Playoffs are everyone’s favorite time of year. Sixteen of our favorite teams compete until June to see who gets to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. However, I don’t think many of us appreciate the amount of work that goes behind the scenes to ensure that a team even makes the playoffs.
Countless business decisions, training, trades, free agency signings, etc go on all year long to make sure a team is the best it can be heading into the season. The offseason gives a team a chance to reflect on their team’s strengths and weaknesses and assess what needs to be done to do better moving forward.
That being said, not every team has as good an offseason as others, and with training camps set to start it’ll be nice to take a deeper dive into moves made this offseason. Here are five NHL teams that won the offseason, and five that didn’t.
WON: Los Angeles Kings
The Kings have been making moves for the last few seasons. The 2021-22 season saw them as a surprise contender, as they made the playoffs and took the Oilers to seven games. They added key players Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault that offseason. They took it another step forward in the 2022 offseason, adding star forward Kevin Fiala. This offseason once again saw the Kings make big moves.
The Kings resigned defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who they acquired from Columbus at the deadline, to a two year extension, beefing up their blue line. Their big move however, was participating in one of the biggest trades this offseason has had. The Kings acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Winnipeg Jets and then signed him to massive 8 year contract worth 8.5 million. They gave up Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and Gabriel Villardi to do so, but they not only freed up cap space to resign key players such as Anze Kopitar and of course Gavrikov, but they acquired another super star as well. The only question that’s left lingering is goaltending.
LOST: New York Islanders
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The Islanders missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons after failing to keep up with an ultra-competitive Metropolitan division. They found themselves in an awkward place of being good enough to avoid the bottom, but still not good enough to compete with the elites. One would assume that they would spend the offseason making the movies necessary to fill in the key spots where they’re falling short. They managed to resign star goalie Ilya Sorokin to a long term deal, which at this moment in time seems to be their only real move forward.
Sorokin is an amazing goalie and deserved the deal that he got, but the Islanders also committed long term to Semyon Varlamov (four years), Scott Mayfield (seven years), and Pierre Engvall (seven years). The payments of the contract is not the issue, nor is the players themselves, but the lengths are a bit baffling given that all three are support players. Every team needs depth, but to commit that long of term to three depth players and making no other real big signings (they added Karson Kuhlman, Julien Gauthier, and Brian Pinho) makes it hard to see the Islanders managing to compete with the elites this next season.
WON: New Jersey Devils
The Devils are coming off the best season they’ve had in years. They made it back in the playoffs, almost winning a division title in the process, and knocked out their rival Rangers in the first round. The roster is filled with developing youth and all the pieces finally seem to be coming together. The real question was, what could they do to fill the rest of the puzzle and make them true contenders? New Jersey wasted no time answering that question.
The Devils resigned Erik Haula to a three year deal, and then added free agents Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. They acquired Tyler Toffoli from Calgary, one of the bigger trades this year, as well as Colin Miller from the Stars. They freed up cap space by dealing out Mackenzie Blackwood and Damon Severson (who was about to be a free agent anyways). They lost Ryan Graves and Miles Wood, but the moves they made should be more than enough to make up for it. For a team that really didn’t need to adjust all that much, the Devils made all the right moves to further ensure success moving forward.
LOST: Toronto Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs are in a weird time right now. They finally broke their first round curse by ending the Lightning’s long time Cup Final appearance run and advancing to the second round, only to get absolutely embarrassed by the Panthers. The window is rapidly closing for Toronto and everyone is wondering what they would do to fix their issues. With their backs against the wall and all eyes on them, what did Toronto do? They signed Ryan Reaves.
To their credit, they also added Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi, but each of them only got one year deals. Reaves got three. Toronto had depth issues needed to be addressed and instead they went the route of toughening themselves up. Reaves is not going to score goals, he’s going to beat up the other team. That can be a nice element to have, but it is not going to be the move that helps Toronto push forward and compete with their division. This could spell yet another disastrous season for the boys in blue.
WON: Nashville Predators
The Predators started the offseason pretty rough. Long time general manager David Poile stepped down and was replaced by Barry Trotz. Trotz’s impact was immediately felt. He bought out Matt Duchene’s contract, which still had three years left. He traded Ryan Johansen to Colorado. They made no effort to resign Alex Galchenyuk (which seems to have been for the best). These moves left us all wondering what direction Nashville was planning to go. Trotz went straight to free agency to let us know what he was thinking.
