1 Offseason Mulligan Every NHL Team Wishes It Had
We're not even 10 games into the NHL season yet, which is the perfect time to remind fans that there's still a lot of games left to play. And while that's sensible to do, we know that fans of struggling teams are not enjoying things right now and searching for answers.
You know what's better than mystical answers pulled out of the air? A do-over, that's what.
Any weekend golfer's saving grace in a bad round is a mulligan, when you get to hit it again after totally blowing it on the previous shot. Every team in the NHL has at least one move (or non-move) they'd love to go back in time and try it over again but differently.
That's what we're going to lay out for everyone. We're picking out one mulligan for each team in the league regardless of how well they've started. Is your team unbeaten in regulation? Cool, we're still finding a flaw to pick on though. And if your team is off to a brutal start? We know you've got a laundry list of things to fix up, but rest assured we're picking out a good one.
Everyone get your finest plaid golf pants on because we're coming out swinging...and then taking another shot because we totally pooched the first one.
Each team should have...
Atlantic Division
1 of 4
Boston Bruins: Avoided sweating the center position
We're all guilty of pointing at the Bruins center position as a likely source of weakness, and all that's happened is rookie Matthew Poitras showing up and proving there was no need to worry.
The 19-year-old rookie has five points (three goals, two assists) in his first eight games and has eased the pressure on veterans Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle immensely. Did the Bruins know for sure Poitras was going to be a player right away? No, because if they had, they likely wouldn't have spread around inexpensive contracts to guys like Morgan Geekie and Patrick Brown. Instead, the Bruins now have immense depth at a position they thought they might struggle with. Take that, us.
Buffalo Sabres: Found more certainty in goal
Sabres rookie goalie Devon Levi started the first four games of the season with average results before he went out of action with a lower-body injury. Eric Comrie stepped in and stepped up but suffered a more serious lower-body injury of his own on Friday. That's left Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen standing alone with rookie Devin Cooley backing him up for the time being, all while the Sabres have three wins in their first eight games.
The offseason options for goalies weren't great, so the Sabres were kind of stuck in a way but weren't able to get into the trade market as well. It's early but seeing some of the same problems from years past returning again can't feel great.
Detroit Red Wings: Avoided going back to July 2022
The way the Red Wings have started this season has been impressive. They're scoring goals and winning games and making fans in Motor City feel good about things once again. There's one area, however, that might feel like a concern, and it's starting goalie Ville Husso.
The Wings signed Husso two summers ago to a three-year deal, and although he struggled for most of last season, the team's overall quality seemed to be reflective of that. Now that they're playing better hockey and Husso's struggles have continued, it might be a bit more worrisome if it persists. If there's a reason to have hope, it's that Husso was incredible for the first month of last season before things cooled off. Maybe this year it'll be a slow start followed by brilliance.
Florida Panthers: Had more of a backup plan in net
No number of do-overs were going to allow Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour to start the season on time because both were injured severely during their run to the Stanley Cup Final. What they have done that could stand further examination is leaning hard on starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.
Bob has started six of the Panthers' seven games and gone 3-3-0 with a .906 save percentage. It's about on par with how he performed last season, and his 2.88 goals-against average is something you can definitely live with for the moment. But backup Anthony Stolarz was lights out in his one start, stopping 27 of 28 shots and getting the win.
Again, Bobrovsky's done well, but if this is the workload they've got in mind for the 35-year-old, working him this hard to start might work against them later.
Montréal Canadiens: Remedied the injury curse
On top of the Canadiens not having a great team last season, they also were besieged by injuries throughout the lineup all year. This season hasn't seen their fortune change all too well.
Montréal has once again had bad injury luck again early on. Kirby Dach is out for the season because of a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee. Forward Christian Dvorak and defenseman Chris Wideman have been out since the preseason. David Savard landed on IR after he blocked a pair of Tage Thompson shots last week. It can't always be like this…right?
Injuries are freak occurrences more often than not, but the misfortune that's befallen these Canadiens--who already aren't a terribly deep team—makes it seem as if they're haunted. Fortunately, they've won games and have gotten outstanding goaltending from Jake Allen, but if players continue to drop like flies, it's only a matter of time until those wins start to dry up.
