Van Riemsdyk in holding pattern with Tavares undecided Upwards of eight teams remain in the mix for the high-scoring winger with the Free Agent Frenzy just 48 hours away, Frank Seravalli writes.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

The top two players on TSN’s Top 75 Free Agents list are inextricably linked.

JvR is waiting for J.T.

Several of the six teams courting John Tavares also have offers ready for James van Riemsdyk, which has seemingly put van Riemsdyk in a bit of a holding pattern with the Free Agent Frenzy just 48 hours away.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are not one of those teams. There has been limited contact between the Leafs and van Riemsdyk’s camp, which all but signals the end of the JvR era in Toronto.

More than 12 teams have engaged with van Riemsdyk since the free agent interview period opened on Sunday. Interestingly, the list grew over the course of this week, including after Rick Nash notified teams he would not be participating in the July 1 sweepstakes.

Upwards of eight teams remained in the mix as of Friday afternoon.

Van Riemsdyk, 29, is the clear cut No. 2 free agent on the board this summer – the premier scoring winger available coming off a 36-goal season. He has averaged 31 goals over his last four full seasons.

For Van Riemsdyk, like Tavares, it is not solely about dollars. Van Riemsdyk is also focused on overall fit in the lineup, intended deployment, potential to win, facilities and training and recovery methods.

Van Riemsdyk is quietly and carefully considering his options, deliberately out of the spotlight as he works through the process. Once the Tavares domino falls, he could quickly find clarity on his situation.

Here is TSN Hockey’s latest Top 75 Free Agents available ahead of Canada Day:



Top 75 RK Player Team Pos Age GP G PTS 17-18 1 John Tavares NYI C 27 82 37 84 $5.5M 2 James van Riemsdyk TOR LW 29 81 36 54 $4.25M 3 Paul Stastny WPG C 32 82 16 53 $7M 4 James Neal VGK LW 30 71 25 44 $5M 5 Mike Green DET RD 32 66 8 33 $6M 6 Tyler Bozak TOR C 32 81 11 43 $4.2M 7 David Perron VGK RW 30 70 16 66 $3.75M 8 Jack Johnson CBJ LD 31 77 3 11 $4.36M 9 Carter Hutton STL G 32 32 2.09 .931 $1.13M 10 Calvin De Haan NYI LD 27 33 1 12 $3.3M 11 Thomas Vanek CBJ LW 34 80 24 56 $2M 12 Patrick Maroon NJD LW 30 74 17 43 $2M 13 Ian Cole CBJ LD 29 67 5 20 $2.1M 14 John Moore NJD LD 27 81 7 18 $1.67M 15 Jonathan Bernier COL G 29 37 2.85 .913 $2.75M 16 Riley Nash BOS C 29 76 15 41 $900K 17 Derek Ryan CAR C 31 80 15 38 $1.43M 18 Brooks Orpik COL LD 37 81 0 10 $5.5M 19 Anthony Duclair CHI LW 22 56 11 23 $1.2M 20 Michael Grabner NJD RW 30 70 27 36 $1.65M 21 Tobias Rieder LAK LW 25 68 12 25 $2.25M 22 Greg Pateryn DAL RD 27 73 1 13 $800K 23 Tomas Plekanec TOR C 35 77 6 26 $6M 24 Robin Lehner BUF G 26 53 3.01 .908 $2.25M 25 Jay Beagle WSH C 32 79 7 22 $1.75M 26 Leo Komarov TOR LW 31 74 7 19 $2.95M 27 Kyle Brodziak STL C 34 81 10 33 $950K 28 Valtteri Filppula PHI C 34 80 11 33 $5M 29 Dan Hamhuis DAL LD 35 80 3 24 $3.75M 30 Matt Calvert CBJ LW 28 69 9 24 $2.8M 31 Anton Khudobin BOS G 32 31 2.56 .913 $1.2M 32 Petr Mrazek PHI G 26 39 3.03 .902 $4M 33 Blake Comeau COL RW 32 79 13 34 $2.4M 34 Thomas Hickey NYI LD 29 69 5 25 $2.2M 35 Chris Kunitz TBL LW 38 82 13 29 $2M 36 Mark Letestu CBJ C 33 80 9 23 $1.8M 37 Scott Hartnell NSH LW 36 62 13 24 $1M 38 Ryan Reaves VGK RW 31 79 4 10 $1.13M 39 Nail Yakupov COL LW 24 58 9 16 $875K 40 Brian Gibbons NJD C 30 59 12 26 $650K 41 Tim Schaller BOS LW/C 27 82 12 22 $775K 42 Toby Enstrom WPG LD 33 43 1 6 $5.75M 43 Luca Sbisa VGK RD 28 30 2 14 $3.6M 44 Dylan DeMelo SJS RD 25 63 0 20 $650K 45 Andrej Sustr TBL RD 27 43 2 7 $1.95M 46 Nick Holden BOS RD 31 73 4 17 $1.65M 47 Xavier Ouellet DET LD 24 45 0 7 $1.25M 48 Brandon Manning PHI LD 27 65 7 19 $975K 49 Brandon Davidson NYI LD 26 51 4 7 $1.43M 50 Christian Folin LAK RD 27 65 3 13 $850K 51 Kari Lehtonen DAL G 34 37 2.56 .912 $5.9M 52 Antoine Vermette ANA C 35 64 8 16 $1.75M 53 Brad Richardson ARI RW 33 76 3 15 $2.08M 54 Antoine Roussel DAL LW 28 73 5 17 $2M 55 Derek Grant ANA C 28 66 12 24 $650K 56 Eric Fehr SJS C 32 18 3 4 $2M 57 Jaroslav Halak NYI G 33 54 3.19 .908 $4.5M 58 Ondrej Pavelec NYR G 30 19 3.05 .910 $1.3M 59 Alexei Emelin NSH LD 32 75 1 9 $4M 60 Cam Ward CAR G 34 43 2.73 .906 $3.3M 61 Nick Shore CGY RW 25 64 5 18 $925K 62 Matt Read PHI RW 31 33 7 16 $3.63M 63 Roman Polak TOR RD 32 53 2 12 $1.1M 64 Kris Versteeg CGY RW 32 24 3 8 $1.75M 65 Daniel Winnik MIN LW/C 33 81 6 23 $660K 66 Michael Hutchinson WPG G 28 3 3.26 .907 $1.15M 67 Matt Hendricks MIN LW 37 60 5 13 $700K 68 Scottie Upshall STL LW 34 63 7 19 $800K 69 Luke Schenn ARI RD 28 64 1 7 $1.25M 70 Daniel Carr MTL LW 26 38 6 16 $725K 71 Chris Wagner NYI C 27 79 7 16 $637K 72 Tommy Wingels BOS RW 30 75 9 17 $750K 73 Logan Shaw MTL C 25 72 4 14 $650K 74 Fredrik Claesson OTT LD 25 63 1 7 $650K 75 Shane Prince NYI LW 25 14 1 2 $850K

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli