B/R NHL Staff Roundtable: Which Team Has Won the 2024 Offseason So Far?
It's been a spirited summer, with July 1 seeing an intense flurry of action before things settled down.
With the calendar closing in on August, the NHL's teams and league insiders are taking a breath and getting a chance to reevaluate every team's moves so far.
This gives us, the B/R NHL Staff, an opportunity to judge the big winners of the offseason.
Did the Nashville Predators win it with their big-money moves? Or how about the Edmonton Oilers, looking to go further and win the Cup?
Who do you think won it? Please send us your thoughts in the comments section of the app.
Preds Spend Big and Are the Big Winners
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During David Poile's long tenure as their general manager, the Nashville Predators rarely made big splashes in the NHL's annual free-agent market. However, that's changed since Barry Trotz took over the role last year.
Trotz started his first offseason as GM by adding Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Schenn and Gustav Nyquist. This summer, he outdid himself by landing scoring stars Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei, winning this offseason on the opening day of free agency.
Stamkos was the long-time face of the Tampa Bay Lightning, holding several franchise scoring records and leading them to consecutive Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021. The 34-year-old left winger tallied 40 goals seven times in his 16 NHL seasons, including 2023-24. Trotz signed him to a four-year contract with an average annual value of $8 million.
Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy leading the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2022-23. Now 33, he departs the Golden Knights as their all-time leading scorer, including a career-high 40-goal performance last season, inking a five-year contract with the Predators at an AAV of $5.5 million.
Skjei, 30, was among the top defensemen in this summer's free-agent market. During the past three seasons, he became a solid all-around blueliner with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Predators landed him with a seven-year deal with an AAV of $7 million.
With these three moves, Trotz significantly improved the Predators' depth as well as their culture.
Stamkos and Marchessault are former Cup champions who know what it takes to lead and win in the postseason. Skjei, meanwhile, will likely skate alongside captain Roman Josi, providing the Predators with one of the league's best defense pairings.
Trotz also re-signed starting goaltender Juuse Saros to a seven-year contract extension and second-pairing blueliner Alexandre Carrier to a three-year deal.
An excellent day's work by the Predators GM.
- Lyle Richardson
Oilers Won the Offseason; Can They Finish the Job and Win the Cup?
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It's one of those arguments that may never have a satisfying end.
There's little doubt that the claims made on behalf of Barry Trotz and Co. are legitimate based on the Nashville GM's summertime performance. And just as compelling a case can be made for Tom Fitzgerald in New Jersey or others on the NHL map, too.
Nevertheless, here's why it's Edmonton. And only Edmonton.
Because none of the other contenders—not the Predators, Devils, or anyone else—was already as close to a Stanley Cup hoist as the Oilers. Not only did interim GM Jeff Jackson maintain the team's standing among the league's truly elite, he also managed to improve it.
Jackson flexed significant off-season muscle by not only keeping UFAs Connor Brown, Adam Henrique, Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry around in the bottom-six roles in which they shined on the way to getting the Oilers within a game of a title, but adding new, shiny pieces in Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner to provide additional punch for a top-six that already boasts the prolific likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman.
Five straight playoff berths have already reduced the "Decade of Darkness" to a speck in northern Alberta's rear-view mirror.
And if Jackson can top things off by getting Draisaitl's name on a contract extension before training camp arrives, too, he'll have solidified Edmonton's standing as a way-too-early favorite for a 2025 parade and given this debate a blue and orange mic drop.
- Lyle Fitzsimmons
Stanley Cup Champs Are Also Champs of the Offseason
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The Stanley Cup champion Panthers have structured their roster for long-term success, and as always, that's a process that started years ago and has continued as general manager Bill Zito has made the necessary tweaks.
Post-Cup, the question became, "Who can you afford to lose and still have the opportunity to run it back?" The answer surely was not leading scorer Sam Reinhart. In an offseason when so many contenders have had to punt their key pieces to free agency, the Panthers promptly re-signed Reinhart to an extremely reasonable eight-year, $69 million extension with an $8.62 million cap hit.
A possibly yet to reach his prime Anton Lundell also re-signed to a long-term deal.
Now, Florida did lose Vladimir Tarasenko, Brandon Montour and Ryan Lomberg, but making the correct hard decisions in a timely manner has been the Zito Difference. Tarasenko contributed some clutch factor to the top six as a deadline acquisition, but the key there was the term and the extreme discount. He got a raise with Detroit that feels like an overpay risk—fine for where the Red Wings are at but would've been more costly for the Panthers.
