Top 5 RFAs Who Did Not Receive Qualifying Offers, Becoming UFAs
Monday at 5pm ET was the deadline for NHL teams to make qualifying offers for their pending restricted free agents. Those not tendered a QO would become unrestricted free agents.
The following, per PuckPedia, is a list of the top five RFAs whose teams did not give them the qualifying offer, thereby letting them go to the open market on July 1. The list is ranked by 2025-26 scoring stats.
Top 5 RFAs Non-QO'd, Now RFAs
- Matias Maccelli, Toronto Maple Leafs 39 pts/71 games
- Bobby Brink, Minnesota Wild 30 pts/68 games
- Jonatan Berggren, St. Louis Blues 22 pts/51 games
- Philipp Kurashev, San Jose Sharks 20 pts/43 games
- Maxim Shabanov, NY Islanders 18 pts/44 games
This year's UFA pool is extremely weak, with all the top available players having either re-signed with their incumbent teams, or in the case of pending UFAs like Darren Raddysh (Toronto) and Alex Tuch (Chicago), were scooped up proactively in a sign-and-trade.
To be honest, this list of five who've joined the UFA ranks by virtue of not being given a qualifying offer, does not improve the excitement of the July 1 free agency period much. Though each of them once had some promise. All but Kurashev are 25 or younger (and even he is just 26), so there's still a chance for them to turn into something.
Maccelli is the most accomplished of the group, having posted a 17-goal, 57-point season just two years ago with Arizona. He just didn't pan out with the Leafs this past year as they'd hoped. His qualifying offer would have been worth $4.11 million, which was too high for the team to risk him accepting.
Brink was dealt by the Flyers to the Minnesota Wild this season. He did post a 15-goal campaign overall, and there's a report that the Wild are working toward signing the right wing to a contract at a much lower AAV than what was projected for him. AFP Analytics had him pegged at a $3.8M AAV for a two-year deal, and an arbitration hearing might have awarded somewhere in that range, so the Wild are working with his camp on something more team-friendly.
Berggren was a 2nd round pick in 2018, and he didn't perform too badly with the Blues, posting 16 points in 36 games after getting to St. Louis in a trade from Detroit. But his qualifying offer was set at $1.825 million, higher than the Blues were interested in.
For Kurashev, there's just no room for him on the Sharks' roster, with a bottleneck of forwards for limited spots.
Shabanov was a sought-after Russian free agent last summer, but his 18 points this season was a disappointment. Even at $921,000, his qualifying offer was too rich for the Islanders' blood. Nevertheless, Isles beat writer Stefen Rosner says that the door remains open for the two sides to reach an agreement on a new contract.