Ottawa Senators: Figured it out with Pinto
It's unfortunate to see what's happened with Shane Pinto and his 41-game suspension on a gambling-related matter. It's even more unfortunate that what's happened there has helped give a pass of sorts to Senators management for not getting the restricted free agent signed months ago.
Ottawa played hardball with Pinto over a contract that was debatable on how much he could get. Instead, they went out and signed veteran Vladimir Tarasenko to a one-year, $5 million contract to make an attempt to deepen their forward group. It's hard to believe a new deal for Pinto would've cost that much and for whatever he would've signed for, there's a good chance it would've left room to add more depth in the end anyway.
But now Ottawa has no cap space to work with and that was before they had multiple players come up injured the past couple days. Maybe LTIR saves the day, but if it can't…it's just another new mess for GM Pierre Dorion to figure out.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Prioritized depth
It would've been really easy to hyper fixate on the Lightning seemingly paying no mind to who they got to back up Andrei Vasilevskiy and then needing to rely upon Jonas Johansson for the first two months of the season after Vasilevskiy went in for back surgery. But after taking a look at the rest of their depth in other areas informs us that a lack of depth isn't just a goaltending issue.
It's true, the Lightning are always right up against the cap and having quality depth is hard to keep in that situation, but among their superstar forwards and defensemen is a litany of veteran budget signings and mid-level prospects. Tampa Bay's top talent can carry them far, but if they struggle, times could get real tough for the Bolts.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Signed William Nylander
If there's a regret the Leafs might have all season long it's that they didn't get William Nylander signed to an extension before they dropped the puck on the regular season.
Nylander leads the Maple Leafs in scoring so far with 12 points and his six goals are second on the team only to Auston Matthews who has seven. Those numbers put him among the top scorers in the league right now and after the huge performance he had in the playoffs last year, he's making the case to get paid in a big way pretty easy to make.
Leafs management will have hard decisions to make for the future, but whether or not to retain Nylander should be a simple one to make. He fills the net and he helps his teammates to do the same.
Metropolitan Division
2 of 4
Carolina Hurricanes: Tried something different in goal
Carolina entered the season with one of the best rosters and were one of the best teams in the NHL last season. They added Dmitry Orlov on defense and got even better at that position but brought back Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta in goal and kept Pyotr Kochetkov in the AHL. If it's not broke, why fix it, right? Problem is, the goaltending always broke and it's happened again already.
Andersen took a shot off his helmet and missed some time. Through nine games, all three goalies have made multiple starts with Andersen getting four, Raanta three and Kochetkov two and all three haven't put up great numbers so far, although Raanta has a shutout. Carolina will need this to get figured out if they're going to win the Stanley Cup this year and early on the situation has played out a little bit too familiar.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Done more with defense
The Blue Jackets offseason highlighted how much they stressed improving their defense when they traded for Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson. They knew they were getting Zach Werenski and Jake Bean back from injury as well and rookie David Jiricek won a spot out of training camp. All good, right? Well...sort of.
Jiricek has seen his ice time drop to the point he's playing virtually specialized minutes and averaging 13:25 a game. Rookies being sheltered is nothing new, except he's splitting his zone starts virtually evenly between the offensive and defensive zones all while his advanced numbers are good. Perhaps it's the NHL learning curve for Jiricek and coach Pascal Vincent is bringing him along carefully, but the Jackets are off to a decent start and their defense is what can keep them in the mix. Trusting a young guy like Jiricek could help make their offseason moves work out even better.
New Jersey Devils: Made a play for a No. 1 goalie
I know it seems like we could pick on goaltending for a lot of teams when it comes to mulligans, but the Devils are an absolute Stanley Cup favorite that might wind up regretting not solidifying the position when the opportunity was ripe.
All offseason there were rumors of the Devils being potentially in on Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck and they had the players and prospects to be able to make the kind of offer that would've demanded the Jets attention. Obviously, things changed and Hellebuyck signed an extension in Winnipeg during training camp, but when the situation was at its most fragile there, that was the moment for New Jersey (or anyone else) to make a big play for the 2020 Vezina winner.
