It’s been almost a week since the free agency market opened on July 1st 2015. Many new players found new and old homes, but there are still numerous players available who could be an impact on a team. Here are the top remaining UFAs.
Top Remaining NHL UFAs
Alexander Semin
Age: 31
2014-15 Cap Hit: $7 million
Semin had the remaining three years of a five-year contract bought out this past week by the Carolina Hurricanes. The enigmatic Russian right winger had two solid seasons with the Canes, which earned him an extension. The cap hit of the extension was debatable but regardless he managed a point-per-game season and a 20 goal season.
Then came the 2014-15 season and it all fell apart. The sniper put up only 6 goals and 19 points in 57 games. He missed considerable time with injuries and as a healthy scratch, sometimes consecutively. While this season was a write-off for both Semin and the Canes, it’s worth noting that he did have 5 goals and 12 points in the final 31 games. Nowhere near worth $7 million a year, but it does suggest that with a healthy season and a good team around him where he won’t be solely depended upon for goals, he could be a decent cheap pick up for a club looking to make a push for a deep playoff run.
He may not score 40 or even 30 goals in a season again, but a 20-25-goal year isn’t out of the question. The question is which team will want to take him on?
Derek Roy
Age:32
2014-15 Cap Hit: $1 million
Roy has changed homes every year since being traded from the Buffalo Sabres to the Dallas Stars for Steve Ott and Adam Pardy in July of 2012. He’s since suited up for the Stars, Vancouver Canucks, St Louis Blues, Nashville Predators, and Edmonton Oilers, respectively.
Roy’s days as a top-six centre are most likely behind him, but the 32-year-old can still provide a useful offensive punch on the third line to a contending team.
His last season with the Oilers, 11 goals and 22 points in 46 games, doesn’t warrant a huge raise from his $1 million price tag but scoring at almost half-a-point a game on the offensively challenged Oilers is quite a feat, so getting him at $1.5-2 million at the maximum would be a steal for a team.
Michael Ryder
Age: 35
2014-15 Cap Hit: $3.5 million
The former Montreal Canadiens 8th-round draft pick has had a successful career, with multiple 30-goal and 50-60-point seasons under his belt. He also has a Stanley Cup win from his days with the Boston Bruins.
Ryder isn’t a premier sniper anymore, but he can still provide an offensive mix to any top-nine. He missed some time with injuries this past year, only appearing in 47 contests, but still put up 19 points. That’s the same amount of points as Semin had this year but in 10 less games.
There’s obviously still some gas left in the tank, and a team looking for a 3rd-liner to provide offense and veteran experience should be taking a look at Ryder. His cap hit will have to go way down however, as he is in the twilight of his career.
Eric Fehr
Age: 29
2014-15 Cap Hit: $1.5 million
Fehr came close to recording his second 20-goal season, coming up just short at 19. Still, Fehr played an important role on the Capitals third line and helped anchor one of the best shut-down lines in the league last season.
In his final two seasons in junior, Fehr put up consecutive 50-goal runs and while that production hasn’t translated (and nobody really expected it to), he has been capable of adding secondary scoring while playing good, defensive hockey at the NHL level. Injuries have not been kind to him, but when he is healthy he adds a dimension to a team that is craved in today’s NHL.
Excelling in shorthanded situations, Fehr averaged a career-high 14:51, won 52% of his face-offs and scored on 13.4% of his shots. While he shouldn’t be expected to stay at that pace, it was a nice indication of Fehr’s ability to play a solid two-way game. His five-on-five play has received tons of praise as 17 of his 19 goals came at even strength. Unfortunately, for himself and for the Capitals, Fehr could only play in four games during the post-season, suffering a shoulder injury and being forced out of the line-up. His absence crushed the team, and although they put up a valiant fight, they couldn’t overcome the Rangers.
What’s interesting to note is that despite being praised for his ability to shut down opponents, his advanced stats are quite average, compared to some of the other free agent forwards in this year’s crop. His Corsi% of 50.2 was up from last season’s 48.8, but still registered as his second-worst rating. The same can be said for Fehr’s Fenwick% of 50.3, which was up from last year’s 47.8. His deployment in defensive-zone starts has also decreased over the course of the last three seasons, going from 55.9% in 2012-13 to 50.9% this past season.
At the $1.5-2 million mark, Fehr is a good signing and can still provide some good shut-down hockey, despite what the advanced numbers suggest. Properly utilized in in his zone starts, Fehr can still be an asset if he can remain healthy. His elbow surgery is expected to be fully healed by the start of the 2015-16 season.
Johnny Oduya
Age:33
2014-15 Cap Hit: $3.3 million
Oduya is a good candidate to get the most inflated contract of any player on this list, but that’s bound to happen when you’ve played a key role in winning two Stanley Cups in the last three years.
