Grading Every NHL Team's 2023 Offseason So Far
With most of the NHL's big offseason dates in the rearview mirror and the majority of the major moves already made, it's report-card time for the league's 32 teams.
Obviously, we still need to see how all of these moves will work out on the ice, but we can still grade the process each team had when constructing their rosters this summer.
Some of the things we're looking for when it comes to grades are the sort of value teams were able to get, did they adequately address their short-term and long-term needs, did the biggest moves fit and is the team's outlook better or worse than it was before the offseason began.
Let's take a look team-by-team.
Anaheim Ducks
1 of 32
The key factor for the Ducks this offseason will be their handling of restricted free agents Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry. What sort of long-term contracts will they be to agree to with the duo?
When it comes to improving the roster from the outside, it was a somewhat dull offseason.
There were no major trades of any kind and the one big outside addition was the signing of Alex Killorn to a long-term deal that might not age well. It's a "like the player, hate the contract" type of situation. Killorn should still give the Ducks a couple of strong years, but he's probably not going to be all that productive the next time the Ducks are any good. There's just a long-term risk on a four-year deal for a player that is already 33 years old.
The other big decision Anaheim made this offseason was selecting Leo Carlsson over Adam Fantilli with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft. It was a somewhat off-the-board pick, but Carlsson still has a chance to be a superstar in the NHL.
Offseason grade: B-
Arizona Coyotes
2 of 32
There are a lot of things to like about the Coyotes' offseason compared to years past.
At the top of the list is that they actually brought in a couple of veterans that might actually help them this season instead of struggling to get to the cap floor.
Sean Durzi was a strong addition to the blue line (at a good price) to help replace the production lost in last year's Jakob Chychrun trade, while Jason Zucker and Alexander Kerfoot were strong veteran additions for a team that needs some scoring help up front. Is it going to be enough to push the Coyotes to a playoff spot? Well, no. Not even close. But they did add some good NHL players, and in Zucker's case, they get a quality player on a low-risk deal (one year, $5 million) that might give them a few months of strong production that they can flip at the trade deadline.
They also didn't deal away any other veteran players for pennies on the dollar.
Is it a low bar? Yeah. But compared to some recent Coyotes offseasons, it might be a positive step.
Grade: C+
Boston Bruins
3 of 32
The Bruins' offseason is setting the tone for what could be a surprisingly long and very underwhelming 2023-24 season.
There was always the reality that they were going to take a step backward after winning 65 games, but the roster has also taken quite a hit.
Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno were salary-cap casualties. Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov proved to be rentals and moved on after their brief tenures with the team. And the most crushing blow of them all: Patrice Bergeron officially announced his retirement on Tuesday.
If David Krejčí follows Bergeron out the door, the Bruins are going to have lost some significant forward depth (including their top two centers) and not really done anything to replace it. Bringing in players like Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk and Morgan Geekie are fine in a vacuum and for what they are, but they are not going to replace what the Bruins have lost.
Add in some likely regression for Linus Ullmark in goal and the Bruins could be a long way from the record-setting team they were a year ago.
Grade: D
.png?w=256 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=256 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=256)
Buffalo Sabres
4 of 32
The Sabres took a massive leap forward in 2023-24 and it should have set the stage for an exciting offseason.
They were closer to a playoff spot (just one point away) than they have been in 12 years, have one of the most exciting young core groups of talent in the league and entered the offseason with a pretty significant amount of salary-cap space. It was a great opportunity for the Sabres to really send a message to the NHL that they are ready to seriously contend.
Maybe a goalie upgrade to pair with rookie Devon Levi?
Another impact forward or defensive depth?
So far, the Sabres have done none of that.
They did manage to re-sign Kyle Okposo and added Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson to the defense, but overall it's been a slightly underwhelming offseason given the opportunity they had.
Buffalo is banking on all of their young players -- and especially Levi -- continuing to get better.
They might be right. But that doesn't change how underwhelming the offseason has been.
Grade: C
Calgary Flames
5 of 32
The most impactful move the Flames made this offseason might have been moving on from head coach Darryl Sutter and replacing him with Ryan Huska. It was clear that Sutter wasn't a good match with the Flames' current roster and that players -- especially the top players -- had started to tune him out.