Instead, the Devils, while looking incredible thanks to Jack Hughes' blazing hot start, look deeply suspicious in goal as both Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid have struggled out of the gate. With how wicked the East figures to be, asking the Devils to outscore their goaltending all season and into the playoffs is asking for trouble when things get tighter.
New York Islanders: Added more offense, please
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello was busy taking care of his own players with contract extensions in the offseason but didn't do much to add to the roster. Yes, there's the cap to deal with but the glaring issue with the team was how much they were going to be able to score. So far this year, that worry is proving to be real.
The Islanders have 18 goals in their first seven games putting them in the bottom-10 of the league and 13 of them have come from five players (Bo Horvat, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri have three; Cal Clutterbuck and Noah Dobson have two). Fortunately, the Isles defend extremely well and have Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov in goal to help make minimal goal scoring stand up. But their style of hockey takes a toll on players and they're going to need consistent offense throughout the lineup to keep pace. Where that comes from is still a question that needs answering. It might've helped to provide a few more options in the offseason.
New York Rangers: Moved Barclay Goodrow
Most of what the Rangers did with their roster in the offseason involved doing absolutely nothing. They were up against the cap and already had a 100-point team with a mix of veterans and youth. But a big reason they couldn't do much was because of being up against the salary cap and one player who was thought to be movable was Barclay Goodrow.
Goodrow's contract and years remaining made him difficult to move. He's got four years left at more than $3.6 million against the cap and after he was a key player for Tampa Bay in helping them win two Stanley Cups, the fit in New York has been awkward and it hasn't gotten better under Peter Laviolette. His advanced numbers are very poor and he has zero points in eight games playing fourth line minutes. He's 30 years old and it's hard to see how he'll improve in New York but it's also tough to see how another team would take him on with his contract now.
Philadelphia Flyers: Had a plan for Morgan Frost
Last season, Morgan Frost was fourth on the Flyers with 46 points (19 goals, 27 assists), and this year he's been a regular healthy scratch and played in just two games.
This isn't a classic situation of a player landing in John Tortorella's doghouse—it's far from that actually—but the Flyers are off to a very good and surprising start, and Tortorella said he doesn't want to put him in the lineup in a checking role just to get him back on the ice.
At 24 years old, Frost is too young to keep out of the lineup for so long, but as long as things are going well with the combos they've been using, Torts isn't one to change things up on a whim.
A lineup bind was likely to happen with Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson back from injuries, but that it's Frost who's on the outside looking in is a surprise. It's the classic "good problem to have" situation for Philly, but having an established younger player not getting ice time because of it is hard to see.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Avoided the Bloated Tristan Jarry contract
When the Penguins re-signed Tristan Jarry, it wasn't a big surprise. The goalie market was paper thin, and a lot of times the guy you know is better than the one you don't. Familiarity is a good thing, but the Pens retained Jarry on a five-year deal, and this came after seeing him struggle with injuries and poor play late last year.
To say this season has made that decision look worse already would be an understatement. He's 2-4-0 with a .901 save percentage, but at five-on-five, Jarry has minus-2.2 goals saved above expected (via Moneypuck), placing him 59th out of 69 goalies who have played this season. It's an uninspiring start for a team that got everyone excited about the addition of Erik Karlsson.
Washington Capitals: Moved Kuznetsov
That most of Washington's offseason was spent discussing when and how they were going to move Evgeny Kuznetsov and then didn't was something of a head-scratcher. It's even more interesting because he's again centering their No. 2 line and playing a ton of minutes makes it all even stranger as to how much it was discussed.
Watching the Capitals play now and seeing how much the offense is struggling outside of Dylan Strome and thinking about how trading Kuznetsov could've helped diversify or deepen the forward group makes us shake our heads.
Yes, Kuznetsov has a beefy contract with a cap hit north of $7 million, but with the number of other teams that were also looking to make deals and how creative GMs can get when it comes to moving money around, it's tough to see the Capitals struggling the way they are and how they could've found a way to attack the season differently.
