The biggest question facing every NHL team in the 2020-21 season

Still not really sure what the long-term plan is here in Anaheim. It is not a contender by any means, but they also do not seem willing to fully commit to a rebuild, and the free-agent addition of Kevin Shattenkirk is just another example of that. What they really need is young forwards like Sam Steel, Max Jones, and Trevor Zegras to take a significant step forward this season and provide hope that some impact offensive players are already in the organization. 

They have a legitimate No. 1 defenseman in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and two excellent goalies. But the forward depth is thin and there is not a game-changing forward anywhere in the group. It is hard to see where the offense comes from on this team and their success will depend on the ability of Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper to keep the puck out of their own net. 

The addition of Craig Smith makes an already deep forward group just that much deeper, while they have an outstanding goalie duo with Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak. The big concern here is on the blue line following the free agency departure of Torey Krug. Charlie McAvoy is great, but there is a significant drop off in talent after him. The defense is the clear weakness on this roster, and it remains surprising they did not make more of an effort to re-sign Krug. 

It has been nine years since the Buffalo Sabres made the Stanley Cup Playoffs and nobody wants to see that streak reach a full decade. But it is hard to see how it will not. Even with the big offseason additions of Taylor Hall and Eric Staal, this team still has plenty of flaws at the bottom of the lineup and especially in goal. Plus, Hall and Staal are only on one-year contracts. Combine that with the fact they are playing in the toughest division in the league this season and it seems like another year without the playoffs in Buffalo is just ahead. 

The Flames wanted a long-term solution in goal and they think they have it with Markstrom. On one hand, Markstrom has been a very good, very durable goalie over the past four years and if he can maintain that level of play he is going to be a great addition for the Flames. But that six-year contract and salary cap hit, combined with his age, could make it an issue in the coming seasons. A short-term win followed by a long-term concern?

The yearly question in Carolina. Goaltending. This is a great young team with a deep, talented group of forwards and a fantastic defense. But are James Reimer and Petr Mrazek good enough to win a Stanley Cup? This is not to say they were an issue a year ago. Just that they are probably the biggest question on the roster. 

This is setting up to be a long year in Chicago. Kirby Dach and Alex Nylander will probably miss the entire regular season, or at least most of it. Jonathan Toews is not available at the start of the year due to an illness. The defense is bad and the roster itself is thin on depth. Even worse, their biggest strength a year ago -- goaltending -- is now their biggest weakness. With Robin Lehner and Corey Crawford playing elsewhere, the goalie position now belongs to the completely unproven duo of Collin Delia and Malcolm Subban. If they do not play well, this could be a very long short season. 

They might be the best team in the league on paper. The roster is loaded all over with a trio of All-Stars on the top line, a great supporting cast, and an absolutely tremendous young defense that has its best days in front of it. Even the goaltending, which was probably a question mark going into the 2019-20 season, was great. The window is wide open and should be for years to come. 

The Blue Jackets were one of the big surprise teams in the NHL a year ago, overcoming their free-agent exodus to stay in the playoff race all year, beat Toronto in the qualifying round, and make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The goalies were great, the defense is outstanding, but will they find enough offense? Pierre-Luc Dubois is great, and Cam Atkinson is very underrated, but they need more. They really tried to upgrade down the middle with Max Domi and Mikko Koivu, giving them a very solid trio of centers with Dubois. 

Even with all of their postseason success, the Stars have struggled to score goals the past two seasons. They might have a solution to help fix that in house with Denis Gurianov and Roope Hintz. Specifically when it comes to the former. Gurianov has done nothing but produce when he plays, but the Stars have never really given him a significant role. He could be in line for a breakout season if they give him more than 12 minutes per night. 

This team is not going to compete this season. Nobody should be expecting it. This was the worst team in the league a year ago and is currently in the middle of a massive rebuild. So what should Red Wings fans be looking for this season? Progress. Any kind of progress. Individual players. Young players. Veterans that can be traded for more draft picks and more prospects. Filip Zadina. Any of these would be helpful. 

