It’s hard to recall a restricted free agency landscape that has been as loaded with talent as this summer’s looks to be. There’s been a changing of the guard in recent NHL seasons with youth taking the league by storm, and now it’s time for those kids to get paid.



Teams have always had most of the leverage when it came to restricted free agency, but that’s beginning to change and this summer could see an even larger shift toward player power with the talent set to hit the market. There’s an argument to be made that those players will deserve even more than they’re getting.



According to Evolving Hockey’s contract projection model, this summer’s crop of restricted free agents features 12 players (eight forwards, four defencemen) projected to earn a cap hit north of $6.5 million with some of those players making a strong case for eight figures per season.



Those are big dollar amounts, especially this early in...