Central Division
3 of 4
Arizona Coyotes: Played Dylan Guenther
Watching rookie Logan Cooley dazzle early on in his NHL career with the Coyotes has been extremely exciting. His creativity on the ice and his ability to create a scoring opportunity almost out of nowhere is a welcome breath of fresh air in the desert. Know what would be even cooler? Having fellow young guy Dylan Guenther right there with him.
Guenther didn't make the Coyotes out of camp and is playing in AHL Tucson, where he's got five points in six games to lead the Roadrunners in scoring. That's cool and all, and getting a young player's development right is vital to their future success, but seeing Guenther continue to learn and develop at the NHL level would be a lot more fun.
Chicago Blackhawks: Gone easy on the veteran additions
Watching Connor Bedard make his way in the NHL with a few younger players in Chicago like forward Lucas Reichel and defensemen Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic is awesome and even more exciting for fans in the Windy City.
Having those players learn the ropes from Corey Perry and Nick Foligno among others is going to be beneficial to them in the years to come, but seeing those veterans getting such big minutes next to them makes it a harder year for everyone.
Yeah, this season isn't supposed to be a good one for the Blackhawks either because the young guys are learning how the league works, but the veterans are there to guide and not necessarily take ice time from younger guys. Bedard and Korchinski are racking up the ice time, but some of the others aren't quite there yet. They'll be headed that way eventually, but if they're in the NHL now they should be playing regular minutes.
Colorado Avalanche: Miles Wood, we guess?
The Avalanche are 6-1-0 to start the year and looking dominant. They made all the right moves in the offseason knowing they'd be without Gabriel Landeskog all year, they got Devon Toews signed to a long-term extension, and they have one of the best rosters in the league.
So what would they want a mulligan on? Maybe Miles Wood's contract? We guess. Wood has one goal in seven games and his advanced stats aren't too hot so far. He also signed a six-year, $15 million contract in the offseason which, yeah, it's a lot of years but a $2.5 million cap hit is not a big deal, and his role is to be an energy line guy who plays physically and scores occasionally.
Asking for a mulligan on that one is like asking for a do-over on a drive that's still in the fairway but resting next to the fringe. It's fine, play on.
Dallas Stars: Jolted the power play
The Stars are 4-1-1 to start the season and if there's anything that's an issue for them right now it's that the offense hasn't gotten going yet. They've scored 17 goals in six games, but they've only allowed 15, second fewest to Boston's 12 in eight games.
Of course, these aren't the late-90s/early 00s Stars here where close games are what they're aiming for. The offense will pick up and it'll need to come from the power play which has been a bit rough to start the year.
With the extra man, Dallas has scored 11.1 percent of the time (2 for 18) and they've allowed three shorthanded goals. It doesn't need to be pointed out that being outscored by the teams killing penalties when you're on the power play is bad, but here we are doing just that. Special teams are always one of the last things to come together to start the season, but Peter DeBoer's group probably would like to go back to camp and get started on it a bit sooner given how things started.
Minnesota Wild: Worked on special teams
Consider this our way of trying to not talk about goaltending while also talking about goaltending for the Wild. Yes, Filip Gustavsson and Marc-André Fleury have struggled early on this season, but a big part of why they're struggling has to do with the lack of success the Wild have had on the power play and with killing penalties.
The Wild's power play is 4-for-30 (13.3 percent) to start the year with two shorthanded goals against them. Making matters worse, they've given up seven power play goals on 25 chances against (72 percent) which is one of the five worst penalty kills early on this season.
The Wild have had success this season because their offense has been electric with Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman all getting off to big starts, but they have to get their special teams addressed and hope that will lead to their goaltenders performing better on top of it because if they don't, it's going to be a maddening season in the Twin Cities.
Nashville Predators: Got a little more active in free agency
The Predators were one of the busiest teams in the offseason with both players they cut loose and added in free agency, but if there was something they might've wanted to do again it was to be even more active in acquiring forwards.
Nashville has seen Ryan O'Reilly jump in and perform well to start the season with four goals and six points in eight games, but they've also seen Gustav Nyquist put up four points in eight games as well. With the Predators offense firmly in the middle of the pack of the NHL, having two veterans come in and contribute well like that right away is just what they were hoping for.
