This year's UFA class has some big names and if they all go to the market the faces of a number of franchises will change.
Here's a list provided by capfriendly.com:
UFA
The Golden Knights have 11 pending unrestricted free agents. Four were regulars with the club this season; James Neal, David Perron, Ryan Reaves and Luca Sbisa. Mikhail Grabovski and Clayton Stoner were physically unable to play. Jason Garrison, Max Lagace, Paul Thompson, Brandon Pirri and Chris Casto spent most of the season in the minors.
RFA
Vegas has eight pending restricted free agents. William Karlsson, Tomas Nosek, Will Carrier, Colin Miller and Shea Theodore were all regulars with the Golden Knights. Teemu Pulkkinen, Oscar Dansk and Philip Holm were mostly in the AHL.
Free agency is a place where teams can attempt to make big splashes but it's also a place where big mistakes can be made which can haunt a team for several years.
GMs have more and more moved to drafting, developing and retaining their own players. It allows for cost control and executing a salary cap plan.
Signing a young and valuable RFA player removes market competition and allows a GM to sign team friendly contracts. UFA prices can be driven up as GMs get caught up in bidding wars. Vegas has lots of cap space, in the neighborhood of $30 million depending on where the NHL sets the salary cap number, and will likely spend a chunk of that in retaining a number of their own players.
Traditionally, GM George McPhee has not been a big player on July 1. He's a draft and develop guy and historically has spent his cap space on retaining the talent he's acquired through the draft.
Vegas, however, is an expansion franchise and the parameters are different. McPhee will likely need to add players in free agency to round out his organization. Ideally, a franchise will build to a point where outgoing free agents can be backfilled with young talent ready to make the step to the NHL. Vegas has only had one draft and one year to acquire prospects. To expect those prospects to be able to replace outgoing talent is unreasonable.
The trick for McPhee will be to match incoming contracts with the progression of his youth.
The Golden Knights advanced to the Stanley Cup in their first season. The organization will want to build on this success and Vegas has quickly become one of the most desirable places to play in the NHL. The weather is great, the team has developed a state-of-the-art training facility, the fanbase is invested, and ownership has both passion and resources.
McPhee has proven to be aggressive as displayed by his pursuit of top end talent at the trade deadline.
