Early Bold Predictions for Every NHL Team
Now that the NHL draft, almost all of free agency and most of the major trades have taken place, we are starting to get a sense for what each team will look like for the 2023-24 season.
Some teams managed to get dramatically better on paper.
Some did not.
Some will have breakout stars that will elevate them, and others will have to figure out ways to fill new holes and answer new questions that didn't exist in recent years.
Whatever the case may be, we have a good idea about how each roster will look.
That means we can start making some prognostications for how franchises and players will fare. So let's take a look around the league and make one bold prediction for every NHL team.
Anaheim Ducks: Mason McTavish Is Their Top Goal Scorer
1 of 32
Even though they have not found much success as a team in recent years, the Anaheim Ducks have still managed to collect an impressive group of young forwards to build around.
Trevor Zegras gets most of the hype because he can be a one-man highlight reel on any given night. But for as talented as he is and as productive as he has been, when the 2023-24 season concludes it will be Mason McTavish, and not Zegras (or Troy Terry), who leads the team in goals.
McTavish might have the best shot and pure goal-scoring ability of the Ducks' young core, and he is coming off a very promising rookie season that saw him score 17 goals. He did that while scoring on just 10.6 percent of his shots. Given his shot volume (more than two per game as a rookie) and shot quality, even a small jump in shooting percentage could lead to a surprisingly big year-two total.
Arizona Coyotes: Logan Cooley Will Be Worth the Hype
2 of 32
The Arizona Coyotes needed some kind of positive news to give their fans hope, and they got some when Logan Cooley decided to leave the University of Minnesota and sign his entry-level contract in the NHL.
The 19-year-old had previously announced his intentions to return to college for one more year before abruptly changing his mind and signing with the Coyotes.
That gives Arizona one of the top players in the 2023-24 rookie class and a potential superstar it might be able to build its franchise around.
That is exactly what the Coyotes need.
They have spent years accumulating picks but have never had the good fortune of winning the draft lottery and picking No. 1 overall, where they could land a franchise-changing talent. Cooley, at No. 3 in 2022, might be close to that. He at least has the talent and potential to be that type of player.
He was a dynamic offensive player in college and is the best prospect coming through the team's farm system. He is going to have a tough fight for the Calder Trophy this season with Connor Bedard also making his debut in Chicago, but do not be surprised if Cooley is somewhere just behind him and staking his claim as a cornerstone player.
Boston Bruins: They Will Miss the Playoffs
3 of 32
This is perhaps the boldest take on this whole rundown, as it would take quite a collapse to go from NHL-record season to out of the playoffs entirely.
But the Boston Bruins suddenly have a lot of problems and some major red flags ahead for this season.
To start, they lost their top two centers to retirement, with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci both calling it a career. That leaves the top two spots in the hands of Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha. While they were both strong complementary players last season, they are not a top duo for a contending team, and there is a pretty significant drop from Bergeron and Krejci as all-around players to Coyle and Zacha.
Beyond that, they also lost Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov to free agency and a cost-cutting trade. That is a lot of talent going out the door, with the incoming replacements being the likes of James van Riemsdyk and Milan Lucic. That's a problem.
An underrated and maybe overlooked concern might also be in goal, where it seems highly unlikely that Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman will repeat what they did a year ago.
Ullmark is not a .938 goalie. He is a .915 goalie. And the difference between a .938 save percentage and a .915 save percentage on the same number of shots he faced a year ago would be nearly a 30-goal drop just from expected regression.
The departures, returning players coming back to earth, lack of a strong farm system and the fact that the Atlantic Division (and Eastern Conference as a whole) is still excellent could make for a surprisingly long season in Boston.
.png?w=256)
Buffalo Sabres: The Playoff Drought Ends
4 of 32
The Buffalo Sabres have missed the playoffs 12 years in a row, been through multiple rebuilds and are finally—finally!—on the verge of ending all of the misery for their long-suffering fanbase.
They missed the playoffs by just a single point in 2022-23 and should be poised to get back to the postseason this year.
Buffalo boasts one of the best young cores of talent in the league, and it just seems to keep getting better.
