1 Hot Take About Every NHL Playoff Team
Every year, there are 16 teams that qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they are not all on the same level.
Some are legitimate championship contenders.
Some are pretenders that badly disappoint.
Some mediocre teams sneak in because somebody has to fill that seventh or eighth spot, get exposed and then fall flat on its face.
All of those teams can generate some sort of scorching hot take or analysis. So let's take a team-by-team stroll around the 16-team playoff field (including the teams already eliminated) and deliver one scorching hot take on all of them.
It is also worth keeping in mind that hot takes are not always bad. They can drift toward the positive.
Boston Bruins: Their Goalies Are a Little Overrated
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Before I get bombarded with an avalanche of crumpled Dunkin' cups from our friends in New England, allow me to explain. Overrated does not necessarily mean bad.
In this case, it 100 percent does not mean bad.
The goalie duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman is outstanding and a key part of a team that won an NHL-record 65 games during the regular season and is a favorite to win the Stanley Cup.
But good players can still be a little overrated. And that qualifies here.
Boston's defense is so dominant that it greatly shelters both the quality and quantity of shots its goalies have to face. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm have quite an impact. The Bruins were in the bottom half of the league in shots allowed this season, which certainly makes things easier for any netminder.
Ullmark is probably going to win the Vezina Trophy because of his win total (40-6-1), goals-against average (1.89) and his overall numbers. But what would his numbers look like playing behind the New York Islanders or Winnipeg Jets defense? Or conversely, what would Ilya Sorokin or Connor Hellebuyck do behind the Bruins defense?
If you recognize Ullmark and Swayman as excellent goalies behind a great defense, that is fair.
If you think Ullmark is a slam-dunk Vezina winner or that these two are the best goalies in the league? Well, you are probably overrating them.
Carolina Hurricanes: They Play Boring Hockey
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We need to address this when it comes to the Carolina Hurricanes.
They have built one of the league's best teams, and when you look at their roster, there are a lot of outstanding players, especially when everyone is healthy (they aren't at the moment).
They win a lot of games, they are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender and they are not going away anytime soon.
But do you enjoy watching them play if you are not a Hurricanes fan?
Andrei Svechnikov will drop the occasional lacrosse-style goal on an unsuspecting goalie (which is awesome), but this team's recipe has been to play suffocating defense and throw as many shots at the net as it can from every possible direction and capitalize on rebounds and deflections.
I am not here to question that process. Their record over the past couple of years speaks for itself, and that is the only thing that matters.
It just kind of stinks to watch if you are a neutral fan. Especially with Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty injured and out of the lineup.
Colorado Avalanche: Cale Makar Is Already Better Than Nathan MacKinnon
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Maybe you consider this a lukewarm take or perhaps even a cold take.
But when you think of the Colorado Avalanche, Nathan MacKinnon is probably the first player who comes to mind. And he is almost universally regarded as the engine that drives the Avalanche.
He is one of them, and he is certainly one of the best players in the league. But the true engine that drives the Avalanche is Cale Makar.
He is not only the best defenseman in hockey, but he is also already the best player on the team.
That is not meant as any disrespect to MacKinnon but rather a testament to just how special and dominant Makar is. We are talking about a generational talent. Somebody who has the potential to be one of the all-time greats and is already well on his way to that.
He has Erik Karlsson potential offensively while not having any weaknesses defensively. He has maintained at least a point-per-game average through his last three years in the league while also playing Norris-level defense, winning the award in 2021-22.
He gives the Avalanche the scoring punch of an All-Star forward and is someone who can lock down the other team's best player.
Colorado has been loaded with stars at forward, but the defense is what made it a championship team.
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Dallas Stars: Wyatt Johnston Is the Best Rookie in the NHL
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The Dallas Stars have become a powerhouse when it comes to developing young talent.
Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz and Jake Oettinger have come through their farm system in recent years, all turning into impact players who have become the foundation of one of the NHL's best teams.
As good as they all have been, none of them won the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year.