Some of them even reportedly wanted out.
Calgary did end up trading veteran Tyler Toffoli to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Yegor Sharangovich. That deal might end up being a short-term loss with the potential for a long-term win depending on how Sharangovich develops.
But any coaching or roster moves for the Flames were always going to be secondary when it comes to improving on a dreadful 2022-23 season. Calgary's hopes for a rebound sit entirely on the shoulders of Jonathan Huberdeau and Jacob Markstrom being able to bounce back.
If those two become the players they have been in the past -- and the players the Flames are paying them to be -- they have a chance to be a very good team again.
If they do not? Well, that is bad news for the Flames in the short-term and especially in the long-term given the commitment they made to Huberdeau on his new contract extension that begins this season.
Grade: C
Carolina Hurricanes
6 of 32
If the Hurricanes are able to land Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks, that would dramatically improve their grade (as well as their chances for a Stanley Cup). But even without Karlsson, it has been a very promising offseason in Carolina.
Michael Bunting and Dmitry Orlov were two of the best unrestricted free agents available this summer, and the Hurricanes landed both of them on very reasonable contracts. Together, those two will account for a little more than $12 million against the cap, while neither contract runs for more than three years. You don't want to overpay on dollars or term for mid-level free agents, and the Hurricanes were able to avoid that.
Carolina was also able to re-sign Jordan Staal and both of its main goalies (Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta) while also bringing back Tony DeAngelo after his one-year stay in Philadelphia.
DeAngelo seems like a luxury given how deep Carolina's defense already is and how much of a liability he is during five-on-five play, but the rest of the offseason was smart work by one of the league's top teams.
Grade: B+
Chicago Blackhawks
7 of 32
The Chicago Blackhawks won the NHL Draft lottery and landed Connor Bedard, the best prospect to enter the league since Connor McDavid.
That alone makes the Blackhawks' offseason a huge win no matter what they did.
Their entire rebuild was centered around landing a franchise-changing talent like Bedard at the top of the draft and they got him.
Chicago had a real opportunity this offseason to get creative and potentially weaponize its salary-cap space. It had the flexibility to take on some bad contracts and potentially land more premium picks or solid prospects for the trouble.
And they didn't really take advantage of that.
They did add some productive veterans in Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno and Corey Perry, but it's nothing that is going to dramatically change the short-term or long-term outlook of the franchise. If anything, they are just some more trade bait to throw into the mix come February and March.
It all just seemed like a big missed opportunity to get creative.
All of that, however, is secondary to Bedard. As long as Bedard becomes a superstar, everything about the past year is a win and the Blackhawks will have time to build something around him.
Grade: B-
Colorado Avalanche
8 of 32
The Avalanche took a step backward during the 2022-23 season as their Stanley Cup title defense fell short of a repeat. They did look like the same team during the regular season and then were eliminated in the first round by the upstart Seattle Kraken.
The biggest issue for the Avalanche was depth.
They lost quite a bit of talent from their Stanley Cup-winning roster as Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky left in free agency, while captain Gabriel Landeskog was lost for the season.
They never found a suitable second-line center replacement for Kadri, while the scoring depth took quite a hit without Burakovsky and Landeskog.
The bad news is Landeskog is going to miss another season, while his career looks to be in jeopardy because of continued knee troubles.
The good news is they were a little more active this offseason in adding some depth, acquiring Ryan Johansen from the Nashville Predators and Ross Colton from the Tampa Bay Lightning. They also signed Miles Wood and Jonathan Drouin in free agency.
Those are all very solid moves and should help give the Avalanche a lot of what they were missing in trying to complement Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar a year ago.
They're getting a nice deal on Johansen with Nashville eating half his remaining contract, while only having to give up Alex Galchenyuk (who did not factor into their plans to begin with). He was a bad fit in Nashville at $8 million per year, but in Colorado at $4 million per year, there might be a lot of value there.
Drouin is also an interesting low-risk bet. Colorado already has the superstars and the core players. It just needed to add a little help around them. It did this offseason.
Grade: A
Columbus Blue Jackets
9 of 32
The Blue Jackets have spent the past two offseasons operating like a team that is just one or two pieces away from contention.
