Only eight players were signed yesterday, per CapFriendly, with Travis Hamonic and Martin Fehervary as the only players over minimum salary. But there are some name players left as UFAs.

By TOI last season (per game) they are:

  1. Matt Dumba
  2. Simon Benoit (if you're saying who? you're not alone – he played 19 minutes per game in Anaheim)
  3. Patrick Kane
  4. Caleb Jones
  5. Ethan Bear
  6. Patrik Nemeth
  7. Jonathan Toews
  8. Patrice Bergeron
  9. David Krejci
  10. Vladimir Tarasenko
  11. Nick Holden
  12. Scott Harrington
  13. Zach Parise
  14. Jordie Benn

And the decent points guys who don't make that defenceman-heavy list include Tomas Tatar, Alex Chiasson, Phil Kessel, Vinnie Hinostroza, Oskar Sundqvist, Josh Bailey and Nick Ritchie.

There's some interesting players too: reclamation project Maxime Comtois, big-defence - some offence guy Pius Suter, utility forward Danton Heinen and our friend Denis Malgin.

In terms of unsigned RFAs, the great saga of Alex DeBrincat continues. Vince Dunn in Seattle is quietly unsigned. Anaheim has Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras. Boston hasn't found a contract for Jeremy Swayman yet, and the Rangers haven't sorted out K'Andre Miller.

And you thought William Nylander was the only NHL player currently negotiating a contract!

In other news:

Today at 5 pm is the deadline for player-elected arbitration. Teams have 24 hrs beginning at 5 pm to elect. It would be very surprising if Ilya Samsonov does not elect arbitration.

And that's it for now, we'll have more fun stuff later, and who knows, the Leafs might hire someone else today.

Happy Wednesday.

From The Branches