It was a unique offseason in the NHL. There wasn’t much movement around the league, making it difficult for many organizations to improve their rosters, but some did worse than others. After looking at which teams improved the most this summer, let’s look at some of the least improved.
Anaheim Ducks
- Additions: Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Poehling, Petr Mrazek
- Subtractions: John Gibson, Isac Lundestrom, Trevor Zegras
- Net of 2 wins lost
While I do expect the Anaheim Ducks to take a step forward this season, it’s not because they had a particularly great offseason. Mikael Granlund has been a consistent point producer over the last couple of seasons, but the metrics never align with the counting totals. Perhaps that’s the product of playing on some bad teams, but he was a net-negative for the Dallas Stars after last season’s trade deadline.
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Chris Kreider is the wild card for the Ducks. What does he have left in the tank after a final season with the New York Rangers that was a struggle? His skating and production dropped off during the 2024-25 campaign, so there’s reason to believe he may be in decline. What do the Ducks do behind Lukas Dostal, too? Petr Mrazek or Ville Husso are highly unlikely to be upgrades over John Gibson, so that’s a concern as well. I expect the Ducks to be in the 85-90 point range by the end of the season because of internal growth, but their offseason feels like a missed opportunity.
Edmonton Oilers
- Additions: Andrew Mangiapane, Ike Howard, Curtis Lazar
- Subtractions: Corey Perry, Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, Connor Brown, John Klingberg
- Net of 2.1 wins lost
No, this doesn’t mean the Edmonton Oilers are bound to miss the playoffs. It’s quite the opposite, as they should contend for the Pacific Division crown, but their offseason was a bit underwhelming. Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson weren’t good fits, so moving on from them was the right thing to do. But the Oilers could miss Connor Brown and Corey Perry, who were key parts of their bottom six.
Andrew Mangiapane is a ways off from his 30-goal days with the Calgary Flames, but he’s still a solid middle-six forward. Could his production take a jump if he becomes a fixture alongside Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid? It’s possible. Then there’s Ike Howard, the reigning Hobey Baker Award winner. It’s always hard to project NCAA players making the jump to the NHL, but he could be an X factor in the Oilers’ top nine if he’s NHL-ready. The Oilers’ star power will carry them throughout the regular season, but this team looks a bit weaker heading into the new season.
Florida Panthers
- Additions: Jeff Petry, Daniil Tarasov
- Subtractions: Nate Schmidt, Vitek Vanecek
- Net of 2.5 wins lost
The numbers are probably selling the Florida Panthers a bit short, and there’s the caveat that they managed to re-sign all of Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand to new contracts. Still, they will miss Nate Schmidt, who was one of the best third-pair defenders in the NHL last season. Who backs up Sergei Bobrovsky is also a major question mark. Vitek Vanecek is easily replaceable, but Daniil Tarasov is probably not the answer.
This isn’t an offseason addition or subtraction, but missing Matthew Tkachuk for the first few months of the season is something to think about when trying to project the Panthers, too. Overall, the Panthers did not improve much this summer. Qualifying for the playoffs shouldn’t be an issue, but will the recent long seasons finally catch up to them in April?
Los Angeles Kings
- Additions: Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Corey Perry, Joel Armia, Anton Forsberg
- Subtractions: Vladislav Gavrikov, Tanner Jeannot, Jordan Spence, David Rittich
- Net of 2.6 wins lost
If there’s a team that may have had an offseason worse than the numbers indicate, it’s the Los Angeles Kings. How first-year GM Ken Holland retooled the blue line is the biggest question mark facing the Kings entering the new season. They let Vladislav Gavrikov walk in free agency and replaced him with Brian Dumoulin, who is not the shutdown defender he once was. Cody Ceci is highly unlikely to be an upgrade over Jordan Spence, who is a budding, young, top-four defenseman that they traded to the Ottawa Senators.
Corey Perry is an upgrade over Tanner Jeannot, and Anton Forsberg is a fine enough backup goaltender, but the Kings got significantly older and slower this offseason. I don’t think it’ll push them out of playoff contention, but they’re prime candidates to regress from the 105 points they totaled a season ago.
Winnipeg Jets
- Additions: Gustav Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, Cole Koekpe, Jonathan Toews
- Subtractions: Nikolaj Ehlers, Brandon Tanev, Mason Appleton
- Net of 2.9 wins lost
The Winnipeg Jets are due to regress simply because repeating a 116-point season is difficult, but it’s not like they did much during the offseason to try to avoid that regression. They made some depth moves, most notably signing Jonathan Toews after two years away from the game due to health reasons, but who knows how much he has left in the tank. Gustav Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, and Cole Koepke are solid bottom-six forwards, but they’re unlikely to be enough to replace the offense they lost with Nikolaj Ehlers signing with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Ehlers has had trouble staying healthy, but there’s no doubting his impact when he’s available. He’s averaged 26 goals and 68 points per 82 games over the last three seasons, and his play has been worth close to 1.9 wins per 82 games over that stretch. Connor Hellebuyck will keep the Jets in the race for a top-three spot in the Central, but the Jets do look quite a bit worse than they were a season ago.
Toronto Maple Leafs
- Additions: Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua, Nicolas Roy
- Subtractions: Mitch Marner
- Net of 4.6 wins lost
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Jets’ offseasons weren’t much different, but the Maple Leafs lost even more star power when they agreed to a sign-and-trade with the Golden Knights to send Mitch Marner to Vegas. You can say what you want about Marner in the playoffs, but he’s averaged 30 goals and 102 points per 82 games over the last three seasons. His play has generally been worth around 2-3 wins per season, so the Maple Leafs will feel his loss.
Not only did the Maple Leafs lose a star player in Marner, but I’m hesitant to say their additions will adequately replace him. Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy all had wins above replacement (WAR) below zero last season. Maccelli is a good rebound candidate, but it remains to be seen if that’ll be the case with Joshua and Roy. The Maple Leafs should make the playoffs, but expect them to take a step back from the 108 points they totaled last season after a less-than-stellar summer.
Putting a Bow on a Unique Offseason
I’ll admit that this is a harder offseason to analyze because there was such a lack of movement around the league due to the weak free-agent class and nearly non-existent trade market. Still, some teams did themselves in with poor decisions (Kings), while others lost star power (Maple Leafs, Jets) that’s hard to replace, especially given the environment around the NHL. We’ll see if that comes back to bite some of these clubs come April.
Advanced stats from Evolving Hockey