Tage Thompson has blossomed into a bona fide superstar and has a strong complementary cast of forwards around him, including Jeff Skinner, Alex Tuch, Dylan Cozens, Jack Quinn, Casey Mittelstadt and Victor Olofsson.
The real game-changer, though, could be on defense, where the Sabres are led by a pair of No. 1 overall picks in Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, as well as an emerging talent in Mattias Samuelsson. They made some strong veteran additions to that unit this offseason and go eight deep at the position.
The only real question will be whether they can get enough goaltending to bring it all together. That was the one big Achilles' heel last season, but the Sabres have one of the league's top goalie prospects in Devon Levi ready to make his presence felt. He looked good during his initial cup of coffee at the end of last season, and if he can solidify that spot, the Sabres will be ready to compete. Rapidly.
Calgary Flames: Jonathan Huberdeau Bounces Back
5 of 32
The Calgary Flames were one of the biggest disappointments in the NHL during the 2022-23 season, and that disappointment was driven by a shockingly underwhelming campaign from Jonathan Huberdeau, their biggest offseason addition.
Prior to joining the Flames, Huberdeau was one of the top offensive players in the league and the centerpiece of the Matthew Tkachuk trade with the Florida Panthers in July 2022. The Flames were so happy to get him that they signed him to an eight-year, $84 million contract extension (which begins this year) to be one of the new focal points of their organization.
What followed was one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, as his 55 points represented his lowest total since 2014-15.
The hope for the Flames is that a coaching change, and getting their skill players away from Darryl Sutter, can help get their offense back on track. There is some real long-term concern with Huberdeau in that he is already 30 years old as his new contract begins, and he is not a particularly good player when he does not have the puck. But there is no reason to think he suddenly forgot how to score and generate offense.
He should still have a few productive seasons left in him, and a fresh start under new coach Ryan Huska and a new system might be a good way to get that production back out of him.
Carolina Hurricanes: Andrei Svechnikov Scores 40 Goals
6 of 32
The Carolina Hurricanes have been one of the league's best teams for several years and still boast a relatively young roster that has a handful of top players just entering their prime years.
Andrei Svechnikov is one of the most talented of that core, and he might have the best pure goal-scoring acumen on the roster.
We've been waiting for him to have a true breakout season for a couple of years, and at some point you have to imagine that it will come. He has already proved capable of reaching the 30-goal mark, having done so in 2021-22, while his ability to generate shots and chances has steadily improved every year he has been in the league.
Generating chances and shooting talent has never been an issue for him.
The issue has been that he consistently shoots in the 10-11 percent range. A small uptick in shooting luck and just a small increase to his shooting percentage could turn a 30-goal scorer into a 40-goal scorer almost overnight.
He missed the last quarter of the 2022-23 season and all of the playoffs because of a knee injury, but he is on track to be ready for training camp and is just entering what should be the most productive part of his career. That breakthrough season might finally be on the horizon.
Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Bedard Scores 30 Goals
7 of 32
Everything the Chicago Blackhawks did going into the 2022-23 season—and during it—was an attempt to maximize their chances of landing a franchise-changing talent in the draft.
Even though they did not finish with the league's worst record as expected, they still had the draft-lottery ball luck on their side and walked away with Connor Bedard, the best prospect to enter the NHL since Connor McDavid in 2015.
The bold prediction here is that he is going to be an immediate star and hit the 30-goal mark as a rookie.
That is setting a high bar, but Bedard is a unique talent and will get an opportunity to be the focal point of the Blackhawks offense from the start.
In the salary-cap era (since 2005-06) only five players have scored 30 goals in their age-18 or -19 season.
Bedard has the ability to join that list.
Colorado Avalanche: Cale Makar Hits 100 Points
8 of 32
We went three decades without a 100-point defender before Erik Karlsson broke that streak during the 2022-23 season.
We will not have to wait that long to see it again.
Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar has the perfect combination of obscene individual skill, elite production and a spot on a great offensive team that can help him reach the century mark.
He has been a point-per-game player for his entire career and has already reached a high of 86 points in a season. Given that he is in his prime years and reaching the pinnacle of his career, it is not a huge stretch to think that as long as the 24-year-old stays healthy for a full season that he could hit 100 points as soon as 2023-24.
