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Summer Synopsis 2023

Summer Synopsis: Edmonton Oilers

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In back-to-back seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have been eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup Champions. In 2022, the team fell via an Artturi Lehkonen overtime winner in Game Four of the Western Conference Final against the Colorado Avalanche. Last season, the Oilers were eliminated by Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round. Entering 2023-24, the goal for the Oilers is clear: they want to be the eventual Stanley Cup champion doing the eliminating. To get there, their team needs to provide enough support for twin franchise pillars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to succeed. Whether they’ve done so is still up for debate.

Draft

2-56: D Beau Akey, Barrie (OHL)
6-184: G Nathaniel Day, Flint (OHL)
7-216: F Matt Copponi, Merrimack (NCAA)

The Oilers have gone all-in in recent seasons, and the result of their efforts to add established NHL talent has been the depletion of their reserves of draft choices, especially for the 2023 draft. The team only had three selections in this most recent draft class, so while the level of talent they received from a quantity and quality perspective is hardly overwhelming, it’s hard to argue with their strategy for each of the three choices.

In Akey, the Oilers selected a widely respected right-shot defenseman from the OHL with some puck-moving ability. Most reports are optimistic that he’ll have a long career as an NHL defenseman on a second or third pairing.

In Day, the Oilers effectively bought a lottery ticket on an OHL netminder who took an increased role with the Firebirds in 2022-23. And with their last pick the Oilers selected Copponi, an overage American pivot who plays a professional two-way game and saw his offense jump from just nine points last season to 29 in 2022-23.

Trade Acquisitions

F Jayden Grubbe (from New York Rangers)

While this acquisition technically came in May, it does mark the only Oilers trade since the 2022-23 deadline that saw an incoming player arrive in Edmonton. Grubbe is a rangy six-foot-three center who was picked 65th overall by New York at the 2021 draft.

Despite his offense finally clicking in his final WHL season (he went from 35 points in 2021-22 to 67 in 2022-23) Grubbe likely wasn’t going to end up tendered an entry-level contract by the Rangers, so rather than potentially waiting and attempting to select Grubbe had he re-entered the draft, the Oilers simply sent the pick they may have spent to draft Grubbe to secure his rights a little earlier.

The unexpected retirement of Noah Philp, who scored 19 goals and 37 points for the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors last season, left a void in a middle-six center spot for the Oilers’ AHL affiliate. Adding Grubbe gives the Oilers a player to fill that role and a toolsy prospect for their development team to get to work with.

Key UFA Signings

F Connor Brown (one year, $775k with bonuses)
F Lane Pederson (two years, $1.55MM)
F Drake Caggiula (two years, $1.55MM)*
D Ben Gleason (two years, $1.55MM)*

*denotes a two-way contract

The Oilers have precious little cap space to work with, and that dearth of financial flexibility significantly impacted their ability to add outside talent this summer.

The most significant add is of Brown, who the Oilers were able to afford likely due to the uncertainty injected into his profile by the season-ending injury he suffered early in 2022-23.

Brown, 29, is a quality two-way winger and should he get back up to speed quickly could line himself up to cash in handsomely with a good year in Edmonton. He played with McDavid in the OHL for the Erie Otters and has scored at or above a 40-point pace for the last three seasons.

The additions of Pederson, Caggiula, and Gleason were all about bolstering organizational depth. Pederson is likely to be the team’s spare forward on his affordable $775k cap hit, while Caggiula will play an important top-six role in Bakersfield after scoring 53 points in the AHL last season.

The same can be said for Gleason, a 25-year-old blueliner who scored 33 points for the Texas Stars last season and will likely slot into the Condors’ top four on defense.

Key RFA Re-Signings

D Evan Bouchard (two years, $7.8MM)
F Ryan McLeod (two years, $4.2MM)
F Raphaël Lavoie (one year, $874k)*

*denotes a two-way contract

Bouchard is the biggest name here, and the signing of the most consequence from this summer for GM Ken Holland.

Bouchard, 23, has been a revelation on the Oilers’ powerplay since assuming the top defensive role on that unit, and his points totals are a reflection of that.

He scored 40 points in the regular season but his real breakout came in the playoffs, where he scored a stunning 17 points in just 12 games from the blueline.

While the Oilers undoubtedly would have liked to lock up Bouchard for as long as possible, that simply was not going to be possible given the Oilers’ cap situation.

So instead they land Bouchard on an affordable two-year bridge deal that he should begin providing surplus value on as soon as this fall.

As for McLeod, he’s grown into a competent bottom-six enter in Edmonton and was rewarded for posting 11 goals and 23 points last season with a $2.1MM AAV.

Lavoie, 22, was a 2019 second-round pick who has finally put his game together at the AHL level and is knocking on the door of full-time NHL duty in Edmonton. Lavoie’s one-year extension sets up 2023-24 as a massive year for his future with the Oilers.

Key Departures

F Nick Bjugstad (Arizona, two years $4.2MM)

The only free agent departure of much consequence for the Oilers is the loss of Bjugstad, who Edmonton acquired at the 2023 trade deadline. Bjugstad was asked to do too much in Edmonton and only scored three points in 12 playoff games, though his two-way game did keep him in a regular role in coach Jay Woodcroft’s lineup throughout the postseason.

The Oilers will miss having the rangy six-foot-six veteran center in their lineup but if Lavoie can seize an NHL job this fall his arrival soften that blow.

Salary Cap Outlook

The Oilers are one of the many NHL teams walking a salary cap tightrope. The Jack Campbell contract is a major drag on their books due to his regression, but Stuart Skinner’s surplus value provided from his $2.6MM cap hit more than makes up for that.

The Oilers have their fair share of pricey contracts, but they have quite a few players who are outperforming their cap hits (McDavid, Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Bouchard) which makes things easier. The cap rising will provide the Oilers with some much-needed breathing room next summer, but for this upcoming season things will be tight and the club will likely struggle to field a full 23-man roster.

Key Questions

Will the Oilers be able to make any major in-season additions?: The Oilers aforementioned lack of trade assets and cap space puts the club in a bind for 2023-24. They have to do everything possible to surround McDavid and Draisaitl with as much talent as possible, but without a strong crop of prospects to trade from, and already missing second and third-round picks from upcoming drafts, will the Oilers have the assets or cap space to make any significant moves?

Will the Oilers’ goaltending be good enough?: Skinner was certainly exceptional as a rookie, but his track record is relatively thin at the NHL level. Campbell, on the other hand, has a more extensive resume of NHL success but struggled to an extreme degree in 2022-23. Will either of those netminders be good enough for the Oilers to win a Stanley Cup? Or will it be back to the drawing board once again next summer?

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Detroit Red Wings

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The Detroit Red Wings haven’t been back to the playoffs since their historic streak ended in 2017, but GM Steve Yzerman, head coach Derek Lalonde, and the whole Red Wings organization have plans on ending that drought this year. Despite the highly competitive nature of the Atlantic division, the Red Wings have added major talent to their roster over the last two years and are hoping to reach the playoffs next season on the back of that veteran talent combined with some intriguing young stars. But in a division that has sent a finalist to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last five seasons, will that be possible?

Draft

1-9: F Nate Danielson, Brandon (WHL)
1-16: D Axel Sandin-Pellika, Skellefteå (SHL)
2-41: G Trey Augustine, USNTDP (USHL)
2-42: D Andrew Gibson, Soo (OHL)
2-47: D Brady Cleveland, USNTDP (USHL)
3-73: F Noah Dower-Nilsson, Frölunda (J20)
4-117: D Larry Keenan, Culver Academy (USHS)
5-137: D Jack Phelan, Sioux Falls (USHL)
5-147: F Kevin Bicker, Mannheim (GER U20)
6-169: G Rudy Guimond, Taft (USHS)
7-201: F Emmitt Finnie, Kamloops (WHL)

The Red Wings have invested heavily in centers in recent years, both in free agency and at the draft table. They signed Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher to deals north of $5MM AAV and invested top-ten picks in Austrian center Marco Kasper and Canadian pivot Nate Danielson. Danielson is a professional two-way center who had a strong draft year for the Brandon Wheat Kings and is widely projected as a future second or third-line center.

Sandin-Pellika played pro hockey in his draft year for Skellefteå and was considered one of the higher-upside blueliners in his class, especially offensively. On day two, the Red Wings reached into their backyard grabbing a Michigan State commit and potential goalie of the future in Augustine as well as Cleveland, a stay-at-home blueliner. Keenan, the team’s fourth-round pick, was drafted straight out of high school hockey but has tantalizing physical tools.

Trade Acquisitions

F Alex DeBrincat (from Ottawa)
D Jeff Petry (from Montreal)
F Klim Kostin (from Edmonton)

The centerpiece of Yzerman’s offseason is the acquisition of DeBrincat from the Senators, a division rival.

Surrendering Dominik Kubalik and a first-round pick to get the deal done, Yzerman managed to add a two-time 40-goal scorer who happens to be right in the thick of his prime.

DeBrincat won’t turn 26 until December and is locked into a $7.875MM AAV contract through 2026-27.

Even if DeBrincat plays more as he did in Ottawa than how he played next to Patrick Kane on the Chicago Blackhawks, the Red Wings will still have added a 66-point scorer into their top six, which will do wonders to improve the production of other members of their top-six, such as Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, and Andrew Copp, for example.

Seeing as they didn’t have to commit a huge amount of term to DeBrincat, this trade has a chance to be an absolute grand slam for Yzerman. The acquisition of Petry adds a notably less flashy player to the Red Wings lineup but a nonetheless effective one. Petry isn’t what he once was now that he’s turning 36 years old, but the Ann Arbor, Michigan native can still hold his own in a top-four and contributed 31 points in just 61 games last season. He’s undeniably worth the $2.34MM cap hit he’s owed for the next two years.

Kostin is the lowest-profile addition of this trio but his acquisition via trade gives the Red Wings an intriguing name to plug into their bottom-six. Kostin’s NHL career looked to be on life support before a trade to the Oilers sparked a run of strong performances for the 2017 first-round pick. Kostin plays a powerful game and should improve the Red Wings’ bottom-six and overall forward depth.

Key UFA Signings

F J.T. Compher (five years, $25.5MM)
D Justin Holl (three years, $10.2MM)
D Shayne Gostisbehere (one year, $4.125MM)
F Daniel Sprong (one-year, $2MM)
G Alex Lyon (two-years, $1.8MM)
G James Reimer (one year, $1.5MM)
F Christian Fischer (one year, $1.125MM)

When looking at most of the Red Wings’ free agent signings, a clear strategy emerges. Detroit chose to invest heavily in improving their defense, goaltending depth, and bottom-six forwards.

Compher is the outlier to that, as he’s expected to play in a prominent middle-six center role. He had a breakout 2022-23, scoring 17 goals and 52 points, but seeing as that’s the outlier number so far in his career it’s fair to question whether he’ll be able to repeat that kind of offensive performance.

