Fansided

25 top NHL free agents teams will be dying to sign in 2018

By David Rouben

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: James van Riemsdyk #25 of the Toronto Maple Leafs and John Tavares #91 of the New York Islanders battle for the puck during their game at the Barclays Center on October 30, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 30: James van Riemsdyk #25 of the Toronto Maple Leafs and John Tavares #91 of the New York Islanders battle for the puck during their game at the Barclays Center on October 30, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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DALLAS, TX – MARCH 5: Mark Stone #61 of the Ottawa Senators skates against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on March 5, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX – MARCH 5: Mark Stone #61 of the Ottawa Senators skates against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on March 5, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images) /

9. Mark Stone

The last restricted free agent on this list, and one that isn’t likely to make it to July 1. But it’s worth entertaining this pipe dream, since there aren’t many teams around the league that wouldn’t take Mark Stone.

Stone and Erik Karlsson should be core pieces on a Cup contending team, but the fact that they haven’t put it together is a strong indictment of Pierre Dorion and Eugene Melnyk’s respective tenures. Stone hasn’t been as vocal about his distrust of management as Karlsson has, who actually got hockey Twitter to believe he was about to get traded. But if the Senators don’t get them some help, Stone might end up taking his talents elsewhere.

Why he’s in demand: Stone established himself as an elite player in 2017-18. He almost matched his career high of 64 points despite playing in 22 fewer games. However, his missed time doesn’t suddenly make him injury prone, while his greatest attribute is still his ability to strip the puck and get off to the races. He’s about to enter his prime and should easily be able to at least double his salary by netting a long-term contract worth $7 million per year or more.

Teams with the best chance to sign him: A team not named the Senators that should throw an offer sheet at Stone is the Colorado Avalanche. So long as their two best offensive players are on ridiculously team-friendly deals, they’ll be in the mix for every big free agent this offseason.

Since they already own Ottawa’s first and third-round picks in 2019 (thanks, Matt Duchene), the picks they’d have to give up for him aren’t as valuable as they would normally be. Plus, a trio of Stone-MacKinnon-Rantanen would be ridiculously fun to watch.

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