Quick thoughts on every NHL team's offseason (so far)

Some teams have done more than others. Some teams have improved more than others.

The NHL offseason has been going on for two weeks now and just about every team has done something of some consequence. Some teams have done more than others. Some teams have improved more than others.

So let’s just take a quick stroll around the league and share some quick thoughts on what all 32 teams have done so far.

No grades.

No report cards.

No winners or losers.

Just some quick thoughts and analysis on what we have seen and, if so, what else still needs to be done.

Anaheim Ducks

• General manager Pat Verbeek’s mindset of playing hardball with his restricted free agents and dragging out negotiations as long as possible has really come back to bite him in the ass. Now he is facing the very real prospect of losing his best young player, Leo Carlsson, for four first-round draft picks, or putting a major dent in his salary cap situation while also having to deal with new contracts for Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov. What the hell are you doing here, man?

• He has to match the Carlsson offer sheet. He just has to. There is almost no way the Philadelphia Flyers are going to be bad enough over each of the next four years to make those picks worth it. Especially with Carlsson on their roster. The draft picks are not worth it. Not for a 21-year-old, two-way center that is a rising star. You have to spend the money.

• The defense was bad in 2025-26 and a major question mark, so I am not going to crush them too much for letting a lot of the players go that contributed to that. But where is the improvement coming from? You set aside cap space to match a potential offer sheet and not make other moves, but you still have to stock a defense. And you still let the offer sheet come in. Again I ask, what the hell are you doing here, man?

Boston Bruins

• I like the addition of JJ Peterka, and I like the way he fits here. He’s not going to drive a line on his own or be a cornerstone piece, but he’ll score 25 goals and bring some scoring punch to a team that could still use a little bit more of it.

• I don’t love what they did on the defense by adding Will Borgen and Connor Clifton. The Bruins had some of the worst 5-on-5 defensive metrics in the NHL last season and were 30th in expected goals against per 60 minutes of 5-on-5 play. Jeremy Swayman bailed them out. Their solution to that was to sign Connor Clifton and trade for Will Borgen. Out of the 295 defensemen that logged at lest 500 minutes of ice-time over the past three seasons, Borgen and Clifton ranked 183rd and 185th in expected goals against per 60. Swayman better be an MVP-level goalie again.

Buffalo Sabres

• They are pushing a lot of the right buttons right now. They didn’t give in and pay Alex Tuch too much money over too many years. They capitalized on a desperate GM and turned one year of Bowen Byram into the No. 4 overall pick and Olen Zellweger. (They acquired Zellweger from the Anaheim Ducks for the No. 45 overall pick which also came over from Chicago in the Byram trade). Zellweger is Byram-lite without the insane long-term contract, with the added bonus of also helping bring them the No. 4 pick.

• I still feel like they need another big move here. I don’t trust the goaltending, and I don’t trust everything working out as well as it did a year ago.

• Is Connor Hellebuyck in their future?

Calgary Flames

• They accumulated a ton of draft pick capital over the past few years, and that gave them a lot of opportunities to make some moves. Is trading two of them for Simon Nemec the move that makes the most sense in that regard? Ehhhhh. I don’t know. Maybe in this current trade market where teams have started to understand the actual value of first-round draft picks. Nemec has flashed some good offensive potential, and he is still young enough to fit into their rebuild, but there are a lot of questions still surrounding him. That’s a big price to pay for a guy with a lot of questions.

Carolina Hurricanes

• Quiet. A little too quiet. They have too much salary cap space, too many draft picks and too much of a win-now mentality to be this quiet. Keep your eyes on them. They’re like that guy in the Pretzel episode of the Simpsons that is just standing there, waiting to do something. And you know when they do whatever it is, it’s going to be good

• I would be skeptical before I engage them in trade talks for Alexander Nikishin. I want to like Nikishin’s upside as a player, but if Carolina doesn’t feel he is worthy of what he is asking for, and are also looking to move on from him as a result, there is probably a reason for that. Do you want to be the team that gives up something good to find out what that reason is?

Chicago Blackhawks

• The Bowen Byram trade just reeks of desperation. Is he good? Yes. Will he make an awful defense better. Absolutely yes. Or at least probably yes. He should. He better. Will he move the needle enough to justify giving up the No. 4 overall pick (and the No. 45 pick, and another young player) and making him a $12.5 million dollar per year player over the next six years? Probably not. Good player. Wrong player, for the wrong team at those investments. When you give up a top-5 pick and pay a guy $12.5 million per year you are not doing so with the “hope” he will be a top-pairing defender. You are doing it with the knowledge that he is not only a top-pairing defender already, but that he is also a No. 1 defenseman. Nothing in Byram’s resume to this point suggests he is. If there was, he would not be on his third team before his 27th birthday. Young, No. 1 defenseman are too important for teams to keep giving up on them.

• They haven’t really done anything else of significance, which is concerning given how bad the team still is. It still stinks. Just sitting back and waiting for your prospects to develop is very likely going to end very poorly. They can’t be done with adding to the roster. They can’t be. It would be organizational malpractice if they are.

Colorado Avalanche

• They were one of the few teams that actually had a real salary cap crunch this offseason. In that sense, Jaden Schwartz is some tidy business in free agency at $3.25 million per year over the next three years.

• But does that make up for losing Ross Colton, Jack Drury and Valeri Nichushkin off the roster? On paper, no. They are still going to be contenders, but are they better today than they were in May? No.

Columbus Blue Jackets

• Zach Werenski really took them on a roller coaster, but there are still some big unanswered questions about what his future here looks like. Will he re-sign in two years? Is there going to be a trade demand at some point in the future? They have two years to prove something to him. And it’s actually probably less than that if we are being realistic about it. There is similar uncertainty around star forward Kirill Marchenko who also may not want to sign here long-term.

• Valeri Nichushkin is a nice add given how little compensation he cost them in a trade, and it’s a good thing in the short-term that Werenski is sticking around, but there are some major, major questions here about the direction of this team and its ceiling is going to be.

Dallas Stars

• Pretty much everything is on hold here until they figure out what is going on with Jason Robertson.

• If it were me? I’d pay him and trade somebody else. Trade Thomas Harley. Trade almost anybody that isn’t Wyatt Johnston or Miro Heiskanen. Don’t let a top-15 player get away because you’ve set a self-imposed cap on what you think you should pay him. Do not overthink this. Do not be stupid here.

Detroit Red Wings

• Similar to Dallas, pretty much everything is on hold here (at least as far as analyzing the offseason goes) until there is some closure on Dylan Larkin’s trade request. Will Steve Yzerman give in? Will Larkin expand his list of teams? What kind of return can Yzerman get for his captain?

• I actually really like the Viktor Arvidsson move and think that’s a good value signing. Getting a first-round pick for a goalie (Sebastian Cossa) that has not established himself as an NHL player is also strong value. But the team’s still pretty much the same as it’s been, and that’s simply not good enough. What happens with Larkin, and what they get for him, will dictate a lot.

• This team still has $18.6 million in salary cap space this offseason and is riding a 10-year playoff drought, coming off yet another late season meltdown. Somebody poke this team and front office with a stick and get it to do something.