6 NHL Teams That Could Look Completely Different Next Season
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
For the two teams still playing for the Stanley Cup, that is.
However, things are different for the league's other 30 representatives. General managers and other personnel types are busy in those NHL cities tinkering and toying with rosters to make them worthy of the Cup chase this time next year.
Some machinations will be more drastic than others, and the B/R hockey team took a look at the organizations most likely to make the most noticeable changes—thanks to age issues, draft opportunities, salary-cap constraints or other concerns.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
Boston Bruins
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What a difference two months make.
As the first week of April arrived, the Boston Bruins were ready to wrap up a historic regular season and enter the playoffs as the odds-on favorite to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Then came the Florida Panthers.
Losing a 3-1 lead to the upstarts from Sunrise was bad enough, but even worse is the prospect of the Bruins heading into 2023-24 looking significantly different.
If nothing else, having 10 free agents—eight unrestricted and two restricted—less than $5 million in projected cap space and a single pick in the first two rounds across the next three drafts will keep GM Don Sweeney up nights for the foreseeable future.
Trade-deadline arrivals Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Bertuzzi are probably goners after their short stays in New England, while the likes of Taylor Hall and his $6 million annual price tag could be available for interested takers to allow for the signing of RFA goalie Jeremy Swayman.
Word on the street these days is Vezina finalist Linus Ullmark could be dealt to open the job for Swayman and offload another $5 million salary.
And the doomsday scenario for long-term fans is the goodbyes that could be needed for veterans Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí, who could retire after 2,326 regular-season games in spoked-wheel sweaters.
Chicago Blackhawks
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On the flip side of the Bruins are the Chicago Blackhawks.
The league's Windy City representatives are coming off a third straight season without a playoff appearance and an eighth straight without a non-qualifying win since they last skated a lap with the Cup in 2015.
But you'll have to forgive fans, not to mention GM Kyle Davidson, if they can't contain their giddiness.
The Blackhawks were 30th overall in 2022-23 after winning just 26 of 82 games, but they skipped the line at the draft lottery, earned the first pick and will have the chance to add generational prospect Connor Bedard to the United Center fold come October.
The 17-year-old wunderkind—he'll turn 18 on July 17—became the first player in Canadian junior history to sweep its Player of the Year, Top Prospect and Top Scorer awards after scoring 71 goals and 143 points in 57 games for the WHL's Regina Pats, then adding 10 goals and 20 points in seven playoff games against Saskatoon.
The team sold $2.5 million in season-ticket plans in the first 90 minutes after they scored the first pick, according to Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times, including more than 500 new full-season plans.
Add the fact that they have 10 free agents and better than $40 million in cap space, and it's certain those new fans will see a substantially different product on the ice this fall.
Nashville Predators
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Don't let the familiar face of Barry Trotz fool you.
Just because the longtime Nashville coach is back in a new role as GM doesn't mean it'll be the same old Predators on the ice when the 2023-24 season gets underway.
Trotz's elevation to the corner office will become official on July 1 when he takes over for retiring GM David Poile.
Poile has been the team's GM since the Predators arrived to the NHL in 1998 and hired Trotz as its first coach, starting a partnership that lasted through 2014 and yielded 557 wins in 1,196 games alongside seven playoff trips.
Trotz's first game as GM will have him looking down to the bench at another new coach, Andrew Brunette, who was hired on May 31 and will return to the franchise for which he scored the first-ever goal and played 77 games in its inaugural 1998-99 season.
Nashville won 42 games and compiled 92 points in the regular season but missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014. The Predators have more than $15 million in cap space as they approach the new season, though their six free agents and the new regime will ensure a different vibe and look going forward.
"I won't be perfect," Trotz said. "I'm not a perfect coach, so don't expect a perfect general manager. But I think I have enough tools in my toolbox where I can be successful at this. It's no different than when I'm coaching. You surround yourself with really good people, and you have a chance to succeed all the time."
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Philadelphia Flyers
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It's mostly a good time to be a Philadelphia sports fan.
The NFL's Eagles played in the Super Bowl in February. The NBA's Sixers got within a game of their conference finals in May. And MLB's Phillies played in the World Series last fall and are expected to contend for a playoff spot against this season.
As far as hockey goes, though, not so much.
The Flyers finished 26th overall last season, haven't made the playoffs in the last three and were a second-round flameout in 2020 after reaching the tournament as a No. 1 seed.
So, it's no surprise that some major upheaval is underway.
Ex-players Danny Brière and Keith Jones were hired in May and will begin next season as the team's GM and president of hockey operations, respectively. It's a tall task for a pair of newbie executives with a franchise overdue for a rebuild and a fanbase thirsting to end a title drought that stretches back to 1975—before Briere was born and when Jones was six.
Philadelphia could have more than $13 million in cap space if Ryan Ellis and his $6.25 million salary head to long-term injured reserve and the wiggle room could propel the retooling process that was stopped and started under since-dismissed GM Chuck Fletcher.
Briere could also look to move veterans to get more financial flexibility. Kevin Hayes, Carter Hart and Tony DeAngelo have been some of the names that have been rumored to be on the move in the summer.
"This team needs to be built from the footers, foundation," coach John Tortorella said. "I love the opportunity we have here to build something from the ground up. If someone disagrees here I will argue. This is the best way,"
Pittsburgh Penguins
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Ah, those pesky title windows.
The Pittsburgh Penguins were the team most often associated with the phrase over the last several years as they tried by any means necessary to wake up the echoes of a consecutive Cup-winning run in the springs of 2016 and 2017.
Ron Hextall and Brian Burke were hired as GM and president of hockey operations, respectively, in February 2021 with a mandate to keep a streak of consecutive playoff appearances stretching back to 2006-07 in tact.
They shelled out a combined $71 million last summer to keep veterans Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in the fold, but the experiment failed miserably to the tune of a 19th-overall finish and a failed bid to reach the tournament for the 17th straight time.
Hextall and Burke were dismissed in tandem on April 14, opening the door for Toronto's recently dismissed GM Kyle Dubas to move just more than 300 miles south.
The good news is that Dubas has nine free agents and better than $20 million in cap space to start things off with, meaning he'll quickly be able to put his own stamp on things while leaning heavily on the incumbents, too.
"I heard a lot of people that were highly skeptical of the team's ability to contend here," Dubas told reporters. "And the way I view it is that if people want to bet against Mike Sullivan, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and others, they can go ahead and do so.
"But I'm going to bet on them."
Winnipeg Jets
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The Winnipeg Jets are in an inconvenient hockey limbo.
They've made the playoffs in four of the last five seasons, including the 2022-23 tournament after earning a Western Conference wild-card spot, but have made the final four only once since relocating from Atlanta in 2011 and compiled a 17-27 record across 44 games.
Good enough to make it, but not good enough to win.
Which puts GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is in a unique position of deciding what to do with the team's core of four important veterans—goalie Connor Hellebuyck and forwards Mark Scheifele, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Blake Wheeler—each of whom could become unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2023-24 season.
The worst-case scenario is seeing them walk for nothing, which means Cheveldayoff will have to pull the trigger on either signing or trading before the deadlines arrive.
But those decisions, he said, haven't yet been made.
"There's lots of discussions that have to happen," he said. "I've been consistent in that comment here. There's realities that we have to address. There's contracts that we have to address. There's various different things that come from coaches' meetings, ownership meetings, and again. We'll go through the process and we'll make those proper decisions."
Salary-cap numbers were used from Cap Friendly.
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