The Oilers have two of the league's best players in the league at the top of the lineup. McDavid and Draisaitl are both MVP winners and are both dominant offensive forces. They have never been the problem. The problem has always been the players behind them and the lack of depth. It was a very smart offseason for Ken Holland and Co. as he brought in Tyson Barrie, Kyle Turris, Dominik Kahun, and Slater Koekkoek on cheap, short-term contracts. All four have the potential to contribute in complementary roles. But is that enough? 

There is no other question in Florida that matters more than this one. The Panthers are paying Bobrovsky $10 million per year for the next six seasons, which automatically puts a lot of the focus on him. His first year with the team did not go as anyone hoped. He has a proven track record of being a top-tier goalie, and a return to that form could help push the Panthers back to a playoff spot. 

The Kings might have the best prospect collection in the NHL, and it is now headlined by 2020 No. 2 overall pick Quinton Byfield. Expectations for this season should be kept within reason. He is a teenager, that is not going to get any preseason games, a small training camp, and just like any 18-year-old is far from a finished player. But he is one of the most exciting prospects in hockey and should be able to give Kings fans a glimpse of their future. Given their recent draft hauls and their farm system, that future is looking very exciting. 

The Wild have been waiting five years for Kaprizov to make the move from the KHL, and they are hoping he can be a star. After being one of the top players in the Russian league, Kaprizov will finally make his NHL debut this season and hopefully, give the Wild their biggest missing piece -- a young star that they can build their offense around. 

This was one of the busiest teams in the league this offseason with the additions of Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Michael Frolik, and Corey Perry. The Canadiens finished the season 24th in the league standings but stunned the Pittsburgh Penguins in the play-in round to actually make the playoffs. The Canadiens had some of the best underlying numbers in the league a year ago but had a huge lack of finishing ability and no quality backup for Carey Price. They added a couple of finishers, they have two great young players in Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Allen should be able to give Price a break. Can they be one of the four best teams in the North Division to make the playoffs?

When things were even on the ice a year ago the Predators played like a playoff team. Maybe even a contender. It is when the game turned into a special teams battle that everything fell apart. They have been the worst power-play team in the league for two years, and their penalty kill was not particularly good this past season, either. 

The Devils have two of the past four No. 1 overall picks on their roster in Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Hischier has already proven to be a good NHL player and could be on the verge of a breakout season. But Hughes had his share of growing pains in his rookie season. If the Devils are going to make any noise this season they are going to need Hughes to take a big step in year two of his development. 

The 2019-20 Islanders are a bizarre team to examine in hindsight. They had an amazing start with a 17-game point streak. But once that streak ended they were one of the worst teams in the league for the rest of the regular season, and when the season was paused they were playing like a team that could have easily missed the playoffs. But once they arrived in the bubble they caught lightning in a bottle and went all the way to the Eastern Conference Final. They can defend, they have good goaltending, but the offense is still a question and their series loss against Tampa Bay showed how much of a gap there is between them and a Stanley Cup team offensively. 

A lot of reasons for optimism in New York right now. They have back-to-back top-two picks on the roster, a bonafide superstar in Artemi Panarin, two outstanding young goalies, and an emerging top-pairing defender in Adam Fox. The question is the defensive depth after Fox. Tony DeAngelo can make a big impact offensively, but he has his flaws away from the puck. Jacob Trouba has a huge contract and was a disappointment in his first year with the team. After that, it is just simply not a very good defense. The forwards and goaltending might be good enough to be a playoff team right now. The defense is the clear Achilles Heel here. 

The Senators needed a goalie, and they hope to have found it with the addition of Murray from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Acquiring Murray is not a bad idea, but the contract they signed him to is fairly significant and a pretty big gamble. On one hand, Murray is a two-time Stanley Cup champion. But he has also been wildly inconsistent and had his share of injury issues the past three seasons. Which goalie are they getting?

It's a simple question and one that we seem to ask about the Flyers every season. They had an amazing end to the season and made it to the Second Round of the playoffs. But there was an element of smoke and mirrors to their winning. High shooting percentage, high save percentage, not exactly things that are always sustainable from one year to the next. There is still a lot of talent here, and they have one of the league's best young goalies, but are they are a true contender? Or simply a playoff team? 