It is not just about Makar's individual situation, either.
One of the biggest reasons we went so long between 100-point defensemen was the state of the league where offense bottomed out for much of the 1990s and 2000s. There simply weren't a lot of goals scored, and it brought down the expectation for individual players.
But offense has been back on the rise for a couple of years now, and that new scoring environment combined with a new wave of superstars is going to cause performances across the league that we only used to dream about.
Columbus Blue Jackets: They Make a GM Change
9 of 32
Everything about the Columbus Blue Jackets' offseason just seemed like an act of desperation, and it all seemed to be focused in the wrong areas.
Hiring Mike Babcock after the way he was dismissed in Toronto and all of the horror stories that came out from former players about his coaching style? Desperation.
Committing $10.75 million in salary-cap space to Damon Severson and Ivan Provorov to join a defense that already has Erik Gudbranson making more than $4 million per year? Desperation. And that is even taking into account that Severson is a pretty good player. It's just that those are win-now moves for a team that is not close to winning now.
What makes all of it worse is that the Blue Jackets didn't really address some of their biggest issues when doing all of that spending. They have some intriguing young players at center, but nobody who is proven as a top-line player. They are banking on potential to lift that spot to a playoff level.
They also still have a very unsettled goalie situation—that they did not address—and an offense that was among the worst in the league. Whatever improvements they made on defense might not be enough to overcome those two significant flaws.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen has been on the job as the Blue Jackets' general manager for a decade and only has five playoff appearances (and only one playoff series win) to show for it.
He has also missed the playoffs three years in a row. His offseason just seemed like it represented a GM who knows he is on the hot seat, tried to do what it took to make his team competitive enough to keep his job but ultimately probably did not do enough. The Blue Jackets seem like a team that could be on the verge of a GM change if things get off to a bad start.
Dallas Stars: Jake Oettinger Wins the Vezina Trophy
10 of 32
Whether Jake Oettinger is the actual best goalie in the league is certainly up for some debate. And the answer is that he's probably not. But he is on the short list of top goalies, and when he is at his best, he has shown he can change a game and even steal one.
But the Vezina Trophy is not always about simply being the best goalie.
Given the way the league's general managers vote on the award, it is often times about being a really good goalie on a really good team. And that is what is going to give Oettinger a huge advantage. He's part of a Dallas Stars team that will be one of the league's best, and it will give him an opportunity to pile up huge win totals. When combined with what should be another strong season individually, it will drive him to the top of the Vezina voting ranks.
Oettinger had a .919 save percentage in 2022-23 and is capable of going even higher.
Detroit Red Wings: Steve Yzerman Gets Fired If They Miss the Playoffs
11 of 32
Steve Yzerman is Detroit Red Wings royalty for what he did as a player, but he is going to be running out of time as an executive if the team doesn't make serious strides this season.
He is entering year five of his rebuild, and not only has the team failed to make the playoffs in each of his first four years, but it also has yet to even have a winning record.
And it's not for a lack of effort.
The Red Wings invested big money in free agency last summer to accompany their young core and still ended up in a position where they had to sell at the trade deadline.
They again spent big this offseason by signing J.T. Compher and trading for Alex DeBrincat.
We are no longer at a point where the Red Wings can sell hope for the future.
They have to win. And they have to win soon. And if they do not win this season, that will be a half-decade for the Yzer-plan with no results to show for it.
Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid Scores 70 Goals
12 of 32
Every time you think Connor McDavid has reached his peak, he figures out a way to go beyond it.
He has hit the 100-point mark in a 56-game season.
He had one of the best offensive campaigns in decades this past season when he scored 64 goals and 153 points, video game-type numbers that are reserved for the legends of the sport such as Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky in a time when goalies barely wore any equipment.
So why couldn't he score 70 goals?
It is not like that is a far stretch from what he did last season. And with the way Edmonton's power play runs and the way he is in the meaty part of his prime years as a scorer, it certainly seems like it could be a real possibility.
The NHL has not seen a 70-goal scorer since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne during the 1992-93 season, but if anybody can do it again, McDavid is the guy.
Offense is rapidly climbing in the NHL, and there is not an offensive player going who is better than him.