Wyatt Johnston is the next emerging star to come through their farm system, and he should get the Calder Trophy the aforementioned players missed out on.
For most of the season, Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers has been one of the front-runners, but Johnston has been the slightly better player even though his point total (41) has not matched that of Beniers (57).
So why the preference for Johnston?
It's all about usage and what they have done with their minutes.
Beniers has not only played nearly two additional minutes of ice time per game, but he has also spent most of his year on Seattle's top line and received significantly more power-play time. Johnston should not get punished because he plays on a better team with more established star power ahead of him on the depth chart.
Johnston has done a better job of creating shots and chances for himself during five-on-five play and a better job scoring goals. His 1.18 goals per 60 minutes during five-on-five play are not only tops among all rookies (minimum 500 minutes), but they are also in the top 40 of all NHL players.
Edmonton Oilers: Darnell Nurse Has One of the Worst Contracts in the League
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This is the classic case of liking the player but hating the contract.
Following Darnell Nurse's breakout performance during the 2020-21 season, the Oilers gave him a whopping eight-year contract that pays him more than $9 million per season and has a no-movement clause.
It is the seventh-largest cap hit in the league for a defenseman, and it is just too much for what the Oilers are getting.
And that is a problem given their roster construction.
The Oilers paid Nurse to be a No. 1 defenseman and were under the assumption he could do that after his strong 2020-21 performance. But they were basing that on what now seems to be an outlier performance that came in a pandemic-shortened 56-game campaign against only other Canadian franchises. It was never going to be an accurate representation of what Nurse could do on a consistent basis.
The Oilers need him to be their reliable, big-minute, big-moment defenseman who can impact the game in all three phases and in all three zones. And Nurse simply is not that player. He can score. He can provide some offense. But he has issues defensively and in his own zone, and they have been exposed at times this season and even in these playoffs.
The Oilers also do not have any real salary-cap flexibility given the investments they have made in Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of their core.
Add in the no-movement clause and the gigantic salary-cap number, and it is as close to an unmovable contract as you can find in the NHL.
If the Oilers were paying him $6 or 7 million per season, it would change the outlook of it and help ease their yearly salary-cap crunch.
Florida Panthers: Paul Maurice Was the Wrong Choice
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The Florida Panthers were able to salvage what looked to be a disastrous lost season by going on a late run to claim the eighth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Given that Florida won the Presidents' Trophy a year ago and was the best offensive team the league had seen in decades, it was a stunning regression—especially after the offseason trade for Matthew Tkachuk.
Some regression should have been expected because the Panthers did lose some serious talent from last year's team.
Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar were included in the deal for Tkachuk. Claude Giroux and Mason Marchment left in free agency. Anthony Duclair missed most of the season because of injury.
All of that added up.
But the Panthers also made the curious decision to turn the bench over to Paul Maurice despite his career-long resume of mediocre results.
In Maurice's 25 seasons as an NHL head coach, this was only the 10th time his team has made the playoffs. If Florida is unable to pull off a stunning upset against the Bruins in Game 7, it will be the 21st time in those 25 seasons that he has either not made the postseason or coached beyond the first round.
Some of that lack of success could be attributed to the rosters he has had to work with. But his Winnipeg teams consistently performed worse than expected, and this year's squad in Florida also fell way short of expectations.
Los Angeles Kings: Their Young Talent Has Become Overrated
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The Los Angeles Kings have rapidly rebuilt themselves into a championship contender, but it hasn't necessarily been through a traditional rebuilding method.
Yes, they stockpiled a lot of draft picks and had some promising drafts to give themselves a full cupboard of prospects.
But those prospects and young players are not the ones driving their climb back to contender status.
It's been veterans.
Veterans they have kept, and veterans they have acquired.
The Kings were supposed to have top picks like Quinton Byfield, Alex Turcotte and Arthur Kaliyev leading the way. It has not played out that way. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. I am by no means giving up on any of them as eventual impact players. Age is still on their side, and while the trio mentioned above has not yet matched expectations, others have emerged who have exceeded them (Sean Durzi, Gabriel Vilardi).