They're not.
Even with that being the case you can not ignore the fact they are at least making an effort to get better. The question is how much better are they actually getting?
They spent a ton of money this offseason trying to upgrade their defense by acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson.
But is that going to be enough to upgrade one of the worst defensive teams in the league from a year ago? The Flyers played Provorov like he was a top-pairing defender, but nothing in his performance ever suggested that he was that type of player. Maybe he fits in better as a complementary piece behind a healthy Zach Werenski.
Severson is a good player, but there is always a risk in signing non-star players -- especially those that are already in their late 20s -- to eight-year contracts.
The Blue Jackets still have glaring holes offensively and in goal and did not really do much to address either situation this offseason, aside from drafting Adam Fantili -- a great pick -- at No. 3 overall.
They also took one of the biggest gambles of the offseason by hiring Mike Babcock to be their next head coach. Babcock brings some baggage with him following his previous coaching jobs in Detroit and Toronto and has not really found much success over the past decade. When you make a hire like that you better be right.
Is Columbus better on paper? Yeah. Probably a little. But it's probably not enough to justify the cost of the moves or to get it closer to a playoff spot.
Grade: D+
Dallas Stars
10 of 32
Dallas made one of the best free agent signings of the offseason when it was able to land veteran forward Matt Duchene on a one-year, $3 million contract.
Like Johansen in Colorado, Duchene was a terrible investment for Nashville at $8 million per season, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is a bad player. He is actually very productive and should be a great fit on a Dallas roster that is already one of the best in the NHL.
In recent years, the Stars have been one of the most top-heavy teams in the league, relying almost entirely on their top line of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz to carry the offense. But with recent resurgences from Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, as well as the development of rookie Wyatt Johnston, the Stars suddenly have a very deep roster.
Adding Duchene for that price makes it even deeper and more dangerous.
Grade: A
Detroit Red Wings
11 of 32
If the Red Wings don't take a significant step forward this season, it might be time for general manager Steve Yzerman to start facing some pressure. And based on the way he has conducted the past two offseasons, he seems to know that.
While I am not a huge fan of J.T. Compher getting a five-year, $25 million contract in free agency, the trade for Alex DeBrincat, as well as getting him signed to a long-term deal, does seem like a pretty big win for the Red Wings.
DeBrincat is one of the best goal scorers in the NHL and adds some much-needed firepower to the top of the Red Wings' lineup.
His goalscoring took a bit of a hit during his one year in Ottawa, but there are a lot of signs that he should be able to bounce back this season. His ability to generate shots and drive possession all remained consistent from his normal career averages, while he still demonstrated the same level of playmaking. The only thing that dropped was his goal-scoring due almost entirely to a drop in shooting percentage. If his shooting luck changes, there is a real chance he gets back to the 40-goal form he showed earlier in his career with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Adding to the forward depth was Daniel Sprong on a one-year deal after he wasn't given a qualifying offer by Seattle. Sprong is not exactly the most complete player in the NHL and he's not going to do much to help you away from the puck, but do you know where he is going to help? By scoring. He was one of the most efficient goal scorers in the league last season on a per-minute basis and combined with DeBrincat and Compher should balance out Detroit's lineup.
They also added some scoring punch to their blue line with the addition of Shayne Gostisbehere. While he never became the top-pairing player the Flyers envisioned he would become, he does still bring some value as a power-play specialist and bottom-pairing defender that can produce when properly sheltered.
The only noteworthy move from the Red Wings was acquiring Klim Kostin and Kailer Yamamoto from the Edmonton Oilers, which was promptly followed by buying Yamamoto's contract. Do they like Klostin so much that is worth taking on a $500,000 empty cap hit the next two years to get him? Questionable. But not so questionable that erases everything else that was done.
Grade: B+
Edmonton Oilers
12 of 32
The Oilers have been one of the quietest teams in the NHL this offseason and seem content to roll forward with the roster they have.
They did dump Kostin and Yamamoto and sign Connor Brown in free agency, but there has been nothing done this offseason to make the team significantly better or worse.
On the one hand, it is understandable.
