{"id":709365,"date":"2026-06-02T01:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/709365\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T01:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T01:10:12","slug":"multiple-players-have-nhl-draft-rights-expire-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/709365\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Players Have NHL Draft Rights Expire \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to PuckPedia<\/a>, multiple prospects had their draft rights expire at the deadline today, meaning they\u2019ll re-enter the 2026 NHL Draft or become unrestricted free agents.<\/p>\n

Two distinct groups are impacted by this deadline. Prospects playing in the Canadian Major Junior leagues (OHL, QMJHL, or WHL) or those playing in Europe.<\/p>\n

Of those players from the CHL who have played through their age-20 seasons, they\u2019ll re-enter the 2026 NHL Draft, or become unrestricted free agents if they go undrafted.\u00a0For the European players, they\u2019ll become unrestricted free agents, though many typically stay in Europe to continue their professional careers.<\/p>\n

The only other prospect whose draft rights expired, and didn\u2019t meet either of the above requirements, was Toronto Maple Leafs 2025 draftee Matthew Hlacar<\/a>. Hlacar was taken with the 217th overall pick of last year\u2019s draft, and scored six goals and 12 points in 51 games for the OHL\u2019s Kitchener Rangers this season. Toronto didn\u2019t issue him a bona fide offer, which is simply tendering the player a league-minimum, entry-level deal to extend their signing rights.<\/p>\n

The remaining prospects who will re-enter the 2026 NHL Draft or become UFAs are as follows:<\/p>\n

D Ales Cech<\/a> (Mammoth, 5-153, 2024)
D Simon Forsmark<\/a> (Hurricanes, 4-101, 2022)
F Max Graham<\/a> (Penguins, 5-139*, 2024)
F Petr Hauser<\/a> (Oilers, 5-141**, 2022)
F Nils Juntorp<\/a> (Hurricanes, 6-188***, 2022)
F Gustav Karlsson<\/a> (Sabres, 6-187, 2022)
F Maximilian Kilpinen<\/a> (Red Wings, 4-129, 2022)
D Kasper Kulonummi<\/a> (Predators, 3-84, 2022)
F Hunter Laing<\/a> (Flames, 6-170, 2024)
G Ryerson Leenders<\/a> (Sabres, 7-219, 2024)
D Nathan Mayes<\/a> (Maple Leafs, 7-225, 2024)
G Landon Miller<\/a> (Red Wings, 4-126, 2024)
F Kaden Pitre<\/a> (Lightning, 6-181, 2024)
F Joel Ratkovic Berndtsson<\/a> (Sabres, 7-202, 2022)
F Santeri Sulku<\/a> (Flyers, 7-197, 2022)
D Albin Sundin<\/a> (Oilers, 6-183, 2024)
F Riku Tohila<\/a> (Blackhawks, 7-199, 2022)
G Jakub Vondras<\/a> (Hurricanes, 6-171, 2022)<\/p>\n

* Originally drafted by the New Jersey Devils; traded to the Penguins in March 2025.\u00a0
** Originally drafted by the New Jersey Devils; traded to the Oilers in March 2025.
*** Originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks; traded to the Hurricanes in January 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to PuckPedia, multiple prospects had their draft rights expire at the deadline today, meaning they\u2019ll re-enter the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[70496,344947,344948,64,63,6581,7525,3615,7520,3064,3275,344949,344950,344951,344952,344953,344954,344955,344956,344957,7523,344958,575,344959,344960,3065,4785,25176,344961,344962,344963,344964,85,4788,2370,7528],"class_list":["post-709365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-albin-sundin","tag-ales-cech","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-buffalo-sabres","tag-calgary-flames","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-detroit-red-wings","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-gustav-karlsson","tag-hunter-laing","tag-jakub-vondras","tag-joel-ratkovic-berndtsson","tag-kaden-pitre","tag-kasper-kulonummi","tag-landon-miller","tag-max-graham","tag-maximilian-kilpinen","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nathan-mayes","tag-nhl","tag-nils-juntorp","tag-petr-hauser","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-prospects","tag-riku-tohila","tag-ryerson-leenders","tag-santeri-sulku","tag-simon-forsmark","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-utah-mammoth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709365","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=709365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}