Nikita Kucherov is the highest-scoring player in the NHL whose contract expires in 2027. The Tampa Bay forward put up 130 points in 76 games in 2025-26, the second-highest total in the league that season, and his eight-year deal runs out on 1 July 2027.
Below him are 29 more, ranked by what they actually produced in the last completed season rather than by projected salary or by reputation. Pittsburgh has four of them. Five have passed a thousand career points, and eight have passed a thousand career games. And the highest cap hit on the list belongs to a man who signed a one-year contract in July 2026 specifically to reach this market.
The 2027 NHL free agents list, ranked by 2025-26 points
| # | Player | Pos | Team | 2025-26 points | GP | G | A | Career points | Career GP | 2026-27 cap hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikita Kucherov | RW | Tampa Bay Lightning | 130 | 76 | 44 | 86 | 1,144 | 894 | $9,500,000 |
| 2 | Jason Robertson | LW | Dallas Stars | 96 | 82 | 45 | 51 | 508 | 472 | $12,000,000 |
| 3 | Quinn Hughes | D | Minnesota Wild | 76 | 74 | 7 | 69 | 507 | 524 | $7,850,000 |
| 4 | Sidney Crosby | C | Pittsburgh Penguins | 74 | 68 | 29 | 45 | 1,771 | 1,436 | $8,700,000 |
| 5 | Ryan O’Reilly | C | Nashville Predators | 74 | 81 | 25 | 49 | 913 | 1,248 | $4,500,000 |
| 6 | Erik Karlsson | D | Pittsburgh Penguins | 66 | 75 | 15 | 51 | 952 | 1,173 | $10,000,000 |
| 7 | Pavel Zacha | C | Boston Bruins | 65 | 78 | 30 | 35 | 416 | 720 | $4,750,000 |
| 8 | Alex Ovechkin | LW | Washington Capitals | 64 | 82 | 32 | 32 | 1,691 | 1,587 | $4,250,000 |
| 9 | Evgeni Malkin | C | Pittsburgh Penguins | 61 | 56 | 19 | 42 | 1,418 | 1,282 | $5,500,000 |
| 10 | Shayne Gostisbehere | D | Carolina Hurricanes | 50 | 55 | 13 | 37 | 473 | 760 | $3,200,000 |
| 11 | Chris Kreider | LW | Montreal Canadiens | 50 | 75 | 22 | 28 | 637 | 971 | $2,150,000 |
| 12 | Claude Giroux | RW | Ottawa Senators | 49 | 82 | 14 | 35 | 1,175 | 1,362 | $2,000,000 |
| 13 | Artturi Lehkonen | LW | Colorado Avalanche | 48 | 70 | 21 | 27 | 353 | 674 | $4,500,000 |
| 14 | Jason Zucker | LW | Buffalo Sabres | 45 | 62 | 24 | 21 | 469 | 838 | $4,750,000 |
| 15 | Vince Dunn | D | Seattle Kraken | 44 | 81 | 11 | 33 | 339 | 637 | $7,350,000 |
| 16 | Lawson Crouse | RW | Utah Mammoth | 44 | 81 | 24 | 20 | 264 | 681 | $4,300,000 |
| 17 | Ryan Hartman | C | Minnesota Wild | 43 | 76 | 23 | 20 | 351 | 740 | $4,000,000 |
| 18 | Morgan Frost | C | Calgary Flames | 43 | 82 | 22 | 21 | 200 | 408 | $4,375,000 |
| 19 | Andrew Copp | C | Detroit Red Wings | 43 | 79 | 9 | 34 | 346 | 792 | $5,625,000 |
| 20 | Casey Mittelstadt | LW | Boston Bruins | 42 | 71 | 15 | 27 | 287 | 526 | $5,750,000 |
| 21 | Justin Faulk | D | Detroit Red Wings | 40 | 78 | 16 | 24 | 504 | 1,072 | $6,500,000 |
| 22 | Jared McCann | LW | Seattle Kraken | 40 | 52 | 20 | 20 | 446 | 731 | $5,000,000 |
| 23 | Dmitry Orlov | D | San Jose Sharks | 37 | 82 | 3 | 34 | 372 | 966 | $6,500,000 |
| 24 | Eeli Tolvanen | RW | New York Rangers | 36 | 78 | 12 | 24 | 194 | 436 | $1,500,000 |
| 25 | Teuvo Teravainen | C | Chicago Blackhawks | 35 | 75 | 14 | 21 | 557 | 834 | $5,400,000 |
| 26 | Michael Amadio | RW | Ottawa Senators | 35 | 81 | 15 | 20 | 180 | 535 | $2,600,000 |
| 27 | Blake Coleman | LW | Minnesota Wild | 35 | 69 | 20 | 15 | 331 | 709 | $2,450,000 |
| 28 | Justin Brazeau | RW | Pittsburgh Penguins | 34 | 64 | 17 | 17 | 63 | 159 | $1,500,000 |
| 29 | Alex Killorn | LW | Anaheim Ducks | 33 | 82 | 15 | 18 | 577 | 1,046 | $6,250,000 |
| 30 | Andre Burakovsky | LW | Ottawa Senators | 33 | 75 | 11 | 22 | 420 | 778 | $5,500,000 |
The thirty cap hits add up to $158,250,000, with a median of $5,000,000. Seven places are shared: Crosby and O’Reilly on 74, Gostisbehere and Kreider on 50, Dunn and Crouse on 44, Hartman, Frost and Copp on 43, Faulk and McCann on 40, Teravainen, Amadio and Coleman on 35, and Killorn and Burakovsky on 33. Just outside the thirty sit Oliver Bjorkstrand on 32, Evan Rodrigues on 31, and Artem Zub on 30.