The Oilers do not have a ton of salary-cap flexibility and do have one of the better teams in the Western Conference. They fixed a lot of the flaws that have ailed them in recent years and have finally put together a decently deep team around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
But they also still have some major question marks in goal and are still lacking a true No. 1 defenseman.
The problem is teams do not generally stay the same—you either get better or you get worse from one year to the next. And given that most of Edmonton's players have already hit their prime years, it's tough to see the same roster naturally improving, especially if the goaltending remains a question mark.
Grade: C
Florida Panthers
13 of 32
It has been quite the campaign for the Panthers over the past two years, winning a Presidents' Trophy and then going on a stunning run to the Stanley Cup Final as the No. 8 seed the following season.
While there hasn't been a Matthew Tkachuk-level blockbuster this summer, the Panthers did make a really nice move to add Evan Rodrigues in free agency to bring some depth to the lineup.
Rodrigues has been an analytics darling the past few years and brings strong two-way play with a little scoring touch to the lineup. He also has the flexibility to play all over the lineup, being able to bounce from wing to center and from a top-six role to a bottom-six role. He is a good player to have on your roster and was one of the better long-term investments made by any team during the free-agent signing period.
Florida's other big move was to sign Oliver Ekman-Larsson following his buyout from Vancouver to add a little more veteran presence to its defense. Ekman-Larsson has rapidly declined from when he was a bonafide top-pairing player in Arizona, but as long as Florida is paying him $2.5 million for one year and plays him in the correct role, there still might be some value to be had here.
Grade: B
Los Angeles Kings
14 of 32
The Kings seem to have at least one blockbuster move in them every offseason.
Two years ago, it was Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault.
Last year, it was Kevin Fiala.
This year, it is Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Dubois was an interesting choice because center is the one position the Kings are pretty set at, especially after re-signing Anze Kopitar to a contract extension that should guarantee he finishes his career with the team. They also paid a pretty steep price both in terms of assets (three players and a second-round pick) and money ($68 million over eight years) to get him.
Dubois is an excellent two-way center that will impact the Kings in the short and long term, so the move itself is not really a problem. But the Kings didn't really do anything to address their biggest overall weakness from a year ago (goaltending) and also traded away a solid NHL defenseman in Sean Durzi for a draft pick.
As it stands, it's an okay offseason. Dubois helps, but they really needed to do something about the goaltending situation.
Grade: C+
Minnesota Wild
15 of 32
Because of the ongoing buyout hits regarding Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, the Wild have one of the worst salary-cap situations in the entire league, essentially operating on a budget that is $15 million below the rest of the league.
That makes building a complete roster -- especially a roster you intend to compete with -- VERY difficult.
As a result, the Wild have had an extremely quiet offseason that has mostly resulted in them letting Matt Dumba walk in free agency and not really bringing anybody else in.
The big addition for them was acquiring Patrick Maroon in a trade to add some depth, but that's not really a game-changer.
The offseason will mostly be defined by how they handle contract negotiations with goalie Filip Gustavsson. He emerged as the Wild's starting goalie last year and is a restricted free agent this summer.
They still have about $5 million in salary-cap space to work with, via CapFriendly.
Grade: C
Montreal Canadiens
16 of 32
Montreal's two big moves this offseason have been to lock in Cole Caufield to a long-term contract extension and acquiring Alex Newhook from the Colorado Avalanche.
Both are solid moves.
The Caufield signing is significant because he figures to be a long-term core building block, and if he continues on his current path and becomes the player Montreal expects him to become, that $7.8 million salary-cap hit could be a bargain.
Newhook is also a fascinating move because it is very similar to what they did a year ago with Kirby Dach. It was basically the same move in which they traded an extra first-round pick for a talented forward and former top prospect that had not quite put it all together with their original team.
It worked out pretty well with Dach and Newhook seems like the type of player that could excel given a fresh start and a bigger role. He was never going to get top-line minutes in Colorado given how good that roster is, and he should get an opportunity to fully show what he can do with the Canadiens. Don't rule out 20-25 goals for him this year.
It would have been nice to see Montreal do a little more on the back end with the defense and goaltending situations, but this is still very much a rebuild and the team is far from a finished product.
