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

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 Calgary native Jake 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.