If he can’t, he still has a solid two-way game to provide a floor to the level of value he provides, which is useful. But unless he can reach 50 points in Detroit $5.1MM on a five-year term will look like a real expensive price to pay for a solid if generally unremarkable middle-six center.

While Holl’s mistakes drew some harsh criticism at times during his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has averaged at least 20 minutes per night in each of the last three seasons.

A $3.4MM price tag with a three-year term is a high price to pay for what Holl provides, to be sure, but there is some context that could explain why Yzerman made this signing. The Red Wings’ right-shot defensive depth took a major hit with the trade of Filip Hronek to Vancouver, so adding Holl gives Lalonde an experienced name to fill that void.

It’s important for a GM to give capable players to his coach so that the coach can succeed, so now it’ll be up to Lalonde to deploy Holl in ways that will help Holl look good, not for more than he’s capable of as many believe Holl was in Toronto.

In Gostisbehere, the Red Wings add a productive offensive defenseman who resurrected his career on the Arizona Coyotes and should serve as the team’s most reliable offensive threat from the blueline outside their top pairing.

Up front, the Red Wings added Sprong, a player who scored 21 goals and 46 points from largely fourth-line minutes in Seattle, and Fischer, who is an energetic bottom-six forward with some valuable leadership qualities. Sprong will help provide some offensive juice to the bottom six while Fischer will likely play in a more traditional fourth-line role.

In Lyon and Reimer, the Red Wings have made significant improvements to their goaltending depth. While Reimer was shaky, to say the least, last season, he does have an extensive track record of quality play in the NHL. Should he falter, Detroit now has Lyon to save the day, something he did with the Florida Panthers last season when his .914 save percentage in 15 games lifted them to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

These additions aren’t as flashy as the team’s addition of DeBrincat, to be sure, but they’re strategic investments in areas of the roster that were major weaknesses last season, even if in the case of Holl and Compher they came on the expensive side.

Key Departures

F Pius Suter (Vancouver, two years, $3.2MM)
F Filip Zadina (San Jose, one year, $1.1MM)
F Alex Chiasson (Boston, PTO)
G Magnus Hellberg (Pittsburgh, one year, $785k)
F Adam Erne (UFA)
G Alex Nedeljkovic (Pittsburgh, one year, $1.5MM)
D Robert Hagg (Anaheim, one year, $775k)

The biggest-name loss on this list is easily that of Zadina, the 2017 sixth-overall pick. Zadina never quite found his game in Detroit and ultimately gave the team very little in return for the significant asset they invested in him, save for a 28-game run in 2019-20 where he flashed some real promise and scored 15 points.

The most effective player Detroit is losing is Suter, 27, who scored 14 goals and 24 points last season. Detroit is undoubtedly upgrading at third-line center if Compher ends up playing in that role, although Suter did score 36 points in 2021-22 and Detroit could surely still find room for that kind of player. Suter just wasn’t able to find consistency in Detroit, and with the Red Wings making a serious playoff push they simply needed to find a more reliable player to fill the role Suter played, even if that player came at a far higher price tag.

Jettisoning Nedeljkovic and Hellberg to bring in Reimer and Lyon represents a full makeover of the Red Wings’ goaltending depth behind starter Ville Husso. Nedeljkovic arrived in Detroit with quite a bit of promise but his reliance on his athleticism was exposed behind the Red Wings’ porous defense, and he heads to Pittsburgh seeking greener pastures. Hellberg, 32, will join him and potentially take up a role as Pittsburgh’s number-three goalie.

Salary Cap Outlook

The Red Wings’ significant outlays this summer have left them in a tighter cap position than years past, but the flip side of that is that their roster is significantly improved as well. The Red Wings have paid high prices to get high-quality players in the door, but some of their most significant costs are yet to be determined. Both Raymond and Moritz Seider will need new contracts before next season, and those two players figure to be two of the most expensive Red Wings moving forward, with Seider holding the potential to receive a highly lucrative long-term deal as one of the top young blueliners in the NHL.

Key Questions

Who will be the Red Wings’ second-line center?: This question isn’t exactly the right one, as we know who will start the year as Detroit’s second-line center: either Copp or Compher. But the important question is who will end up claiming that role moving into the future, seeing as the Red Wings have two quality center prospects in their pipeline in Kasper and Danielson. Will Compher reward Yzerman’s faith and his $5.1MM price tag? Will Copp improve on a first year in Detroit that saw him score only nine goals? Or will both veterans falter as the team pivots towards Kasper or eventually Danielson as Dylan Larkin’s long-term understudy?

Who claims the backup goalie role?: A 475-game NHL veteran, Reimer is undoubtedly the front-runner here. But after posting an .890 save percentage last season, he’s vulnerable. Alex Lyon has largely been a third goalie throughout his pro career. Will that finally change this season in Detroit?

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Dallas Stars

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Over the last four seasons, the Dallas Stars have had a tumultuous run in the Western Conference. Now four years ago, the team made a run to the 2020 Stanley Cup Finals, only to miss the playoffs entirely in the shortened 2020-21 season. The year after, the Stars would barely reach the playoffs, clinching the second wild-card spot. Rebounding nicely, Dallas would return to the Western Conference Finals in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, earning big series wins against the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion, the Vegas Golden Knights.

With limited cap space this summer, the team had little finances to work with to notably improve the club, but many would argue they did the absolute best with what they had available to them. Carrying young stars such as Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, and Roope Hintz on their roster, mixed with veterans such as Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Joe Pavelski, the Stars are poised to once again reach solid playoff positioning, and may even be an under-the-radar team to fully contend for the Stanley Cup.

Draft

2-61: D Tristan Bertucci, Flint (OHL)
3-79: F Brad Gardiner, Ottawa (OHL)
4-125: D Aram Minnetian, USNTDP (USHL)
5-157: G Arno Tiefensee, Adler Mannheim (DEL)
6-189: F Angus MacDonell, Mississauga (OHL)
7-221: F Sebastian Bradshaw, Elite Hockey Academy (AYHL)

Thanks to the trade that landed Nils Lundkvist in Texas, the Stars were without their first-round pick for the 2023 NHL Draft. Their first selection in Bertucci falls under the umbrella of ’the rich getting richer’. Last season, although having standout goaltender Jake Oettinger between the pipes, Dallas employed one of the best defensive cores in the league. By almost every metric, the team excelled in keeping the puck out of the net, and with Bertucci being the strong shutdown defender he is, he should see his game translate very well to the Stars’ style of play.

The most under-the-radar selection by the team would be their sixth-round pick in MacDonell. At the OHL trade deadline, MacDonell was acquired by the Mississauga Steelheads from the Sarnia Sting, where he would score 17 goals and 7 assists in 31 games after the move. More importantly; however, is that MacDonell proved to be an exceptional player in clutch situations. In six OHL playoff games for the Steelheads, MacDonell would score three goals and two assists, as well as scoring one goal and four assists in seven games for the Canadian U18 National Team during the 2023 World Junior Championships.

Key UFA Signings

D Gavin Bayreuther (one year, $775K)
F Matt Duchene (one year, $3MM)
D Derrick Pouliot (one year, $775K)*
F Craig Smith (one year, $1MM)
F Sam Steel (one year, $850K)

*-denotes two-way contract

Far and away the biggest addition to the Stars roster comes in adding Duchene to a one-year deal this summer. Given that Dallas’ first line is largely set, Duchene should factor in nicely to the team’s second line. Only scoring 56 points as a top forward for the Nashville Predators during the 2022-23 season, Duchene is only one year removed from a 44-goal, 86-point performance. Given the team’s performance in Nashville last season, most of Duchene’s performance stats did drop, but only subtly. Given this, Duchene should rebound nicely, especially with more talent surrounding him in Dallas.

Steel represents one of the more interesting free-agent additions this offseason. He had the best season of his career last year in Minnesota, scoring 10 goals and 18 assists in 65 games played, but it is difficult to see where exactly he fits in Dallas’ lineup. He did carry solid possession numbers last year for the Wild, but aside from that, does not impress much in the way of defensive metrics, meaning he may not be a solid option for a bottom-six role in the Stars’ roster. He could factor into the mix given an injury to the team’s middle-six, but Steel appears destined for an extra forward spot this upcoming season.

Key RFA Signings

F Nicholas Caamano (one-year, $775K)*
F Riley Damiani (one-year, $775K)*
F Ty Dellandrea (one-year, $900K)
F Scott Reedy (one-year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

After a couple of seasons spent primarily with Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, Dellandrea burst onto the scene during the 2022-23 NHL season. In 82 games played, the young forward would score nine goals and 19 assists, good for ninth on the team as a 23-year-old. As his time on ice inevitably increases from above 14 minutes a game, Dellandrea will also see his scoring output increase, even though his other talents are the key for the Stars.

His possession numbers have left a lot to be desired, but Dellandrea’s defensive metrics are inspiring in a middle-six role for an NHL player. Last season, his oiSV% reached a total of 90.6%, and he was also able to contribute heavily to the team’s physical outlook, throwing 125 hits over the year. Given their current roster, it is difficult to see Dellandrea earning a top-six role this season, but as he improves, the Stars become a deeper team overall.

Key Departures

F Max Domi (Toronto, one-year, $3MM)
F Rhett Gardner (Philadelphia, two-year, $1.55MM)
D Benjamin Gleason (Edmonton, one-year, $775K)
F Luke Glendening (Tampa Bay, two-year, $1.6MM)
F Joel Kiviranta (Colorado, PTO)
D Ryan Shea (Pittsburgh, one-year, $775K)
F Marian Studenic (Seattle, one-year, $775K)
F Riley Tufte (Colorado, one-year, $775K)
G Dylan Wells (Nashville, PTO)

Unfortunately, the Stars did lose one of their top playoff performers last year in Domi. Although not performing incredibly well after the team acquired him at the trade deadline from the Chicago Blackhawks, Domi did score three goals and 10 assists in 19 playoff games for Dallas, which would land him at fourth best on the team. Thankfully, and especially with the addition of Duchene to the top of their forward group, Domi should be easily replaceable moving forward.

Glendening will be a bit harder to replace, but not for the same reasons. Not known much for his offensive performance, Glendening excels tremendously in the faceoff circle. During his two-year stint in Dallas, Glendening would finish with an absurd 58.9% faceoff win percentage, one of the best in the league. Both Benn and Radek Faksa do well in the dot, but Dallas did not do much to replace Glendening in the dot this summer.

Salary Cap Outlook

Dallas is one of the highest-paying teams in the league, clocking in at 11th overall in spending heading into the 2023-24 NHL season. The team still has four years and $39.4MM left on Seguin’s contract but does not have much to worry about for next year. Most of the team’s young talent is signed into 2025-26 or beyond, meaning as much as they are spending, they won’t need to spend more in the near future.

