. It seems like a great fit for both sides, but the Panthers don't want to break the bank on a 37-year-old, so Marchand might have to take less to stay.
The guy who seems most likely to leave the Panthers is Aaron Ekblad. He led all Florida blue-liners with 13 playoff points and was second in ice time to Seth Jones (another great deadline pickup), but the Panthers don't seem eager to get into a bidding war with him either.
Other impact players set to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1 include Winnipeg forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who had 24 goals for the Presidents' Trophy winners despite missing 13 games; and Vancouver forward Brock Boeser, who had 40 goals in 2023-24 and was reportedly shopped at the trade deadline. Here's more on the top UFAs from Sportsnet.
July 1 is also an important date for the Edmonton Oilers as Connor McDavid becomes eligible for a contract extension that day. The world's best player said he's in no rush to re-sign, putting pressure on Edmonton to get a deal done as he approaches unrestricted free agency next summer.
Trades
There have already been a few this month, starting with the Rangers' dealing one-time 52-goal goal scorer Chris Kreider to Anaheim. Last week, Dallas sent Mason Marchment (22 goals this season) to Seattle, and yesterday Philadelphia acquired talented but frustrating young forward Trevor Zegras from the Ducks.
Other notable names thought to be available via trade include Calgary defenceman Rasmus Andersson and goalies John Gibson (Anaheim) and Thatcher Demko (Vancouver), both of whom might be of interest to the netminder-needy Oilers.
The draft
The first round goes Friday night in Los Angeles, followed by rounds two through seven on Saturday.
The New York Islanders improbably landed the top pick, overcoming their 3.5 per cent odds in last month's draft lottery. They say they're not interested in trading it, so expect them to take defenceman Matthew Schaefer of the OHL's Erie Otters. The 17-year-old is the top-rated prospect despite his season ending in late December when he broke his collarbone while playing for Canada at the world junior championship.
Other top prospects include Canadian centre Michael Misa, who led all CHL players with 62 goals and 134 points in 65 games this season for the OHL's Saginaw Spirit (but for some reason was not invited to Canada's world junior camp); and Swedish centre Anton Frondell, who played professionally in his country this season. Here's a mock draft from NHL.com. | | |  | It feels like Mitch Marner's time with the Maple Leafs is coming to an end. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
| | | Quickly…
| | | Some other things to know:
1. The Hockey Hall of Fame added six new players.
The announcement came down right before our publish time, so we'll keep this brief. This year's class is headlined by NHL stars Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith and Alexander Mogilny, along with women's international standouts Jennifer Botterill and Brianna Decker.
Thornton, Chara and Keith were all in their first year of eligibility, while Mogilny had been passed over for 16 years after scoring 473 NHL goals as the league's first draftee to defect from the Soviet Union.
The group will be inducted in November along with longtime Boston University coach Jack Parker and women's Daniele Sauvageau in the builders category. Here's more on the 2025 HHOF class.
2. The Canadian men's soccer team can advance to the CONCACAF Gold Cup playoffs tonight.
This should have been taken care of by now, but Canada's disappointing 1-1 draw against tiny Curacao on a stoppage-time goal on Saturday night means there's still work to be done as the Canadians wrap up group play against El Salvador tonight at 10 p.m. ET in Houston.
The top two teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals, and Canada remains in position to do so thanks to its 6-0 blowout of Honduras to open the tournament. Canada leads Group B with four points and a plus-6 goal differential (the first tiebreaker), followed by Honduras (3 points, minus-4), Curacao (2 points, even) and El Salvador (1 point, minus-2).
Head coach Jesse Marsch will be back on the sidelines tonight after serving a two-match suspension for berating a referee back in March. Marsch was facing more disciplinary action after reportedly getting into it with a CONCACAF official at the Gold Cup, but the continental governing body cleared him of wrongdoing last night. It did, however, fine Canada Soccer an undisclosed amount "for breaching security protocols for accredited delegation officials and for failing to comply with anti-doping procedures by not providing the required representative for the halftime doping control draw."
If Canada advances to the quarterfinals, its opponent this weekend would be from Group C — likely Panama, Jamaica or Guatemala, who all wrap up group play tonight along with two-loss Guadeloupe.
Two quarterfinal matchups are set: the host United States vs. Costa Rica, and Mexico vs. guest Saudi Arabia. The U.S. won all three of its matches to win Group D, while Mexico had two wins and a draw to take Group A.
3. The PWHL entry draft is tonight.
The PWHL's generous policies toward its two expansion franchises have reshaped the league this month. With the original six teams allowed to protect only three players each, Seattle nabbed reigning scoring champion Hilary Knight from Boston while Vancouver took star forward Sarah Nurse from Toronto and Defender of the Year finalists Claire Thompson and Sophie Jaques from Walter Cup champion Minnesota during a signing window. Then, in the expansion draft, Walter Cup finalist Ottawa lost defenders Ashton Bell and Aneta Tejralova to Vancouver and Seattle, respectively, while Toronto, Montreal, Minnesota, New York and Boston also said goodbye to at least two players apiece.
In tonight's entry draft for incoming players, the expansion teams will finally take a backseat. Vancouver will pick seventh overall and Seattle eighth, with the new clubs then alternating positions in each subsequent round. The last-place New York Sirens pick first, followed by the Boston Fleet, Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost.
Unlike last year, when Canadian national team standout Sarah Filier went to New York, and 2023, when Minnesota chose collegiate star Taylor Heise, there's no can't-miss No. 1 prospect. But CBC Sports' PWHL reporter Karissa Donkin sees New York taking forward Casey O'Brien, who won the women's hockey equivalent of the Heisman Trophy this year with the University of Wisconsin. Here are Karissa's predictions for the entire first round.
Elsewhere in pro hockey, the Abbotsford (B.C.) Canucks captured the Calder Cup with a 3-2 win over the Charlotte Checkers last night in Game 6 of the AHL championship series. (In yesterday's newsletter, I wrote that it was Game 7. Sorry for the error.)
4. Canada had another good day at basketball's 3x3 World Cup.
Yesterday, the sixth-seeded Canadian women's team of Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Cassandra Brown and Saicha Grant-Allen opened their group stage with victories over Latvia and Austria in Mongolia. Canada is considered a medal contender after Bosch and Crozon teamed with twin sisters Katherine and Michelle Plouffe (absent from this event) to take silver at the 2022 World Cup and then fell one point short of a medal at the Paris Olympics last year.
Today, the Canadian men's team, seeded 17th out of 20 in their World Cup tournament, opened with a 22-19 upset of No. 6 Austria before losing 22-20 to No. 11 China. Alex Johnson, Grant Audu, Jerome Desrosiers and Aaron Rhooms face No. 3 France and No. 14 Puerto Rico on Thursday to close out group play.
The Canadian women can secure a spot in the knockout stage tomorrow when they face third-seeded France at 5:10 a.m. ET and No. 11 Hungary at 7 a.m. ET. Watch those games live on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, where action resumes tonight at 11 p.m. ET.
The top team in each group of five advances to the quarterfinals, while the second- and third-place teams are paired off in a qualifying round. | | | That's it for today. Talk to you later.
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