But of L.A.'s top 10 scorers this season, only three of them are under the age of 26 (Vilardi, Durzi, Blake Lizotte).
Three of their top five scorers (Kevin Fiala, Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault) are veterans who were acquired from outside of the organization over the past two years, while a fourth (Anze Kopitar) is a holdover from the previous championship era.
The Kings have built a heck of a team. But when it comes to their young talent, we need to pump the breaks on what they are and what they are capable of until they start showing more.
Minnesota Wild: No GM Did a Better Job This Season Than Bill Guerin
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The Minnesota Wild had every possible excuse in the book to disappoint this season, and the salary cap was at the top of the list.
The buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter wrecked the Wild's cap situation for the next three years, leaving them with more than $12 million in dead money on their books this season. It increases to more than $14 million in each of the next two campaigns.
That meant Minnesota was coming into this season with only $70 million to spend on players, a massive disadvantage compared to the rest of its competitors across the league.
General manager Bill Guerin not only managed to put together a roster that finished with 103 points, but he also created enough salary-cap flexibility for himself in-season that he was able to be a buyer at the trade deadline and bring in Gustav Nyquist, John Klingberg, Marcus Johansson and Oskar Sundqvist. All have made positive contributions.
Great goaltending certainly helped his season, but Guerin also gets some credit there for making one of the best trades of the offseason when he sent veteran Cam Talbot to the Ottawa Senators for Filip Gustavsson. That turned out to be one of the most impactful deals any team made, as Gustavsson emerged as one of the best goalies in the league, finishing with a .931 save percentage and taking the stop job away from Marc-André Fleury.
Guerin had a tough situation to work with, and he crushed it.
New Jersey Devils: Dougie Hamilton Was One of the Best Signings of the Past Decade
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Free agency is often a fool's paradise in the NHL as teams get into aggressive bidding wars for players that already played their best hockey for somebody else.
Teams tend to keep their stars from ever hitting the market, and any player that does end up on the open market is usually getting there for a reason. Most long-term deals end up resulting in a buyout, a retained salary trade or waivers—and a lot of regret.
There are exceptions to that, and Hamilton has been one of them. Perhaps the most significant exception.
The Devils signed Hamilton to a seven-year, $63 million contract in free agency prior to the 2021-22 season, and it has proved to be a franchise-altering move for the Devils.
Hamilton has always been one of the most productive and underappreciated defenders in the league, and he has helped turn the Devils into a bona fide Stanley Cup contender. He is a 20-goal scorer from the blue line this season, has always been an elite possession-driver, is better defensively than he oftentimes gets credit for and has given the Devils exactly what they needed at the top of their defense.
He is a perfect fit for the Devils' style of play and a great complement to their young forwards. And at 29 years old, he should still have several elite years ahead of him.
This is exactly the type of impact you want to see in a top free-agent signing, and few teams have been able to hit this sort of home run when they have tried it.
New York Islanders: The Goalie Is the Only Reason They Aren't a Lottery Team
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Ilya Sorokin should not only win the Vezina Trophy this season as the league's best goalie, but he should also get serious MVP consideration.
He might not have done enough to unseat Connor McDavid in that discussion, but being the runner-up would be a worthy finish. Because had it not been for Sorokin's play in goal, this Islanders team would not have even sniffed the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Islanders are a bad offensive team (23rd in the league in goals scored), and while they have a reputation for being a great defensive team, that is all smoke and mirrors driven by their goalies being able to mask their many flaws.
Among the 16 playoff teams, the Islanders were dead last by allowing 2.74 expected goals per 60 minutes of five-on-five play this season and only 23rd in the entire NHL (via Natural Stat Trick).
Usually a bad offense and bad defensive play will result in a terrible team that is hoping for draft lottery balls to go its way. But every once in a while there is a special goalie that is able to drag that team to the fringes of the playoffs and make it look better than it appears.
Sorokin is one of those goalies, and he is the only reason the Islanders even had a chance to make the playoffs this season.
