The biggest offseason need for every NHL team

John Gibson is one of the NHL's best goalies, and the defense is not terrible in front of him, even if it is not quite dominant. The big issue here is offense. Corey Perry has been bought out, Ryan Kesler's career may be finished and Ryan Getzlaf is another year older. The Ducks need help up front to create some offense so Gibson's efforts in net are not wasted again this season. 

Honestly the biggest thing they need is a superstar forward, but that is really difficult — if not impossible — to get at this point in the offseason. You need to draft that player at the top of the draft, and the Coyotes have not quite been in that position in recent years. Other than that they just need better injury luck because had it not been for one of the most injured lineups in the league during the 2018-19 season, they may have been able to sneak into the Western Conference playoffs. 

The core of the lineup is set, and it is one of the best in the league. The Bruins just need to do a little work around the edges to make up for any more free agency departures. Nothing too pressing here for management to do. Tweaks are needed; not an overhaul. 

Rasmus Dahlin looks like a superstar in the making, but the rest of this blue line is kind of a mess. Rasmus Ristolainen can score but does not really do much to prevent anything. The Sabres need help all over the lineup, but the blue line is probably the most pressing issue facing general manager Jason Botterill. 

It's the one big weakness for an otherwise strong team. Mike Smith is leaving in free agency, and the team didn't trust David Rittich to play over him in the playoffs after Smith had a brutal regular season. This team could win the Western Conference, or even the Stanley Cup, with even adequate goaltending. 

Scott Darling is going be bought out and Petr Mrazek, and Curtis McElhinney are both unrestricted free agents. That could leave a huge hole in net for an outstanding young team that took the league by storm this past season. 

They still have a lot of reason to believe their forwards are good enough to win with, but the back end is a concern. The Blackhawks attempted to address the blue line already with trades for Olli Maatta and Calvin de Haan, and both will help (especially once de Haan recovers from offseason surgery and is able to return to the lineup; he could miss a month or two at the start of the season). After that, they need Corey Crawford to be back and healthy in goal — or at least someone to stabilize that position for them. This was one of the worst defensive teams in the league during the 2018-19 season. 

This is directed entirely at ownership and the management. The Avalanche are an emerging powerhouse in the Western Conference with one of the best young teams in the league, complete with young superstars, potential stars and cheap talent all over the roster that is all signed fairly long term. They were in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2019, are bringing back a contending roster and have the most salary cap space in the league to work with. They could sign any unrestricted free agent they want, and having two of the top 16 picks in the 2019 draft would not be hurt too much if they went after a restricted free agent on an offer sheet. The potential for a championship in the next few years is there. Go for it. 

With Sergei Bobrovsky set to depart in free agency and no great in-house candidate to replace him, this is going to be a big problem for the Blue Jackets to solve. Bobrovsky may have had his struggles in the postseason, but he has been one of the best goalies in the league over the past seven years and played a huge role in often getting them to the playoffs. He will not be easy to replace, and if they cannot, returning to the postseason will be a big challenge for this team. 

The top of the lineup has the makings of a contender with Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov, John Klingberg, Miro Heiskanen, and Ben Bishop. The rest of the lineup needs some work because those six can't do it alone. 

Not to be overly dramatic, but Ken Holland left the cupboard a little bare for Steve Yzerman in his effort to rebuild this team. The Red Wings have an older roster, one of the biggest cap hits and despite all of that have missed the playoffs three years in a row. Filip Zadina has star potential, but there is no other real game changer in the organization. 

This team needs depth every position. Forward, defense, goaltending. There is no spot on this team that does not have a huge hole when it comes to its depth. Right now this roster is Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and...nothing else. New general manager Ken Holland and new head coach Dave Tippett have their work cut out for them, which is a huge testament to how thin the roster is, considering they have two of the league's top five scorers (McDavid and Draisaitl) to work with. 

Roberto Luongo has retired, and James Reimer is not the answer as the starter. Do you know who might be? Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida's likely top free agent target. If he does not decline too badly, he could be a key part in getting a pretty talented team back in the playoffs. 

This team got really old, really fast, and it took the front office too long to realize it was happening. The Kings need to hit the reset button and start a full-scale rebuild. Some of that has already begun, but there can be no half measures here. They need to go all in because this team as currently constructed is not anywhere close to being a championship contender. 

I'm not really sure what Paul Fenton is trying to do with this team. He sold off veterans with term remaining on their contracts during the 2018-19 season (perhaps prematurely and probably for not enough value) in an effort to get younger. Then this offseason he tried to acquire Phil Kessel (running counter to the moves he made during the season) and seems determined to trade one of his best players in Jason Zucker. It is an older team at the top of the lineup, and the front office does not seem to have any idea what it wants to be, where to go or how to get there. 