There are some fringe players, such as Faksa and Ryan Suter who could be considered ’overpaid’, but they will conclude before the Stars need to dole out any long-term contracts to some of their younger stars. For the best interest of the team, it would likely benefit Dallas to shed a bit of space before the trade deadline, therefore easily fitting in whatever needs they deem needed for a 2024 playoff push.

Key Questions

What To Do With Seguin? : Still averaging around 50 points a season, Seguin no longer is worth the massive contract extension the Stars gave him shortly before the 2018-19 season. He has stayed relatively healthy and is more than capable of scoring 20 goals a season, but Dallas could certainly do better. It will be hard to move Seguin given his $9.85MM AAV, so the team will have to employ him in a way that is most advantageous to their success. Nevertheless, the Stars are moving in a direction, especially given their salary cap situation, where a harder stance on Seguin’s future may need to be taken.

What Is This Team’s Ceiling?: Managing to make an appearance in two Western Conference Finals and one Stanley Cup Final in the last four years, the Stars have earned a spot as one of the top Stanley Cup contenders heading into the upcoming season. However, are they truly a solid bet to win the Stanley Cup given their current roster makeup? The Colorado Avalanche and Golden Knights are surefire favorites to win the Western Conference next year, and the Eastern Conference posits a world of trouble if the team does indeed make it to the Stanley Cup Final next season. Dallas still appears a player or two away from being a legitimate threat to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Summer Synopsis: Columbus Blue Jackets

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The Blue Jackets shocked the hockey world last summer. After years where the prevailing narrative surrounding the Blue Jackets was about the multitude of star players who left the team to commit their long-term playing future elsewhere (Sergei Bobrovsky, Artemi Panarin, Seth Jones, et cetera) the team managed to sign the top free agent on the open market. They got superstar Johnny Gaudreau to commit the rest of his prime playing years to Columbus, and on the way seemed to accelerate their path back to contention.

Significant injury issues, regression from some important players (such as Cole Sillinger and Elvis Merzlikins), and a lack of talent down the middle left Columbus as one of the league’s worst teams last season, and according to some has firmly placed GM Jarmo Jarmo Jarmo Kekäläinen on the hot seat. In response to mounting pressure to return to contention, Kekäläinen had an aggressive summer and added a big-name head coach. Will this new-look Blue Jackets team be able to turn the team’s fortunes around as soon as next season?

Draft

1-3: F Adam Fantilli, Michigan (NCAA)
2-34: F Gavin Brindley, Michigan (NCAA)
3-66: F William Whitelaw, Youngstown (USHL)
4-98: D Andrew Strathmann, Youngstown (USHL)
4-114: F Luca Pinelli, Ottawa (OHL)
5-156: G Melvin Strahl, MoDo Jr. (J20)
7-194: F Oiva Keskinen, Tappara Jr. (SM-Sarja)
7-224: F Tyler Peddle, Drummondville (QMJHL)

While the Blue Jackets were undoubtedly disappointed to have lost in the draft lottery and missed out on a once-in-a-generation player in Connor Bedard, their luck definitely turned around on draft night. The Anaheim Ducks selected Leo Carlsson, a fantastic prospect in his own right, second overall, leaving the Blue Jackets the chance to pick Fantilli, the reigning Hobey Baker award winner.

There were many rumors that the Blue Jackets would have selected USNTDP product Will Smith had Fantilli been selected by Anaheim over Carlsson, meaning they would have been left with a player who’ll only hit the NHL ice next spring at the earliest. (Smith is committed to play college hockey next season at Boston College) Since the Ducks took Carlsson, though, the Blue Jackets were able to land a prospect widely considered to be NHL-ready, and a player many believe to be the clear-cut best player in the class behind Bedard.

Fantilli could very well end up the franchise-defining first-line center the Blue Jackets have been searching for since their very first season in the NHL, and getting that caliber of a player after losing a draft lottery is an amazing stroke of luck. Behind Fantilli, the Blue Jackets invested heavily in prospects playing in America, investing their next three selections in NCAA and USHL players. Brindley was Fantilli’s linemate at Michigan and could very well end up playing that role in the NHL. Whitelaw and Strathmann were teammates for the USHL Champion Youngstown Phantoms, with Whitelaw the team’s leading scorer and Strathmann a minutes-eating blueliner. Both USHL products play with an edge and will develop in college hockey before turning pro.

Trade Acquisitions

D Ivan Provorov (from Philadelphia)
D Damon Severson (from New Jersey)

This is where the Blue Jackets really made their mark on the offseason. The team identified its defense as a core area of need entering into the summer. Their lack of established defensive talent was exposed last season after numerous injuries took out the team’s more experienced players, such as Zach Werenski. In order to make the playoffs, Columbus knew that they would have to give top-four minutes to reliable players rather than resort to unproven names such as Tim Berni, Marcus Bjork, and Gavin Bayreuther, three names who saw time on the Blue Jackets’ defense last season.

In Provorov, Columbus acquired a somewhat enigmatic defenseman whose career features some very high highs and some even lower lows. Provorov was once viewed as an up-and-coming future number-one defenseman for the Flyers, and at times he looked like an elite all-situations minutes-eater.

He earned some stray Norris Trophy votes after his 2019-20 season, when at the age of 23 he played nearly 25 minutes per night and scored 36 points in 69 games.

In Columbus, Provorov won’t need to be that kind of number-one blueliner his team relies on. With Werenski entrenched in that role, the hope in Columbus is that Provorov will be able to thrive on a second pairing.

As for Severson, the Blue Jackets surrendered a mid-round pick to be able to sign Severson to a maximum-term $6.25MM AAV contract. The at-the-time pending UFA committed to Columbus without testing the wider market, and lands as a potential partner for Provorov. Severson has more of an offensive bent to his game and scored 46 points in 2021-22. He took a step back last season as the Devils injected more defensive talent into their lineup, relegating Severson to a smaller role.

In Columbus, he’ll be a go-to offensive creator from the back end, and while many fairly question whether Severson merited such a lengthy commitment (he’ll be under contract with the Blue Jackets through 2030-31, and is already 29 years old) he undoubtedly makes their team better for next season.

Key RFA Signings

F Mathieu Olivier (two-years, $2.2MM)
F Trey Fix-Wolansky (two-years, $1.55MM)
D Jake Christiansen (one year, $775k)

The Blue Jackets didn’t have any major RFA’s to re-sign, just some NHL-relevant players who figure to factor into new head coach Mike Babcock’s roster picture at some point next season. Getting Olivier, 26, locked into a two-year deal gives Columbus a physical presence on its fourth line at a reasonable cost. The Blue Jackets want to be a difficult team to play against, and re-signing Olivier helps them do that.

Fix-Wolansky, 24, torched the AHL last season to the tune of 71 points in 61 games. This two-year deal keeps him on the Blue Jackets at a cheap price for the foreseeable future, although since he’s not waivers-exempt there’s always the chance that he doesn’t finish this contract playing in Ohio. As for Christiansen, this will be his first season subject to waivers and his league-minimum price tag makes him an intriguing option to be claimed should he fail to make Columbus’ opening-night roster. The soon-to-be-24-year-old blueliner scored 34 points in 50 AHL games last season.

Key Departures

D Gavin Bayreuther (Dallas, one year, $775k)

The Blue Jackets were in the relatively uncommon position this summer of not really being at risk of losing any major contributors to their NHL roster without explicitly choosing to do so. Their most experienced player to sign elsewhere was Bayreuther, a journeyman defenseman who stepped in after Columbus was hit by significant injuries and ended up playing 51 NHL games.

The 29-year-old signed in Dallas and will likely remain a depth defenseman there. The Blue Jackets could certainly have used Bayreuther’s experience for another season, but the reality is if he ended up having another extended NHL stay in Columbus it would mean the team’s defensive corps is once again in dire shape.

Salary Cap Outlook

The Blue Jackets have some hefty contracts on their books, starting with Gaudreaus and extending to some expensive mid-range deals cap hits belonging to Severson, Provorov, and Erik Gudbranson. They have a bit of wiggle room to make a mid-season addition, and since they’re set to avoid long-term injured reserve will be able to bank cap space during the season for a potential trade deadline spending spree.

The most important aspect of this season from a financial perspective is the team’s performance in net. Columbus has committed $5.4MM AAV for the next few years into Merzlikins. Can he get back to playing like a quality starting netminder and reward the team’s faith in him?

Key Questions

Can Mike Babcock steer this team to the playoffs?: The Blue Jackets are looking to reach the postseason in an extremely competitive Metro division. They’ve enlisted the services of Babcock, a controversial coach who, at the very least, has quite a bit of winning on his resume. He helped turn a lost Toronto Maple Leafs franchise into the regular season juggernaut we see today, and won a Stanley Cup ring running the bench of the Detroit Red Wings. Will he be able to engineer a similar success in Ohio?

Which of the team’s young players will rise, who will fall?: The Blue Jackets have an enviable crop of young talent and a few players who have a chance to become stars in the NHL. Sillinger, the team’s 2021 first-round pick, looked to be on that track before a brutal sophomore campaign. Similarly, many had questions over whether Kent Johnson’s high-octane offensive game would translate from college to the pro ranks without serious adjustment time. Johnson had a promising 40-point rookie campaign, to a strong degree silencing those questions. The Blue Jackets have even more ascending talents set to battle for roles on Babcock’s roster, so a main question regarding their 2023/24 season will be who among that group will rise to the top.

Can Merzlikins bounce back?: As mentioned, the Blue Jackets have committed much of their future to Merzlikins in net. They don’t really have any great method of getting out from under that contract, so their best bet is to support Merzlikins with an improved defense and hope he can return to the form he flashed earlier in his career. Whether he does so will go a long way in determining if this Blue Jackets competitive push ends up successful.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Summer Synopsis: Colorado Avalanche

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Last season, the Colorado Avalanche finished atop the Central Division as most expected. That’s despite missing captain Gabriel Landeskog and other core pieces such as Bowen Byram, Josh Manson and Valeri Nichushkin missing significant amounts of time. The 2022 Stanley Cup champions couldn’t find the magic for two seasons in a row, however, instead making history in another way by becoming the first team to lose to the Seattle Kraken in a playoff series, albeit in a hard-fought seven-game battle. That series loss was largely due to a lack of depth scoring, something GM Chris MacFarland addressed in a targeted manner this summer. Was it enough to return the Avs to 2022’s glory, however?

Draft

1-27: F Calum Ritchie, Oshawa (OHL)
1-31: D Mikhail Gulyayev, Omsk (MHL)
5-155: D Nikita Ishimnikov, Yekaterinburg (MHL)
6-187: D Jeremy Hanzel, Seattle (WHL)
7-219: F Maros Jedlicka, Zvolen (Slovakia)

While the Avalanche didn’t transform a weak prospect pool, they did make a shrewd move the day before the draft by trading Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens, acquiring a second first-round pick in the process. Their two top selections, Gulyayev and Ritchie, were rather spectacular value moves for where they were taken – some public scouts had both ranked within the top 15 prospects available.

