One big off-season question facing each NHL team eliminated in Round 2

The off-season is creeping closer with each passing day, though the Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights and (barely) Colorado Avalanche still play on toward the Stanley Cup.

But for the 28 other teams, summer planning is well under way as they all look to change or reshape their rosters to come back stronger, knowing that the free agent market is not a deep one to pull talent from in 2026.

Anaheim Ducks: How will Cutter Gauthier’s and Leo Carlsson’s next contracts trickle down to the rest of the roster?

After a big year of development for the Ducks and their first playoff series win since 2017, GM Pat Verbeek now has a ton of contract extensions to sort through.

On the UFA front there is Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas and John Carlson, three important veterans and the biggest, most expensive question marks. Up front, Jeffrey Viel who had a good showing in the playoffs and made a case to stick around, will come much cheaper if the Ducks decide to keep him.

But for such a young team, the RFAs are the ones to watch here and these decisions will have ramifications on the roster for years. Defencemen Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov are coming off their entry-level deals. Either could end up as a tradable asset if an extension becomes an issue and if Verbeek can help the roster elsewhere.

The biggest question about the Ducks this summer, however, is how will the negotiations go with their top goal scorer, Cutter Gauthier, and their top centre, Leo Carlsson.

Both of these players are coming off their entry-level contracts and neither is eligible for arbitration. Only Carlsson would be eligible to receive an offer sheet.

Verbeek is known to take a hard line in contract negotiations with some of his younger players and we’ve seen several (though not all) negotiations drag out. Mason McTavish, for example, didn’t sign his extension until Sept. 27 of last year, so he missed the start of training camp and went on to have the lowest offensive output of his young career.

Now, Carlsson and Gauthier may be different. As the 1C, Carlsson’s place in this organization is vitally important, and Gauthier scored 41 goals this season. The two early-20s stars were first and second on the Ducks in regular-season scoring and in playoff scoring.

McTavish’s $7-million AAV extension came after a 22-goal, 52-point campaign, which both Carlsson and Gauthier eclipsed. Currently, $7 million is the high mark for any Ducks forward, while Jackson LaCombe will start on a $9-million contract next season. That’s notable because he was set to be an RFA as well, but Verbeek got that business done well in advance.

Will Carlsson and Gauthier get their deals extended in short order, or will it drag into the summer? Will they become the two highest-paid players on this team with long-term deals, or will they arrive at some other conclusion?

After such a great season in which the organization took a big step forward, it would be risky to have either of these players start late at training camp and risk a slow start when the regular season gets going earlier, in September 2026.

There will be two big priorities in Minnesota this summer as GM Bill Guerin looks to bring back an improved team and build on one of the Wild’s best seasons yet.

One of those priorities will be to find a No. 1 centre, which is nothing new in these parts. That’s been a hole in this lineup for years, and when Joel Eriksson Ek missed the entire Round 2 series against Colorado with injury, it further exposed what they lack down the middle.

That’s a big piece of business to figure out, and it could result in another blockbuster trade, should the opportunity arise. But according to Guerin — and to no one’s surprise — the top priority this summer is to extend defenceman Quinn Hughes, who the GM made a heck of a gamble to acquire via trade in December.

“These are things that take time,” Guerin said. “I think everybody needs time right now to decompress. That’s Priority 1.”

For Hughes’ part, he said all the right things to The Athletic at the end of the season:

“I can say that I really like it here,” Hughes said. “I love the team. I love the city and the fans. Just being in that locker room, it’s a special group. Would definitely be open to re-signing here with the guys that we have in the room and just the people we have in the room. A lot of trust with Billy, as well, and love (coach John Hynes) and (associate coach Jack Capuano) and the coaching staff.

“I just think it’s a great spot, great situation for myself.”

Next season will be Hughes’ last on his current contract, after which he’d have the option of testing free agency. And there is plenty of speculation that he’d like to play with brothers Luke and Jack, who are signed with New Jersey through the 2031-32 and 2029-30 seasons, respectively. If Quinn did decide to stay in Minnesota, he could sign an extension with them no earlier than this July 1.

But, whether it’s re-signing in Minnesota or looking to New Jersey, a huge question around Quinn is what the value of his next contract will be. As one of the top defencemen in the world, he will be in position to set the market at the high end of the position. Currently, the highest-paid defenceman in terms of AAV is Erik Karlsson, whose full value is $11.5 million. That deal was signed in 2019 and, when it began, accounted for 14.11 per cent of the salary cap.

