June is an incredibly busy month for the NHL, but that doesn't mean we can't look ahead to what's coming. Free agency begins at 12 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 1, and we're ranking the top 80 unrestricted free agents ahead of the madness.

Here are the unrestricted free agents ranked from No. 40 down to No. 31:

40. Keith Kinkaid (G)

Age on Oct. 1: 28
2016-17 Cap Hit: $725,000

Kinkaid has started 43 games over the past two seasons in relief of the New Jersey Devils' Cory Schneider. The 28-year-old is on a trajectory to be a high-end career backup. He likely can't handle a full workload, but he's a quality stopgap for a rebuilding team and is capable of handling the lighter end of a timeshare.

39. Trevor Daley (D)

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Age on Oct. 1: 33
2016-17 Cap Hit: $3.3M

No one benefited more from the plethora of injuries to the Pittsburgh Penguins' defense corps during the postseason than Daley. He averaged 19:16 of ice time over 19 games, and has shown he's still capable of a top-four role. He's a quality depth defender on a hopeful contender.

38. Jarome Iginla (F)

Age on Oct. 1: 40
2016-17 Cap Hit: $5.333M

Welp. The soon-to-be 40-year-old has announced his intentions to continue his career, seemingly oblivious to his vastly deteriorated play. After 15-and-a-half seasons with the Calgary Flames, Iginla has now played for four teams in the five years since. He'll want to continue chasing his elusive Stanley Cup ring, but he can't offer much to any true contender.

37. Steve Mason (G)

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Age on Oct. 1: 29
2016-17 Cap Hit: $4.1M

Mason remains stuck in the purgatory between being a solid starter and nothing more than a backup. His save percentage dropped for the second consecutive season, after peaking at .928 in 2014-15. Teams will want to find a safer bet in net.

36. Daniel Winnik (F)

Age on Oct. 1: 32
2016-17 Cap Hit: $2.25M

All contending teams will be anxiously watching to see who signs Winnik to a one-year contract so they can prepare the paperwork for the eventual trade offer of a third-round pick. He scored a career-high 12 goals last season and offers some bottom-six depth.

35. Patrick Sharp (F)

Age on Oct. 1: 35
2016-17 Cap Hit: $5.9M

Sharp has entered the phase of his career where he's the experienced veteran sought after by rebuilding teams looking to miss the playoffs by a single spot. He scored just eight goals in 48 games last season, but he did win three Stanley Cups this decade.

34. Brian Campbell (D)

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Age on Oct. 1: 38
2016-17 Cap Hit: $1.5M

Quite possibly the most likely to retire of anyone on this list, Campbell missed two games this past season, his first absences since playing just 65 games in the 2010-11 season. His 17 points were his fewest ever in a full season. Contenders will come calling for his experience, and he still has something to offer as a depth defenseman, but he's no longer a minutes-eater.

33. Anders Nilsson (G)

Age on Oct. 1: 27
2016-17 Cap Hit: $1M

Nilsson has 67 career starts on his resume, posting a .908 save percentage along the way. He's one of the top available backup 'tenders, but he won't receive a starting opportunity. Toss him onto the goalie carousel.

32. Cody Franson (D)

Age on Oct. 1: 30
2016-17 Cap Hit: $3.325M

Franson is now two years removed from his streak of three consecutive 30-point campaigns. He makes for a good bottom-pairing defenseman, another abundant resource in this year's free-agent class.

31. Mike Fisher (F)

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Age on Oct. 1: 38
2016-17 Cap Hit: $4.4M

The Nashville Predators' Cup run has entrenched Fisher in the city's royalty. He'll no longer be just Mr. Carrie Underwood. He'll ride off into the sunset one way or another, either via retirement or on a fair lifelong contract to wear the Predators' "C."

Free Agent Rankings

• 80-66
• 65-51
• 50-41

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Warning: Video contains coarse language

They don't like Mike Milbury in Nashville, that's for sure.

The NBC hockey analyst was given what's known as "the business" by a Predators fan after the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup on Sunday night, and said business was captured gloriously on live television.

In May, Milbury called P.K. Subban a "clown" after the defenseman prepared for a playoff date against the St. Louis Blues with a little dance before the game. The folks in Smashville haven't forgotten, and won't forget.

Milbury regretted his choice of words, but maintained that he thought Subban's antics were a distraction to his club.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

P.K. Subban's dental habits were the furthest thing from his mind after the Stanley Cup officially slipped from his team's grasp Sunday.

