2 weeks Ago By Lyle Richardson
The 2024 NHLoffseason saw many teams use their salary-cap space to makemoves via trades and free agency to improve their rosters for2024-25. Some of thosemoves already appear to be paying early dividends. Winger JakeGuentzel averaged a point per game in his first seven contests with theTampa Bay Lightning.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev havebrought much-needed experience and skills to the Toronto Maple Leafs'defense corps. Mikhail Sergachev is doing the same on the UtahHockey Club's blue line. Some teams,like the Nashville Predators, aren't seeing the results they expected followingtheir significant forays into free agency.
Others, meanwhile, failedto do enough to address their roster issues despite having sufficientcap space to do so. It's still earlyin the schedule and those clubs have plenty of time to seeimprovement from their offseason moves. However, they could also beexperiencing some regret over their acquisition or inability to domore.
Here's a look at five of those clubs. Do you agree ordisagree with our list? Let us know in the app comments below. The Boston Bruins are used to being among the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
However, they're off to a sputtering start to this season, with a record of three wins, four losses and an overtime loss, sitting in the bottom half of the conference. Several factors account for their current woes. Stars like David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy haven't played up to their usual standards.
Starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman is still finding his form after contract negotiations kept him out of training camp. They're also undisciplined, leading the league with 110 PIMs as of Oct. 25.
Their offseason moves have also contributed to their erratic play through most of October. Elias Lindholm was signed on July 1 to a seven-year contract with an average annual value of $7.8 million.
He was brought in to address their need for a reliable first-line center. After netting five points in his first three games, he was held scoreless over his next five despite skating between Pastrnak and Marchand. They also signed defenseman Nikita Zadorov to a six-year deal with an AAV of $5 million to bring more muscle to their blue line.
The 6'6", 248-pounder has made his presence felt for the wrong reasons, leading the Bruins with 21 PIMs. The Bruins also miss Linus Ullmark splitting the goalie duties with Swayman. Traded to the Ottawa Senators in June to free up salary-cap space, the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner could've allowed Swayman more time to ease back into the lineup.
Joonas Korpisalo, received from the Senators in the deal, has only appeared in two games thus far. Lindholm, Zadorov, and Korpisalo aren't the sole reasons behind the Bruins' early season difficulties. Nevertheless, their performances have been disappointing thus far.
Management could end up with buyer's remorse if they fail to significantly improve throughout this season. The Buffalo Sabres enter 2024-25 hoping to end their NHL-record 13-season playoff drought . While it's early, they've shown little sign of significant improvement despite bringing back Lindy Ruff for another go-around as head coach.
Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has put faith in his deep pool of young players to carry this team into the postseason. They seemed on the cusp in 2022-23 , missing the cut by one point. However, they regressed last season , finishing seven points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
Adams shook things up a bit during the offseason, buying out Jeff Skinner and letting Victor Olofsson and Zemgus Girgensons depart as free agents. Carrying considerable cap space, it was expected the Sabres GM would attempt to bolster his roster, perhaps by adding an experienced scoring forward. Instead, Adams only made some depth moves that haven't moved the needle thus far.
His biggest addition was veteran winger Jason Zucker. Others included Sam Lafferty, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Ryan McLeod, and Beck Malenstyn. It would've been understandable if Adams was working with limited cap room.
However, the Sabres have $6.9 million in cap space. Perhaps Adams had difficulty attracting a highly skilled free agent.
Maybe the asking price for a prime scorer was too high in the offseason trade market. The Sabres GM could be keeping his power dry waiting for better opportunities to emerge before the March 7 trade deadline. Whatever the reason, the Sabres' sputtering start looks like just more of the same for their long-suffering fans.
Leaving over $6 million untouched is looking like a wasted opportunity to make a major move that could've finally turned this team into a legitimate playoff contender. DefensemanPhilip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway played key roles in theOilers' march to the Cup Final. Broberg was aneighth-overall pick of the Oilers in the 2019 NHL Draft.
He'd bouncedbetween the Oilers and their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield for threeseasons and saw action in only 10 games in the 2024 postseason.However, he played in all seven games of the Cup Final and was solidin a second-pairing role. Holloway waschosen 14th overall by the Oilers in the 2020 draft andspent two seasons split between the Oilers and their AHL affiliate.