Florida Panthers: Sergei Bobrovsky Regresses
13 of 32
The Florida Panthers had a truly bizarre season in which they went from the Presidents' Trophy to barely sneaking into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed (and needing a ton of help to get there), to going on a miracle run to the Stanley Cup Final.
That Cup Final run was driven primarily by a stunning performance from starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who helped put the team on his back starting in the first round against the Boston Bruins, and leading them all the way through the Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Panthers should probably not get used to that sort of performance.
The most stunning thing about Bobrovsky's showing in the playoffs was that it was a complete 180 from what he had done in recent years as the Panthers' goalie.
During his peak, Bobrovsky was elite and made his way onto the short list of goalies with multiple Vezina Trophies. That earned him a lucrative free-agent contract with the Panthers that almost immediately went south for the team the minute he signed it in July 2019.
In four years with the Panthers, he has managed a save percentage higher than .906 just one time, and even during the 2022-23 season it was still only a .901 mark. His turnaround came almost entirely during a two-month stretch in the playoffs.
The harsh reality for the Panthers—and Bobrovsky—is that two-month stretch is probably the outlier for what should be expected from the soon-to-be 35-year-old.
Los Angeles Kings: They Make a Major Trade for a Goalie
14 of 32
One of the most confusing moves (or non-moves, in this case) over the summer has been the Los Angeles Kings' reluctance to try to find a better goalie.
That was the one position that truly held them back in 2022-23, and they are preparing to enter the season with Pheonix Copley and Cam Talbot as their duo.
That is not exactly encouraging for a team that should have Stanley Cup aspirations.
Copley is probably best served as a backup, while Talbot completely washed out with the Ottawa Senators a year ago and was one of the biggest things holding them back from making the playoffs.
Why should the Kings assume he will figure it out here?
It is actually a testament to how good the rest of the Kings roster is that they had the success they did a year ago given how truly bad the goaltending was across the board. And that team might be even better this season thanks to the addition of Pierre-Luc Dubois to further strengthen an already strong center depth chart.
They just need a goalie to bring it all together. The bold prediction here is that at some point this season, they swing a blockbuster deal for a potential difference-making goalie before the deadline. Maybe it is Connor Hellebuyck. Maybe it is Juuse Saros. Whoever it is, they are going to find a solution to help put them over the top.
Minnesota Wild: 50 Goals for Kirill Kaprizov
15 of 32
Kirill Kaprizov has been a franchise-changing player from the moment he arrived in Minnesota in 2020-21 and has scored at a 40-goal pace (per 82 games) every year.
The Wild star was on pace for his best season in 2022-23 until a lower-body injury forced him out of the lineup in the second half. He still managed to score 40 goals in only 67 games (the best pace of his career) despite having a career-low shooting percentage (15.3).
He's in his prime, and it wouldn't take that much of a jump to get him to 50 goals. Given how much the Wild are going to rely on him—again—to carry the offense, it is within reach.
He is already the franchise's all-time leader for goals in a single season (47) and has a very real chance to become the first 50-goal scorer in team history.
Montreal Canadiens: Alex Newhook Has a Breakout Year
16 of 32
The Montreal Canadiens' trade for Alex Newhook was one of the most underrated moves of the offseason, and it was very similar to what they did a year ago in trading for Kirby Dach from the Chicago Blackhawks.
They took a recent high draft pick who still has some potential and has shown flashes of being a good NHL player but hadn't quite put it together with their original team.
It worked out pretty well with Dach, the No. 3 pick in 2019, as he had his best season (14 goals, 38 points) and looks like he might have a future with the Canadiens.
There is a good chance it works out the same way with Newhook, 2019's No. 16 selection.
His problem in Colorado wasn't necessarily a lack of production or quality play, it was simply the lack of an opportunity on a roster that was loaded with veteran stars on a team trying to win the Stanley Cup.
They were not in the business of developing young players. They were in the business of winning. A lot. In Montreal, Newhook should get a bigger opportunity and a chance to show what he can do in a bigger role where he is more of a focal point. Well worth the price of a late first and second-round pick.
Nashville Predators: Juuse Saros Gets Traded
17 of 32
The Nashville Predators have been going through a strange transition over the past year, and it is still difficult to wrap your head around what their plan is.
