7 Storylines to Watch for the 2026 NHL Offseason

The 2025-26 NHL season is officially done, and the Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions after their six-game series win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

Now that the Stanley Cup has been awarded and Carolina's celebration begins, it is time to start looking ahead to the offseason.

More specifically, it is time to start looking ahead to storylines that could dominate the offseason.

Here are some of the bigger ones to watch out for in the coming weeks and months.

Trade Requests and What Comes from Them

Leila Devlin/Getty Images

We already know of two trade requests that have been made this offseason with Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin and Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse looking for fresh starts.

What happens with both players will be fascinating to watch, given all the variables involved.

• Will Steve Yzerman play hardball with Larkin and make him expand his trade list?
  
• What sort of value can Yzerman extract from Larkin when he is working from a limited trade list?
  
• Will the Oilers need to throw in a sweetener or retain salary to get someone to take on the remainder of Nurse's contract, which includes a $9 million salary cap hit over the next four years?
  
• How will teams actually view Nurse and his contract?

All interesting questions that have to be answered.

But the storyline does not stop with them. It has been reported and speculated that more trade requests could be coming this offseason as players look to use whatever power they have to force their way off teams that are not winning and onto teams that are.

What other big names could be on the move?

Could Connor Hellebuyck be fed up with Winnipeg?

Could a megastar like Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews want out of their current situations?

Could Brady Tkachuk change course and want out of Ottawa?

Is anybody else from the American Olympic team looking to position themselves to get to a new NHL team?

Does Toronto Take Gavin McKenna No. 1 Overall?

Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be a major team to watch this offseason, not only due to their disappointing year, but also because they are entering a massive offseason that already started with them winning the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Will they take Gavin McKenna? Or will they overthink the process and outsmart themselves? And what will the fallout be from whatever decision they make?

Does the top pick, and likely selection of McKenna, result in a Matthew Knies trade for defensive help or more draft assets?

Does Auston Matthews stay in Toronto?

The chain of events that could happen here will change the franchise for years to come.

When the 2025-26 season began, McKenna was the consensus No. 1 overall pick, but his decision to play in the NCAA rather than pile up 160 points in the CHL against teenagers has taken some of the hype off him. If anything, playing against tougher competition and the development that came from that should make him even more NHL-ready.

Will NHL Let Mike Babcock Coach, and Will Edmonton Hire Him?

Jason Mowry/Getty Images

The Edmonton Oilers are still looking for a Stanley Cup in the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era, and they seem to be escalating their efforts.

So much so that they have set their sights on coach Mike Babcock in the hopes of hiring him.

It is unusual for a prospective coach to require clearance from an NHL and NHL Players' Association review before being hired, but Edmonton appears prepared to proceed if that process allows it.

Babcock's history with players, including several well‑publicized incidents during his previous coaching stops, has been extensively reported.

• His treatment of Johan Franzen with the Detroit Red Wings was described by teammates as contributing to Franzen's breakdown on the bench and in the locker room.
  
• His decision to ask then-rookie Mitch Marner to rank his teammates' work ethic and then inform them of Marner's ranking was one of the final straws that led to his being fired in Toronto.
  
• He never even got a chance to coach a single practice in Columbus after he asked players to share their personal photos from their phones, which led to an NHLPA‑prompted investigation and his resignation.

Things are made even worse by the fact that when it comes to actual coaching and team success, Babcock's recent teams are widely viewed as having underachieved relative to their talent.

A Babcock-coached team has played beyond the first round of the playoffs just once since 2011. That one time was all the way back in 2013.

A Babcock-coached team has also not finished higher than third place in its own division since the 2010-11 season.

Other than being a big name, it's hard to imagine why Edmonton would pursue this so fiercely.

The best outcome here might be if the NHL saves the Oilers from themselves.

Will Vegas Free Bruce Cassidy to Coach Somebody Else?

David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images

One of the subplots to Vegas' Stanley Cup Final run was the fact that they would not let Bruce Cassidy interview for other head-coaching jobs even though they fired him with eight games remaining in the season.

Multiple teams wanted to speak to him.

He wanted to speak to them.

But because he still has one year left on his contract, and because Vegas is the most cutthroat, win-at-all-costs organization in the league, they did not want to help out any team that is potential competition for them.

Especially if it is a team in their own division (like Edmonton).

General manager Kelly McCrimmon talked about not wanting the distraction of dealing with the situation during a playoff run.

Now that the playoff run is over, will he and the Golden Knights allow Cassidy to interview elsewhere? Or will they keep him out of the coaching cycle for the next season?

Contract Time for NHL's Brightest Young Stars

Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Some of the NHL's best young players are either in need of new contracts this summer or are eligible to sign new contract extensions.

San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini is entering the final year of his entry-level contract and is eligible to sign a new deal.

Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is a restricted free agent.

Anaheim Ducks forwards Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier are restricted free agents.

Chicago and Anaheim have more than enough salary cap space to fend off any potential offer sheets, but given the rising salary cap and the talent production of everybody mentioned here, we could see some massive numbers this summer.

What Will the Free-Agent Market Look Like?

Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images

There has not been a good unrestricted free agent market in years, and this offseason is not going to change that trend.

Alex Tuch is the top forward likely headed to the open market, while John Carlson and Darren Raddysh lead the list of defensemen.

There is nobody out here who is going to significantly change the path of any franchise, and it honestly just looks like a list of names waiting to sign contracts that teams will immediately regret.

With a rising salary cap and money that has to be spent on somebody, we could see some truly staggering numbers on July 1 for otherwise ordinary players.

But could the lack of an unrestricted free agent market lead to the possibility of an offer sheet? Will it open up the trade market, especially if more players demand trades and teams around the league miss out on the chance to acquire a player like Dylan Larkin?

The trade market might be the path forward.

Alex Ovechkin's Future

Greg Fiume/Getty Images

Alex Ovechkin has not yet made up his mind whether he will play one more season, and until he does, it will be worth monitoring.

He might not be the player he was at his peak, but he is still the NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer, the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history, and a player still capable of scoring more than 30 goals in a single season even as he gets into his 40s.

He is, without question, a big deal in the NHL. Do the Capitals get an opportunity to take one more run with him in their lineup, or does he begin his path toward the Hockey Hall of Fame?

If he does decide to retire, will he become one of the few players who have the mandatory waiting period waived in order to get him in immediately? It would be fitting given his place in NHL history.