{"id":678664,"date":"2026-05-18T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/678664\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:12:10","slug":"5-underrated-players-available-in-2026-nhl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/678664\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Underrated Players Available in 2026 NHL Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">A well-traveled veteran, Michael Bunting has played for the Arizona Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars in his <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/buntimi01.html\">seven NHL seasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Bunting&#8217;s best seasons were his two with the Toronto Maple Leafs, including a career-high 23 goals and 63 points in 2021-22, followed by another 23-goal performance in 2022-23. His production has tumbled since then as he&#8217;s bounced around the league, but he still has value as an agitating middle-six forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Completing a <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/puckpedia.com\/player\/michael-bunting\">three-year contract<\/a>, the 30-year-old Bunting earned an average annual value of $4.5 million. He won&#8217;t get that much again because of the decline in his offense. Nevertheless, his style of play and ability to play either wing could make him enticing for clubs seeking experienced checking-line depth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Bunting could be an affordable gamble on a one-year deal as a bargain signing for half of his current AAV. His best days as a scorer are behind him, but he could see some improvement in that area with the right club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-traveled veteran, Michael Bunting has played for the Arizona Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-678664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}