Grading the offseason of every NHL team

The big move for the Ducks this offseason was getting starting goalie John Gibson locked up to a long-term contract extension. As long as he's healthy, he is one of the best goalies in the league and a franchise netminder. Injuries, however, have been the one thing that has consistently held him back. The only real move the Ducks made to bring in talent from outside the organization was a bizarre three-year, $3.4 million contract for Carter Rowney. 

Trading Max Domi for Alex Galchenyuk is a potential home run. Galchenyuk is still an outstanding talent and scored more goals this past season than Domi has over the past two years combined. They are also giving him a real look at center, which could be a nice 1-2 punch down the middle along with Derek Stepan. Their other big moves were to keep franchise cornerstone Oliver Ekman-Larsson on a long-term contract and pick up some additional depth from Chicago by taking on the remainder of Marian Hossa's contract. They also signed the speedy Michael Grabner.

It was a quiet offseason in Boston with the only notable moves being the additions of backup goalie Jaroslav Halak and trading Adam McQuaid for Steve Kampfer, while also losing last year's big trade deadline pick, Rick Nash, to a possible retirement. Considering that Tampa Bay is coming back with a powerhouse team and the Toronto Maple Leafs added Auston Matthews, it is going to be tough for the Bruins to climb the standings in the Atlantic Division. 

This is a tough one because the Sabres did some good things, and they did some bad things. Picking up Jeff Skinner for next to nothing was a steal, and they should get a great year from him as he plays for a new contract. But the Ryan O'Reilly trade didn't really bring back anything that is likely to make a difference. Conor Sheary and Carter Hutton were also brought in and are big question marks. The most important addition, though, was drafting Rasmus Dahlin with the No. 1 overall pick. 

Signing James Neal in free agency was a nice pickup, but trading Dougie Hamilton seems like a really questionable move. Hamilton is one of the league's top defenders and is coming off a massive year. Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm are nice players in return, but neither one of them is as impactful as Hamilton is. 

Losing Jeff Skinner is going to hurt the offense, but the Hurricanes were likely to lose him after this season anyway in free agency. And they have a couple of great young prospects in Martin Necas and No. 2 overall pick Andrei Svechnikov, who could one day be impact players. The additions of Dougie Hamilton and Calvin de Haan should give them one of the best defenses in the league, but they still have big question marks in goal. 

Nobody loves bringing back his former players like Stan Bowman, and he did it again this summer by re-acquiring Marcus Kruger as part of the Marian Hossa contract dump to Arizona. With starting goalie Corey Crawford still uncertain entering training camp, and after their backups were unable to fill in for him a year ago, the Blackhawks only addition in net was Cam Ward, one of the league's least productive goalies over the past seven years. 

The Avalanche did some work in an effort to bulk up their back end by signing Ian Cole in free agency and trading for goalie Philipp Grubauer from the Washington Capitals. They only had to give up a second-round pick to get Grubauer because they also took on the final year of Brooks Orpik's contract, and then promptly bought it out. Grubauer is a bit of a mystery because of his short resume as an NHL goalie, but he has been outstanding when he has played. Ton of potential there. The best thing that happened for the Avalanche this season, though, is that the Ottawa Senators elected to keep their 2018 first-round pick which means they have to send their 2019 pick to Colorado. It will almost certainly be a top-five pick with a decent chance to be the top pick. 

The Blue Jackets have two massive free agency situations to deal with before next July in Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky, the team's two best and most impactful players. The former seems unlikely to re-sign, while the latter is also still a mystery. While those two situations remain unresolved, they did manage to sign general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and coach John Tortorella to new deals. So that is something. 

General manager Jim Nill didn't make a big splash addition from outside the organization the way he tends to, but he did get Tyler Seguin signed to a long-term contract extension and that is probably more important than any trade or signing he could have made. The Stars also have an intriguing new coach in Jim Montgomery who will hopefully bring a fresh approach to the roster after the past few years of Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchcock. 

Jonathan Bernier might be a small upgrade in net but not enough of one to get this roster into the playoffs. With Henrik Zetterberg's career coming to an end the rebuilding effort is really accelerated, and they got a bit of a break in the draft when prized goal-scoring winger Filip Zadina fell to them at No. 6 overall. That pick kind of made the offseason for them. Still, though, there is a lot of money invested in this aging team that is not very good. 

You have the best player in the world, you missed the playoffs, and your offseason consisted of adding a couple of fringe depth pieces and a backup goalie who has not played a game in the NHL since 2010-11 (and even then he only played in four games). On top of that, pretty much every contending team in the division did something to make themselves better. 

They were one of the hottest teams in the NHL in the second half of the season and added another top-six winger in Mike Hoffman to their core. The Panthers probably are not as good as they looked down the stretch, but they are going to be a playoff contender and Hoffman could be a big addition for a fairly small price. The Panthers love Troy Brouwer's experience, but he doesn't really do much except take away a roster spot from a younger player. 

Their biggest problem in recent years has been a lack of offense, a lack of speed and a lack of youth. Nothing they did this offseason really addressed much of the latter two issues, but they did pick up Ilya Kovalchuk, and he should still be able to put the puck in the net. They also managed to get Drew Doughty signed to a long-term contract to avoid that potential headache during the season and put an end to any free agency worries. 

Kind of a "meh" offseason here from the Wild as they are bringing back largely the same roster from last season. It's not a great roster; it's not a bad roster It's just...average. They do have a big decision to make during the season when it comes to Eric Staal and whether or not they want to re-sign him. He has found the fountain of youth since joining the Wild. But how much does he left beyond this season? That is the big question. 