Kucherov’s margin is the striking thing. His 130 points are 34 more than the next man on the list, and his rate of 1.71 points per game is the only figure above 1.2 in the whole table. Jason Robertson’s 96 in a full 82 games is the second-highest total, and Robertson is also the most expensive name here at $12,000,000.
That $12,000,000 is not a coincidence. Robertson signed a one-year deal with Dallas in July 2026 as a restricted free agent, which is what put him into this class in the first place. A player who signs a single-season deal at a high number is betting on the open market, and the terms of that contract say more about his intentions than any ranking can.
At the other end, Eeli Tolvanen and Justin Brazeau are both on $1,500,000, the cheapest contracts in the thirty.
Pittsburgh has four of the thirty, and the spread between them is the whole story
Sidney Crosby at fourth, Erik Karlsson at sixth, and Evgeni Malkin at ninth are all Penguins, and so is Justin Brazeau at twenty-eighth. Crosby, Karlsson and Malkin carry $24,200,000 of cap charge between them for 2026-27 and more than 4,100 career points. Brazeau has 63 career points in 159 games.
Ottawa is next with three names, all forwards: Claude Giroux, Michael Amadio and Andre Burakovsky. Minnesota, Boston, Detroit and Seattle each have two. No other club has more than one.
Two figures in the table need a word of explanation, because the source presents them in two ways.
Erik Karlsson’s eight-year contract is worth $92,000,000, which averages to $11,500,000 a season, and the contract summary on CapWages states that figure. The same page’s season table lists a $10,000,000 cap hit for every year, including 2026-27, and the page’s own cap-percentage column is calculated from the $10,000,000. Blake Coleman’s case is similar: his six-year deal is worth $29,400,000, which is $4,900,000 a season, and the page shows $4,900,000 in every season except 2026-27, where it shows exactly half, $2,450,000.
Career points put a different name at the top
Rank the same thirty men by what they have done across their whole careers, and the order changes completely.
| By 2025-26 points | By career points |
|---|---|
| 1. Nikita Kucherov | 1. Sidney Crosby |
| 2. Jason Robertson | 2. Alex Ovechkin |
| 3. Quinn Hughes | 3. Evgeni Malkin |
| 4. Sidney Crosby | 4. Claude Giroux |
| 5. Ryan O’Reilly | 5. Nikita Kucherov |
Crosby has more than 1,770 career points and more than 1,100 career assists, both the highest on the list. Ovechkin has more than 925 career goals. Five men here have passed a thousand points: Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Giroux and Kucherov. Eight have passed a thousand games: O’Reilly, Faulk and Killorn.
2027 NHL free agent goalies cannot be ranked this way
Goalies are missing from the table above, and deliberately so: a points ranking tells you nothing about a goaltender. The 2027 class has a substantial group of them, and the most expensive contracts among them belong to Jordan Binnington in St. Louis, John Gibson in Detroit, Philipp Grubauer in Seattle, and Darcy Kuemper in Los Angeles, all above $5,000,000 for 2026-27.
2027 NHL free agent centers and defensemen
By position, the thirty break down as eight centers, six defensemen and 16 wingers.
The centers are Crosby, O’Reilly, Zacha, Malkin, Hartman, Frost, Copp and Teravainen. Three of those eight have over 1,000 career points, making center the deepest position in the class in experience, if not in current production.
The six defensemen are a more interesting group. Quinn Hughes is third overall on 76 points, 69 of them assists, and he reached that total while being traded from Vancouver to Minnesota partway through the season. Erik Karlsson is sixth, Shayne Gostisbehere tenth on 50 points in only 55 games, Vince Dunn fifteenth, Justin Faulk twenty-first after a move from St. Louis to Detroit mid-season, and Dmitry Orlov twenty-third on 37 points, of which 34 were assists. A club looking for offense from the blue line has six genuine options, which is unusual for one summer, and our ranking of the league’s best defensemen puts that group in context.
How this list was built, and what it may be missing
Point totals come from the NHL’s own statistics for the 2025-26 regular season. Contract status and cap hits come from CapWages, and every one of the thirty was then opened on that player’s individual page and checked for a contract extending beyond 2026-27.
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