5 NHL Teams Already Regretting Their 2025 Offseason Moves

Every NHL offseason, teams use their salary-cap space to make trades or free-agent additions to improve their roster and address their weaknesses in preparation for the new season.

Some of these additions will pan out well almost immediately. Others may take more time before the dividends become apparent. Sometimes, the moves don't work out as hoped.

For example, the Toronto Maple Leafs hoped to address the departure of a high-scoring forward by improving their overall forward depth. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings turned to the free-agent market to add more experience to their defense corps.

It's difficult to anticipate with certainty how well these moves will work out. While it's still early in the season, the Maple Leafs and the Kings are among five teams that aren't seeing the improvements they anticipated from their summer acquisitions.

Follow along as we examine why they could be regretting those moves.

Los Angeles Kings

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During the 2025 draft, the Los Angeles Kings traded defenseman Jordan Spence to the Ottawa Senators for two picks. Three days later, they lost top-pairing defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to free agency when he signed with the New York Rangers on July 1.

To address those departures, the Kings signed veteran defensemen Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. The former got a four-year contract with an average annual value of $4.5 million, and the latter received a three-year deal with an AAV of $4 million.

Those two moves wound up on our list of the 10 worst 2025 free-agent signings. Ceci had the lowest advanced stats among all Dallas Stars defensemen during the 2025 postseason, while time could be catching up with the 33-year-old Dumoulin.

As of Tuesday, the Kings are near the bottom of the standings with one win and four points in their first six games. Their early struggles have been a team issue, with their 3.83 goals against per game sitting as the league's fifth-highest, while their penalty-killing percentage (70.4) was the sixth-worst.

Nevertheless, Ceci and Dumoulin have yet to establish themselves as worthwhile replacements for Gavrikov and Spence.

Skating alongside Drew Doughty on the top pairing, Dumoulin has a team-worst plus-minus of minus-5, while Ceci is minus-4 while playing third-pairing minutes.

New York Rangers

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Throughout last season, the New York Rangers were among the busiest teams in the trade market as general manager Chris Drury attempted to remake his struggling roster.

Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kaako, and Ryan Lindgren were among the notables moved out, while JT Miller, Will Borgen, and Carson Soucy were brought in.

That trade activity carried over into the offseason. On June 12, he shipped out longtime scoring winger Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks. Over two weeks later, he sent defenseman K'Andre Miller to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Drury also made one of the summer's biggest free-agent signings. On July 1, he inked former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year contract with an average annual value of $7 million.

The Rangers sat fifth in the Metropolitan Division after seven games (3-3-1) but also with the second-lowest goals per game average (2.14). Part of that can be attributed to their adjustment to new head coach Mike Sullivan, but losing Kreider's goal scoring and Miller's puck-moving skills were contributing factors.

Meanwhile, Gavrikov told reporters he's struggled to adjust to his new club and with Adam Fox, his partner on their top defense pairing.

Sullivan believes the duo is a work in progress and should improve over time, but if it doesn't, the Rangers could have a costly mistake on their hands.

Ottawa Senators

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Optimism was high for the Ottawa Senators entering this season. They ended a seven-season playoff drought in 2024-25, and they were expected to build on that performance and move even higher up the standings.

The Senators looked to build up their veteran depth during the offseason. They acquired young defenseman Jordan Spence from the Los Angeles Kings, signed free-agent forwards Lars Eller, Nick Cousins, and Arthur Kaliyev, and acquired physical forward Kurtis MacDermid.

After winning their season opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Senators dropped four of their next five games, sitting near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings by Oct. 20. Losing captain Brady Tkachuk for six to eight weeks hasn't helped, and neither has their struggling penalty kill.

The addition of Eller on the fourth line hasn't helped their defensive game. Spence was a healthy scratch from their first two games but has four points in as many games, although three of those came in an 8-4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. Kaliyev and MacDermid saw action in two games thus far.

It's not solely on those players that the Senators have stumbled from the gate, but they haven't done much to help their new club get out of its current funk.

San Jose Sharks

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The rebuilding San Jose Sharks spent the offseason surrounding youngsters such as Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson, and Yaroslav Askarov with veterans. The expectation was that those experienced players could take some of the burden off those promising players.

Those notable additions included goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, defensemen Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy, and forwards Jeff Skinner and Ryan Reaves. However, the results have been mostly disappointing as the Sharks were winless through their first five games (0-3-2).

Some of those veterans, such as Orlov and Skinner, have been good additions thus far. The former was second in scoring during that five-game stretch with four points, and the latter led them with three goals.

However, Leddy has a plus-minus of minus-5, and Klingberg was minus-3 before being sidelined by a lower-body injury. Reaves had a goal in four games before becoming a healthy scratch, and Nedeljkovic had a 3.82 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage with a 0-2-1 record.

Those veterans are not the main reason why the Sharks dropped their first five games. However, most have not yet provided the experience and leadership this rebuilding club needs if it's to grow and develop into a contender.

Toronto Maple Leafs

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On June 30, the Toronto Maple Leafs parted company with Mitch Marner, shipping him to the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade deal.

Losing the two-way winger's 102 points from last season and his solid defensive play would prove to be a daunting challenge.

However, the Leafs made three moves in the hope that sufficient depth in scoring and defensive play could offset most of what Marner had brought to their forward lines. They turned to the trade market to acquire Matias Maccelli, Nicolas Roy, and Dakota Joshua.

Roy is a big, versatile forward who was part of the return in the Marner trade. Maccelli is a playmaking forward with a career-high 57 points two years ago with the Arizona Coyotes before they became the Utah Mammoth. Joshua's gritty two-way style made him a fan favorite during his time with the Vancouver Canucks.

On Tuesday, the Leafs were sitting three points out of first in the Atlantic Division with seven points in six games. However, their consistency was an issue. During that stretch, Joshua had a team-worst plus-minus of minus-5, and Roy was minus-2. Meanwhile, Maccelli managed only one assist.

It wasn't going to be easy for any of those players to fill Marner's skates. Maccelli began the season on the Leafs' top line but has been moved to their second line. Roy and Joshua have skated on the third and fourth lines. Nevertheless, they haven't yet provided the kind of depth the Leafs were hoping for when the season began.

Stats and standings (as of Oct. 20, 2025) via NHL.com, team transaction info via PuckPedia, and line combinations via Daily Faceoff.