Grade: B
Nashville Predators
17 of 32
Nashville is an interesting team because it's hard to get a sense on what direction it is taking.
The Predators spent the better part of the past year dumping salaries, clearing cap room, and collecting a lot of draft assets. Mikael Granlund, Mattias Ekholm, Tanner Jeannot, Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen were among the many players to either be traded or bought out dating back to last year's deadline and gave incoming general manager Barry Trotz a pretty clean slate to work with.
It looked like the beginnings of a potential rebuild for a team that has pretty much reached its ceiling as a bubble playoff team that might need everything to go absolutely perfect just to get a Wild Card spot.
And then Nashville spent its offseason signing veterans Ryan O'Reilly, Gustav Nyquist and Denis Gurianov in free agency, and not dealing any of its other big-money players.
In a vacuum, there is nothing wrong with any of those individual moves. Nyquist and Gurianov might even have the potential to be really solid signings and good values. But what does any of it do to further Nashville's chances in the short-term or the long-term? If anything, it kind of just leaves the Predators before the offseason started, just with a slightly better salary-cap situation. Not a bad offseason, but it could have been better.
Grade: B-
New Jersey Devils
18 of 32
When you have your two superstar players signed to team-friendly, below-market contracts like the Devils do with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, it gives you a lot of flexibility to add talent around them and keep your important complementary pieces.
And the Devils are taking full advantage of that.
New Jersey's offseason has consisted of new long-term deals for restricted free agents Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier, as well as a huge trade to land Tyler Toffoli from the Calgary Flames.
In terms of retaining impact players and adding depth, it might be one of the best offseason performances in the league and sets the Devils up for a potentially great season in 2023-24.
The Devils were already one of the best offensive teams in the league and now they get a full season of Meier in addition to a 25- to 30-goal winger in Toffoli.
It's a little surprising they did not do more to address the goaltending situation, the one potential weakness this team might still have, but it is hard to find fault with anything else the Devils have done here.
Grade: A
New York Islanders
19 of 32
The Islanders' offseason has been all about keeping what they already have and maintaining the status quo.
Another offseason has mostly come and gone with them missing out on adding any potential impact forwards, while their big moves were re-signing Pierre Engvall, Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov to long-term deals.
Engvall's contract fits in perfectly with what Lou Lamoriello has done on Long Island where he keeps signing depth players to long-term deals. There is nothing wrong with Engvall being on your roster and his salary-cap hit of $3 million is totally fine for what he provides. But do you really need to sign a non-star like him for seven years?
The most important move was making sure they locked in Sorokin. He is the one thing that keeps the franchise competitive at this point, and even though he still had one year remaining on his deal they removed any potential distraction this year by getting him signed.
Normally I am against long-term deals for goalies, but he might be one of the exceptions. He is one of the top-three goalies in the league right now and nearly single-handedly carried the Islanders to a playoff spot. Without him, it's a lottery team. With him, it's a potential playoff team.
The Islanders are not really any better than they were a year ago (which means they will probably get a little worse), but they made sure their best player is not going anywhere. So that's sort of a win.
Grade: C+
New York Rangers
20 of 32
It was a very low-risk offseason for the Rangers as they signed three prominent veterans in Blake Wheeler, Erik Gustafsson and Jonathan Quick to one-year deals, all of which came in at under $1 million for the 2023-24 season.
The two most intriguing ones are Wheeler and Gustafsson.
Wheeler is probably done as a building-block player, but the Rangers are not going to need him to be that. If he can come in and provide some secondary offense and depth scoring it will be well worth what they spent on his contract. The concern is that they tried something similar at the deadline with Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko and it didn't actually work out as planned. Can Wheeler provide the type of complementary forward depth they were supposed to provide?
Gustafsson might actually be the most impactful of their offseason additions as long as they put him in the right role and do not expect too much from him. He is a third-pairing, power-play specialist that needs to play in offensive situations. If he does that, he might give you 30 or 35 points and provide some scoring punch from the back end.
Quick is the one that doesn't really seem to fit. He has looked like he is toast for a couple of years now and signing him to be a backup is going to put a ton of pressure on Igor Shesterkin to stay healthy and play a significant chunk of the season. That could result in a big workload for a player that is usually the determining factor between winning and losing for the Rangers.