Following one of the weirder storylines of the final - in which Subban accused Sidney Crosby of saying the Nashville Predators defenseman had bad breath - Subban was asked about, well, all of that, after the Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 6 to make it back-to-back championships.

"I mean, I don't think that's the right question right now," Subban said, according to The Tennessean's Jaime Cardenas, after he was asked for his thoughts on mouthwash and his back-and-forth battle with No. 87.

The unidentified reporter pressed on despite Subban's answer, but P.K. then put an end to the query.

"My opinion is we just (lost) and we're out of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And I just watched 22 guys lift the Stanley Cup," Subban said. "So, if you want to ask me about that I'll give you my opinion but the series is over."

Remember to floss, friends.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

You have to pay the price to win the Stanley Cup. Ask the Pittsburgh Penguins.

In the aftermath of the black and gold being crowned champs in back-to-back seasons, we're learning how beat up the squad that dispatched the Nashville Predators in six games truly was.

Defenseman Ian Cole, a key member of the unheralded Pittsburgh defense, played most of the postseason hurt.

Hockey players, right?

Cole played 17:43 in Sunday's deciding game, including 3:50 shorthanded. Dude's a gamer, clearly. He finished the playoffs with nine assists in 25 games, averaging 18:50 in ice time.

The Penguins played a lot of hockey this spring, needed seven games in rounds two and three to advance to the Cup Final.

That awesome NHL commercial is right, in other words: Every letter is earned on the Stanley Cup. Including "C-o-l-e."

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Pekka Rinne knows the chance may never come again.

"I was treating this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," the Nashville Predators goaltender said following the 2-0 defeat that clinched a second straight Stanley Cup championship for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

"You never know when you're going to get another opportunity," Rinne added. "The only thing I was thinking about was that Cup and dreaming about that and playing for that. Right now, it's tough to accept and tough to handle. But I'm really proud of this team and the way we played, the way we handled things when we faced some adversity throughout the series."

Rinne faced that adversity personally, struggling mightily in Pittsburgh during the series and allowing Patric Hornqvist to bank in the eventual Cup-winning goal from beside the net with less than two minutes left in Game 6.

The 34-year-old netminder had a strong postseason as a whole, posting a 1.96 GAA, a .930 save percentage, and a pair of shutouts, but he was pulled from Games 2 and 5 of the Cup Final and finished with an .888 save percentage over six contests in the series.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The players weren't the only ones building legacies Sunday night.

Mike Sullivan became the first American-born head coach in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup more than once when his Pittsburgh Penguins clinched their second straight championship with a Game 6 victory over the Nashville Predators.

The 2017 Stanley Cup Final featured two American-born head coaches for the first time ever, and Predators bench boss Peter Laviolette became only the fourth NHL head coach in history to take three different teams to the championship round.

Sullivan, who hails from Marshfield, Mass., was hired by the Penguins to replace the fired Mike Johnston in December 2015.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's official: Bob Boughner is the new head coach of the Florida Panthers.

The club announced the hiring of the former San Jose Sharks assistant Monday in a move that was originally reported over the weekend.

Boughner spent two seasons with the Sharks under Peter DeBoer, helping San Jose reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2016.

He won two Memorial Cup championships as head coach of the OHL's Windsor Spitfires in 2009 and 2010, and served as an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010-11.

The Panthers fired Gerard Gallant in November, and then-general manager Tom Rowe stepped behind the bench for the rest of the campaign, but it was decided he would not continue as the head coach at season's end.

It's no secret that Florida is one of the more analytically driven clubs in the NHL, and Dale Tallon, who reassumed the Panthers' GM position in May, confirmed Boughner's hiring aligns with the team's progressive approach.

"He sees the game in a modern way and is eager to work with our young players," Tallon said in a statement Monday. "During the interview process, Bob blew us away with his preparation, his passion, knowledge and dedication to the game. We believe that he is the right leader to get our team back to competing towards our goal of winning the Stanley Cup."

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Patric Hornqvist was playing with a broken finger when he scored with less than two minutes left in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday night, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

The Pittsburgh Penguins forward banked the puck off Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne with 1:35 remaining to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead, and Pittsburgh held on for a 2-0 victory to clinch its second consecutive championship.

Hornqvist missed six of the Penguins' 25 playoff games this spring, but still managed to notch five goals and nine points in the postseason.

Copyright © 2017 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.