Oduya started his career promisingly in New Jersey, scoring 26 points as a sophomore and setting a career high in points (29) the following season, before he was jettisoned to the purgatory of Atlanta as part of the Ilya Kovalchuk deal. The Swede contributed little of note as a Thrasher, playing 20:19 a night on a team featuring a young and emerging d-corps (which included a young Zach Bogosian and Tobias Enstrom).
However, in February 2012, fate smiled on Oduya, when he was sent to the Blackhawks for two draft picks, and the rest is history. Through Oduya never quite managed to regain his offensive form, he didn’t really have to – all he had to do was be a steady presence on a blueline that featured Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, a role he played with aplomb.
There are, however, some worries about Oduya’s performance in the post-season that might make someone regret signing the two-time champion for too much money. Despite logging huge minutes (24:45) this past playoff run, Oduya posted a 48% Corsi For%, and a -6.4 Corsi For% relative. He’s still a great complimentary piece, but general managers shouldn’t be deceived and thrust him into a primary role, especially when he’ll be 34 before the season begins.
Christian Ehrhoff
Age:32
2014-15 Cap Hit: $4 million
Ehrhoff is a once great offensive defenseman that has fallen on hard times recently. After developing his game in San Jose, Ehrhoff exploded once landing in Vancouver in 2009, scoring 94 points in just two seasons with the Canucks, which he eventually parlayed into a monster 10-year, $40 million contract with the Buffalo Sabres.
Ehrhoff’s offensive numbers immediately took a dip (not playing on the power play with the Sedins tends to have that effect on a player) while his possession numbers went into the toilet in Buffalo, and the Sabres eventually bought out the remaining seven years on his contract. Ehrhoff was able to find new life in Pittsburgh, with the hopes of regaining his position as one of the most dangerous defensemen in the league.
Unfortunately for Ehrhoff and the Pens, the skilled German dealt with concussion issues for a large part of the season, and he managed to get into just 49 games, recording 14 points (only two of which came on the power play).
A healthy Ehrhoff (it appears as though his concussion issues should be cleared up by the time training camp begins) in the right situation could be able to recapture his form – at least that’s what some NHL general managers will be hoping.
Cody Franson
Age: 27
2014-15 Cap Hit: $3.3 million
It’s surprising that teams looking for offense form the blueline haven’t picked up Franson yet, as he makes a great secondary option in that regard, though he has struggled with consistency over his career.
After a great junior career with the Vancouver Giants in the WHL, which included a Memorial Cup championship and IIHF World Junior Gold in 2007, the 2005 Predators pick was thought to be yet another in a long line of excellent defenders coming out of Nashville. After two years percolating in Milwaukee with the Admirals, Franson finally made the jump to the big club in 2009. Despite solid offensive play and good possession numbers, he wasn’t able to move up the depth chart in Nashville and was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs in July 2011.
He would take more of a central role in Toronto, producing well on the power play and keeping a positive Corsi For% relative in increased ice time, despite the team around him dragging down his overall Corsi For%. Last season, with the Predators near the the top of the league and hoping to make a run, they brought Franson (along with forward Mike Santorelli) back into the fold, hoping he could bolster their already impressive blueline.
Unfortunately, it was a tale of two seasons for the big-bodied defenseman, as the solid offensive season he had been having in Toronto went the reverse direction, and he managed only 4 points in 28 combined regular and post-season contests for the Preds and saw his average ice time drop five minutes a night. At 27, Franson still has lots to give and, like most players on this list, could thrive if he gets into the right situation on the right team.
Viktor Fasth
Age: 32
2014-15 Cap Hit: $2.9 million
Fasth appeared to have the inside track on the future of the Ducks crease as recently as the 2012-13 season, when he split duties with incumbent Hiller and actually boasted far superior numbers, including an 8-0-0 run to start his NHL career as a 30-year-old “rookie.”
However that all unraveled with an injury and the arrival of Frederick Andersen, who stole Fasth’s spot in the rotation, which lead to the latter being moved at the 2014 trade deadline to the Edmonton Oilers.
As is a common theme among many of the goalies available in free agency this year, Fasth didn’t exactly excel with a very poor team in front of him in Edmonton. While the Swede had a good run with the Oilers to close out 2013-14 (3-3-1, .914 SV%, 2.73 GAA), everything fell apart last season, as Edmonton finished dead last in goals against, and Fasth’s numbers suffered mightily as a result.
At 32 years old, Fasth still may have something to give in a backup role at the NHL level, though don’t expect a long line of suitors or an eye-popping contract.
Ray Emery
Age: 32
2014-15 Cap Hit: $1 million
Emery is way past his 30 or 20 wins a year days, even though he only had two seasons with those numbers. Right now he’s a semi-competent back up. His 2012-13 year with the Chicago Blackhawks was his best statistical year to date, but playing on a loaded Cup-winning team will make a player seem much better than he is, as evidenced by his next season in Philadelphia. While going from 17-1 to 9-12 is bad, he could still be useful as a back-up and could get a tryout offer in September, should he wait that long.
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