Well this is definitely not a list that will get GMs overly excited. There are some decent defensemen at the top that will get plenty of interest, but no one really jumps out as a “must have” guy.
There is no clear cut No. 1 this season and arguments could be made for four or five guys. On the other hand, arguments can be made for why they shouldn’t be ranked at the top as well. We didn’t feel comfortable with anyone in the top spot.
Dubnyk was great for the Wild this past season, but he wasn’t in the NHL at the end of last season and has been with five organizations in the past two seasons. Franson looked good in Toronto at the start of the season, but didn’t fit in at all with the Predators. Sekera is good, but No. 1 worthy? Petry elevated his game in Montreal. Soderberg and Vermette are the top forwards, but are second or third line centers and have struggled at times. Green was a No. 5 defenseman on a good Capitals blueline.
One thing is for certain though … they all will be cashing in.
In creating this list we took into consideration factors such as players age, position, injury history, likelihood of signing with another team, etc. Also factoring into the rankings is how a player may be in 3-4+ years, and not just in 1 or 2 years. A player like Martin St. Louis falls down the list a bit because of this. Mike Green gets the nod over Paul Martin as he is five years younger.
| Rk. | Player | Team | Pos. | Age | 2014-15 Cap Hit |
| * | Devan Dubnyk |
 |
G
|
29
|
$800,000
|
| * | Cody Franson |
 |
D
|
27
|
$3.3 million
|
| * | Andrej Sekera |
 |
D
|
28
|
$2.75 million
|
| 4 | Jeff Petry |
 |
D
|
27
|
$3.075 million
|
| 5 | Carl Soderberg |
 |
C
|
29
|
$1.008 million
|
| 6 | Mike Green |
 |
D
|
29
|
$6.083 million
|
| 7 | Antoine Vermette |
 |
C
|
32
|
$3.75 million
|
| 8 | Mike Ribeiro |
|
C
|
35
|
$1.05 million
|
| 9 | Drew Stafford |
 |
RW
|
29
|
$4 million
|
| 10 | Matt Beleskey |
 |
LW
|
27
|
$1.35 million
|
| 11 | Paul Martin |
 |
D
|
34
|
$5 million
|
| 12 | Antti Niemi |
 |
G
|
31
|
$3.8 million
|
| 13 | Justin Williams |
|
RW
|
33
|
$3.65 million
|
| 14 | Christian Ehrhoff |
|
D
|
32
|
$4 million
|
| 15 | Michael Frolik |
|
RW
|
27
|
$3.3 million
|
| 16 | Martin St. Louis |
 |
RW
|
40
|
$5.625 million
|
| 17 | Eric Fehr |
|
C
|
29
|
$1.6 million
|
| 18 | Jiri Tlusty |
|
LW
|
26
|
$2.95 million
|
| 19 | Francois Beauchemin |
|
D
|
34
|
$3.5 million
|
| 20 | Zybnek Michalek |
 |
D
|
32
|
$4 million
|
| 21 | Joel Ward |
|
RW
|
34
|
$3 million
|
| 22 | Mike Santorelli |
|
C
|
29
|
$1.5 million
|
| 23 | Jhonas Enroth |
 |
G
|
26
|
$1.25 million
|
| 24 | Johnny Oduya |
|
D
|
33
|
$3.383 million
|
| 25 | Mike Fisher |
|
C
|
34
|
$4.2 million
|