New York Rangers: Gerard Gallant Isn't the Answer
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The New York Rangers have their share of flaws.
They do not always defend well. They have some issues when it comes to their five-on-five play and their depth scoring. They made some trades at the deadline that looked good on paper but may not have translated well to the ice.
But the head coach is also a pretty big problem, and Gerard Gallant may not be the guy to help get the Rangers back to the Stanley Cup Final.
The biggest issue with Gallant is that his answer to everything seems to simply be "play harder."
More grit. More physical play. Hit more people. More jam. Just play harder.
Over the course of an 82-game regular season when advance scouting and team preparation isn't as intense and detailed as it is during the playoffs, that might work out.
The Rangers can rely on their talent and goaltending to get them through games and stack up wins.
But when you get to a best-of-seven series and opposing coaches can break your team's structure down and find your flaws, your coach has to be able to do more than just go back to the "grit" well.
You need to have a tactical advantage, and Gallant always seems to fall short here. And it is happening against the New Jersey Devils this postseason in which Lindy Ruff is badly out-coaching him. The Devils' defensive zone structure seems better, their breakouts are crisper and cleaner, their neutral-zone play has been better, and the Rangers have not had much of an answer for any of it. It is the same thing that happened at times in the playoffs a year ago.
As long as Igor Shesterkin is the best goalie on the ice, the Rangers can get away with it. But the second he stops stopping pucks at an elite rate, everything falls apart for the Rangers.
Seattle Kraken: They're the Best Team in the West (Outside of Goaltending)
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The Kraken might not have a true superstar, but their scoring depth is as deep and balanced as any team in the NHL. They have six 20-goal scorers and 11 players with at least 14 goals, and that is even with André Burakovsky missing 33 games and falling just short of that mark. Every line is capable of beating you at any given time.
Their underlying numbers are also very strong, especially defensively where they allow just 2.41 expected goals per 60 minutes of five-on-five play, the third-best mark in the NHL behind only Carolina and Los Angeles.
They can score and defend as well as anybody.
The one big question mark is the one question mark nobody wants to have in the playoffs.
Goaltending.
And if it comes back to burn them in the playoffs, it might be a huge "what if" that they can ask themselves in the offseason.
While Philipp Grubauer has had a strong start in the first round against Colorado, none of Seattle's goalies finished with a save percentage higher than .900 during the regular season. It has been the team's biggest issue during its first two years in the league, and it remains a significant question mark now, even as the Kraken compete in the playoffs.
When Seattle first entered the league at the start of the 2021-22 season, it made a significant investment in the position, paying Grubauer and Chris Driedger more than $9 million per season combined on long-term deals. Add in the free-agent signing of Martin Jones, and Seattle is paying its goalies $11.4 million against the cap this season, the second-highest total in the league (behind only Florida).
The Kraken have not gotten their money's worth on that investment.
Tampa Bay Lightning: They Outsmarted Themselves at the Trade Deadline
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The Lightning have been the most successful organization in hockey over the past eight years. They have been in six conference finals, including three straight Stanley Cup Finals, and they always seem to manage the salary-cap situation better than anybody.
They also have a knack for making the perfect trade at the deadline to give them a boost.
But this year they finally outsmarted themselves and galaxy-brained the entire thing.
The Lightning have a type when it comes to what they look for at the deadline.
They tend to go for players in their mid-20s who are still under team control and signed for cheap salary-cap rates. They are not really interested in rentals, and they do not always have a lot of salary-cap space to work with.
Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow and Brandon Hagel have been smashing successes that have given them multiple years of quality play. All of them were worth the hefty prices they paid.
They tried to find another player in that mold this season with Tanner Jeannot, and it has not worked out. The Lightning sent shockwaves through the league when they sent Cal Foote and five future draft picks to Nashville for Jeannot, despite the fact he had only scored five goals on the season.
They felt strongly enough that his style of play would fit in with their roster and that his goal-scoring touch would return. It has not. Before leaving their first-round series with Toronto due to injury, he had scored just one goal in 23 games with the Lightning and had been a complete non-factor.