Ritchie is the closest to NHL-ready and could potentially see some time with the Avs as soon as 2024-25, but he’ll still need to be returned to juniors then if he’s not NHL-ready. All five players the Avalanche drafted are expected to return to the clubs listed above for the 2023-24 season, with the exception of Gulyayev, who is expected to join Omsk’s KHL team full-time.

Trade Acquisitions

F Ross Colton (from Tampa Bay)
D Gianni Fairbrother (from Montreal)
F Ryan Johansen (from Nashville)
F Fredrik Olofsson (from Dallas)

Colton has developed into the type of middle-six point-producing forward that the Lightning have relied upon so much over the past handful of seasons, but they simply couldn’t afford to keep him as he was a restricted free agent this summer in need of a new contract. Colorado, who had some additional flexibility with Landeskog slated to go on LTIR for a second straight season, swooped in and acquired the 26-year-old, who for now is projected to center the third line after scoring 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points in 81 games last season. His defensive reputation becomes a bit inflated publically once you dig deeper into his possession metrics, but he has maintained a role as an excellent play-driver with an accurate shot – something the Avalanche desperately needed to add to their second and third lines.

Johansen is projected to slot in just above Colton on the Avs’ center depth chart, but he’s more of a reclamation project than the former, and the two could easily swap roles if things don’t go as planned. The 31-year-old has a previous first-line center pedigree but has been wildly inconsistent over the past few campaigns, scoring just 28 points in 55 games last season after notching 26 goals and 63 points in 79 games with the Predators the year before. The Avalanche are hoping that by sticking likely one of Artturi Lehkonen or Nichushkin on his wing, they can help unlock some of the offense that’s been missing and re-elevate him to the 60-point range.

Fairbrother came from Montreal as part of the return for Newhook and will spend next year in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles. Olofsson, whose signing rights were acquired from the Stars, was immediately signed to an extension after the trade and will be one of many names looking to lock down a roster spot and contribute on the team’s fourth line.

Key UFA Signings

F Andrew Cogliano (one year, $825K)
F Jonathan Drouin (one year, $825K)
D Jack Johnson (one year, $775K)
F Fredrik Olofsson (one year, $775K)*
F Chris Wagner (one year, $775K)*
F Miles Wood (six years, $15MM)

*-denotes two-way contract

Most of their key boosts to their forward core came via trade in Colton and Johansen, but the Avs did dish out some money to fill out bottom-six spots via unrestricted free agency. While he may not play the highest in the lineup, their biggest move (and perhaps one of the more surprising contracts of the entire summer) was Wood, earning a lengthy commitment to play a bottom-six checking role in Denver. The 27-year-old missed all but three games in the 2021-22 season with injury but suited up for a full campaign last year, scoring 13 goals and adding 14 assists for 27 points in 76 games whilst playing a fourth-line role for the New Jersey Devils. His reputation as defensively responsible did take a hit last year after the rather serious hip injury, raising some concerns about the rather extravagant length of the deal.

Another player who could end up playing quite a large role is Drouin, who, for now, projects to slide into the team’s top-six on the cheap to hopefully revitalize the former third-overall pick’s point production. If they opt to spread out the wealth and play wingers like Lehkonen and Nichushkin on the second line, they could match Drouin alongside former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon and hope for him to reach the 40-50-point ceiling he showed earlier in his career with the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored just two goals last season in 58 games and hasn’t played close to a full 82 games since the 2018-19 campaign.

A handful of re-signings, including Cogliano, Johnson and Olofsson, aim to play fourth-line or third-pair roles. Wagner, who spent most of the last two seasons in the minors, does have a history of full-time NHL play and will aim to regain such a role on the team’s fourth line.

Key RFA Re-Signings

D Bowen Byram (two years, $7.7MM)
F Ross Colton (four years, $16MM)
F Ben Meyers (one year, $775K)

We covered Colton’s acquisition in the trade section of this piece, but Byram’s two-year bridge warrants some analysis. Despite his development being derailed multiple times by serious injuries and concussion concerns remain, the 2019 fourth-overall pick is a bonafide top-four defender among one of the highest-powered defense corps in the league. He recorded a career-high 24 points in 40 games last season (a 49-point pace) and shouldered nearly 22 minutes per game – a significant workload for such a young, developing defender. Posting better defensive results than his defense partner, Samuel Girard, he could be in line for even more ice time next season and will likely exceed the value of his new deal.

Meyers, on the other hand, takes a league-minimum deal after failing to elevate himself in the Avs’ lineup in his first full pro season. The highly-touted college free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota last season skated in 39 games with Colorado at the NHL level, collecting four goals. He’ll likely get a crack at the fourth-line center spot out of camp but needs to show strides in order to avoid another demotion to the minors.

Key Departures

F J.T. Compher (Detroit, five years, $25.5MM)
F Lars Eller (Pittsburgh, two years, $4.9MM)
G Jonas Johansson (Tampa Bay, two years, $1.55MM)
D Erik Johnson (Buffalo, one year, $3.25MM)
F Denis Malgin (Switzerland’s ZSC Lions, five years)
F Alex Newhook (trade with Montreal)
F Matthew Nieto (Pittsburgh, two years, $1.8MM)
F Evan Rodrigues (Florida, four years, $12MM)

Compher played the biggest role in Colorado last season out of anyone on this list, claiming the second-line center spot by default after Newhook failed to capture it in the opening weeks of the season. He would average over 20 minutes per game and record a career-high 52 points, not something that he should be expected to replicate in Detroit (even though they paid him as such). In fact, Johansen could very well be seen as an upgrade on Compher, given his track record, so despite the gargantuan minutes he covered last season, the Avalanche likely won’t feel his absence too much after their other offseason moves.

Rodrigues was a solid two-way middle-six forward for the Avs in his lone season there, as he has been for the past few seasons. He recorded 39 points in 69 games (a 46-point pace), something they’ll likely look for Drouin to replace, although he provides no guarantee.

Eller and Nieto found roles in Pittsburgh under new GM Kyle Dubas after they were both late-season trade acquisitions by the Avs who had a marginal impact on their record. Perhaps the biggest supplementary loss here is Johnson, who was the longest-tenured member of the Avalanche roster and had logged over 700 games with the team and was still a reliable defensive presence, albeit a declining one. His leadership will be missed, undoubtedly.

Malgin was a bit of an intriguing depth scorer last season, notching 11 goals in 42 games in an Avalanche jersey, but he’s opted to return home to Switzerland to play out the prime of his pro career.

Salary Cap Outlook

With Landeskog again expected to miss the entire season due to an additional knee surgery, the Avalanche are in a better salary cap situation than many other contenders. The team still has a fair amount of wiggle room and is expected to be cap-compliant by around $2.025MM once Landeskog is placed on LTIR, per CapFriendly. They have no dead money on their books: no retained salary transactions, buyouts, or projected buried salaries in the minors. It still leaves room for them to make one more marginal addition from the free-agent market if they choose.

Key Questions

Can Georgiev Repeat?: 27-year-old Bulgaria-born Alexandar Georgiev was a revelation in the crease last season. Coming over after a handful of inconsistent years in a backup role with the New York Rangers, the Avalanche caught lightning in a bottle with Georgiev, who churned out true starting-caliber numbers with a .919 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average with a heavy workload – 62 games played, by far a career-high. He had just a .898 with the Rangers in 33 games the year before, however. While goalies often hit their primes closer to age 30 like Georgiev, the Avalanche will need another strong season from him with diminished defense depth in front of him.

Do They Have A Second-Line Answer?: One of Johansen or Colton commanding second-line minutes will be a must for Colorado to fix last season’s Achilles heel. If they can do so enough to give the team a legitimate secondary scoring option behind MacKinnon, much like Nazem Kadri did before his departure in 2022, it could very well keep them atop the Central. If not, they’ll need full health and full power from their stars to avoid slipping down the standings in a tight division headlined by improved Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets teams.

What To Do With Devon Toews?: He’s not-so-quietly transformed into a top-flight defender who would be the best defenseman on about half the teams in the league. However, he’s entering the final season of a contract paying just $4.1MM per season and is hurtling toward unrestricted free agency next summer. If they aren’t close to an extension by the time the deadline rolls around, will the Avalanche keep him around as a self-rental or aim to flip him for an asset with more control?

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Chicago Blackhawks

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The Chicago Blackhawks hit the lottery this past spring when they won the opportunity to draft junior phenom Connor Bedard. Chicago has been mired in a rebuild for several years without ever calling it a rebuild. That all changed in the summer of 2022 when the Blackhawks made the difficult decision to rip off the band-aid and move out some good players that didn’t fit their rebuild timeline. Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach were two young players that could have helped Chicago in the future, however, they would have been much older than many of Chicago’s good prospects. With their moves this summer, the Blackhawks appear poised to bottom out once again this season, albeit with a much more competitive roster than last year. The Blackhawks brought in a few veterans, presumably to insulate the younger players and teach them how to be good pros, while simultaneously helping the club reach the cap floor. Chicago didn’t seek out top-end veterans, or stars that are in the prime of their career, they overpaid veterans who were at the tail end of their careers.

Draft

1-1: F Connor Bedard, Regina (WHL)
1-19: F Oliver Moore, U.S. U18 National (US National Team)
2-35: G Adam Gajan, Chippewa (NAHL)
2-44: F Roman Kantserov,  Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk (MHL)
2-55: F Martin Misiak, Youngstown (USHL)
3-67: F Nick Lardis, Hamilton (OHL)
3-93: F Jiri Felcman, Langnau (Swiss-Jr)
3-99: F Alex Pharand, Sudbury (OHL)
4-131: F Marcel Marcel, Gatineau (QMJHL)
5-167: F Milton Oscarson, Orebro (SHL)
6-195: D Janne Peltonen, Kärpät U20 (U20 SM-sarja)

As mentioned earlier, Chicago won the Bedard sweepstakes and was able to draft a generational player to kick off their rebuild. While Chicago was gifted the centerpiece of their franchise moving forward, they will still need to insulate him and provide depth around him in order to win, but they have the hardest thing to acquire already in place.

Chicago opted to go forward-heavy in the 2023 NHL entry draft as they selected nine forwards, a defenseman, and a goaltender. Like most teams, the Blackhawks were surprised to see Moore available at the 19 spot and they were fortunate enough to draft the speedy center. He could potentially become Chicago’s number two centerman behind Bedard if his development goes to plan.

With their first second-round pick the Blackhawks selected goaltender Gajan who at 6-foot-3, has the height to be an NHL goaltender, but he will need to put mass on his 181-pound frame. Goaltending is a very difficult position to project long-term but given his pedigree and his body of work thus far, Gajan could be Chicago’s goalie of the future. He posted a 19-12-1 record in the NAHL with the Chippewa Steel and was terrific at the U20 World Juniors for Slovakia. He is very flexible and has a strong, quick push from one side of the net to the other.

