The first wave of NHL free agency always moves fast. Within hours of the market opening, the biggest names are gone and the money is flying. By late July, more than 270 contracts had already been signed, totaling over $1.4 billion.

Now things look very different.

The frenzy is over and the headline players have found new homes. Most teams have already filled out the bulk of their rosters. What’s left is the quieter part of the offseason — the stage where every remaining free agent comes with a catch, a question, or a compromise.

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left to find.

Even at this point in the summer, there are still players who can help. They just aren’t the kind of additions teams are rushing to overpay anymore.

This is where value matters more than reputation, and fit matters more than name recognition.

There’s Still Real Scoring On The Wing

1. Vladimir Tarasenko

Tarasenko isn’t the 30-goal machine he used to be in St. Louis when it felt like he could rip one from anywhere in the offensive zone. That version is gone, and if a team is expecting that guy to walk through the door again, they’re probably setting themselves up for disappointment.

But he can still score. Let's not get that twisted.

Last season he put up 23 goals and 47 points in 75 games for Minnesota, and what stands out is that 18 of those goals came at even strength. That matters, because he’s not just a power-play merchant at this stage. He also chipped in five points in 11 playoff games, which is exactly the kind of secondary production contenders are always hunting for in April and May.

It was also a pretty clear bounce-back after a rough year in Detroit where he managed just 11 goals and 33 points. So it’s not like he’s completely fallen off a cliff.

The shot is still there too. He scored on 15.5 percent of his 148 shots last season and produced 1.05 goals per 60 at five-on-five. And if you zoom out, he’s still got 51 career playoff goals in 132 games and a couple of Stanley Cups on his resume. That stuff doesn’t just happen by accident.

The bigger question is everything around the shot.

He averaged just under 15 minutes a night in Minnesota, didn’t kill penalties, and finished with a 49 percent expected-goal share when they were playing five-on-five. The Wild were also a little worse territorially when he was on the ice. In plain terms, he can finish plays, but he’s not really driving them anymore.

And then there’s the obvious elephant in the room: he’s been everywhere lately. St. Louis, the Rangers, Ottawa, Florida, Detroit, Minnesota — all since 2023. At 34, that kind of tour around the league usually tells you how teams are starting to view a player.

That’s also why this stage of his career is kind of interesting. If the price has finally dropped into “prove-it” territory, a contender could absolutely use him. Put him next to a real playmaking center, give him second-unit power-play time, and just let him do what he does best: finish. It’s a much more defined role than he used to have, but 20-plus goals in that kind of setup is still very real.

Of everyone still out there, Tarasenko is probably the easiest one to picture walking into a top-nine and making an immediate difference without needing everything to be built around him.

2. Eeli Tolvanen

Tolvanen is kind of the weird one still out there because he’s only 27 and he’s already shown he’s a pretty steady NHL player.

In Seattle over the last four seasons, he’s basically lived in that 30–40 point range every year. He popped for a career-high 23 goals in 2024–25, then followed it up with 12 goals and 36 points in 78 games last season.

The drop in goals looks worse than it probably is. He shot 8.5 percent last year after being up at 16.4 percent the year before. Realistically, he’s probably somewhere in the middle of those two.

And he’s not just a shooter either. He threw 187 hits, blocked 81 shots, and for a guy who’s 5-foot-10, he doesn’t exactly play like he’s trying to avoid contact. He also chipped in 14 power-play points and played a career-high 16 minutes a night.

So yeah, he’s a pretty solid middle-six winger. He can play a bit of a heavy game, he can rip it from the flank, and he’ll give you 30-ish points without needing to be sheltered every shift.

The real question is whether there’s another level here or if this is just who he is.

Because while the production is steady, the underlying five-on-five numbers took a hit last year. Seattle was only at 43.2 percent in shot share with him on the ice — though, to be fair, he did get a lot of defensive-zone starts. Still, he’s not really driving a line offensively, and he’s not quite a shutdown guy either.

Sportsnet reported that he’s been looking for a longer-term deal, which probably explains why he’s still sitting there. Teams seem to like the player fine — they just don’t love the idea of locking him in for the long haul.

On a shorter deal though, it starts to make a lot more sense. He’s the kind of guy a deeper team plugs into the third line and just lets him shoot without overthinking it. He’s also the youngest forward on this list, and honestly, probably the one most likely to outplay whatever contract he ends up signing.

3. Michael Bunting

It wasn’t that long ago that Bunting was putting up 23 goals, 63 points, and basically being an annoying little pest who also happens to be a talented scorer next to Toronto’s stars. And honestly, it worked.

Since then, though, he’s become a lot harder to figure out.

Last season he still chipped in 14 goals and 33 points in 74 games between Nashville and Dallas. Six of those goals came on the power play, and at five-on-five he was still pretty solid by the numbers, sitting around a 52 percent expected-goal share.

But the end of his year really dragged everything down.

Dallas paid a third-round pick to get him at the deadline, and then got basically nothing back — one goal, one assist in 13 regular-season games. Then he was parked for most of the first-round series against Minnesota and only got back in for Game 6. That’s not exactly the kind of usage that screams “trusted playoff piece.”

And the bigger issue is that the “agitator who tilts the ice” label doesn’t hit the same when the production isn’t there to back it up. He finished minus-24 and took way more penalties than he drew. At some point, if you’re going to play that edge game, you have to be the one cashing in on it — not the one giving it back.