The issue was not Tampa Bay trading all of the assets. The future draft picks are almost irrelevant for a team in win-now mode. The issue is the Lightning identified the wrong player.
They outsmarted themselves and maybe missed a chance to add a better player that could have helped more this season.
Toronto Maple Leafs: William Nylander Is One of the Best Bargains in Hockey
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You could power a large city with the energy that comes from Toronto Maple Leafs hot takes, and I am going to throw another log onto that fire with this one.
Unlike most Maple Leafs hot takes, it won't be negative.
The Maple Leafs' core is a focal point given the money they cost and the lack of playoff success they have found. But all of that has kind of allowed William Nylander to become not only one of the most underappreciated players in the league, but also one of the biggest bargains.
That is especially true this season.
The offensive aspect to Nylander's game has always been there, but over the past couple of years he has also shown significant improvement away from the puck and become a true all-around player without losing any of the offense that has made him such a key building block for the Maple Leafs.
All of that is great.
But it is even better for the Maple Leafs when you consider he only counts $6.96 million against the salary cap through the end of next season.
That salary-cap hit places him 86th in the NHL this season.
He is already 93rd for next season and will probably go down into the 100s after free agency.
There are not 100 players in the NHL better than Nylander right now. There might not even be 50. To get an all-around player with his production at that price is remarkable value for the Maple Leafs. If they fail to win again this season and decide to make changes, those changes should not involve him because they will not find a better player for a better price.
Vegas Golden Knights: They Need More Out of Jack Eichel
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It is always picking at low-hanging fruit to point at a team's best player and say, "Do more!"
It is almost always lazy.
In this instance, there is something to it with Eichel and the Golden Knights.
This is not to say that Jack Eichel has been bad for Vegas. He has been perfectly fine, and when healthy he has been very productive. And three goals and two assists in the Round 1 win over the Jets is nothing to sneeze at.
But if the Golden Knights are going to become a Stanley Cup-winning team, they are going to need him to reach another level. Especially given the price they paid to acquire him (Alex Tuch and Peyton Krebs) and the contract they took on.
He is capable of reaching it, and he has shown flashes of it throughout his career. But he is not quite at that level right now.
In his first year-and-a-half with the Golden Knights he has 41 goals and 91 total points in 101 games. That comes out to around 33 goals and 73 points per 82 games. It is solid first-line production. But the Golden Knights are paying him to be a superstar. And a franchise-changer. And so far he has been outproduced by one of the players (Tuch) that they traded for him.
Eichel's health has played a role in that, but his health was also part of the risk in Vegas' trade for him.
The Golden Knights gambled that he would not only be healthy, but that he would give them elite production. He has the ability to get there, and there is plenty of time on his contract for him to reach that in Vegas. But if this is the best they are going to get from him, that trade might end up being a disappointment.
Winnipeg Jets: The General Manager Is the Problem
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When the Winnipeg Jets were eliminated from the playoffs on Thursday night, head coach Rick Bowness sounded as angry and fed up as any coach you will ever hear following a season-ending loss.
He skipped all of the "I appreciate the effort, just didn't get the result" cliches you usually hear from coaches in that setting and immediately sounded off on his team's effort. Or lack of it. He said he was disgusted and pointed out the lack of pushback that he had seen from his team since January and February.
He was livid.
He was also not wrong.
And while that is a poor reflection on his players for not playing better in a must-win game, and maybe even a poor reflection on him for not doing a better job to get his team ready to play, it is an even poorer reflection on general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff for not doing anything to meaningfully change the construction of the roster year in and year out.
Cheveldayoff has been in charge of the Jets since their relocation to Winnipeg more than a decade ago, and during that time he has been one of the least aggressive general managers in the league.
He makes fewer trades than most general managers. The Jets rarely dip into free agency. They have maintained the exact same core that has not won anything and badly underachieved. He keeps doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result, and the different result never arrives.
At some point the Jets need to recognize this from an ownership perspective and bring in somebody that can actively try to fix a stale franchise.
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