Kantersov was a good choice at 44 as he offers a good blend of speed and skill that could mesh well with Bedard or Moore. The Russian winger is undersized; however, his skating and stickhandling is very fluid, and he could give teams fits if his game does develop so that he can play alongside Chicago’s elite center.

Trade Acquisitions

F Nick Foligno (Boston)
F Taylor Hall (Boston)
F Corey Perry (Tampa Bay)

Chicago weaponized their cap space this summer to acquire former first-overall pick Taylor Hall from the Boston Bruins. The former Hart Trophy winner is coming off a down season in which he still posted 16 goals and 20 assists in 61 games with the Bruins and will likely see time alongside Bedard. Hall is due for a bounce back in Chicago as he should see more minutes on the powerplay and will be more than capable of flanking the rookie Bedard.

Coming over in the trade alongside Hall were the signing rights of Nick Foligno. The 35-year-old quickly signed a one-year extension with Chicago for $4MM in a move that largely left people scratching their heads. Foligno did provide Boston with some offense last year as he posted 10 goals and 16 assists in 60 games, however, the Bruins had poor possession numbers with Foligno on the ice and it became fairly apparent last season that he is well past his best before date. Foligno’s impacts will probably be greater off the ice than on it as the Buffalo, New York native will offer the young players some guidance and leadership throughout what is sure to be a tough season in the Windy City.

Another veteran who was acquired by the Blackhawks is former Lightning forward Corey Perry. The former Hart Trophy winner isn’t the player he once was, but he has remained an effective bottom-six player at the late stages of his career. Perry put up 31 goals and 34 assists in 163 games in two seasons with the Lightning and should be able to offer some depth scoring and toughness to Chicago’s lineup. His presence is sure to be a positive for the younger players in the Blackhawks lineup, but it comes at a massive cost as Chicago will pay the former Rocket Richard winner $4MM this season.

UFA Signings

F Ryan Donato (Two years, $4MM)

Donato was an under-the-radar signing for the Blackhawks on the first day of unrestricted free agency. His game isn’t splashy, and he won’t tear up the score sheet, but he is a versatile player who can offer a lot to the Blackhawks forward group. Last year in Seattle, Donato posted 14 goals and 13 assists in 71 games as he was part of Seattle’s four-line offensive attack. For the cost of the player Chicago is almost certain to get their money’s worth from the 27-year-old, Donato has been a consistent 25–30-point scorer and is a decent defensive forward.

RFA Re-Signings

F Joey Anderson (one year, $800K) *
F Philipp Kurashev (two years, $4.5MM)

*-denotes two-way contract

Kurashev’s arbitration award surprised some people as the 23-year-old was coming off a season in which he posted nine goals and 16 assists in 70 games. While those offensive numbers aren’t anything to write home about, Kurashev does offer responsible play away from the puck that doesn’t always show up on the scoresheet. He also offers youth and is likely only scratching the surface as far as his potential goes and he could one day find himself as Chicago’s number three center when the club is ready to contend.

Anderson came over to Chicago as part of the Jake McCabe trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 25-year-old dressed in 38 games split between Chicago and Toronto and posted six goals and three assists. The native of Roseville, Minnesota has an element of sandpaper in his game that should serve him well in Chicago’s bottom six this season should he make the big club. He also has the ability to separate player from puck evidenced by his 20 takeaways last season. There are certainly warts to Anderson’s game as he is limited offensively, but he is able to play a physical brand of hockey while remaining disciplined.

Departures

F Anders Bjork (AHL Rockford)
D Hunter Drew (AHL Tucson)
D Andreas Englund (Los Angeles, two years, $2MM)
D Jakub Galvas (SHL Malmö Redhawks)
F Maxim Golod (Nybro Vikings IF)
F Cameron Hillis (Detroit, PTO)
D Caleb Jones (Carolina, one year, $775K)
F Jujhar Khaira (Unsigned)
G Anton Khudobin (Unsigned)
F Buddy Robinson (Unsigned)
G Alex Stalock (Anaheim, one year, $800K)
F Michal Teply (AHL Rockford)
F Jonathan Toews (Unsigned)
F Austin Wagner (Unsigned)
D Andy Welinski (Unsigned)

Up front, Toews is the biggest loss for the Blackhawks. He is a Chicago icon and was the face of an era in which the team captured three Stanley Cups. However, Toews future is murky as he has health issues that he’s battled the past few seasons and it is unclear if he will play again.

Outside of Toews, Chicago didn’t have a lot to lose. Caleb Jones seemed like a strange choice for a non-tender candidate, however, given the lack of interest he had in free agency it might have been the right choice for the Blackhawks to not overpay for a depth defenseman, even if he does have some upside.

Englund found a role with the Kings in Los Angeles which was a surprise given how little he has shown at the NHL level. The 27-year-old defenseman has dressed in 80 NHL games split over five seasons and has yet to score and has just seven assists during that time. He was acquired in the Jack Johnson trade with Colorado and really didn’t show much during his time in Chicago. The Blackhawks opted to let the Swede walk and he surprisingly was able to find a multi-year deal with Los Angeles who were looking to add some physicality to their back end.

Salary Cap Outlook

Few teams have less money committed long term than the Blackhawks. Chicago has just two players signed to NHL money beyond next season in Seth Jones and Connor Murphy. That flexibility will be necessary when Connor Bedard comes out of his ELC in three seasons and if some of the Blackhawks’ top prospects begin to flourish.

The Seth Jones contract is an albatross on their books given where his game is at, however by the time his deal becomes a major problem the Salary Cap will have likely increased by a significant amount. Teams always seem to find ways to rid themselves of bad contracts, particularly when the cap is going up so Chicago should have no issue in dealing with Jones deal should it become problematic.

Key Questions

Can Chicago Win Games: The Blackhawks will win some games, it’s inevitable when they play 82 times a year. But how many games they will win is an interesting question. This is a bad hockey team on paper, but hockey is a funny game and even bad teams can fluke their way into a few wins a year. Chicago doesn’t have much offensively beyond Bedard and Hall, but they will have decent depth on their fourth line and might make it difficult for teams on some nights.  They will likely finish near the bottom of the league when the season is over, but I don’t believe it will be as bad as some people think.

How Many Points Will Bedard Score? Not since Connor McDavid has there been this much hype over a first-overall pick. Auston Matthews was close, but Bedard is in a different stratosphere. Will he put up 100 points in his rookie season like Sidney Crosby? Or will the NHL season grind away at his offensive prowess? Bedard is going to have to drag a bad team on his back through the season and it’s going to be interesting to see how far he can take them.

Who Will Play With Connor? Chicago acquired Hall to presumably play with Bedard on the top line. While he is certainly one of their most gifted players with the puck, there are no guarantees that Hall and Bedard will find chemistry together. Corey Perry was another player Chicago targeted early in the summer and despite his limitations at this stage in his career, he knows how to play with offensively elite players. Chicago will have the benefit of not having any expectations this season, which opens the door for the club to experiment with different players throughout their lineup. Perhaps a young prospect will emerge to become Bedard’s running mate. Only time will tell.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Carolina Hurricanes

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The Carolina Hurricanes have been a good hockey team for a very long time now. Despite all kinds of regular season success, the current group of Hurricanes haven’t been able to sustain a long playoff run which has resulted in spring disappointment becoming a bit of an annual tradition in Carolina. Last year, through two rounds, the Hurricanes looked poised to be on their way to the Stanley Cup Finals, however, they ran into the white-hot Florida Panthers and were swept in the Eastern Conference Finals. Even the best teams stumble when faced with a hot goaltender, but for the Hurricanes scoring became an issue in the playoffs, as has been the case several times now. Carolina went into this summer with question marks in the crease, as well as on their blue line. They addressed both, however scoring could remain an issue once again for the Hurricanes as they head into another cup or bust season.

Draft

1-30: F Bradly Nadeau, Penticton (BCHL)
2-62: F Felix Unger Sorum, Leksands (Sweden U20)
3-94: F Jayden Perron, Chicago (USHL)
4-100: F Alexander Rykov,  Chelmet Chelyabinksk (VHL)
4-126: F Stanislov Yaravoy, Vityaz (KHL)
5-139: D Charles-Alexis Legault, Quinnipiac (NCAA)
5-158: G Ruslan Khazheyev, Chelyabinsk (MHL)
6-163: F Timur Mukhanov, Omskie Krylia (MHL)
6-190: F Michael Emerson, Chicago (USHL)

7-222: G Yegor Velmakin, Proton Novovoronezh (NMHL)

Carolina opted to hang onto their first round pick this past year rather than moving it for trade deadline help or in a potential Erik Karlsson trade. It was an interesting move given the timeline that they are currently on. Nadeau was one of the analytical darlings of the 2023 NHL entry draft and is a pure scorer. He is slightly undersized; however, he will have time to pack on size as he is committed to the University of Maine. Nadeau played Junior A in British Columbia last season, leaving some scouts wishing they could have seen him play in U-18s to assess him against the other top competition in his age bracket.

In the second round of the draft Carolina continued to demonstrate that they wanted to take swings at offensively talented players as they took Felix Unger Sorum. The 18-year-old Norwegian-born winger spent last season in Sweden playing for Leksands and had 10 goals and 46 points in 42 games. Sorum possess incredible hockey sense and projects to be a terrific puck distributor in the future. Carolina’s draft strategy of taking offensively gifted players has paid off in previous drafts and in 2023 they employed much of the same strategy. 

Trade Acquisitions

F David Kase (Philadelphia)

Kase was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in early August in exchange for C Massimo Rizzo and a 2025 fifth-round draft pick.  The 26-year-old hasn’t been overly productive in very limited NHL action thus far as he has just a single goal in seven career games. Kase hasn’t dressed in an NHL game since 2020-21 and has spent the past two seasons in Czechia where he has been somewhat productive posting 10 goals and 27 assists in 68 games.  Kase is still under contract with HC Litvinov for this upcoming season, making Carolina’s acquisition of him a bit curious given their logjam at forward and his lack of offensive punch.

UFA Signings

D Nathan Beaulieu (PTO)

F Michael Bunting (three years, $13.5MM)

D Tony DeAngelo (one year, $1.675MM)
D Caleb Jones (one years, $775K)

F Brendan Lemieux (one year, $800K)
D Dmitry Orlov (two years, $15.5MM)

Orlov was the prized defenseman of free agency and wound up opting for a short-term lucrative deal with the Hurricanes that leaves the possibility of cashing in once again in two seasons when the cap is expected to rise significantly. Orlov also gave himself an opportunity to take two runs at the Stanley Cup with a team that is sure to remain a contender through the duration of his two-year deal. The downside for the 32-year-old is the risk of injury or a drop-in play that could substantially impact his earning ability once his current pact with Carolina expires. From Carolina’s perspective, they get a terrific defenseman that can plug in on either of their top two pairings on the backend. Carolina already boasted one of the best defensive groups in the league and Orlov is sure to add to that distinction.