With Matt Murray traded to Ottawa, the Penguins enter the season with one of the least experienced goaltending duos in the league in Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith. This is the first time in more than a decade-and-a-half they do not really have a proven starting goalie on their opening night roster. Jarry had a great first half a year ago, but it is such a small sampling that nobody really knows for sure what he will do over a full season as the unquestioned starter. If neither goalie is able to secure the spot, that is going to be a season-long issue. 

Two years ago the San Jose Sharks were in the Western Conference Final, looking to make the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in four years. Then a year ago everything that could have possibly went wrong, went wrong. They regressed all the way back to the bottom of the Western Conference standings and finished with one of the worst records in franchise history. The core is getting older, the depth is not as good, they have some significant contracts to deal with, and the goaltending is still a massive question. Do they have enough talent to get back on track and make another run?

The big story in the Blues this offseason is Torey Krug coming in to replace Alex Pietrangelo. But even with that, the defense should still be excellent. The big question here is what they get out of Jordan Binnington. He is an unrestricted free agent after this season and they are going to have to make a decision on him. But which goalie are they going to get? He regressed a little during the regular season and then had an absolutely miserable playoff showing. Will he rebound from that?

The Lightning solved the majority of their salary cap issues when it was announced that Kucherov would not be able to play during the regular season after undergoing hip surgery. Obviously, the Lightning would have preferred to have their MVP caliber forward in the lineup, but it does put them in a situation where they did not have to trade a significant part of their roster. How much will this hurt them in the short-term, though? Kucherov is a top-five offensive player in the league and a recent scoring champion and MVP. He is a significant player. But the Lightning still have an All-Star filled roster. It should not keep them from the playoffs, or even winning a very winnable division. 

At this point promise and just making the playoffs are no longer enough. After three consecutive First Round exits, the Maple Leafs were beaten in the play-in round of the playoff bubble by the Columbus Blue Jackets, making it four consecutive years for this group not advancing beyond the First Round of the playoffs. That is not where this team was expected to be at this point. They made some significant changes to the bottom part of the roster this offseason and are playing in a division (the North Division, aka The Canadian Division) and a playoff format where they should be favored to win it. If they do not get to the Second Round or more this year, it might be time to really start questioning this core. 

The top of the Canucks lineup is outstanding. The young trio of Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Quinn Hughes is as good as any other young trio in the league, and they have a couple of outstanding veterans in J.T. Miller, Bo Horvat, and Nate Schmidt to complement them. The top of the lineup is great. It is the lower half of the lineup that creates questions. They invested a lot of money in depth players that may not be the answer, and it remains a very top-heavy lineup that is going to have to rely on its young stars to carry a significant portion of the offense. They are exciting, but top-heavy teams do not typically do well when it comes to competing for championships.

By re-signing Robin Lehner and not trading Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights put themselves in a situation where they have $12 million in salary-cap space committed to goalies. That is a lot. It also creates some potential conflict given that both players are legit No. 1 starter, and the decision of coach Pete DeBoer to start Lehner in the playoffs was viewed as a controversial one with Fleury's agent making some waves about it. They can say happy things now, but when the games start and only one goalie can play at a time we will see how it works. It is clear which goalie DeBoer thinks gives his team the best chance to win, and it is not the long-time starter. 

The Capitals' initial plan for the season was to begin with Ilya Samsonov and Henrik Lundqvist as their goaltending duo. It was expected that Samsonov would be the primary starter (and he is their long-term solution) with Lundqvist playing the 1B role, but with the latter no longer joining the team due to a health issue the Capitals are prepared to enter the season with the least experienced goalie duo in the league. Whether it is Pheonix Copley or Vitek Vanecek remains to be seen, but neither one has much -- if any -- NHL experience behind Samsonov. 

The Jets have a great collection of forwards at the top of their lineup and one of the league's best goalies in Connor Hellebuyck. But that defense still has a lot of flaws on it and they are still lacking a clear-cut No. 1 player at the position. The Jets remained in the playoff race a year ago because of Hellebuyck's brilliance, and they may need him to play at that level again.