From a non-player perspective, Peter Laviolette might be a retread in the NHL's coaching carousel, but he might be a better fit for this roster than Gerard Gallant was.
Grade: B
Ottawa Senators
21 of 32
The Senators had two main objectives this offseason: Fix the goaltending mess, and figure out what the future with Alex DeBrincat is.
When it comes to the latter, when it became clear he was not interested in signing a long-term deal with the team they traded him to Detroit for Dominik Kubalík, a prospect, a conditional first-round pick and a second-round pick. Considering how little leverage the Senators had with DeBrincat's contract situation, it's a fine return. Especially when it coincided with signing Vladimir Tarasenko on a one-year deal. With Tarasenko and Kubalik joining the roster the Senators should still have a very good and deep forward group.
The problem -- again -- is going to be in goal where they signed Joonas Korpisalo to a long-term contract worth $4 million per year.
Goaltending was the one position that held the Senators back last season, and they clearly got things wrong when they traded Filip Gustavsson to Minnesota for Cam Talbot.
Not only has Korpisalo never consistently been an above-average NHL goalie, but he has also never really been a full-time starter. It's a huge gamble at a position the Senators need to get right.
The forwards are solid. The defense has a couple of high-level players with Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun. But they still might have problems stopping the puck.
Grade: B-
Philadelphia Flyers
22 of 32
It has taken them a long time to admit it, but the Flyers are into a full-scale rebuild and spent most of the offseason jettisoning contracts they no longer wanted.
Ivan Provorov and Kevin Hayes were traded, while Tony DeAngelo was bought out following a brutal one-year stay in Philadelphia that never really made much sense.
The most significant move was the Provorov trade where they landed a handful of draft picks, including a first-rounder from the Los Angeles Kings in a three-way trade. It will take years to find out if the Flyers hit on any of them, but the process was at least sound. Which is more than you can say for anything the two previous general managers did during their time in Philadelphia.
The most exciting move the Flyers made this offseason was with their own first-round pick where they selected Matvei Michkov at No. 7 overall. Michkov is a potential franchise talent and should immediately become the best prospect in the farm system. He might be more than a year away from the NHL, but he is definitely something for Flyers fans to look forward to in the future.
In the short-term, though, this is still going to be a very, very bad team.
Grade: C+
Pittsburgh Penguins
23 of 32
The most important thing for the Penguins this offseason was finding a front office that could clean up the mess left behind by Ron Hextall and Brian Burke.
They chose former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas to be that person.
Dubas has worked quickly to assemble a strong front office around him and has been extremely busy in trying to re-stock the depth around Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang.
A lot of the Penguins' offseason grade will hinge on whether or not they are able to land Erik Karlsson. If Dubas is able to pull that off, it probably becomes an A offseason.
But until that happens, it has been a bit of a mixed bag.
The trade for Reilly Smith was a great value and should serve as a strong replacement for Jason Zucker in the top six.
When it comes to addressing the bottom six, the Penguins added several more forwards over the age of 30 and did not really do much to address that group's ability to score goals. But the additions of Noel Acciari, Lars Eller and Matt Nieto should dramatically help their ability to defend and prevent goals.
A long-term deal for Ryan Graves might be an overpay in the long-run, but he should be a nice replacement for Brian Dumoulin on the top-pairing next to Letang.
The most confusing move of the offseason was bringing back starting goalie Tristan Jarry on a long-term contract. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Penguins were going to reshuffle their goalie depth chart and that simply never happened. They are banking on Jarry staying healthy and being the goalie they need him to be.
Grade: C+
San Jose Sharks
24 of 32
The Sharks have yet to make their most significant offseason move as it relates to Erik Karlsson, so this is still very much an open-ended grade.
When it comes to the moves they have made though, there is a lot to like with the additions of Anthony Duclair and Filip Zadina. Are they additions that are going to put the Sharks into playoff contention? No way. But nobody should be expecting that.
Duclair, however, could give them another significant trade chip at the deadline if he has a big year. And he very well might. I could envision a scenario where he gets top-line and top power-play minutes in San Jose and goes off for a 30-35 goal season. Somebody is going to have to score the goals here and he has been a very productive player the past couple of years. Give him additional minutes and power play minutes and he might really excel.