On one hand, they spent the trade deadline shedding salary and veterans by dealing Mattias Ekholm, Nino Niederreiter, Tanner Jeannot and Mikael Granlund, a process that continued into the offseason with the trade of Ryan Johansen and buyout of Matt Duchene.
That seemed to indicate an immediate rebuild.
But then they signed veterans Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist to multi-year contracts.
Those signings aside, this is not a particularly good roster, and the playoffs seem like a long shot. They needed every possible thing to go right over the past two years just to have a chance at a wild-card spot. They might take a big step backward this season.
If that happens, you have to wonder what the future is for Juuse Saros. He is a great goalie, but he alone won't be enough to lift them to a playoff spot or Stanley Cup contender status.
They have already taken a machete to a big portion of the roster, and he would be the next logical candidate to go given his contract (one more full year remaining after this season at $5 million AAV) and the fact that he would have more value than probably any player on the roster.
Keep an eye on him as the March 1 trade deadline approaches.
New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes Is a Top-3 Scorer
18 of 32
This might be the most exciting era of New Jersey Devils hockey from a pure entertainment standpoint. Even when they were winning Stanley Cups in the 1990s and early 2000s, they never played an overly entertaining style and won games by grinding defense and superb goaltending.
But this Devils team?
This Devils team is good and it's fun to watch, and Hughes is one of the biggest reasons for the latter development.
He has truly broken out offensively over the past two seasons and rapidly become one of the most dominant offensive players in the world. The only thing that has held him back has been injuries and missed games. Assuming he can stay healthy this season, he has the talent and supporting cast for an even bigger year—even following his 99-point campaign—and one that should put him among the truly elite scorers in the NHL.
As long as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are going, it is hard to pick anybody other than them for a scoring title, but do not rule out Hughes as a top-three scorer and strong contender for the Art Ross Trophy.
New York Islanders: Bo Horvat Disappoints
19 of 32
The New York Islanders needed another impact player desperately last season and made a bold move for Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks, signing him to a long-term contract extension soon after to keep him on Long Island.
It is the type of move that general manager Lou Lamoriello has liked to make in recent years, and his track record with them long term isn't the best.
While Horvat helped give the Islanders a little bit of a boost after the trade, there is real reason to believe his goal-scoring success from the first half with the Canucks is not sustainable over the long haul. He was riding a career-high shooting percentage with Vancouver and saw that number dramatically drop after the trade to New York (21.7 to 8.1). And now he has a long-term contract worth $8.5 million per year to live up to.
That is going to be a challenge because he probably does not have another 38-goal season in him. Especially as he hits his late 20s.
This is not to say he'll have a bad year, but it probably won't be what he did a season ago—after his shooting percentage comes back down to reality—and not what the Islanders are paying for.
New York Rangers: Kaapo Kakko Breaks Through
20 of 32
For the New York Rangers to go from playoff team to legit Stanley Cup contender they need their young guys and recent top draft picks to take a massive leap and become impact, star players.
That includes Filip Chytil, K'Andre Miller, Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko.
Out of that group, Kakko is the one I like most to make that leap this season.
All of the underlying numbers point to a player who drives plays extremely well, he is a good playmaker, and he is coming off a very respectable 18-goal season in 2022-23. The biggest issue a lot of the Rangers' young players faced over the past couple of years was a frustratingly short leash from former head coach Gerard Gallant. It exacerbated what has been a maddening attempt by the organization as a whole to develop young forward talent.
Kakko has all of the talent to be a star, and it has shown at various times over the early part of his career.
Perhaps a fresh start under new head coach Peter Laviolette will provide a bigger opportunity and a chance for him to become the star the Rangers hoped he would and still need him to become.
Ottawa Senators: Goaltending Holds Them Back Again
21 of 32
The Ottawa Senators have been one of the most aggressive teams in the NHL over the past year, re-signing core players and adding new ones. Their forward group is excellent at the top, and the trade-deadline addition of Jakob Chychrun gives them another strong top-four defenseman to go with a group that is already led by Thomas Chabot.
The one position that held them back last season—and the one position they royally screwed up—was goaltending.