-Sara Civian
Capitals Have Done the Best Business
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I am not going to sit here and pretend that the Capitals are going to be a Stanley Cup team this season, because that would be unrealistic and unreasonable. But I do love what they have done this offseason because they are still going all-out to give themselves a chance, they are still trying to remain competitive while Alex Ovechkin is still playing and still chasing Wayne Gretzky's goals record, and they did it at almost no long-term cost to their future.
There is no way the Capitals could have looked at last year's playoff team and been content with the way they played. They were one of the worst teams in the league in goal-differential, they were a bottom team in almost every underlying possession metric and they didn't really have great special teams or goaltending. The whole thing was a giant mirage. If they had any hopes of getting back they would need to make dramatic improvements to the roster.
They have.
Pierre-Luc Dubois might have washed out in Los Angeles, but he has a larger track record of being a good player than he does of being a bad player in the NHL. There is a real chance he bounces back here.
Andrew Mangiapane is a strong two-way, top-six forward that can chip in 20 goals and help drive possession, while they completely overhauled their defense with the addition of two bonafide top-four defenders in Matt Roy (an excellent shutdown player) and Jakob Chychrun (a big-time offensive player).
Perhaps the most underrated move they made was getting goalie Logan Thompson from Vegas, pairing him up with Charlie Lindgren for what could be a very capable goalie duo at almost no cost against the salary cap.
They positioned themselves to make another run at the playoffs, and might actually be able to get there without an insane amount of luck.
- Adam Gretz
The Devils Have Loaded Up and Are the Team to Watch Next Season
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It's easy to forget about the Devils because they missed the playoffs last season after lofty expectations.
They beat the rival Rangers in a seven-game series during the 2023 playoffs and were poised to take the Eastern Conference by storm during the 2023-24 campaign.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
Injuries really knocked the starch out of New Jersey, with Jack Hughes missing time and Dougie Hamilton missing most of the season with a pectoral setback. Timo Meier, who signed a long-term extension after being acquired at the 2023 trade deadline, also struggled through injury, though he did put a strong end to the campaign with the Devils out of the playoff picture.
But the biggest issue for New Jersey was goaltending, and it probably cost Lindy Ruff his job as head coach.
The Devils were a top-10 team in expected goals percentage and in puck possession at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick, but they couldn't get saves. Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid both posted save percentages below .900, which is completely unacceptable for a playoff-contending team.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald saw the holes on the roster and decided to address them during the offseason.
He let go of Ruff and hired a proven coach in Sheldon Keefe. He got Jacob Markstrom from the Flames to end doubts about the Devils' goaltending. He beefed up the defense by adding Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon. And he rounded out the team's depth forwards, bringing back Stefan Noesen and Tomas Tatar to the Garden State.
With a healthy Hughes and Hamilton, New Jersey could be back in the playoffs and challenge for the top of the Eastern Conference.
- Lucky Ngamwajasat
Utah's Focus on Hockey Will Make the Club a Winner Soon
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It's always nice when premonitions come true.
When Ryan and Ashley Smith purchased the Arizona Coyotes and brought them to Salt Lake City, Utah, the prevailing thought was they would do something most (all?) of the previous owners of the Coyotes never did—that being spend money to invest in the current roster. And, boy, have they.
Through trades and free agency, Utah GM Bill Armstrong was able to put that newfound wealth into action and upgrade the team in the area it needed the most: defense.
Through trades, he added a bona fide No. 1 blue liner in Mikhail Sergachev from Tampa Bay. He also added a top-four defender in John Marino from New Jersey. They extended puck moving defenseman Sean Durzi with a four-year, $24 million deal and added Ian Cole in free agency.
Perhaps they could use some help at forward, but with youngsters Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley growing into their NHL roles and Matias Maccelli turning into one of the sneakiest point producers to team up with Clayton Keller, the foundation they've got up front in Utah is very good. Now with Barrett Hayton re-signed (two years, $5.3 million), they're just about ready to go.
Utah had flashes last season of being a team that could one day be a big pain in the rear. Now that ownership has made honest-to-goodness investment in the team and the roster, the rise of the Yeti/Mammoth/Outlaws/Venom/Blizzard/Your Name Here is about to begin.
- Joe Yerdon
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