Three NHL teams that have improved the most this offseason

We are one month into the NHL offseason, and most teams have made some sort of major change by now. It's either been more to help them win now, try to start a rebuild, or just marginally improve themselves on the edges. 

But some teams have done a better job than others when it comes to improving, and let's take a look at some of them.

Washington Capitals

The Capitals missed the playoffs in 2025-26 despite finishing the regular season with 96 points.

They seemed determined this offseason to make sure they come back significantly stronger.

One of their biggest improvements might come from within as they should have a healthy Pierre-Luc Dubois for the entire season after he was limited to just 27 games a year ago. That was a major absence they were never able to overcome. But they are not just relying on him.

They went outside the organization and spent major money and assets this offseason, acquiring speedy forward Jordan Kyrou from the St. Louis Blues and then adding 30-goal scorer Alex Tuch from the Buffalo Sabres.

While Tuch's contract might age poorly, he should be a big addition in the short-term, while Kyrou is a perfect addition to bring speed and playmaking to the top of the lineup. 

Add in the fact that the Capitals still have a top-tier goalie in Logan Thompson, as well as a really good collection of forwards with a nice blend of experience and youth, and this could be a team that goes from out of the playoffs to a serious Stanley Cup contender in just one year. 

New York Rangers

The Rangers' improvement isn't just about the players they added.

It is also a mindset and a philosophical improvement.

One of their biggest issues in recent years was a lack of mobility and puck-movers on their defense. They addressed that this summer by trading veteran center Vincent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth for defenseman Sean Durzi, while also trading a 2030 first-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Marcus Pettersson. Combined with Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov, the Rangers should actually have a very strong top-four on their blue line that can not only handle business in its own end of the ice, but also potentially move the puck.

The biggest move, however, was getting forward Pavel Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights.

Dorofeyev is coming off back-to-back 35-goal seasons, is still in the prime of his career, and should be able to challenge the 40-goal mark. 

He was one of the biggest additions any team made this summer. 

Whether or not all of this is enough to get the Rangers back into the postseason remains to be seen. It might not given how far down the standings they were this past season, how good the rest of the Eastern Conference is, and how there are still some flaws on the roster. But there is no question they are going to be better, and should be one of the most improved teams in the league. 

Nashville Predators

Trying to identify the Predators' plan here is a little challenging, because they seem stuck between trying to win now and looking toward the future. New general manager Chris MacFarland took over a pretty mediocre roster that has some high-level talent, but was badly lacking in depth.

His approach for the short-term seems to be trying to see if some added depth can get some of that high-level talent back into the playoffs.

So he spent his summer adding players like Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Nils Hoglander, Alexander Kerfoot and Mavrik Bourque. 

There's not a single game-changer in that group.

None of those players are likely to be one of the top-five, or even top-10 most impactful players that changed teams this offseason. 

But there is also not really a bad player in that list. Everybody can contribute, and should contribute. It's a much deeper team than it was, and success or failure will ultimately now come down to what the returning players can do, and if they still have enough juice to be a playoff team.