They took a chance on veteran Cam Talbot last year, but that badly backfired when he not only had an awful year, but the player they traded for him (Filip Gustavsson) also had one of the best goaltending performances in the league and looks like a potential long-term starter.
Had they simply not made that trade and let Gustavsson be the guy in goal, they might have already been back to the playoffs.
They tried to fix the goaltending again this offseason by signing veteran Joonas Korpisalo to a five-year deal in free agency.
That is also not going to solve the problem. Korpisalo has mostly been a backup throughout his career and hasn't really shown any consistency as a top-end starter. Goaltending can be an unpredictable position, but it would take a massive swing in Korpisalo's career performance to make him be the answer. It was a thin free-agent market for goalies, so their options were limited, but it's just a continuation of last year's mistake with the position.
Philadelphia Flyers: Owen Tippett Has a Shockingly Productive Year
22 of 32
The Philadelphia Flyers are almost certainly going to be one of the worst teams in hockey as they continue to go through a rebuild that everybody associated with the franchise has refused to call a rebuild.
But it's a rebuild, and they know they are a few years away.
There are probably not going to be many bright spots here, but Owen Tippett might continue to be one of them.
He was one of the key pieces in the 2022 trade that sent Claude Giroux to Florida, and he ended up having a breakout year for the Flyers in his first full season with the team, scoring 27 goals in 77 games. That was more goals than he had scored in his entire career prior to the start of the 2022-23 season.
There is reason to believe he can build on that number this season.
He didn't need an outrageously high shooting percentage to reach that total (only 11.7 percent), so there was not much to suggest it was a fluke, and he should get top minutes and top power-play minutes on a team that will need somebody to provide offense. He has always had talent (2017 first-round pick) and some decent upside, he just needed a chance to shine.
A rebuilding Flyers team is going to give him that. He could be one of those players you look at in April and say, "I had no idea this guy had 35 goals this season."
Pittsburgh Penguins: Tristan Jarry Has a Surprisingly Solid Year
23 of 32
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had major goaltending issues the past few years, and it has been one of the biggest things holding them back in the playoffs (and keeping them from the postseason a year ago).
To remedy that situation they...brought back the same starting goalie.
Not only did they bring back Jarry, they also signed him to a five-year, $26.9 million contract that shows a shocking level of commitment to a player who has been wildly inconsistent and unreliable in big moments.
It also makes some sense.
Not only was Jarry probably the best free-agent goalie available, but he has also shown the ability to be a top-half-of-the-league starter when he has been healthy. He has two All-Star appearances and has had some strong seasons. His performance has just not been consistent enough to make a difference.
He also hasn't consistently been healthy enough.
If he can stay healthy, it is not hard to envision a scenario where Jarry plays at a high level, especially behind an improved defense that includes newcomers Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves, as well as a much better and more defensively responsible forward group.
The Penguins did make some changes to their goaltending situation by switching backups (also a problem), but the pressure is going to fall on Jarry to prove he is the guy. They are paying him like a starter they can count on. Now he has to show he can be that.
San Jose Sharks: They Finish with the League's Worst Record
24 of 32
This is a very bleak situation in San Jose, and it is going to take a lot of time to fix.
The only thing the Sharks really had going for them last season was the presence of Erik Karlsson as he reached the 100-point mark as a defenseman.
When he was on the ice (which was a very significant portion of the season), they actually finished as an even-goal-differential team during five-on-five play, a stunning accomplishment given how bad the rest of the team was.
When Karlsson was not on the ice during five-on-five play, they were outscored by 53 goals.
Karlsson is no longer there to help lift them up for 25 minutes a night.
While they made a couple of nice moves this offseason (bringing in Anthony Duclair being at the top of the list), this is just a team that is severely lacking in talent at all levels. The Sharks were already one of the worst teams in the league with Karlsson, and it is only going to get worse without him.
This is a situation where you are watching the draft lottery odds all year if you are a Sharks fan.
Seattle Kraken: Matthew Beniers Gets 90 Points
25 of 32
Mostly going on a hunch here, but Matthew Beniers has a chance to be the Seattle Kraken's first true superstar—and he is going to take a big leap toward that this season.