However, the speedy winger saw action in 25 games during the Oilers'postseason run as a third-line winger, scoring five goals and sevenpoints. Both playersentered the offseason as restricted free agents lacking arbitrationrights. That gave most of the leverage in contract talks to Oilersmanagement, who invested much of their cap space to retain veteran forwards Corey Perry, AdamHenrique, and Mattias Janmark and add wingers Jeff Skinner and ViktorArvidsson.
It seemed the23-year-olds would end up on inexpensive short-year deals with thepromise of more lucrative contracts down the road. However, the St.Louis Blues threw a monkey wrench into the works, signing Broberg toa two-year contract with an average annual value of $4.
6 million andHolloway to two years at an AAV of $2.3 million on Aug. 13.
The Oilers were unable to match those offers. On Aug. 20, Broberg and Holloway belonged to the Blues.
Both players fit in well in St. Louis. Broberg has seven points in his first eight games playing alongside veteran Justin Faulk.
Holloway is seeing regular minutes on their third line, netting three goals and four points in his first eight contests. The Oilers, meanwhile, stumbled from the gate with a 2-4-1 record. They look slower without Holloway's speed while their thin defense corps could certainly use Broberg's 6'4", 212-pound presence and all-around blueline skills.
Losing those two promising youngsters could haunt them if they blossom into stars in St. Louis. The Nashville Predators made the summer's biggest moves, signing forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skjei on the opening day of free agency.
Those deals put them among the winners of the offseason. However, thosemoves have yet to translate into success on the ice. The Predatorslurched to a 0-5-0 start before picking up their first win with a4-0 shutout of the Boston Bruins.
Skjei was the only one of the threenew Preds to dent the scoresheet in that win, picking up an assist and aplus-minus of plus-3. Of the three,Marchessault had the best stats through six games with a goal andthree assists for four points. Skjei had a goal and an assist overthe same period but is having difficulty adjusting to the Predators'defensive system.
Stamkos, one of his generation's best goal-scorers and respectedleaders, had only one goal. Stamkos, 34,signed a four-year contract with an average annual value of $8million. The 33-year-old Marchessault agreed to a four-year deal withan AAV of $5.
5 million. Skjei, 30, inked a four-year deal worth $7million annually. Based on whatthe Predators have received for their combined $20.
5 million, theresults have been disappointing thus far. It'searly in the season and Stamkos, Marchessault, and Skjei shouldimprove as they adjust to their new teammates and coaching system.It's doubtful Predators general manager Barry Trotz feels any regretyet about signing those three.
Nevertheless,some Predators fans and maybe some in the club's front office could feel a twinge of uneasiness over their club's poor start and that oftheir shiny new additions. If their play is a harbinger of things tocome, those offseason moves will have significant consequences,though not in the way Trotz intended. In 2017-18, theNew York Islanders finished seventh with a goals-per-game average of3.
18. It was the last time they would finish that high. In fact, itwas the last time they had a goals-per-game average exceeding 3.
00.Between 2018-19 and 2023-24, their goals-per-game (2.83) ranked 25th overall .
Islandersgeneral manager Lou Lamoriello attempted to address that issue duringthe offseason, signing former 30-goal winger Anthony Duclair to a four-year contract with an affordable average annual value of $3.5million. Duclair's salaryhad to be affordable because the Islanders had limited salary-capspace to add another scorer.
Part of that was due to somequestionable signings in the past by Lamoriello, such as signingPierre Engvall last summer to a seven-year deal worth $3 millionannually. The Isles alsohave some aging talent on their books beyond this season, such asAnders Lee ($7 million annually through 2025-26) and Jean-GabrielPageau ($5 million through 2025-26). Each player carries limitedno-trade clauses that rule out half the league as trade destinations.
Nevertheless,Lamoriello needed to show some of the creative savvy that made him atwo-time winner of the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.He managed it with Duclair but failed to free up any cap room toland another scorer in case Duclair or someone else got injured. The resultsspeak for themselves.
Duclair had two goals and an assist in fivegames before suffering a serious leg injury. The Isles areessentially back to where they were last season with the same corethat finished with a 2.99 goals-per-game average, sitting 22ndoverall in that category.
Stats via NHL.com , salary info via Puckpedia , and line combinations via Daily Faceoff ..