They quickly signed Ryan O’Reilly and Luke Schenn. Then they resigned Cody Glass to a two year contract. If that wasn’t enough, they also signed Gustav Nyquist from the Wild. The Predators missed the playoffs for the first time since the COVID shortened 2020 season. They managed to make a late push, but fell up short and were left wondering what was next. Barry Trotz wasted no time establishing a new direction for this team. Don’t be surprised if we seem them in the playoffs again next season.
LOST: Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning’s three year Cup Final streak finally came to an end last season. Their time as a playoff contender seems to be rapidly coming to an end as well. With little cap room, and a tired team, there’s not much direction the Lightning can go and as a result they were left with some tough decisions.
While Tampa was able to resign Luke Glendening and Conor Sheary thanks to them shipping out Ross Colton, their losses were greater as Alex Killorn went to Anaheim. Dynasties always come to an end, and this will likely be a continuing trend for Tampa as they simply cannot afford to resign their stars.
WON: Colorado Avalanche
We’ve mentioned Colorado a few times already in this list and that’s because they have been making moves this offseason. All eyes were on the defending champions as they set to defend their title in the playoffs, winning the Central Division title once again. However, they would end up disappointing, falling in the first round the Kraken. Colorado did not take this loss lying down, and have made huge deals already so far.
They acquired Ryan Johansen from the Predators for essentially nothing. They signed Miles Wood, Jonathan Drouin, and Bowen Byram. The team was plagued by injuries last season, but hopefully a healthy team and the added depth to the roster will spark another solid playoff run for this already stacked Colorado team.
LOST: Pittsburgh Penguins
All good things come to an end. The dominance Sidney Crosby’s team has had over the Eastern Conference came crashing down last season, when Pittsburgh missed the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. With aging stars and questionable depth, Pittsburgh needed to do something this offseason to ensure their ability to still compete. They brought in Kyle Dubas as their new President and then… did a lot of nothing.
It was expected that the Penguins would make a change in net, as Tristan Jarry is basically an expensive injury. With Connor Hellebuyck wanting out of Winnipeg, it seemed like a perfect time for Pittsburgh to make a trade. Instead, they resigned Jarry to a five year deal that’ll see Pittsburgh carrying a 5.375 million dollar cap hit per season. Jarry isn’t a bad goalie, in fact he’s actually quite good, but he’s never healthy and this deal might prove to bit Pittsburgh in the butt. They did sign Ryan Graves from New Jersey, but it’s looking like Pittsburgh’s time at the top is over and done. Never count out Sidney Crosby though.
WON: Carolina Hurricanes
The winner of last year’s competitive Metropolitan division, Carolina was a cup contender through and through. They fell up short in the conference finals, but all signs were pointing to a bright future for this squad, as all the pieces continued to come together. That wasn’t enough for this team though, they wanted more. They wanted more, and they went out and got it.
Carolina beefed up its already impressive blue line with Dmitry Orlov. They signed Michael Bunting from Toronto, and resigned both their goalies in Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen. Raanta has already proven to be a steadfast goalie for Carolina, but if Andersen can stay healthy then Carolina will have a solid team in net. This already red hot team is set to be even hotter this next season.
LOST: Boston Bruins
The Bruins had it rough. They had a record setting season that saw them win the President’s Trophy. They had a 1-2 punch in net, with Linus Ullmark winning the Vezina and Jeremy Swayman winning the William M. Jennings. This would all implode in the playoffs and they lost in the first round to the Panthers, who barely made it in. Boston faced a heavy toll for this as well.
First and foremost, long time Bruin Patrice Bergeron retired. A leader and a staple on the team for years this is a massive blow to the Boston squad. With David Krejci contemplating his future as well, the Bruins suddenly find themselves shallow at center. They failed to resign Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov. Orlov was a staple on a relatively shallow blue line so this was a big blow. They also traded away Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno. They brought in Kevin Shattenkirk as well as former Bruin Milan Lucic. They signed James Van Riemsdyk as well. These aren’t bad moves, but it felt like no matter what Boston did, it was going to be a step down. They almost missed out on Jeremy Swayman as well, with negotiations having to go to arbitration, and only a one year contract being rewarded. Swayman was most likely the team’s future in net, so this is a bitter pill to swallow for the Bruins.
For a team that was the top of the league this year, they now find themselves with many questions that don’t seemingly have an answer.