Zadina, on the other hand, is just a nice dice roll in the hopes you catch lightning in a bottle. It never clicked for him in Detroit and he gets a fresh start here with a clean slate. Expectations shouldn't be high, but this is definitely the type of move a rebuilding team should be looking at.
Solid offseason pending the Karlsson trade.
Grade: B
Seattle Kraken
25 of 32
It has been a mostly quiet offseason for the Kraken to this point and given how good the roster was this past season that's probably fine. They don't need to do a ton.
The biggest move was getting Vince Dunn re-signed to a long-term deal. The Kraken raised some eyebrows when they took Dunn over Vladimir Tarasenko in the expansion draft, but hindsight has proven them right with that move as Dunn has excelled as one of their top overall defensemen.
Taking a chance on Kailer Yamamoto is a strong move, especially if he can put it all together in Seattle the way Eeli Tolvanen did when he got an opportunity to start fresh there last season.
Brian Dumoulin brings a lot of experience and championship pedigree to the Kraken's blue line, but they are not getting the Dumoulin that won Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh. His minutes need to be significantly limited because he just does not have the wheels or puck skills to be a top-pairing player anymore.
Grade: B-
St. Louis Blues
26 of 32
Getting Kevin Hayes on a reduced salary while only giving up a sixth-round pick is a very solid move and adds some nice depth to the Blues' forward group.
The Flyers overpaid him and he did not fit with John Tortorella, but that does not mean he is a bad player. Far from it. And now the Blues will get him for what is probably a very appropriate cap number (and maybe even a steal at just over $3 million per year) where he can score 15 goals and 50 points and be a fine complementary player to the Blues young core of Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas.
But it doesn't really address the two biggest weaknesses the Blues have had the past two years on defense and in goal.
In fact, nothing they have done this offseason addressed those two weaknesses.
It is the same defense that hasn't been good enough, while every key player on that unit is now over the age of 30. Even worse, they still have Jordan Binnington as their big-money starter after another brutal performance this past season. They also have the same head coach in Craig Berube.
Is doing the same thing going to result in a different outcome? Seems unlikely.
They should score a lot of goals. But they will probably give up even more.
Grade: C-
Tampa Bay Lightning
27 of 32
When you are a consistent contender like the Tampa Bay Lightning and have a veteran roster, the salary cap will limit you each offseason. And while the Lightning always seem to find a way to work around that and put themselves in a position to add people, this offseason was mostly about shedding money and trying to restock the draft pick cupboard a little.
They had to trade depth pieces in Patrick Maroon, Ross Colton and Corey Perry, landing a few draft picks in return, the most significant of which was the No. 37 overall pick in exchange for Colton.
While Maroon and Perry mean the Lightning will lose a lot of grit and character from their lineup, Colton is going to be the most significant loss in terms of production and talent. They will miss him.
The hope is that Tanner Jeannot will be able to rebound after his tough debut following his trade from Nashville.
Conor Sheary was also a nice add in free agency, while Josh Archibald will provide a strong defensive presence for the fourth line.
Grade: C+
Toronto Maple Leafs
28 of 32
Another playoff flameout finally resulted in at least one significant change when the Maple Leafs parted ways with Kyle Dubas and replaced him in the general manager's seat with former Calgary Flames boss Brad Treliving.
Treliving's first offseason in Toronto was a bit of a mixed bag.
The most baffling move was signing Ryan Reaves to a three-year contract worth more than $1 million per season. It just seems completely unnecessary in every possible way. Reaves is not going to dramatically change the Maple Leafs' fortunes on the ice, the salary-cap hit is probably double what it should be and there is no need to sign a 37-year-old enforcer to a multi-year deal.
It was a brutal way for Treliving's tenure to start.
But things rapidly got better after that thanks to the one-year deals for Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi and John Klingberg.
Bertuzzi and Domi were especially strong moves and should help the Maple Leafs with their biggest issue from this past season—depth scoring.
