A bunch of potential NHL RFAs are becoming UFAs instead.

The deadline to tender qualifying offers to pending RFAs was 5 p.m. ET on June 29.

While Jason Robertson, Connor Bedard, Trevor Zegras and many more NHL stars were given qualifying offers, some teams decided to pass up their chance of keeping pending RFAs under team control and are letting them hit the open market.

There are numerous reasons why a team would not want to tender a qualifying offer to a pending RFA, but in most cases, it's because the qualifying offer is priced higher than what the player would receive on the open market.

Just because a player isn't tendered a qualifying offer doesn't mean that player can't return to that team. All it does is open the possibility that the player could sign with any of the other 31 NHL teams.

Here are five intriguing players who weren't tendered qualifying offers and are joining the pending UFA pool, with free agency opening on July 1.

Matias Maccelli's first season with the Toronto Maple Leafs was quite rocky.

The campaign started very poorly as the 25-year-old struggled to produce or to become acclimated to former coach Craig Berube's style.

He had a fairly long stint as a healthy scratch, missing a total of 11 games.

But midway through the season, when he returned to the lineup, Maccelli began to find his game again. He built some chemistry with players like William Nylander and John Tavares and also earned time on the top power-play unit. 

Ultimately, Maccelli finished the season with 14 goals and 39 points, decent middle-six production.

In the end, the Leafs' decision not to tender Maccelli a qualifying offer was due to the price tag. 

Maccelli's qualifying offer was set at $4.11 million, a number the Leafs and likely most teams around the NHL would be unwilling to pay.

Maccelli now becomes a UFA, but there remains a possibility that the Maple Leafs bring him back on a cheaper deal. 

Drafted 33rd overall by the Los Angeles Kings in 2019, Arthur Kaliyev has been unable to lock down an NHL role with any of the three teams he's played for. 

The 25-year-old spent this past season with the Ottawa Senators, where he played just two regular-season games. He spent the campaign in the AHL with the Belleville Senators, where he notched 40 goals and 68 points in 70 games.

Kaliyev possesses a lethal shot, but the other elements of his game have not improved. Kayliev is trending toward becoming a career all-star AHLer.

The New Jersey Devils acquired Paul Cotter and a third-round pick from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for goalie Akira Schmid and Alexander Holtz in 2024.

Cotter had a decent first season with the Devils in 2024-25, scoring 16 goals and 22 points in a bottom-six role. He brought speed and physicality to a Devils team that needed it.

But in 2025-26, Cotter's impact dwindled.

He finished the season with the same number of games played, 79, but recorded just nine goals and 15 points, fewer points than he had goals in 2024-25. 

The Devils need to make changes if they want to return to the playoffs next season, and keeping the underperforming players in their bottom six isn't the way to do so. Cotter should have no problem finding an NHL contract this off-season. 

Egor Zamula had an unusual 2025-26 campaign.

He started the season with the Philadelphia Flyers, where he was fairly ineffective, recording just one point in 13 games while seeing a two-minute decrease in average ice time from the previous season.

The Flyers then placed Zamula on waivers and later dealt him to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination less than a week later.

Finally, he found a home in Columbus but was once again largely ineffective. In 20 games, he recorded two assists, five hits and 25 blocked shots, and his ice time fell to 12:27 per game. 

With a report of his return to the KHL, it's not too surprising to see the Blue Jackets let Zamula go.

Joe Veleno was once one of the most anticipated prospects to come out of Quebec, earning exceptional status in the QMJHL. But the hype that once followed him is long gone.

The Detroit Red Wings drafted Veleno 30th overall in 2018, and despite consistent opportunities, Veleno has never been able to take the next step. He's morphed into a fourth-line center, and this past season with the Montreal Canadiens was rather disappointing. 

Veleno scored just two goals and five points in 61 regular-season games and recorded just one assist in nine playoff games. At 26 years old, it's likely that Veleno has reached his ceiling in the NHL. 

Honorable mentions: Philipp Kurashev, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Philip Tomasino, John Beecher, Marc Gatcomb, Stanislav Svozil, Maxim Shabonov, Skyler Brind'Amour

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