Quinn makes $7.85 million against the cap and shouldn’t have problems surpassing Karlsson’s $11.5 million if he so chooses, given the salary cap will be at $113.5 million when his next deal begins. If Quinn wanted to match Karlsson’s cap hit percentage, we’re talking about a $16 million AAV.

There is also a possibility that, instead of going for maximum term, Hughes could sign something shorter with the Wild to perhaps line him up for free agency again in a couple years, when brother Jack’s deal is up as well. The Wild, surely, would take that.

Interestingly, there may be another wrinkle to this negotiation. Colorado’s Cale Makar is on the exact same timeline as Hughes, in that he’s also heading into the final year of his contract and can extend on July 1. There is less uncertainty about him staying with the Avalanche, but Colorado’s highest-paid player is Nathan MacKinnon at $12.604 million, and next season Martin Necas will start a deal paying $11.5 million. How much higher will Makar push that?

Whoever signs first between those two star defencemen will set the tone for the other one, and the clock on both starts ticking this summer.

After a 33-goal, 66-point regular season, Alex Tuch had already set himself up to be the most sought-after free agent on a pretty thin market. His contributions in the first round of the playoffs only helped that outlook, and though he was kept without a point in Round 2, Tuch is still the most important piece of Buffalo’s puzzle to figure out this summer.

“I don’t know how the talks are going to proceed. I don’t know what they are going to say. I don’t know the future. But my main priority is my family,” Tuch said.

When negotiations between the two sides initially started this season, the Sabres’ offer — under then-GM Kevyn Adams — was in the $8-million range. But given the cap inflation, team needs and scarcity on the open market, we can reasonably presume Tuch will sign somewhere for $10 million or more.

At that rate, Tuch would become Buffalo’s highest-paid forward, but the Sabres have to carefully manage this and it will be Jarmo Kekalainen’s first big challenge since taking over as GM. Peyton Krebs, Michael Kesselring and rising star Zach Benson are all RFAs. The Sabres are in line to have just under $13 million in cap space this off-season, so you can see how a Tuch extension could tighten their wiggle room and perhaps force other roster changes.

Losing Tuch for nothing would be a blow to a team that just finished its most positive season in a decade and a half, and now looking to maintain that momentum into next season and avoid being a one-and-done storyline.

The seventh-overall pick in 2023, Matvei Michkov arrived in the NHL last season with lots of promise, and he delivered with a solid rookie campaign, posting 26 goals and 63 points. The Flyers missed the playoffs, but it was a good introduction at 20 years old.

But in Year 2, things didn’t go quite as smoothly for the player. Under new coach Rick Tocchet, the Flyers as a whole took a step forward, getting into the playoffs and winning a round, but Michkov took more of a backseat role. He arrived at training camp in less-than-ideal physical condition after dealing with an off-season injury and his ice time dipped as the season went on. His average ice time was 14:50 this regular season, nearly a two-minute decline from his rookie season. In the playoffs, Michkov averaged only 11:50 of ice time per game, lost his role in the top six to newcomer Porter Martone, and was scratched twice, including in the must-win Game 4 against Carolina.

Naturally, his offensive totals took a dip in his sophomore season, and in the playoffs, Michkov managed just one assist in eight games. With one season left on his entry-level contract before becoming an RFA, Michkov is eligible to re-sign as early as this summer but now he has a little more proving to do. And it will start with a stronger off-season, which will at least partly be spent in Philadelphia.

“We just gotta let this kid breathe because he’s made a lot of strides,” Tocchet said after the Flyers were swept by Carolina. “We have to understand he’s 21 years old. He wants it and we have the tools to help him.”

There are questions now about his skating, and it was cited as one of the reasons he was scratched in the playoffs. This may lead to some outside questions about his future with the Flyers organization, or under Tocchet, and under these conditions, off-season trade rumours are bound to arise. But GM Daniel Briere tried to put those ideas to rest.

“He knows he needs to improve off the ice in his training. That’s not a secret, he’s admitted that himself,” Briere said. “The big thing for Matvei is adapting. I think he’s a very smart young man. He will adapt and learn from what happened this year.

“Matvei is a great talent. Matvei, we see him being part of the picture for years to come. That hasn’t changed.”