The popular narrative around this Maple Leafs team is all wrong. The problem is not defense. They were actually a very good defensive team during the 2022-23 season, while the goaltending performed significantly better than expected. Neither of those positions were why they lost to the Florida Panthers in the playoffs.
They lost because they couldn't score. Specifically when none of their big-four forwards were on the ice. Toronto scored just 14 goals over its final seven playoff games, and during the regular season scored just 2.04 goals per 60 minutes when none of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares or William Nylander were on the ice That was nearly a half goal drop from the previous year, and the lowest mark of the Matthews-Marner era.
Bertuzzi and Domi should significantly help fix that.
Grade: B+
Vancouver Canucks
29 of 32
Despite their forwards seemingly always being on the trade block, J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Conor Garland are all still Vancouver Canucks.
What the Canucks have tried to do is fix their mess of a defense.
They took a huge salary-cap hit this offseason to buyout Oliver Ekman-Larsson and since last year's trade deadline have added Filip Hronek, Carson Soucy and Ian Cole to the blue line. They join star Quinn Hughes on a very revamped unit.
Soucy and Cole should offer some nice improvements defensively, while Hronek will definitely be a nice No. 2 to Hughes.
The problem for the Canucks is that for as good as those changes might be, it's still a team that seems way behind the other playoff contenders in the Western Conference.
They need a big bounce-back season from Thatcher Demko to get back into contention, and even then it might not be enough.
Grade: C
Vegas Golden Knights
30 of 32
The Golden Knights found out this offseason what happens when you win the Stanley Cup.
You have to pay the Stanley Cup tax to keep the people who helped bring you a championship.
They paid that tax in re-signing Ivan Barbashev and Adin Hill to multi-year deals that will account for a combined $9.9 million against the cap.
Those are not cheap deals for the players they are.
Barbashev had a great run for the Golden Knights after being acquired from St. Louis at the trade deadline, but Vegas is taking a big risk in expecting him to duplicate that performance. It not only cost the team $5 million per year over the next five years to keep him, but it also forced Vegas to trade one of the most important players in franchise history in Reilly Smith to make room for it.
It is a similar story with Hill. He came out of nowhere in the playoffs to secure the goaltending spot and played the best hockey of his career to help Vegas hoist the Cup. But this is a career backup who opened the season third on the depth chart, didn't start the playoffs as the starter and does not have an extensive resume of high-level play.
The Golden Knights have been one of the most cutthroat teams in the league in terms of roster transactions, but they are showing an unprecedented (for them) level of loyalty to two relatively new players who may not repeat their most recent performances.
Grade: C-
Washington Capitals
31 of 32
The Capitals made one of the best low-risk gambles of the summer when they signed Max Pacioretty to a one year, $2.5 million contract.
It's the type of move that could make 31 other teams look back at the end of this season and ask, "why didn't we do that?"
Pacioretty's biggest issue the past couple of years -- and especially this past season -- has been his inability to stay on the ice. But when he has been healthy he has continued to score at a 30-35 goal pace.
Even though the Capitals missed the playoffs this past season, they're never going to commit to a rebuild or stop trying as long as Alex Ovechkin is still on the roster. Adding a player like Pacioretty gives them a chance to add a potential impact scorer while still allowing them to operate within the confines of their salary cap situation.
Is it enough to make them a Stanley Cup contender again?
No. But that doesn't mean it isn't a strong move.
Grade: B
Winnipeg Jets
32 of 32
This offseason seemed like it had the potential to be a seismic shift for the Jets' roster with Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck both reportedly on the trade block.
So far, they both remain on the roster.
That could still change before the season and especially as the trade deadline approaches.
But even though the Jets did not go for full-scale changes, they did still make some big moves.
Blake Wheeler was bought out, while they also traded restricted free agent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings for a package that included Gabriel Vilardi and Alex Iafallo.
Given the fact Dubois was unsigned and every team in the league knew he wanted out -- and seems very picky on where he wants to play long-term -- it turned out to be a very strong return.
Despite that, the Jets still seem remarkably similar to the team they have been the past few years. A mid-level team that might make the playoffs as a Wild Card team, could just as easily miss, and is still nothing more than a mostly mediocre team with some high-level players at the top.
Grade: C
.png?w=480 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=480 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