All things considered they didn't get a terrible return for Max Pacioretty, but this is now a team that is severely lacking in finishers with the departures of him and Alex Galchenyuk. Shea Weber is starting the year on the shelf weakening an already thin defense, and they don't seem to have much in the way of a long-term plan. This could be another long season unless Carey Price turns into superman again. 

This team really did not have a lot to do this offseason. Even though they did not make a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final, this is still one of the best teams in the league on paper with the best defense in the NHL and a spectacular salary cap situation. Speaking of the defense, they managed to keep it together by signing Ryan Ellis to a long-term contract extension, meaning they have P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm and Ellis all signed for at least the next two seasons, while Subban, Ekholm, and Ellis all have at least five years on their contracts. 

They didn't do anything to get better, and they didn't really do anything to get worse. They are banking heavily on Taylor Hall repeating his MVP-level performance from the 2017-18 season and several of their young players (Nico Hischier, Pavel Zacha, Jesper Bratt just to name a few) taking a big step forward.

The good news is they hired the reigning Stanley Cup winning coach (Barry Trotz) and a Hall of Fame general manager (Lou Lamoriello). The bad news is they lost their best player, John Tavares, in free agency and replaced him with a roster full of fourth-line players. This is going to be a really rough season, even with Mathew Barzal looking like a star. 

The big question for the Rangers is where they go next in their rebuild. Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes are both unrestricted free agents after this season and seem to be prime candidates to get moved, but will it end there? David Quinn is an intriguing hire as a head coach because they really need someone who can develop young talent, and he comes highly regarded in that area. 

What a mess. Erik Karlsson and Mike Hoffman were both traded for pennies on the dollar. Mark Stone and Matt Duchene (and probably more veterans on the roster) are probably next. They do not have their first-round pick in 2019 because it now belongs to the Colorado Avalanche as part of the Duchene trade from this past November. Owner Eugene Melnyk is now the face of this franchise, and nobody in Ottawa is happy about that. 

This is an up-and-coming team with a ton of young talent, including 2017 No. 2 overall pick Nolan Patrick. Goaltending is going to be a big question once again. (How many times have we heard that before?) But they should have an outstanding offense with Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Sean Couturier at the top, and also the return of James van Riemsdyk in free agency. 

For the second year in a row, Jim Rutherford did not have a great offseason. The Jack Johnson contract is bizarre given the term length and Johnson's track record in the NHL. Matt Cullen had a great run in Pittsburgh two years ago, but at some point he is going to start to slow down. Still, he and Derek Grant do add some depth down the middle that could come in handy later in the year. 

They re-signed Joe Thornton and Evander Kane, they dumped a contract they did not want in Mikkel Boedker to create some extra salary cap space in an effort to land another impact player, and even though they missed out on John Tavares in free agency, they still managed to get Erik Karlsson for a way-below market price. They now have a defense that boasts Karlsson, Brent Burns and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, all three of whom are probably among the top 15 defenders in the NHL. Karlsson and Burns have combined for three Norris Trophies and have both been finalists several other times. 

The Blues were one of the best defensive teams in the league a season ago and missed the playoffs by just one point because they lacked scoring depth around Vladimir Tarasenko. They addressed that this summer. They picked up Ryan O'Reilly from the Buffalo Sabres for a good prospect and a couple of contracts they no longer wanted, then added Tyler Bozak, David Perron and Patrick Maroon in free agency. This should easily be a playoff team again. 

No major additions, but no subtractions either. They also managed to get two of their core players signed to long-term contracts, with Nikita Kucherov and J.T. Miller both inking new deals to stay in Tampa Bay. At least an Eastern Conference finalist in three of the past four seasons, this team is still one of the top contenders in the NHL.

They lost James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak, but they also added John Tavares...so...it all kind of works out. With Tavares, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner, this is going to be one heck of an offense. The blue line is still a question mark, and Frederik Andersen could probably use a few more nights off. But this is going to be an exciting team. 

Henrik and Daniel Sedin were still two of the team's top three scorers a season ago, and they are now retired. To replace them, the Canucks decided to spend big money and long-term contracts on veteran depth players like Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel. That is not going to help much in the short term. Brock Boeser looks great, but this team does not have much else at the moment. 

There are some reasons to believe the Golden Knights will not repeat their first-year success in Year 2, with expected regressions from William Karlsson and Marc-Andre Fleury, to the free agency departures of David Perron and James Neal. On the other hand, there are also reasons to believe they made up for some of that by signing Paul Stastny in free agency and trading for Max Pacioretty and getting him signed to a fair contract extension (only four years at $7 million per season). General manager George McPhee has done a nice job with collecting assets to make some of those moves possible while also not saddling the team with bad contracts. Even the three-year extension for Fleury signed this offseason is reasonable. 

Losing Paul Stastny after a strong stretch run and playoff showing hurts, but he was always a luxury for the Jets. Their big move was re-signing Blake Wheeler to a long-term contract extension. Given Wheeler's age it carries some long-term risk, but Winnipeg's window is wide open right now with this young, talented core of forwards and Wheeler is still one of the league's best and most productive. He has been great for a few years now. 

They won the Stanley Cup and are bringing back almost entirely the same roster minus the backup goalie (Philipp Grubauer) and a fourth-line center (Jay Beagle). Not much to complain about there. Perhaps the biggest departure is head coach Barry Trotz, who resigned and went to the New York Islanders. New head coach Todd Reirden is an unknown, but the Capitals are going to have a chance to make another postseason run with this roster.