46 prospects set to become free agents on Saturday

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Josh tupper
May 31, 2024 (7:26)

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46 NHL prospects will become free agents Saturday if their NHL teams don't sign them to contracts including Leafs prospect who scored 42 goals last year.

While many fans considered the NHL Entry Draft the first stage of a team's off-season, the first important date for teams is actually June 1st. After drafting a player in the draft a team has a set negotiation window to exclusively sign that prospect. That timeline differs based on the location that player was drafted from, be it North America or Europe.

However, on June 1st of the expiration year, teams must make the decision whether to sign the player or let their rights expire. This allows the player to either re-enter the NHL draft, age dependent, or sign a contract elsewhere. With this year's deadline less than 24 hours away there still remains a lot of players unsigned.

Some of the players on this list have already signed contracts overseas and have no intention of playing in the NHL. While others just completed their Junior hockey seasons. The following list is provided by Cap Friendly

Anaheim Ducks
Connor Hvidston
Ben King
Albin Sundsvik

Boston Bruins
Reid Dyck

Buffalo Sabres
Jakub Konecny
Mats Lindgren
Albert Lyck�sen

Carolina Hurricanes
Zion Nybeck

Chicago Blackhawks
Michael Krutil

Colorado Avalanche
Graham Sward
Ivan Zhigalov

Dallas Stars
Daniel Ljungman

Detroit Red Wings
Jan Bednar
Tnias Mathurin
Theodor Niederbach

Edmonton Oilers
Jeremias Lindewall

Florida Panthers
Liam Arnsby
Elliot Ekmark
Kasper Puutio

Los Angeles Kings
Juho Markkanen
Kasper Simontaival

Minnesota Wild
Servác Petrovsk�

Montreal Canadiens
Jared Davidson
Cédrick Guindon
Petteri Nurmi
Miguël Tourigny

New Jersey Devils
Jarom�r Pytl�k

New York Islanders
Alexander Ljungkrantz
Matias Rajaniemi

New York Rangers
Maxim Barbashev
Oliver Tärnström

Pittsburgh Penguins
Nolan Collins
Thimo Nickl

San Jose Sharks
Mason Beaupit

Seattle Kraken
Kyle Jackson

St. Louis Blues
Landon Sim

Tampa Bay Lightning
Nick Mal�k

Toronto Maple Leafs
Brandon Lisowsky

Utah HC
Filip Barklund
Elliot Ekefjärd
Jérémy Langlois

Vancouver Canucks
Viktor Persson

Vegas Golden Knights
Patrick Guay

Washington Capitals
Jake Karabela
Oskar Magnusson

Winnipeg Jets
Anton Johannesson

It will be interesting to see if any of these players receive late contract offers or will they all simply have their rights declined. Only time will tell and this marks the beginning of what I expected to be a very busy season.