But while Filip Forsberg has returned to his former self and Tommy Novak picked up where he left off last season, the rest of their attack is kind of all over the place and that's somewhat due in part to their younger players being inconsistent to start. Another veteran or two in the mix to balance things out might've helped put the Preds in more of a position to announce they're going to be around all year.
St. Louis Blues: Found an offense
Even though the Blues have gotten strong defense and goaltending to start the season, one area that hasn't changed from last season is the offense.
The Blues have scored the second fewest goals in the league (12) and they have the worst power play in the NHL by a long shot (4.8 percent going 1-for-21). St. Louis has guys who can score in Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Kevin Hayes, but no one is getting it going as of yet and it's a lack of depth and balance throughout their lines that's caused it.
The mix up front is fascinating when you peek at their lines and while it shouldn't struggle this much, it's still a group that doesn't grab your attention as a unit that will terrify opposing defenses. They could use a lot of help but they're in an odd position where they're kind of stuck having to make a go of it with this group because their best players are all just young enough to build around them.
Winnipeg Jets: Got those contracts done sooner
If Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff could've gotten the contract extensions for Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck done in July, we're positive he would have...but he didn't because the situation following the Jets' exit from the playoffs was so raw and emotional it required time to settle things down.
But that harsh conclusion to the season made it so guys had to ask whether they wanted to stick around there or not. When a coach calls out your desire the way Rick Bowness did, it's a fair reason for players to mull over whether they want to stick around or not.
But the amount of time it took to calm the rough waters made the offseason difficult to manage when it came to free agents. But now that Scheifele and Hellebuyck are both bought in long-term, things should get easier to plan out. After all, the Jets playoff appearance last season should've been one for everyone to build off of instead of wondering if it was the end of the run.
.png?w=256 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=256 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=256)
Pacific Division
4 of 4
Anaheim Ducks: Played it cooler in negotiations
The Ducks offseason almost totally derailed the rebuild that was just underway and how GM Pat Verbeek and young stars Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale each handled their restricted free agency helped make the situation in Orange County look a lot more contentious than perhaps it actually was.
There was sniping and complaining through the media about what was fair and what wasn't when it came to both players' apparent offers, but ultimately when both re-signed, cooler heads prevailed and everyone was seemingly happy and excited to get going and build towards the Ducks' future.
Whether it was much ado about nothing or if there really was some serious heat behind the scenes is irrelevant now. But appearances go a long way and keeping any sort of negotiations out of the spotlight would've gone a long way.
Calgary Flames: Ditched Darryl Sooner
Something that could've helped calm things down in Calgary for this season would've been to let Darryl Sutter go during the season last year.
The uneasiness about different soon-to-be free agents' futures even after Sutter was let go pointed towards how uncomfortable everything became there and a lot of that is still there as this season has started poorly for the Flames. Sure, Calgary wants to retain Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm and Chris Tanev among others, but the sore feelings and doubts about where the team is headed have lingered into this season.
That's something new coach Ryan Huska is all too aware of and is trying to work it out with the team now, but sometimes wounds of the past are deep and the only way to fix that is to go somewhere else. Calgary could've done themselves a favor and got this process started last season instead of trying to clean it all up now while starting anew.
Edmonton Oilers: It's about the depth, guys
Whether it's the lack of offense outside of the power play and guys not named Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, or the forever questions surrounding the defense and goaltending, the one issue that's plagued the Oilers for years is the severe lack of depth throughout the lineup and it's again rearing its ugly head early on this year.
With McDavid out of the lineup for the past week or so, the Oilers offense has run dry, and they've scored 17 goals in eight games. Adding to the misery, they've allowed 30 goals and have gone 1-5-1 to start the year. Seven of their 17 goals have been on the power play and only 10 players have registered a point so far.
Yes, McDavid and Draisaitl can win them a ton of games, but they're supposed to be gunning for the Stanley Cup by now and not toiling like this on the way to the postseason. Figuring out the cap and getting better at drafting are the ways to help figure out the depth problem and those are both areas they've struggled in for ages.
