Looking at the Atlantic Division: Toronto Maple Leafs’ rivals offseason moves

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a fairly eventful 2025 offseason, mostly due to the sign-and-trade of star right winger Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights. In return for Marner, the Leafs received 28-year-old centre Nicolas Roy. They also made other moves, including trading a conditional 2027 third-round pick to the Utah Mammoth for 24-year-old left winger Matias Maccelli. They were able to re-sign John Tavares on an affordable four-year deal, and get budding star Matthew Knies inked on a six-year deal.

There will inevitably be more moves to come, but the core group appears to be what we can expect the Leafs to go into the 2025–26 season with. But what about the other teams in the Atlantic Division? What are they looking like just over two weeks after free agency began?

Let’s take a look at the seven other teams in the Atlantic in alphabetical order and analyze the moves they have made this offseason.

Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins took a major step back last season, finishing dead last in the Atlantic. They also parted ways with their captain and Bruin lifer, Brad Marchand, trading him to the Florida Panthers for a conditional 2027 second-round pick. And while one might expect the Bruins to make some big moves to prolong the competitive window of their solid core, which includes right winger David Pastrnak, defenceman Charlie McAvoy and goalie Jeremy Swayman, the Bruins front office has been rather quiet.

The main move the Bruins have made was acquiring left winger Viktor Arvidsson from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for a 2027 fifth-round pick. Arvidsson had a mediocre season for the Oilers, scoring just 27 points in 67 games. But the Bruins are hoping he can return to form and become a 50–60 point-per-season player, as he has been in the past.

Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres have been very active this offseason as they look to finally end their 14-year streak without making the playoffs, which ties them with the New York Jets for the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports.

The Sabres made two big re-signings, bringing back winger Ryan McLeod on a four-year $5M per-season deal, and most recently, re-signing defenceman Bowen Byram to a two-year $6.25M per-season deal. But the team was active on the trade market too, parting ways with left winger JJ Peterka in exchange for defenceman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan from Utah. In addition, the Sabres also bolstered their goaltending depth, signing netminder Alex Lyon to a two-year deal with an average annual value of $1.5M.

Detroit Red Wings

Like the Sabres, the Red Wings are another team that hasn’t had much recent luck making it to the playoffs, missing the postseason in each of the past seven seasons. And while that might signal a need for some big moves rather than just staying the current course, GM Steve Yzerman hasn’t exactly been making many franchise-altering moves.

Far and away, the biggest move Detroit made was acquiring goalie John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for netminder Petr Mrazek, a 2026 fourth-round pick and a 2027 second-round pick. Snagging Gibson finally gives the Red Wings a true No. 1 option in net, which gives them some insurance on the back end. Detroit also added a depth centre in Mason Appleton, signing the former Winnipeg Jet to a two-year $2.9-million AAV deal.

Florida Panthers

As the winners of the past two Stanley Cup finals, the Florida Panthers didn’t need to make any big moves to remain Cup contenders. And while they weren’t big players on the trade market and didn’t steal any big-name free agents away from other teams, the Panthers made sure to keep their core intact.

While some Leafs fans believed that UFAs Sam Bennett and Marchand would fill the void left by Marner, the two decided to remain in Florida, with Bennett agreeing to an eight-year $8M AAV deal and Marchand signing a six-year $5.25M AAV deal. In addition, the Panthers completed the trifecta of signings, bringing back Aaron Ekblad on an eight-year $6.1M AAV deal.

Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens took a huge leap this past season, making it to the playoffs and looking solid in their first-round loss to the Washington Capitals. And with the rebuild finally bearing some results, the Habs decided to make some upgrades, most notably acquiring defenceman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders for two first-round picks in the 2025 draft and forward Emil Heineman. This move gives the Canadiens an improved defensive core with Dobson and 2025 Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson.

In an under-the-radar move, Montreal also acquired 22-year-old forward Zack Bolduc from the St. Louis Blues for defenceman Logan Mailloux. Bolduc was a talented young prospect for the Blues, and his fit with the Habs team could pay off very nicely.

Ottawa Senators

Like the Canadiens, the Senators saw success last season after missing the playoffs for seven straight years, taking the Leafs to six games in the first round. But thus far in the offseason, the Senators have been relatively quiet.

In their biggest moves—that aren’t really that big—Ottawa re-signed RFA winger Fabian Zetterlund to a three-year $4.275M AAV deal, and they also picked up some defensive reinforcement, acquiring D-man Jordan Spence from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick and a 2026 sixth-round pick. Unless they make some more moves, it seems that the Senators are either banking on their existing core reaching even greater heights in 2025–26, or that they will be big players when the star-studded 2026 free agency class rolls around.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning also haven’t been huge players during the 2025 offseason. This makes some sense as they’re coming off a season that saw them finish second in the Atlantic, but at the same time, they were eliminated by the Panthers in the first round of the playoffs.

One move they did make was re-signing veteran centre Yanni Gourde, whom they had acquired in a March trade with the Seattle Kraken, to a six-year deal with an AAV of $2.333M. In addition, the Lightning traded Isaac Howard, who won the Hobey Baker Award in 2025, to the Oilers for London Knights winger Sam O’Reilly. Nothing groundbreaking, but moves nonetheless.