Best of the rest: Alex Nylander, Oliver Kylington have the most upside of the remaining UFAs

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Best of the rest: Alex Nylander, Oliver Kylington have the most upside of the remaining UFAs
Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

We’ve arrived on Day 10 of the NHL’s unrestricted free agency period, and it’s safe to say most of the activity is behind us.

Practically every free agent of note has signed with one of the league’s 32 teams. Even most of the less recognizable players on the market have found NHL landing spots. For the ones who haven’t, European pro teams have already started to come calling.

By this time each year, the pool of remaining free agents can typically be split into three groups. There are the wily veterans nearing retirement (Kyle Okposo, Joe Pavelski, etc.), the AHL tweeners (Radim Zohorna, Austin Czarnik, etc.), and, finally, the classic reclamation projects.

The players who fall into those last two groups are the ones who typically either sign in Europe within the first two weeks of free agency or hold out for a PTO in August or September. But while there are plenty of AHL-level players still on the market, the number of reclamation projects out there has dwindled considerably since July 1.

Here’s a look at two of the most intriguing young players still out there who could have more to give to whichever team picks them up this summer.

Alex Nylander

The younger Nylander brother had 14 NHL goals in 106 career regular season and playoff games with the Buffalo Sabres, Chicago Blackhawks, and Pittsburgh Penguins before being acquired by the Columbus Blue Jackets this past February. The 26-year-old Swede had been relegated to the AHL for the majority of his pro career to that point and had seldom been put in a scoring role during his intermittent NHL stints.

That all changed in Columbus, where Nylander averaged a career-high 16:45 of ice time over 23 games and exploded with 11 goals, just one fewer than Johnny Gaudreau managed over 81 games last season. Nylander shot the puck at seemingly every opportunity, testing opposing goaltenders 62 times (that’s nearly three shots per game) and posting three multi-goal games, including a hat trick against the Vegas Golden Knights on March 4.

There’s no question Nylander hasn’t lived up to the promise he showed in junior that led to the Sabres selecting him with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, but he’s got skill to burn and he might be on the verge of finally putting it all together. Having just turned 26 in March, Nylander is around the same age Jonathan Marchessault, Carter Verhaeghe, and Joel Ward were when they got their first real NHL chances.

Those guys are outliers, and none was nearly as highly touted as Nylander was coming out of the Ontario Hockey League, but there’s still plenty of reason for optimism. For a team like Vegas, which needs as many cost-effective scorers as it can get (especially after losing Marchessault to the Nashville Predators), someone like Nylander could be a worthwhile value bet. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes also make plenty of sense as they continue to navigate their cap crunches.

But there’s also something to be said for Nylander going to a team with plenty of cap space (and, with that, opportunity). The Calgary Flames, Anaheim Ducks, and Montreal Canadiens could all use a bit more scoring punch in their lineup. The market for Nylander might not be all that robust — if it was, he probably would’ve signed by now — but there should be plenty of teams interested in giving him a shot.

Oliver Kylington

Now that Adam Boqvist, Erik Brannstrom, Jake Bean, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and Josh Mahura are all off the market, Kylington is the best young puck-moving defenseman out there — and when he’s at his best, he’s better than all those guys. But after failing to come to an agreement with the Flames before July 1, the 27-year-old Kylington is still in search of a new deal for the 2024-25 season and beyond.

Kylington played in just 33 games with the Flames during his previous two-year contract with the club. After posting a career year on a pairing with Chris Tanev in 2021-22, Kylington missed the entire following season while dealing with then-undisclosed mental health problems. He attempted to make a comeback at the start of the 2023-24 campaign but ended up needing to take a brief step back before finally returning to the lineup in January.

After being eased back into game action through his first few weeks, Kylington resumed in his top-four role with the Flames down the stretch and showed flashes of the brilliance that made him a fan favorite three seasons ago. He ended up with three goals and eight points while averaging 17:14 of ice time in 33 games with the Flames during the 2023-24 season.

It’s difficult to say where Kylington will end up. The Flames seem to have filled his spot with Bean, who is a year younger and also slightly cheaper than Kylington was on his last deal. There’s always a chance that Kylington could try to steal his job back with the Flames, but he might’ve already missed the boat.

Much of the reporting around Calgary has indicated that Kylington and his camp were looking for a multi-year deal in free agency, but that has failed to materialize — for as much strength as Kylington showed in forging his path back to the NHL in the first place, it’s understandably difficult for teams to justify committing more than one year to a player who has missed so much time. It’s also exceedingly rare for UFAs to be offered multi-year contracts this long after the market opens.

Kylington is a supremely talented and smooth-skating defenseman with lots to prove. Whichever team eventually lands him will be adding a valuable piece to their organization. If he can play anywhere close to a full 82 games this upcoming season, Kylington could be in line for a much bigger payday one year from now.

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