Top 5 NHL Free Agents for 2020

By: Jim |

Last Updated: 10/23/2020 at 5:58 PM ET

The NHL season is not slated to start until January, but with the end of one season the free agent period starts. Now, this year is one that sees a lot of teams tightening their belts in the spending on the free agents. What this means is some teams are going to get a steal of a player for a low price, but also could get some potentially heavy back loaded contracts that would pay out years down the road. That still leads to the question as to who are the top 5 NHL free agents on the market right now?

Mike Hoffman

Okay, Hoffman is one player that is a great scorer and one that teams can easily rely on for a lot of potential goals. However, his defensive skills are sketchy at best and his puck handling skills are good, but not the top of the class either. With so many teams lacking in a true scoring forward, though, Hoffman could be one of the best options on the market.

Anthony Duclair

Yes, it is another season and already Anthony Duclair is looking for another team. Now, having already played for 5 teams in his career Duclair is definitely one player that has bounced around from team to team. However, it comes from the fact that Duclair is a player that commits too far forward to play good defensively.  The scoring from Duclair, though, can make up the difference for his defensive lapses but the team that does get Duclair needs to have a good goalie.

Carl Soderberg

A lot of hockey fans, unless they are from Arizona, are scratching their heads at this choice. However, this years class for the center position is very lacking. Soderberg is 35 years old and may only land a one year or at most two year contract, but he has been consistent in his play. Soderberg does not dominate in any one skill position, but at 6’3” and 210 pounds he is able to occupy quite a bit of space in front of the net to help shield the goalies vision on the incoming shots.

Josh Leivo

If teams are in the market for a player that has the potential to be really good, but has an injury plagued past then they should consider Josh Leivo. He has played consistent hockey and has shown flashes as being a good player. At the same time, though, his season last year was ended on a broken kneecap. That type of injury is one that can be recovered from, but it could take some time before he is able to fully recover from his injury and that could cast doubt on his future.

Mikael Granlund

With Granlund it is a shootout as to which one of the players a team will end up getting. Granlund has had some seasons that he has looked like he could rival some of the top rated players, but then he has had seasons that has led to teams starting to question if he was a good signing or if they should have looked at a different player to sign. All of that type of play could potentially hurt his potential contract as teams do not have a certain value that they would be getting in signing Granlund.

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