NHL Roundtable: Offseason Winners and Losers

Phoenix Coyotes: When looking at the off season the biggest trade was made at the draft when the Phoenix Coyotes sent a 2nd round pick, Keith Ballard, and Nick Boynton to Florida for number 1 center Olli Jokinen. Olli bring in a presence that has not been in Phoenixsince their hey day. Adding prospects like Mikkel Boedker, Viktor Tikhonov, and Jared Staal to the pool will help the team in the future. Look for Turris, Boedker, and other highly touted prospects to crack the lineup. Adding Todd Fedoruk and Brian McGrattan will help protect the young kids while allowing Dan Carcillo to focus more on offense while adding Kurt Sauer and David Hale to the blue line will provide some needed depth and shutdown abilities.

New York Rangers: Overpayment? Yes. But the Rangers filled needs and finally realized they needed to go in a new direction. Letting Jagr go was a the best move made while adding Markus Naslund and Wade Redden will spark the offense. A trade that sent Tyutin and Backman to Columbusfor Zherdev and Fritsche is a huge steal for the Rangers. Re-signing Michal Rozsival andPaul Mara, along with adding Dmitri Kalinin vastly improves the Ranger defense. A good draft with steals such as Evgeny Grachev and Mitch Gaultonin later rounds, along with top pick Michael Del Zotto make this off season a very good one for the Rangers.

Detroit Red Wings: How could these guys not be winners. They win the Stanley Cup and then they go out and get top free agent Marian Hossa without losing other big names. They also add Ty Conklin to shore up the backup role. The Red Wings always draft well and this year was no different.

St. Louis Blues: The Blues may have been quiet in the free agency department but at the draft they got some very good players. Alex Pietrangelo leads the list along with Phillip McRae, Jake Allen, and Kristoffer Berglund. They will probably add top prospect TJ Oshieto the roster along with Chris Mason who was acquired from Nashville, giving them a goaltender to help push Manny Legace. Adding Andy Wozniewski will help bolster their defense. They didn't add big names but that doesn't mean anything. The draft is more important than free agency.

 Losers

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