- Eeli Tolvanen’s camp says multiple NHL teams have talked contract with him
- The Kraken are not one of them, even with the second-most cap space in the league
- Read below for his 2025-26 numbers and what a signing is projected to cost
Eeli Tolvanen has interest. Seven weeks into free agency, he still does not have a team.
Rob Simpson of Pacific North Hockey reported Friday that the winger’s camp has had conversations with multiple NHL clubs about a contract. Simpson is keeping the names quiet while those talks play out.
He did rule out one club. Seattle, where Tolvanen spent the last three and a half seasons, is not in it.
The Kraken have already built their lineup around other people. Mackie Samoskevich and Curtis Douglas arrived over the summer, and unsigned restricted free agent Jacob Melanson is the internal answer for the physical minutes after piling up 188 hits in just 36 games last season.
Money is not the reason Seattle is out. Our breakdown of the league’s cap sheets had the Kraken second at $18.4 million, behind only Detroit:
Two teams near the top of that list have already been tied to him. The Red Wings lead all 32 clubs at $19.57 million and were linked to Tolvanen in July, while Calgary sits fourth at $14.88 million and got floated as a fit earlier in the offseason.
Tolvanen, 27, played 78 games for the Kraken last season and put up 12 goals and 24 assists, one short of his career best in helpers. He also threw 187 hits, more than any other Seattle regular, on a $3.475 million cap hit.
Pro Hockey Rumors ranked him 19th on its top 50 UFA board this summer and projected a three-year deal at $4 million per season. Brian La Rose wrote Saturday that a one-year deal and a big season might be the smarter play at this point on the calendar.
The player is not the problem. He scored 23 goals in 2024-25, and in February he beat Slovakia for a goal at the Milano Cortina Olympics before Finland took bronze. Watch it here:
Camp opens in roughly a month, and he is far from alone out there. Vladimir Tarasenko, Patrik Laine and Evander Kane are stuck in the same holding pattern, and the teams with the room to fix it keep sitting on it.