Los Angeles Kings: Avoided the goaltending tightrope
The biggest issue for the Kings last season was their goaltending, and it was something they smartly addressed at the trade deadline. They followed that in the offseason by letting the goalie they acquired walk in free agency for a monster deal in Ottawa, but that left them scouring free agency for someone to join Pheonix Copley.
Fortunately, a solid veteran like Cam Talbot was there to be had, even though he was coming off an injury-filled season with the Senators. The Kings lack experienced depth in the AHL and went into this year with Talbot and Copley and hoping one or both of them could hold it down well enough to ride high into the playoffs. So far, Talbot has been solid, and that's encouraging, but Copley has struggled terribly.
On the upside, the Kings have experience in dealing with this since they did it last season. On the downside, they're doing it all over again when perhaps they didn't have to.
San Jose Sharks: Done better in the Karlsson trade
The Sharks are really bad this season and that's probably what they were hoping would happen, but when it came to kickstarting the kind of rebuild they're aiming for, what they got in return for Erik Karlsson in the three-team deal with Pittsburgh and Montréal just wasn't close to enough to help that process along.
We get that making the money work was the biggest issue to handle because of Karlsson's contract and massive cap hit, but the Sharks are eating only $1.5 million of the $11.5 million cap hit and they received only one first-round pick in the trade along with a handful of veteran players with big enough cap hits.
Moving a 100-point scoring, Norris Trophy-winning defenseman has to result in getting more than a few usable players and one first-round pick. It just has to and they didn't get it. It was inexcusable then and more than enough of a reason for a mulligan now.
Seattle Kraken: Re-sign Daniel Sprong
The Kraken didn't do anything really egregious at all in the offseason and their modest start to the season hasn't really highlighted anything of serious concern. But if we're going to nitpick something for them, letting Daniel Sprong go to free agency where he signed with Detroit is a bit of an "oops" for them.
Sprong scored 21 goals for Seattle last season and had 46 points in all, a career-year for him and an appropriate time to test the free agent waters. The Kraken balked at bringing him back and Sprong joined the Red Wings where he's got two goals and four assists in nine games. That output would have him tied with Jaden Schwartz for second on the Kraken in points.
The Kraken have 20 goals in nine games so far this season and while their offense is again coming from virtually everyone in the lineup, a pure offensive producer like Sprong was an ideal player in their system.
Vancouver Canucks: Trade Conor Garland
It took the Canucks a bit too long to realize that trading Conor Garland was the best move for them and for Garland as well.
We all know that the offseason is when most trades occur because teams don't have the rosters set and they're still putting together how they want their lineups to look. But the Canucks were slow in coming to the final decision that moving Garland elsewhere was the right thing to do.
The player wasn't happy and finding a better fit for him in the Canucks lineup was getting more difficult. Once Vancouver management made it known they're open to trading him and wanted to find the best fit, the timing couldn't have been worse because most teams were coming down to their final decisions about their own rosters for the start of the season.
Yes, Garland's contract is a key issue in how difficult it is to move him, but for a solid player on a mostly palatable deal, a trade shouldn't be that hard to make. Perhaps if his contract was up after the season, it would be easier, but with two more years after this one to go, it's a lot trickier to do now than in June or July.
Vegas Golden Knights: Should've partied harder
The Golden Knights were supposed to have a Stanley Cup hangover this season. After all, that's what almost every team goes through the year after they win it all, right? Instead, they traded Reilly Smith and brought back just about everyone else and started off the season with an 8-0-1 record.
They're getting huge starts to the season from Shea Theodore, William Karlsson and Jack Eichel and even with defenseman Zach Whitecloud out injured, rookie Kaedan Korczak has jumped into the lineup and not missed a beat.
The Knights are deep and getting production from all over the lineup and goalies Logan Thompson and Adin Hill have each been incredible. With how efficient and incredible they've been, maybe they could've worked in another week of revelry on the Strip with the Cup.
.png?w=480 "NHL Mock Draft")
.jpg?w=480 "Kucherov Landing Spots")
.png?w=480)
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