The Canadiens have missed the playoffs in three of the past four seasons, and one of the big things holding them back in 2018-19 was that they just did not have enough offense at the top of the lineup. Max Domi and Tomas Tatar were pleasant surprises, but both are likely to regress this season. They not only need to add something to make up for that, but they also must improve on what they already have. 

The biggest Achilles' heel the Predators had this past season, and especially in the playoffs, was a power play unit that was never consistently good enough. Losing P.K. Subban will only hurt that. They seem to be the likely destination for Matt Duchene in free agency but could still use another impact player to help make teams pay for taking penalties against them. 

General manager Ray Shero got the No. 1 pick in the draft and added another potential superstar in Jack Hughes, and then he traded for an established superstar in defender P.K. Subban. Now he needs to secure his current superstar, Taylor Hall, by signing him to a new contract extension. There are brighter days ahead for the Devils, and keeping the 2017-18 NHL MVP on a long-term deal would certainly help them get there. 

The Islanders were the biggest surprise in the NHL this past season thanks in large part to strong defensive play and (mostly) amazing goaltending. One thing they could to do make things easier on themselves this upcoming season is improve their offense. They already re-signed Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle but run the risk of losing one of their top goal scorers in Anders Lee if they cannot work out a contract. That will only add to the offensive shortage. 

There are some exciting times ahead for the Rangers with the addition of Jacob Trouba and the draft of Kaapo Kakko, but what would really speed up this rebuild is to get a player like Artemi Panarin in free agency. 

From ownership, to the front office, to the coaching staff, to the roster itself, stability is needed all over. Entering the offseason the Senators have only four players under contract beyond this upcoming season and only one player (Bobby Ryan) under contract beyond that. The future of this team is just completely uncertain. There are good young players here, but who is to say ownership will keep them if they pan out?

The Flyers have already been one of the busiest teams in the NHL, acquiring Matt Niskanen, Justin Braun and Kevin Hayes and assembling a coaching staff made up almost entirely of former head coaches. They still have some impact players at the top of the lineup, but none of that will matter if Carter Hart does not play up to expectations in net. 

The Pittsburgh Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons thanks to a fast lineup that was balanced with skill all over it. They started to drift away from that over the past two seasons by trying to get bigger and more physical, and it did not work out. They also need to resist the temptation to make major changes to their core by not trading their superstar players, like Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang...or even Phil Kessel. 

Martin Jones played well at times in the playoffs but he and Aaron Dell still formed one of the least productive goaltending duos in the league during the 2018-19 season. That is probably the biggest obstacle standing between them and a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final. 

The Stanley Cup champions are not really set to lose anyone significant and are bringing back a championship-caliber team. The biggest issue facing them is trying to figure out how to handle the next contract for restricted free agent goalie Jordan Binnington. He was a season changer for them in net after making his NHL debut in January and backstopped the team to a title. But he has such a small sampling of work to go on that it is difficult to accurately assess his value. 

Even though the Lightning's postseason performance was an all-time clunker, this is still one of the best teams in the league with few weaknesses. Most of the core is in place and signed long term with one notable exception: Brayden Point. Getting him signed to a new deal will keep everyone in place for the foreseeable future. The big challenge will be salary cap space. 

The blue line was already the Maple Leafs' biggest weakness, and losing Jake Gardiner in free agency is not going to help that. Compounding the problem is the team has limited salary cap space thanks to recent contracts to core forwards (and one still on the way for Mitch Marner). The Leafs also may have to lose Nikita Zaitsev as part of a trade to clear salary cap space. 

The Canucks have some outstanding young players in Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes. But they still do not seem to have much of a direction from management when it comes to building around them. They are too focused on signing veteran free agents on the downside of their careers to long-term contracts, and it is going to keep them stuck in neutral no matter how good their young players turn out to be in the short term. 

The Golden Knights have a Stanley Cup-contending team but are going to need to break up some of it to stay under the salary cap, especially after re-signing William Karlsson to a long-term contract extension. They already traded Erik Haula and will have to make more moves to stay under the cap. 

The Capitals have  lost Brooks Orpik to retirement and have a number of restricted and unrestricted free agents to deal with while not possessing a lot of salary cap space. Brett Connolly, Devante Smith-Pelly and Dmitrij Jaskin are all UFA's, while Andre Burakovsky, Jakub Vrana and Christian Djoos will need new deals as RFAs. 

Trading Jacob Trouba for Neal Pionk is a big downgrade, and the Jets are likely to lose Tyler Myers in free agency to a contract that is way too big for what he provides. They have a great collection of forwards and a pretty good goalie, but there is a big drop in talent on the blue line once you get beyond Dustin Byfuglien and Joshua Morrissey.