Bunting bolstered his free agent stock after a pair of terrific offensive seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, however he was likely hoping to cash in on a longer-term deal but may not have found the kind of money he was looking for. He settled on a three-year deal and will have every opportunity to continue to play with skilled players in Carolina. Something he has done a very good job of in Toronto. A suspension in the playoffs for a hit on Erik Cernak likely hurt his free agent stock a little bit as it further added to a reputation that was starting to develop around the league. Bunting had a few questionable plays last season including run-ins with the referees, taking bad penalties and some embellished falls. This may have hurt his market as some people in the media have speculated that Bunting has run out of runway with the NHL head office.

Tony DeAngelo resurrected his career last year with the Hurricanes before they dealt him to the Flyers for three draft picks. He was a model citizen in Carolina and fit in well with their offensive and defensive schemes. Never known to be defensively adept, DeAngelo managed to avoid a lot of his defensive shortcomings while a member of Carolina. However, once he was moved to Philadelphia, a lot of his defensive miscues began to re-emerge, and the 27-year-old once again found himself drowning in his own defensive zone. Now, he is back in Carolina and there is no reason to think he won’t be able to settle back in as a solid option for the Hurricanes. Carolina can shelter the Sewell, New Jersey native and allow him to focus more on his offensive side of the game. Something he excels in.

RFA Re-Signings

D Dylan Coghlan (one year, $850K)

A year ago, Coghlan was a sweetener when the Vegas Golden Knights traded, he and Max Pacioretty to the Carolina Hurricanes for future considerations. It was a cap dump and it allowed Vegas to make room for other signings, and Carolina received two players for what essentially amounted to nothing. Pacioretty has since moved on to Washington, but Coghlan remains in Carolina. After going undrafted out of the WHL, Coghlan wound up in the AHL where he posted two solid offensive seasons with the Chicago Wolves before joining the Golden Knights. While he has never been able to carry his offensive production from the minors into the NHL, he has shown some glimpses while with Vegas and will now be given another look by Carolina.

Coghlan struggled in his first season with the Hurricanes as he posted just three assists in 17 NHL games, however, he continued to put up good offensive numbers in the AHL, albeit in limited action. At just 25 years of age, it is quite possible that Coghlan has more to give, but with the depth that Carolina has at the position, it’s possible that he may find himself on the outside looking in when the season begins.

Key Departures

F Max Pacioretty (Washington, one year, $2MM)
G Zach Sawchenko (Vancouver)*
D William Lagesson (Toronto)*
D Max Lajoie (Toronto)*
D Shayne Gostisbehere (Detroit, one year, $4.125MM)
F Mackenzie MacEachern (St. Louis)
D Calvin de Haan (Tampa Bay, one year, $775K)
F Ondrej Kase (HC Litvinov)
D Cavan Fitzgerald (Chicago Wolves, AHL)
F Malte Strömwall (Frolunda)

Up front, Pacioretty is the most notable loss, however, given how often he was injured last season, he is more of a never was. The Hurricanes obtained Pacioretty for a song, and unfortunately, he was never able to stay in the lineup for a sustained period of time. Pacioretty had three goals in five games with Carolina including two goals in his second game, but a series of unfortunate injuries led to a lost season for the 34-year-old.  A reunion seemed possible, but both the Hurricanes and Pacioretty opted to move in different directions.

Kase is another loss to the Hurricanes offense but much like Pacioretty he too was injured for almost the entire season. Kase was coming off a decent season in Toronto after posting 14 goals and 13 assists in 50 games and seemed like a good bet to provide middle six minutes for the Hurricanes. But injuries kept him from getting into the lineup and Kase has now elected to return home to play.

Carolina had equally as much turnover on the back end as they lost two regulars in Gostisbehere and de Haan.  Gostisbehere was a trade deadline acquisition from Arizona and was a good pickup at the time as he added some offensive punch to their backend in a sheltered role. However, given that the club signed Orlov, Gostisbehere was effectively replaced by a much better player, albeit at a much high cap number.

Calvin de Haan looked like a blueliner on the rise back in his New York Islanders days as he posted several solid seasons as a stay-at-home defenceman that could chip in on offense occasionally. As his career has gone on, he has seen his offense dry up and he has struggled at times to keep up with the pace of the NHL. He is still an NHL defenseman, but at this point in his career, he is best served as a seventh defenseman. He did find NHL work with Tampa Bay and will likely be counted on to serve as a 6-7 defenseman.

Lagesson and Lajoie both left Carolina for two-way deals with Toronto and both will most likely find themselves in the AHL playing for the Marlies. The story is the same for goaltender Sawchenko who departed Carolina for Vancouver and will most likely see time as a third or fourth option in the crease.

Salary Cap Outlook

Few teams have the ability to lose players in free agency and immediately replace them internally. Carolina has been able to do it over the past few years and may need to do it again next summer as they may face a cap crunch with Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, Seth Jarvis and Teuvo Teravainen due new contracts. Carolina has almost $56MM committed to 10 players next season, and although they have over $30MM in cap space for next year, that money will dry up quickly when Carolina is locking up gifted free agents.

Key Questions

Can Carolina Score: The Hurricanes have a lot of offensively gifted players, but can they score when it matters the most? Carolina couldn’t solve Sergei Bobrovsky in last year’s playoffs, and it wasn’t the first time they’ve had that issue. Carolina has done little this offseason to bring in more offense, despite this being a fatal flaw. Can they address this in season, or do they even see this as a problem? DeAngelo and Orlov will provide more offense from the backend, and maybe it will be enough. Time will tell.

Will Pesce Re-sign? The Hurricanes have several high profiles pending free agents and none bigger than Pesce, who is a homegrown, beloved, rock-solid defender for the Canes. Defensemen are always in demand, particularly those who shoot right and provide a rare combination of size, skill, grit, and playmaking. There has been no shortage of trade speculation involving Pesce and it reached a point where a trade seemed inevitable, but it never materialized. It could still happen in season as Carolina can opt to move Pesce to shore up other parts of their lineup, or maybe they wait for a different kind of trade. The Hurricanes have options and have nearly eight months to decide what they want to do with the pending free agents on the backend.

Who Will Emerge In Net? Carolina opted to bring back the same goalie trio that they employed last season. The team re-signed pending free agents Antti Raanta and Frederik Andersen and are now committed to run it back again with the same goalie pairing. This isn’t a knock on either goalie as they’ve both had terrific careers, but it has felt for quite a while like the Hurricanes were just a goalie away from being a true Stanley Cup contender. But given the low cost of the tandem and their track records of regular season success, it’s hard to argue with rolling in back rather than opting to roll the dice in the trade market or unrestricted free agency.  The Canes do have Pyotr Kochetkov waiting in the wings should either veteran netminder falter, and given the youngster’s track record he could very well be the goalie of the future in Carolina.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Calgary Flames

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Last season was a trajectory-altering one for the Calgary Flames, although not in the way they’d hoped. A major reshuffling of their top stars was expected to keep the Flames near the top of the Pacific Division, but they missed the playoffs entirely after a season mired by inconsistency. Multiple players underperformed, their goaltending tandem of Jacob Markström and Daniel Vladar struggled, and most players seemed to rejoice when the team moved on from head coach Darryl Sutter after the season. With Ryan Huska now behind the bench and Craig Conroy steering the ship as general manager, the Flames enter a truly pivotal 2023-24 campaign with multiple core players destined for free agency next summer.

Draft

1-16: F Samuel Honzek, Vancouver (WHL)
2-48: D Étienne Morin, Moncton (QMJHL)
3-80: F Aydar Suniev, Penticton (BCHL)
4-112: F Jaden Lipinski, Vancouver (WHL)
6-176: G Yegor Yegorov, Dynamo Moscow (MHL)
7-208: D Axel Hurtig, Rögle (J20 Nationell)

Without sensibly being able to buy at last season’s trade deadline, former GM Brad Treliving held on to their premier draft choices – a move that quickly paid off. While they aren’t franchise-altering talents, Honzek and Morin make up a high-end haul from the first two rounds and should yield a future everyday top-nine forward and top-six defender, respectively. Honzek is the class star here, but he’s expected to return to WHL Vancouver next season after posting 56 points in 43 games there last year in an injury-shortened campaign.

Morin was also a player who could very well have gone in the late first round, and he was one of, if not the best, defender available out of the QMJHL after recording 72 points and a +29 rating in 67 games with Moncton last season. Suniev, Lipinski and Yegorov round out a list of some high-risk, high-reward picks, while Hurtig projects as a hulking shutdown defender if he can manage a pro career.

Trade Acquisitions

F Yegor Sharangovich (from New Jersey)

While a dependable top-nine scorer, Sharangovich had a down year after a strong first two campaigns in New Jersey. The Devils’ 2018 fifth-round pick burst onto the scene in 2020-21, posting 16 goals and 30 points in 54 games (a 24-goal, 46-point pace over 82 games that he would replicate in 2021-22). His production, relative possession numbers and ice time all dipped last season, though, earning him a spot in the press box at times when the postseason rolled around. Slated for restricted free agency, the Devils had no issue moving on from him to acquire a short-term upgrade from Calgary in Tyler Toffoli. The Flames now have him locked into an affordable $3.1MM cap hit for the next two seasons, and they’re hoping by giving him a top-six role, he can get back to hovering around the 45-to-50-point mark and churn out another 20-goal campaign. He could potentially play as high as a first-line role alongside Elias Lindholm, replacing Toffoli’s spot in the lineup directly.

Key UFA Signings

F Dryden Hunt (two years, $1.55MM)*
D Jordan Oesterle (one year, $925K)

*-denotes two-way contract

After Treliving doled out a healthy amount of cash last summer, the Flames weren’t left with much space to work with. Even with just the two sub-$1MM cap hit signings, the Flames are currently $213K over the cap with a roster of 22 players, according to CapFriendly’s projections. The 31-year-old Oesterle is technically their biggest addition on the UFA market, and he’s far from a lock to play an everyday role, let alone make the team out of camp with their cap restraints. He’d spent the last two seasons in Detroit, where he’s recorded the worst possession metrics of his nine-year NHL career and averaged 15:39 per game last season in a decidedly depth role. It’s a long shot from his days with the Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks in the late 2010s when he looked like an option that could slide into the top four in a pinch. With Oliver Kylington ready to return to the team next season after taking 2022-23 off on personal leave, Oesterle will likely start the season as Calgary’s seventh defenseman.

