Ah the summer break. Kids home from school, birds whistling in the trees and of course the incessant RFA and UFA signing notifications. What a time.
Though the wild time has mostly passed, and the dust has begun to settle, there are still a handful of unsigned RFAs. Some of the biggest names without a contract include former OHL stars.
With Quinton Byfield signing a five-year $6.25 million contract yesterday, here are five more RFAs with OHL backgrounds.
Cole Perfetti - Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets forward is definitely the biggest name on this list. Selected tenth overall by the Jets in the 2020 draft Perfetti quickly established that he could succeed in the AHL. In 49 AHL games he scored 41 points.
We are still however waiting for him to truly break out at the NHL level. He has failed to break the 40-point threshold for two straight seasons.
Perfetti spent two seasons with the Saginaw Spirit playing in the OHL. The Whitby native scored a staggering 185 points for the Spirit in 124 games played. That's nearly 1.5 points per gamed. Though his tenure in the league was short, he certainly made his mark.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen - Buffalo Sabers
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen played in a career high 54 games last season for Buffalo. He won 27 of those games while registering a .910 save percentage and a 2.57 goals against average.
There is no question that the 25-year-old goaltender performed creditably last season as the top goaltender in Buffalo.
During the 2018-19 season, Luukkonen played in 53 games for the Sudbury Wolves in what would be his sole OHL campaign. At the end of the season there was no doubt he was the top goalie in the league.
He took home both the Goalie of the Year trophy and the OHL's Most Outstanding Player or Red Tilson Award.
Thomas Harley - Dallas Stars
Though the Stars fell to the Oilers in the Western Conference Finals, they did appear to find a promising young defender in Thomas Harley.
The Syracuse native played in 79 games for the Stars this season while scoring 15 goals and recording 47 points.
At 6-foot-3 Harley is a big defender who skates very well. His edges and straight away speed make him very difficult to beat defensively, while also allowing him to maneuver the puck out of dangerous situations and carry it up ice.
Harley spent three seasons with the Mississauga Steelheads in the OHL. The offensive defenseman put up an impressive 130 points in 189 games. The switch seems to have flipped during his sophomore season when he scored 58 points in 68 games.
Arthur Kaliyev - LA Kings
With Byfield's contract sorted, Kaliyev may be the next young player that the LA Kings look to sign.
In three seasons with LA Kaliyev has not managed to surpass 30 points during a single campaign. Similar to his time in the OHL, he has had fairly even totals in terms of goals and assists.
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Over the course of three seasons with the Hamilton Bulldogs, Kaliyev was a prolific goal scorer. He scored 126 total goals which works out to an average of 42 goals per season. During the 2018-19 season, Kaliyev had 51 goals and 51 assists in only 67 games.
During his rookie season, he won an OHL championship with Hamilton.
Nick Robertson - Toronto Maple Leafs
Nick Robertson's path to the NHL since leaving the Peterborough Petes has not been easy. His time with the Marlies has been hampered by injuries as well as the difficulty of breaking into a strong Maple Leafs roster. It is widely known that he has asked for a trade.
This season he scored 27 points in 56 games as a member of the Maple Leafs setting career highs in games played, goals and assists at the NHL level.
Robertson made the most of his three years in Peterborough. Each season he improved his scoring totals by leaps and bounds moving from 33 points during his rookie to an eventual 86 point in 46 points during his final year. At the end of his OHL tenure Robertson beat the point per game bench mark scoring 174 points in 162 games.