He is coming off a 2022-23 campaign that saw him win the Calder Trophy with 24 goals and 57 points in 80 games and help the Kraken go all the way to Game 7 of the second round against the Dallas Stars.
Offensively speaking, he has everything you want in a potential franchise player.
Even at age 20 he showed an advanced ability to drive possession, finishing with a 51 percent (or above) share of shot attempts and expected goals when he was on the ice, while also showing great finish and skill around the net.
He did all of that while playing only 17 minutes per game as a rookie.
Now that he has shown he can be a productive NHL regular, he should start getting an even bigger role. When you combine those factors with a talented supporting cast in Seattle, he is going to have every opportunity to truly go off and become a top-line force.
St. Louis Blues: Jakub Vrana Scores 30 Goals
26 of 32
The St. Louis Blues made one of the shrewdest moves at last year's trade deadline when they picked up Jakub Vrana from the Detroit Red Wings for the low price of a seventh-round draft pick and career minor leaguer Dylan McLaughlin.
He immediately made an impact by scoring 10 goals in 20 games.
Production has never been the issue for Vrana.
Staying on the ice has been.
He is getting a great opportunity for a fresh start in St. Louis and is going to get a full season on a Blues team that has the potential to be one of the better offensive squads in the league. Vrana can be a big part of that, and if they can get anything close to 82 games out of him, they should get 30 goals.
The Blues might not be able to stop anybody from scoring, but they will score a lot of goals for themselves, and Vrana will be a big part of that.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Tanner Jeannot Trade Ends Up Looking a Lot Better
27 of 32
The Tampa Bay Lightning made one of the most shocking trade-deadline deals last year when they sent prospect Cal Foote and five future draft picks (including a first-rounder) to the Nashville Predators for Tanner Jeannot.
It did not pay off in the short term the way Tampa Bay hoped.
Jeannot had a brutal start to his time in Tampa and then had an injury cut his postseason short.
But there is a lot of reason to believe that Jeannot can bounce back, and there is a good chance he does.
The 26-year-old is the exact type of player the Lightning have had success with in the past, and a lot of his production issues in 2022-23 were related to a cratering shooting percentage that ended up being unsustainably low.
The Lightning made a similar trade for Brandon Hagel in 2022 and had similarly bad short-term results right after it. But with a fresh start, Hagel significantly bounced back in 2022-23 and was one of the Lightning's best players.
Don't be surprised if a similar thing happens this season with Jeannot. All he needs is that shooting percentage to reverse itself and the Lightning could end up with a 20- to 25-goal forward who plays their brand of physical, agitating hockey. If they get that, nobody will care about future middle-round picks.
Toronto Maple Leafs: They Re-Sign William Nylander
28 of 32
The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the offseason with two key players—Auston Matthews and William Nylander—entering the final year of their contracts and eligible for extensions.
They already managed to get one re-signed when they gave Matthews a four-year extension that pays him $13.25 million per season and the highest annual salary in the league.
The Nylander talks have been a little more complicated.
His current deal ($6.9 million per year) has been a steal for Toronto over the past few years and made Nylander one of the most underpaid top-line players in the league. He no doubt wants a significant raise. The question is whether Toronto is willing to give him that...and if it can do so under the salary cap.
The former question is certainly up for debate, but there is a potential path forward for the Maple Leafs regarding the latter if they decided to go that route.
Not only is the salary cap expected to rise significantly over the next few years, Toronto also still has $33 million in cap space for next offseason, per CapFriendly. Assuming that Nylander wants (and gets) a deal in the $8 million to $10 million range, there should still be enough flexibility there for Toronto to pay him and fill in around the remaining core.
The long-term salary-cap outlook will see John Tavares' $11 million cap hit come off the books following the 2024-25 season. He will be 34 years old at that point, and Toronto will either let him go and create all of that additional cap space, or it will re-sign him at what is almost certainly a fraction of that rate. So there will be significant space opening in the future, and a new Nylander deal would only create a cap headache for one season.
Even that is manageable.
Nylander told reporters he would prefer to stay in Toronto, he is still one of its best players and even if the Leafs looked to trade him sometime this season, it would almost certainly make them a worse team.
It might seem complicated right now, but they'll figure out a way to get this completed.
