The KHL Is Circling NHL Free Agents, and Toronto's PTO Board Is Shrinking

The NHL free agents left in August are starting to look elsewhere

The list of unsigned NHL free agents in August 2026 has stopped shrinking through signings and started shrinking through departures. Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL has reportedly shown interest in Evander Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko and Evgenii Dadonov — three forwards with more than 2,500 NHL games between them who, six weeks out from training camp, still do not have contracts. That is not a Russian league poaching stars. That is the bottom of the NHL market finding out what it is actually worth.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, this is not an idle curiosity. Toronto is projected roughly $2.75 million over the $104 million salary cap with a full 23-man roster, which means a professional tryout agreement is realistically the only mechanism left to add anyone before opening night. Every name that leaves the board is one fewer option on a board that was already thin.

The uncomfortable part: the players most likely to accept a Toronto PTO are also the players most likely to take a guaranteed KHL contract instead.

Who is actually still available

The August free-agent list still has recognizable names. Patrick Kane and Tarasenko remain unsigned. Patrik Laine is still on the market, a situation we examined when we argued Toronto should at least make the call. Jonathan Drouin, a left winger whose contract expired at the end of last season, is available and has drawn public suggestions from Leafs writers — Jon Steitzer at The Leafs Nation has urged Toronto to bring him to camp on a tryout.

Evander Kane is 35 and coming off a season that did not produce a July offer. Tarasenko has shown he can still score in stretches but has bounced through four organizations in three years. Dadonov is 37. These are not players any club builds around. They are players a club adds when it needs a specific thing cheaply, which is exactly Toronto's situation.

What the KHL offers them is certainty: a signed contract, a defined role, and money now. What an NHL PTO offers is a two-week audition with no guarantee at the end of it. For a 35-year-old, that is not a close call unless the NHL club can credibly promise a spot.

How a PTO actually works against Toronto's cap

A professional tryout costs nothing against the salary cap. A player on a PTO practises and plays preseason games without a contract, and the team carries no cap charge until it decides to sign him. That is why we described the PTO as the only meaningful move Chayka has left before camp.

The catch is the moment of conversion. To sign a PTO player, Toronto needs actual cap room, and today it has none. The route to room runs through Max Domi's long-term injured reserve placement — a $3.75 million cap hit that becomes relief if he opens the season unable to play. Chayka has said Domi is progressing and will report to camp without offering a timeline, which we covered in last week's carefully worded update.

So the sequence is awkward. Toronto cannot promise a PTO player a contract until it knows Domi's status, and it will not know Domi's status until camp. Meanwhile a KHL club can offer a signed deal today. Any veteran weighing those two options in August is being asked to bet on a Toronto injury report.

What the Maple Leafs actually need

A left winger who can play in the top nine. That is the honest gap.

Chayka spent the summer rebuilding the bottom of the lineup with defensive forwards — Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime, the group we assessed in our free-agency breakdown. That group will kill penalties and win puck battles. It will not score. Jack Roslovic is penciled into a top-six role that we have called the cheapest available answer rather than a good one. Behind Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares, the scoring depth thins out fast.

Drouin is the most logical fit on the remaining board precisely because he is not asking to be a saviour. He is a left-shot winger with genuine offensive touch and an injury history that has kept his price down. On a tryout, he costs nothing to look at. If he is finished, he goes home in late September and the Maple Leafs are exactly where they started.

Tarasenko is the higher-upside version of the same bet and the less likely one to accept a tryout. Patrick Kane, at this stage of his career, would want assurances Toronto cannot give.

Why the KHL market opening up matters beyond Toronto

There is a structural story here. The salary cap jumped to $104 million and is projected to keep climbing, but the money went to the top of rosters, not the bottom. Star extensions and second contracts have absorbed the increase, while the league's minimum salary sits at $850,000 and the fourth-line and seventh-defenceman market has effectively been squeezed.

That is why a group of players who were NHL regulars eighteen months ago is unsigned in August. It is not that the money disappeared. It is that it moved upward. When the middle of the market gets thin enough, the KHL, the SHL and the Swiss league become genuine competitors for players who would previously never have considered leaving.

For a capped-out team like Toronto, that has a specific consequence: the discount-veteran pool that clubs have used for a decade to patch holes is smaller than it used to be, and it empties earlier.

The case for doing nothing

There is a defensible argument that Chayka should let the board empty. Toronto has nearly 50 players under contract across the organization. Adding a 34-year-old on a tryout blocks a Marlies forward who has earned a look, a tension we wrote about when we noted that Chayka's depth signings have already crowded the pipeline. Easton Cowan needs minutes. Gavin McKenna needs a lineup spot that is not theoretical.

Camp is also short this year — 13 days, with a maximum of four preseason games. There is not much time to evaluate anybody, and a tryout body takes reps away from players the organization actually intends to keep.

The counter is simply that PTOs are free. You invite two, you keep zero or one, and the only cost is a few practice jerseys. In a season where Toronto's margin is thin enough that a bubble finish is the consensus projection, a free lottery ticket on a scoring winger is not a hard call.

What's next

Watch the next two weeks. Historically, PTO invitations get issued in late August and early September, once clubs have a clearer read on their own injuries. If Ak Bars or another KHL club converts interest into a contract for Kane, Tarasenko or Dadonov, the NHL board gets shorter and the remaining names get slightly more leverage.

The Maple Leafs' timeline is set by Domi. If he is not ready to open the season, Toronto gets its cap room and a real reason to invite someone. If he is closer than expected, the club is over the cap with a full roster and no move to make. Either way, camp opens in mid-September and the season starts September 29. Keep an eye on our contracts page for where the cap sheet lands.