Hunt will also battle to make the Flames roster in a 13th forward-type role. Last season was a rollercoaster for the 27-year-old, who played for the New York Rangers, Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs in the span of just a few months after being claimed on waivers and then traded. Playing in 37 NHL games, he scored just three goals after posting 17 points in 76 games with the Rangers in 2021-22. He was traded yet another time at last season’s deadline to the Flames, playing out the rest of the season with their AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers. His 15 points in 17 games there were enough to warrant the team bringing him back after the UFA period opened.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Walker Duehr (two years, $1.65MM)
F Yegor Sharangovich (two years, $6.2MM)

We’ve already covered Sharangovich’s impact on the team at length above, so Duehr gets our full attention regarding the Flames’ notable RFA signings this summer. Calgary signed the 6-foot-2 undrafted winger out of Minnesota State after his senior campaign ended in 2021, during which he recorded 10 goals and seven assists for 17 points in 28 games en route to a WCHA regular-season championship. He’s since shown the ability to translate his low-ceiling but effective checking game to the pro ranks, posting decent offensive totals in the minors with the Wranglers. He appeared in 27 games for the Flames last season in a bottom-six role, scoring seven goals in 27 games – a feat that’s likely earned him a spot on the team’s opening night roster come October. The 25-year-old would require waivers at this stage to be returned to the Wranglers.

Key Departures

F Trevor Lewis (Los Angeles, one year, $775K)
F Milan Lucic (Boston, one year, $1MM)
D Connor Mackey (NY Rangers, one year, $775K)
F Brett Ritchie (UFA)
F Nick Ritchie (UFA)
D Troy Stecher (Arizona, one year, $1.1MM)
D Michael Stone (retirement)
F Tyler Toffoli (trade with New Jersey)

The only extremely notable departure here is Toffoli, with whom the organization hopes they’ve replaced somewhat laterally with Sharangovich. If the latter doesn’t pan out, however, it will be a tough loss to swallow. Toffoli was their best player last season, leading the team with 34 goals and 73 points while posting high-end possession metrics and taking on 16:37 per game. There’s no other internal option ready to step up and replace that production without causing a domino effect on the team’s depth.

The rest on this list either played fourth-line or other depth roles for the majority of the season, while some (Nick Ritchie and Stecher) were only part of the team for a handful of games post-deadline and had a minimal effect on the team’s success as a whole last season. In Lucic and Lewis, though, they lose a couple of veterans with cup-winning pedigree, although their on-ice performance had withered in recent seasons to the point where they were maybe better served for press-box roles, especially in Lucic’s case.

Mackey and Stone move on after sitting near the high-end of the Flames’ “extra defensemen” list, although Stone will stay with the Flames in an off-ice capacity.

Salary Cap Outlook

Calgary will be cap-compliant to start the season, but it won’t be with a full roster, as we discussed earlier, per CapFriendly. As things stand, they’ll only have room for one extra skater (or none and one extra goalie should they opt to carry Dustin Wolf with the team to start the season). It means a corresponding move could very well be coming before the puck drops on the 2023-24 campaign, and teams need to turn in their cap-compliant rosters, but it’s not an absolute necessity. The Flames have no dead cap complicating things, either, unless they demote Kevin Rooney to the minors again – that will result in a buried penalty of $150K, given his $1.3MM cap hit.

Key Questions

Who Stays And Who Goes?: The slate of pending UFAs has been widely discussed at this point, especially the trio of Mikael Backlund, Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. The team’s play over the first few months of the season will likely dictate which of those players are still team members after the 2024 trade deadline. There are some other important depth players on expiring deals like Christopher Tanev and Nikita Zadorov, too, who could command decent returns as rentals if the team doesn’t anticipate being able to re-sign them.

Who Takes Over In The Crease?: There’s no sugarcoating it – Jacob Markström had his worst season as a full-time starter last season after finishing second in Vezina Trophy voting the year prior, a remarkable falloff for the 33-year-old who’s halfway through a six-year, $6MM AAV deal. He barely crawled over the .500 mark, posting a 23-21-2 record, and had just a .892 save percentage and a lone shutout after leading the NHL with nine last season. If he can’t recapture his previous top-ten form, look for the Flames to turn to the young Wolf, who is still 22 years old but has won back-to-back AHL Goalie of the Year awards in his first two pro seasons.

Can The Young Guns Add Scoring Depth?: The Flames have a pair of wingers slated to start the season in bottom-six roles who could very well end up higher in the lineup by season’s end – Matthew Coronato and Jakob Pelletier. First-round picks in 2021 and 2019, respectively, Pelletier tore up the AHL with 37 points in 35 games last season but didn’t necessarily jump off the page in the NHL, recording seven points in 24 games. Coronato got just one game of action after turning pro after two seasons at Harvard, during which he recorded 36 points in 34 games in back-to-back campaigns.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Buffalo Sabres

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For the 12th season in a row, the Buffalo Sabres failed to make the playoffs at the end of the regular season. However, for the first time in several years, the end of the regular season did matter quite a lot to the Sabres. Being one of the best scoring teams throughout the year, Buffalo finished one point back of the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, raising expectations for the upcoming 2023-24 NHL season. There are still some weak spots in the lineup, but the Sabres made some moves this summer to address other areas of need.

Draft

1-13: F Zach Benson, Winnipeg (WHL)
2-39: F Anton Wahlberg, IF Malmo (SHL)
2-45: D Maxim Strbak, Sioux Falls (USHL)
3-86: D Gavin McCarthy, Muskegon (USHL)
4-109: F Ethan Miedema, Kingston (OHL)
5-141: G Scott Ratzlaff, Seattle (WHL)
6-173: D Sean Keohane, Dexter School (USHS)
7-205: D Norwin Panocha, Eisbaren Berlin (DNL U20)

Benson becomes the prize of the draft for the Sabres, falling to Buffalo at 13th overall after being projected to go in the top 10 throughout much of the year. Now joining former Sabres’ first-round selection, Matthew Savoie, with the Wenatchee Wild of the WHL for the 2023-24 season, Benson capped off his three-year career with the Winnipeg Ice scoring 36 goals and 62 assists in 60 games.

Strbak and McCarthy represent solid young defenders that the team has been craving over the last several years. Both players will join the NCAA for the 2023-24 season, Strbak to Michigan State University, and McCarthy to Boston University. They both carry solid skating ability, with an even better ability to get the puck out of their zone and into transition. Overall, factoring in the team’s need to keep the puck out of their net, McCarthy likely projects as the best long-term solution to that problem.

Key UFA Signings

D Kale Clague (one year, $775K)*
D Connor Clifton (three years, $10MM)
G Devin Cooley (one year, $775K)*
D Erik Johnson (one year, $3.25MM)
F Tyson Jost (one year, $2MM)
F Justin Richards (one year, $775K)*
G Dustin Tokarski (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

Even with an abundance of cap space heading into the offseason, the Sabres stayed relatively quiet on the free-agent market. They were quick to address their lack of defensive prowess on the back end by inking Clifton and Johnson to contracts on day one and even brought back Jost on a one-year deal to fill the gap left by the injury to Jack Quinn.

Although finished the 2022-23 regular season as the third-highest-scoring team in the league, the Sabres finished 26th in goals against, largely due to inefficient defensemen and goaltending. By bringing in Clifton and Johnson, who both play on the right side, Buffalo should dramatically improve the quality of their blue line. Both players finished with a solid oiSV% last season at 93.2% and 91.7%, respectively.

Already carrying solid defensemen such as Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson with the ability to play on the left side of the blue line, the additions of Clifton and Johnson immediately make the team more well-rounded. If their offense can at the very least repeat the goal-scoring from a year ago, the Sabres should be in line to dramatically increase their year-on-year goal differential mark.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Brett Murray (one year, $775K)*
F Lukas Rousek (two years, $1.55MM)*
F Linus Weissbach (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

All three of these players will likely spend the majority of next season rostered with the organization’s AHL team, the Rochester Americans. Of the trio, Rousek was the only one to suit up for the Sabres, scoring one goal and one assist in two games played. At the AHL level, Rousek led the Americans in most scoring categories, scoring 56 points in 70 games.

Murray and Weissbach had solid seasons in Rochester last year in their own right, finishing third and fourth on the team in scoring, respectively. Both players bring a nice scoring touch to the AHL level and do carry the potential of being rostered on the Sabres next year in case of injury or suspension to a regular forward.

Key Departures

G Craig Anderson (retirement)
F Vinnie Hinostroza (Pittsburgh, one year, $775K)
D Ilya Lyubushkin (trade with Anaheim)
G Malcolm Subban (St.Louis, one year, $775K)

For the most part, Buffalo didn’t stand to lose too much entering into this offseason. Their top two unrestricted free agents, Kyle Okposo, and Zemgus Girgensons, both re-upped with the Sabres on separate one-year, $2.5MM contracts, leaving the team with a fairly clean outlook for the remainder of the summer.

The trade that sent Lyubushkin, which was made just under 10 days ago now, was strictly due to a looming roster crunch on the back end for Buffalo. Because the team had brought in Clifton and Johnson and did not lose any defensemen via free agency, the team simply had too many viable options on the blue line, and Lyubushkin became a consequence.

To pick out one, the departure that may hurt the team the most is the retirement of Anderson. Being 41 years old last season, Anderson provided Buffalo with stability between the pipes at the very least, carrying an 11-11-2 record in 24 starts, posting a .908 SV% and a 3.06 GAA. These are not great numbers by any stretch of the imagination but would end up being some of the better goaltending numbers posted for the Sabres last season. However, if Anderson becomes the biggest loss of the offseason for Buffalo, it would be hard to consider this summer anything other than a complete success for the organization.

Salary Cap Outlook

Even with large extensions kicking in this season for Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens, as well as carrying the relatively high-cap hit of $9MM for forward Jeff Skinner, the Sabres have one of the cleanest cap futures of any team in the NHL. They will still need to dole out extensions for Dahlin and potentially Power by the end of next summer, but with just over $8.7MM in cap space to start this season, should be able to fit those in rather easily.

There will come a time when Buffalo will likely be forced to move some names from the roster, as having so much top-end talent either on the team or still coming through the pipeline becomes expensive, but that can has been kicked far down the road for this organization. If the team reaches their potential this season, or even next, they will have plenty of cap space to become one of the juggernauts in the Eastern Conference and even the league as a whole.

Key Questions

What’s Their Answer Between The Pipes?  Having already been addressed in this piece, it is no secret that Buffalo has had a serious problem with goaltending over the last several years. For the most part, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen does not appear as the long-term answer in the net, and the Sabres appear to be putting all their eggs in the basket of Devon Levi. Levi does have serious long-term potential, but there is always a potential he does not live up to the hype. Luckily for Buffalo, with ample amount of cap space, prospect, and draft capital, they could look to poach already established goaltenders such as Ilya Samsonov, Connor Hellebuyck, Carter Hart, or Jeremy Swayman off the market sometime in the near future.

What Will Dahlin’s Extension Look Like? With one year and $6MM remaining on his current contract, Dahlin has set himself up nicely for a max extension with the Sabres by this time next year. Last season, in 78 games played, Dahlin would score 15 goals and 58 assists, finishing eighth place in Norris voting. Dahlin played much more physically last season than in years past and improved drastically on his defensive numbers as well. There is no question that he has earned a massive extension from the Sabres, but what that will look like is another question in its own right. Buffalo has done incredibly solid work in getting their star players signed to below-market deals and could do the same with Dahlin. If the Sabres are able to sign Dahlin for anything less than $10MM a season at this point, it will be a tremendous success for the team’s front office.