That said, the track record is impressive. You don’t accidentally score 109 goals and 252 points in 418 games. He’s hit at least 19 goals four separate times, and when he’s playing with real talent, he knows how to get to the dirty areas and finish.

The key is just using him the right way. He’s not a guy you sign to carry a line or fix your scoring problems. He’s the guy who goes in, gets the puck, gets under people’s skin, lives around the crease, and lets better players do the heavy lifting with the puck.

At $4.5 million, that role was too expensive. But on a one-year deal closer to the league minimum? That’s where it starts to get interesting again — and honestly, could end up being one of the sneaky good bets still left out there.

The Defensemen Come With Completely Different Questions

4. Logan Stanley

It’s pretty easy to see why teams are at least interested in Stanley.

The guy's 6-foot-7, 231 pounds, and just had the best season of his career. Between Winnipeg and Buffalo, he put up nine goals and 26 points in 76 games, with most of that damage coming at even strength. On top of that, he threw 110 hits, blocked 84 shots, and racked up 128 penalty minutes — so yeah, he’s not exactly shy about getting involved.

Buffalo even leaned on him for almost two minutes a night on the penalty kill after picking him up at the deadline. When you’ve got a defenseman that big who can kill penalties and chip in offensively, there’s usually a place for him somewhere in the league.

The issue is what Stanley thinks he’s worth.

According to reports, he’s been looking for something in the range of $25 million over four or five years. That’s a pretty big swing for a player who, coming into last season, had 36 career points in 202 NHL games and had never really shown this kind of production before.

And even if you buy the breakout, the underlying numbers don’t fully back it up. He finished with a 44 percent expected-goal share at five-on-five and stayed under 50 percent in shot attempts. He scored nine goals on just 96 shots after managing only five goals total across his first five NHL seasons.

That’s the kind of spike where teams start asking themselves if they’re looking at a real step forward or just a career year that got a little out over its skis.

None of that means Stanley can’t help an NHL team. He absolutely can. He’s the type of guy who can make life miserable in front of the net and help a penalty kill just by being 6-foot-7 and in the way of everything.

Winnipeg has reportedly thought about bringing him back, and you can also see how a younger team that needs size on the blue line might talk themselves into giving him a bigger role.

5. Nick Blankenburg

Nick Blankenburg is basically the total opposite of Logan Stanley.

He’s 5-foot-9, 176 pounds, undrafted, and spent most of his career proving he belongs in a league that usually writes guys his size off. And yet, every time he gets a real look, he just produces.

Last season he put up eight goals and 24 points in 61 games, which is solid for any bottom-pairing guy, let alone someone who’s constantly having to fight for every minute.

Before Nashville moved him to Colorado, he had six goals and 21 points in 49 games while playing close to 18 minutes a night. Three of those goals came on the power play. Then he lands in Colorado, gets buried on a stacked blue line, plays only 12 regular-season games… and still manages to score his first career playoff goal. That’s just kind of his thing.

And the numbers back it up too. He finished with a 53 percent share of shot attempts and a 55 percent expected-goal rate at five-on-five. He played both special teams, didn’t get sheltered, and did it all on a league-minimum deal. That’s real value.

The hesitation is understandable, though. Teams don’t know if the offense holds up without power-play time, and at his size, coaches are always going to be picky about matchups and partners. That’s just the reality.

But at the same time, it’s hard to ignore what he’s already shown.

He’s probably not going to change the entire look of a blue line. But as a cheap, reliable sixth defenseman who can actually play? That’s the kind of signing teams usually end up liking a lot more than they expected.

Connor Ingram Is The Last Real Goalie Bet

Ingram’s season felt like it belonged to three different goalies.

He started out in Utah, got put on waivers before camp, and nobody even took a flyer on him. Edmonton eventually grabbed him for basically nothing and sent him to Bakersfield, where things didn’t look much better — a 4.04 goals-against average and an .856 save percentage in 11 AHL games is about as rough as it gets.

Then he got back to the NHL and, almost out of nowhere, steadied one of the messiest goalie situations in the league.

In 32 games with Edmonton, Ingram went 16–10–3 with a 2.60 goals-against average, a .899 save percentage and two shutouts. He also finished roughly 1.7 goals above expected. At one point, he even took over as their main guy down the stretch.

This isn’t a one-off either — he had a .907 save percentage and six shutouts for Arizona in 2023–24, and he won the Masterton Trophy after being open about his struggles with depression and OCD. That part of his story is bigger than hockey, and it’s part of why people root for him.

But then he started five of Edmonton’s six playoff games against Anaheim and went 2–3 with a 3.86 goals-against average and an .876 save percentage. To be fair, Edmonton had bigger issues in that series — injuries, a penalty kill that got lit up — but they still needed a few more timely saves than they got.

So now teams are stuck trying to figure out which player is the real one.

He’s probably not a “hand him the net and forget about it” starter. A career .900 save percentage just doesn’t really support that. But he’s also only 29, and he’s shown he can take on a decent workload without everything falling apart.

The sweet spot is probably a team with a clear No. 1 who just needs someone reliable behind him, or someone who can step in for stretches without the season going off the rails. On the right deal, Ingram is more interesting than your typical veteran backup.

And really, that’s the theme with this whole group. Everyone left has a reason they’re still sitting there. Tarasenko is getting older. Tolvanen wants security. Bunting’s role has shrunk. Stanley wants to get paid like a star. Blankenburg is undersized. Ingram is just… unpredictable.

None of that makes them useless. It just means the price has to come down.

All stats courtesy of NHL.com.

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