Vancouver Canucks: Thatcher Demko Bounces Back
29 of 32
This seems like a pretty easy call.
Prior to the 2022-23 season, Thatcher Demko had given the Vancouver Canucks very strong goaltending and was consistently performing at an above-league-average rate. He had back-to-back seasons with a .915 save percentage and even earned some Vezina Trophy votes during the 2021-22 season.
He was one of the biggest reasons the Canucks would at least have a chance of making the playoffs.
But everything fell apart for him in 2022-23 as he struggled with a torn groin, played behind a porous defense and saw his save percentage drop all the way to .901.
He is not only looking to be healthy going into this season, but the Canucks defense should also be significantly better after adding Filip Hronek at the trade deadline from the Detroit Red Wings and signing Carson Soucy in free agency.
A better defense and a healthy, improved Demko probably won't be enough to get the Canucks in the playoffs in an increasingly tough Pacific Division, but it should at least solve their goalie situation for the short term.
Vegas Golden Knights: Logan Thompson Reclaims His Job
30 of 32
Logan Thompson was supposed to be the answer for the Vegas Golden Knights in goal in 2022-23, and until his season was ended by injury...he was.
He had done a really good job taking over the starting goalie spot following the trade of Marc-Andre Fleury the previous year and the continued injuries to Robin Lehner. He was playing at an above-league-average rate and seemed to have everything under control.
And then he got injured and left the net in the hands of Laurent Brossoit and Adin Hill.
Hill ended up finishing the Golden Knights' Stanley Cup run by playing the best hockey of his life and earning a two-year contract extension that comes with a pretty nice salary-cap number of $4.9 million per season.
But this is not going to be a Wally Pipp-Lou Gehrig situation. As good as Hill played last season, it was probably an outlier for his career. He is best suited for a backup role, and that is what he will ultimately end up being in Vegas.
Thompson will be the starter, and his play will command it.
As long as he is healthy.
Washington Capitals: Max Pacioretty Scores 25 Goals
31 of 32
One of the best under-the-radar moves of the offseason was the Washington Capitals getting veteran forward Max Pacioretty on a one-year, $2 million contract.
He lost almost all of his 2022-23 season because of a pair of Achilles tears and missed out on an opportunity to be one of the missing pieces for a Carolina Hurricanes team that needed him to be a big-time goal scorer.
While there is some significant risk in signing a player on the wrong side of 30 who is also coming off multiple major injuries, the Capitals and Pacioretty seem like a great fit.
For one, there is almost no long-term risk on the contract. If the 34-year-old fails, it doesn't really cost the Capitals anything.
But if he succeeds, they might have one of the most productive free agents of the offseason for a stupidly low price. Injuries have been the one constant thing holding Pacioretty back over the past few years, but when he has been on the ice, he has continued to score like a top-line winger. He is going to a Washington team that will have opportunities for him to shine as it continues to try to make the most of what is left of Alex Ovechkin's career.
Do not be surprised if Pacioretty ends up being one of the most productive free agents signed this summer.
Winnipeg Jets: The Rebuild Truly Begins
32 of 32
The Winnipeg Jets have not only reached their ceiling with this core, they have also been ramming their heads against it for the past five years. This is what they are. This is as good as they are going to get. A bubble playoff team that might make the postseason on the back of a strong goalie and then not do anything else.
They also do not do anything different in building the roster.
Few trades.
No free-agent signings.
It is just the same thing over and over.
To their credit, they did already start to make some changes this offseason by trading Pierre-Luc Dubois and buying out the remainder of Blake Wheeler's contract, but more moves are absolutely on the horizon. Especially as Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck approach free agency this summer.
The Jets do not figure to be a major contender, and if they start to fall out of the playoff picture by the end of February, you can expect a true rebuild to finally begin with the eventual trades of those two stars. Hellebuyck has already expressed a desire to not be a part of a rebuild, and if you are going to trade him, you might as well move on from Scheifele as well.
Advanced stats via Natural Stat Trick unless otherwise noted.
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Cards Had Wrong Love Number 😅")
.jpg?w=600 "Fans React to Simpson Pick 😱")
.jpg?w=600 "Vet Wideout Landing Spots After Draft 📍")