Top unsigned UFA's are revealed but now have only two preseason games to make their case

The professional tryout is the standard August answer for veterans without a deal. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, that answer buys far less than it used to.

Daily Faceoff's remaining UFA board still lists Laine, Tarasenko, Michael Bunting, Logan Stanley and Eeli Tolvanen. Every one of them has cleared 100 career NHL games.

That number is now a hard ceiling.

Beginning in 2026-27, players with 100 or more career games are capped at two preseason appearances.

The old format allowed as many as eight exhibition games, which left room for a tryout forward to build a case over several nights.

That room is now two games, and the cap applies to every veteran on that board.

Teams cut the preseason to four games per club as part of the move to an 84-game schedule.

Training camp shrinks to 13 days, and the season opens in late September rather than October.

Laine has not played since October 16, 2025, following core-muscle surgery. Clubs wanting proof of his health will get two exhibition looks to find it, no matter how many games the team schedules.

Tarasenko does not have a health question. He posted 23 goals and 47 points in 75 games with the Minnesota Wild last season, then five points in 11 playoff games.

His delay is about price and term, not proof, so the shortened runway costs him less.

It costs Bunting, Stanley and Tolvanen far more, because depth players win jobs in exhibition minutes that no longer exist.

August signings have always moved slowly. The calendar behind them has never been this compressed.

The practical deadline is not the opening of training camp.

It is roughly two games inside it.

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