How Will The Team Replace Quinn? The most unfortunate news for the offseason is that the team will be without Quinn to start the regular season. Suffering an Achilles tear while training at the end of June, even by conservative estimates he will not start the season until the end of December. In 75 games last season, Quinn would score 14 goals and 23 assists, showing that he is ready for NHL minutes. To start the year, it likely makes the most sense to start John-Jason Peterka in Quinn’s absence, who had a very similar year last season to Quinn. However, although unlikely, if the top six does not reach expectations in Quinn’s absence, the team could look to bring in hometown star, Patrick Kane, to replace the minutes lost.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Summer Synopsis: Boston Bruins

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Last season, things couldn’t have gone any better for Boston from October through the beginning of April.  They were the top team in the NHL and not by a small margin.  GM Don Sweeney made multiple moves to add at the trade deadline, cementing themselves as a heavy favorite for the Stanley Cup.  However, they were ousted in the opening round, blowing a 3-1 series lead to Florida.  Their additions last season came at a cost and as a result, their roster looks considerably different now than it did just a few months ago.

Draft

3-92: F Christopher Pelosi, Sioux Falls (USHL)
4-124: F Beckett Hendrickson, USA U-18 (NTDP)
6-188: F Ryan Walsh, Cedar Rapids (USHL)
7-214: F Casper Nassen, Vasteras (Sweden U20)
7-220: D Kristian Kostadinski, Frolunda (Sweden U20)

Not surprisingly, with the Bruins being a buyer for several years in a row, they didn’t have a lot to work with here.  Their first-round pick was traded for Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway while their second-round selection belonged to Anaheim as part of the Hampus Lindholm acquisition, their big move the year before.  (And if you’re looking ahead a year, the cupboard is even thinner as Boston has already moved their top three picks plus their seventh-rounder.)

Pelosi and Hendrickson (son of former NHLer Darby Hendrickson) are set to be teammates with Sioux Falls of the USHL this season before beginning their college careers in 2024-25.  Walsh, meanwhile, is joining Cornell in 2023-24 after finishing second in USHL scoring last season.  All of these picks have at least four years before they need to sign so this is a draft class that won’t be making an impact anytime soon.

Trade Acquisitions

D Ian Mitchell (from Chicago)
D Alec Regula (from Chicago)
D Reilly Walsh (from New Jersey)

Mitchell showed some promise offensively at the college level, making him one of Chicago’s better prospects just a few years ago.  However, while he has been productive in the minors (with 42 points in 67 games over three seasons), that hasn’t translated to the NHL where he has just four goals and a dozen assists in 82 games.  The 24-year-old did get into 35 games with the Blackhawks last season but had been passed over by a few players on their depth chart, making him expendable.  Now waiver-eligible for the first time, there’s no guarantee he’ll make it through waivers if Boston tries to send him down to AHL Providence.  Accordingly, he could stick in a depth role in training camp.

Regula and Walsh, meanwhile, will also be battling to try to land a spot toward the back of Boston’s blueline but don’t have as much pedigree or NHL experience as Mitchell.  Pending waivers, both will likely be with Providence this season.  All three players agreed to one-year deals worth the NHL minimum in July.

Key UFA Signings

F Jesper Boqvist (one year, $775K)
F Patrick Brown (two years, $1.6MM)
F Alex Chiasson (PTO)
F John Farinacci (two years, $1.82MM)*
F Morgan Geekie (two years, $4MM)
F Milan Lucic (one year, $1MM plus $500K in bonuses)
D Kevin Shattenkirk (one year, $1.05MM)
F James van Riemsdyk (one year, $1MM)

*-denotes two-way contract

Spreading the wealth was the name of the game for the Bruins who had several spots to fill and not a lot of money to spend.  Their biggest splash up front was Geekie, a player who was somewhat surprisingly non-tendered by Seattle, likely to avoid the risk of an arbitration award higher than they wanted to pay.  The 25-year-old has been a producer in junior and in the minors and while that hasn’t translated to the NHL level just yet, he should have a good opportunity to play a bigger role in Boston which should give him a chance to be more of an impactful player.

The other addition they’re likely counting on for consistent production is van Riemsdyk.  The 34-year-old is coming off a down year in Philadelphia but has either reached the 20-goal mark or had a goal-per-game pace at that level in every other season since his rookie campaign back in 2009-10.  While he has slowed down, this was quite a reasonable pickup as he looks for a bounce-back showing.

Most of their other additions are of the depth variety.  Lucic isn’t close to the player he was in his prime with Boston but should play a regular role on the fourth line.  Brown, Boqvist, and Chiasson (if he earns a deal) are likely to battle for spots on that trio as well or to be the reserve forward.  Farinacci, meanwhile, could also get into the mix after signing earlier this month as part of the August 15 free agent group but may be better off starting his pro career in the minors.

As for Shattenkirk, the 34-year-old has been a contributor offensively for most of his career and should be able to do so here.  He’s a top-four defender who’s being paid like a depth one, making the veteran one of the better bargain additions of the summer.  He played with Lindholm in Anaheim and the two could see time together this season as well.

Key RFA Re-Signings

F Trent Frederic (two years, $4.6MM)
G Jeremy Swayman (one year, $3.475MM)

Frederic has developed slowly but steadily since being a first-round pick (29th overall) back in 2016 and had a breakout performance last season, notching 17 goals and 14 assists in 79 games despite averaging less than 12 minutes a night.  With a long list of departures, Frederic is likely to land a higher spot on the depth chart and could even see time down the middle, his natural position.

Swayman, meanwhile, followed up an All-Rookie performance in 2021-22 with an even better showing last year, albeit in fewer games with Linus Ullmark also having a career year between the pipes.  With just 88 NHL appearances under his belt during the regular season, a long-term deal wasn’t feasible and this one ultimately wound up in the hands of an arbitrator.

Key Departures

F Patrice Bergeron (retirement)
F Tyler Bertuzzi (Toronto, one year, $5.5MM)
D Connor Clifton (Buffalo, three years, $10MM)
F Nick Foligno (trade with Chicago)
F Taylor Hall (trade with Chicago)
F Garnet Hathaway (Philadelphia, two years, $4.75MM)
F David Krejci (retirement)
F Tomas Nosek (New Jersey, one year, $1MM)
D Dmitry Orlov (Carolina, two years, $15.5MM)
D Mike Reilly (buyout, signed with Florida, one year, $1MM)

The departures of Bergeron and Krejci shouldn’t come as much surprise.  Bergeron pondered hanging up his skates the year before while Krejci (whose retirement only covers the NHL, not international play) had already left once before coming back last season.  That said, the expectation of their departures doesn’t make it any easier to stomach for the Bruins.  Bergeron was a premier two-way center and even though his production had dipped a bit, he was still a catalyst for their top line.  Krejci, meanwhile, was the perfect fit as a second option while being someone that could move up when Bergeron was injured.  Boston will try to fill their departures internally for now with Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle but with all due respect to those capable veterans, that’s a considerable step back.

Hall (and the rights to Foligno) were moved to Chicago in a move that amounted to a straight salary dump that was necessarily to open up enough cap space to fill out their roster.  His $6MM went to several of the players they inked on the first day of free agency.  Hall wasn’t a top-line player for most of his tenure with Boston but was a capable secondary scorer.  The same can be said for Bertuzzi, whose time with the Bruins was much shorter.  A deadline acquisition, the 28-year-old only managed four goals after being acquired but was one of their top playoff performers, collecting five goals and five helpers in their loss to Florida.  Bertuzzi wanted a long-term deal this summer but wasn’t able to land it, resulting in him opting for a one-year deal in Toronto.

Nosek’s departure isn’t as significant as Bergeron and Krejci’s but the 30-year-old was a capable depth center.  He won over 56% of his faceoffs over his two seasons with the Bruins while playing a prominent role on their penalty kill.  Hathaway, meanwhile, didn’t light up the scoresheet after being acquired but gave Boston extra physicality.  His role is likely to be filled by Lucic next season.

On the back end, the departure of Orlov comes as no surprise either as there was no way that Boston could realistically find a way to afford to keep him.  He picked up 17 points in 21 games while logging 22 minutes a night and while they’ll be hoping that Shattenkirk can cover some of the lost production, Orlov’s all-around impact will be harder to replace.  As for Reilly, he was buried in the minors for the bulk of last season.  They could have gone that way again this year but the buyout only costs them $333K this coming season which means they saved enough to fill close to two roster spots by making that move.  In 2024-25, however, the buyout cost increases by $1MM.

Salary Cap Outlook

It wasn’t easy and the exodus of talent certainly was tough to watch from a Boston perspective but the team is now cap-compliant with CapFriendly projecting them having around $429K in cap room as things stand.  That number is bogged down by $4.5MM in bonus overage penalties incurred from the contracts for Bergeron and Krejci last year, meaning that they’re carrying a bigger cap charge when they’re not playing compared to when they were in the lineup last year.  That was a well-known outcome when the Bruins structured those deals they way they did a year ago; it’s not as if that penalty came as a surprise to them.

Key Questions

Can They Upgrade Down The Middle? Sweeney has made it known that they’d like to find a way to upgrade at center.  With who they’ve lost, that goal makes plenty of sense.  However, they’re in a spot where they basically have to match money while they lack the draft pick and prospect capital needed to help put their offers over the top.  That makes a top-six upgrade difficult but if they’re open to making a smaller-scale one to improve their depth, that option might be a bit more palatable (and affordable).

What’s Next For DeBrusk? Winger Jake DeBrusk is now extension-eligible and you can be sure that his camp will be pointing to the eight-year, $52MM extension that Tampa Bay just gave Brandon Hagel as a starting point for discussions.  Is that a price point that Boston is willing to go to in order to keep the 26-year-old?  It’s not as if his tenure with the team has been smooth throughout with a long-lasting trade request only being rescinded a couple of years ago.  And if it’s not a price tag they’re willing to pay, could they justify trying to move him to help match money to get an impact center?  If they want to make a move for a center sooner than later, it would behoove them to have an idea of what DeBrusk is looking for extension-wise soon if they haven’t already started discussions.

What Will The Goalies Do For An Encore? The combination of Ullmark and Swayman was nothing short of dominant last season.  Ullmark led the league in wins, save percentage, and goals-against average, becoming only the third goalie in the last three decades to lead all three categories; the win mark is particularly impressive considering he only played in 49 games.  Swayman, meanwhile, was fourth in the NHL in SV% and GAA.  With a weaker roster now in front of them, how much will their performance be affected?  If the two can play at even a close rate to 2022-23, the Bruins could still be quite dangerous.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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