The Calgary Flames crossed another name off the summer to-do list this weekend, keeping winger Connor Zary in the fold with a three-year, $11.3 million extension. One down, six to go.
That leaves just half a dozen restricted free agents still without new deals despite logging NHL minutes in 2024-25: Mason McTavish (Anaheim), Luke Hughes (New Jersey), Luke Evangelista (Nashville), Alexander Holtz (Vegas), Rasmus Kupari (Winnipeg), and Wyatt Kaiser (Chicago). Training camps are creeping closer, and the silence around these negotiations is starting to get loud.
Not to mention uncomfortable.
Teams are playing hardball with young players whose entry deal has just expired. It’s the classic case of a player feeling he is worth more money than the team wants to give, and such situations often lead to hurt feelings, maybe even burnt bridges.
Could the Montreal Canadiens take advantage of the situation with the Anaheim Ducks to fill their need for a second-line center?
Anaheim Ducks Feeling Pressure to Act on Mason McTavish
That so many quality RFAs are still available a week into September is crazy enough, but what hasn’t happened is just as notable. Not a single offer sheet has been signed. For all the chatter about front offices willing to weaponize cap space, no one has pulled the trigger this summer. The NHL has always been a copycat league, but the one move that could shake the market — and maybe change a franchise’s direction overnight — has yet to resurface.
It’s been more than a year since St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong shocked the system, prying away Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from Edmonton with twin offer sheets on August 13, 2024. The Oilers, strapped by the cap, couldn’t match, and just like that, both players were skating in new sweaters a week later.
It worked out incredibly well for the Blues, helping to fast forward their rebuild with a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman, both under 25 years of age. But it was a particularly seismic move because it broke a long-standing taboo.
Before the Blues doubled their haul, you had to go back to 2007 to find the last time an offer sheet actually resulted in a player switching teams. Seventeen years of inaction, snapped in one swoop.
Now, the market sits still again. Six RFAs wait, teams hover, and fans wonder if someone will get bold enough to try it again.
Montreal Could Take Advantage of Ducks’ Situation With Mason McTavish
Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton was actually among those who expected offer sheets to be a rising trend in player acquisition. According to Montreal hockey writer Marco D’Amico, Gorton expressed his opinion in May, before the offseason officially began, that with the upcoming increases in the salary cap, the summer months would almost certainly see a spike in offer sheets getting signed.
But months later, nothing has happened, which has undoubtedly raised frustration levels. On Saturday, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News analyzed the remaining RFA situations, and he determined that Anaheim is feeling the most pressure to resign McTavish.
“If Anaheim is going to have a hope to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, they’re going to need all hands on deck, and that includes McTavish, who has averaged 19 goals in each of his first three NHL seasons,” Proteau opined. “The Ducks’ year won’t float or sink depending solely on McTavish, but if any team can’t afford to have a dynamic young player on the sidelines, it’s Anaheim. And the longer they fail to sign McTavish, the better the chance they completely burn a bridge with him and end his Ducks career before it could really take flight.”
On the 32 Thoughts podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the two sides are having trouble agreeing on the length of the contract. Anaheim wants to sign McTavish to six or more seasons, while the young winger would prefer to bet on himself with a bridge deal so he can be an unrestricted free agent in a few seasons and take advantage of the rising cap. Friedman also cited several other young Anaheim players, such as Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, and Cutter Gauthier, who will be RFAs next summer, suggesting that could also hinder their level of commitment to McTavish.
“I don’t think they want to trade him, but I’ve heard they’re not crazy about a bridge deal,” Friedman said. “It might not be easy for the two sides to agree on a longer projection.”
Which is where the Canadiens could come in. An offer sheet would not seem the best way go to, given the amount of cap space the Ducks have and the likelihood that they would match. But Montreal does boast a healthy pool of prospects and some draft capital, with extra picks in the second and fourth rounds of the 2026 draft. A package of center prospect Michael Hage with another low-tier prospect and a 2026 second-round pick could pique Anaheim’s interest.
And the idea of acquiring McTavish would certainly tickle the Canadiens’ fancy. With the recent trade of Jim Carey to the San Jose Sharks, Montreal now has the cap space to make such a move feasible. As for McTavish’s bridge deal, Marco Rossi’s three-year, $15 million extension provides a good framework for the Canadiens.
Suddenly, Montreal has its No. 2 center to slot in behind Nick Suzuki.
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