Final Grades for Every NHL Team's 2026 Offseason

There are still some unsettled pieces of business in the NHL (specifically Dylan Larkin and Connor Hellebuyck), but by the time they are resolved, it will be too late to consider them part of the offseason. That is because the 2026-27 regular season starts next week.

Now that the season is here, it is time for one more report card on how every team handled their offseason.

These are not grades for the entire roster or for where they stand as a team. It is simply a grade of what they did this summer and how it all fits into the short-term and long-term outlook for each team.

ANA | BOS | BUF | CAR | CBJ | CGY | CHI | COL | DAL | DET | EDM | FLA | LAK | MIN | MTL | NJD | NSH | NYI | NYR | OTT | PHI | PIT | SEA | SJS | STL | TBL | TOR | Utah Mammoth | VAN | VGK | WPG | WSH

The good news is they got all of their restricted agents signed, as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, and Pavel Mintyukov are all under contract and are not missing any regular-season games. They also avoided losing any of them, even though they had to match Carlsson's offer sheet.

The bad news is it cost them way more money than they probably anticipated, ate up all of their salary cap space, cost them a good veteran player in Chris Kreider, and did not allow them to make any major moves to upgrade a defense that was a major liability throughout the 2025-26 season. That doesn't even get into the trade of forward Mason McTavish for two draft picks.

It's still an exciting team with a good core, and the playoffs should still be within reach, but it's hard to argue the roster is in a better position than it was at the end of the playoffs, given all of the departures. In terms of adding to the team, this was an underwhelming summer for general manager Pat Verbeek, and it might result in a step backward on the ice. How big of a step backward remains to be seen.

J.J. Peterka is going to add some much-needed goal-scoring help, and there are some intriguing young players here, James Hagens and Fraser Minten, who could be serious long-term pieces. The contract extension for Minten could also be the type of move that pays off in the long run and becomes an extremely team-friendly deal.

The concern is that the Bruins were a little too dependent on goalie Jeremy Swayman to bail out a poor defensive performance in 2025-26, and I'm not sure the additions of Will Borgen and Connor Clifton will remedy those issues.

David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Swayman are an outstanding trio to build your foundation around, and there is a solid complementary cast of forwards around them. But Swayman will have to put together another monster year to continue masking those defensive flaws. He is capable of doing that. His play and Pastrnak's presence at the top of the lineup might be enough to get them back into the playoffs. But the ceiling is very low here beyond that.

The best thing the Sabres did this offseason was get a bunch of young players locked into deals that should be cap-friendly bargains in the coming years. Getting Zach Benson and Noah Ostlund signed to contracts that will total less than $14 million against the salary cap over the next seven years could be a huge win as the cap continues to climb. That will pay for itself in the long run, as long as they continue to progress as players.

But when it comes to additions and subtractions, this summer was more about losing than gaining.

They made a smart move to get a top-five pick for Bowen Byram without overpaying, but it does leave a hole on the blue line in the short term.

It's understandable why they didn't want to pay a 30-year-old Alex Tuch $10.5 million per season, but he's still a 30-goal scorer.

Outside of adding defenseman Olen Zellweger, there hasn't been much coming back in.

They are going to be banking on a lot of internal development and improvement to get back into the playoffs. They might get it. But the roster on paper, as of late September, looks marginally worse than the one at the end of the season.

A Connor Hellebuyck addition would certainly change that, however.

Pending Free Agents Who Could Get Traded

The Flames stockpiled a cupboard full of first-round draft picks during their rebuild, and they cashed in two of them to trade for former New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec, then signed him to a long-term deal worth $7.25 million per season against the cap.

It's an interesting move because, while Nemec still has a lot to improve as an all-around player, he has some offensive upside and is still young enough to fit into their rebuild. It might be a little bit of an overpay in the short term, even with the rising contracts around the league, but it wouldn't take much for him to outperform it. But he has to show that he can actually do that.

They also traded veteran forward Blake Coleman to the Minnesota Wild for veteran defenseman Jake Middleton and more future draft pick capital. It will not be a shock when Middleton is also flipped at some point this season.

This is still the very early stages of a rebuild, and a team that's not going to be very good this season, especially on offense. A lot of patience will still be required here.

They took a swing at signing veteran defenseman John Carlson by trading a sixth-round pick for his free-agent rights, but they were unable to get him to sign.

Restricted free-agent defenseman Alexander Nikishin also remains unsigned, and there does not appear to be an end in sight.

Aside from some minor depth moves, the only major order of business was getting captain and reigning Conn Smythe winner Jordan Staal to sign a one-year contract extension. It's a solid move because Staal obviously still has some juice and can be a big-game player. He is also a perfect fit for their style of play.

It's not a team that needs much, and it still has plenty of salary cap space and draft pick assets (not to mention young talent) to swing another blockbuster trade at any time.

I imagine they will try at some point this season.

Bowen Byram is a good player, and he will make them better.

I don't think he is going to improve them as much as they think he will.

I'm also not sure he's worth the No. 4 and No. 45 overall picks in the draft and a $12.5 million-per-year contract extension.

That is, expecting him to be a No. 1 defenseman. The problem is that if he were a No. 1 defenseman, he would not be on his third team before his 26th birthday.

He's more likely a pretty good No. 2 or 3 defenseman. And that's fine. But is that worth the price they paid? We will see.

The Connor Bedard contract extension is fine given the market and direction of the offseason, but it doesn't really make the team any better or worse. It was just a major order of business that needed to be done.

The Patrick Kane reunion is going to be good for PR and will generate some excitement, and it will give them some more offense, but Kane is a shell of the player he used to be, and it remains to be seen where or how he will fit here outside of a big-time power play producer.

This is still a mostly bad team, with a very young roster full of unproven players that are still trying to find their way in the NHL. Expect more growing pains.

By trading away Valeri Nichushkin, Jack Drury, and Ross Colton, the Avalanche lost a lot of pretty good depth pieces. Jaden Schwartz was a nice value signing and could be a good fit, but is he enough to offset the three departures?

They re-signed a trio of defensemen to new contracts, including a record deal for superstar Cale Makar. It's a huge contract (over $20 million per season), but he'll still probably be worth it.

I'm not as high on the re-signing of Brett Kulak for five years and $22.5 million total. Not because it's too much of an overpay, but mostly because I'm not sure if you need to sign a 32-year-old, third-pairing defenseman to a five-year deal. There doesn't seem to be much reward or upside there.

Brent Burns on a one-year deal is fine, especially at the price tag ($850,000).

The Avalanche are still a serious contender, but expect some regression in the standings.

The vibes around the Blue Jackets this summer were mostly negative.

There were concerns about whether Zach Werenski would even be playing here this season, and there is still some long-term doubt about his future.

Kirill Marchenko is not even really hiding the fact that he will not be re-signing there long-term.

And it took them until Sept. 24, less than a week before the start of the regular season, to get restricted free agent Adam Fantilli signed.

It's not great. But at least all of them are still here. For now.

They also added Valeri Nichushkin from Colorado for nothing but draft-pick compensation, which brings in a legitimate middle-six forward who should help. It's a nice move on its own, but I'm not sure how I feel about it as the centerpiece of an entire offseason for a team that missed the playoffs and had some really big needs.

Rick Bowness seems determined to change the mindset of this organization, and it's either going to result in him winning the Jack Adams Award for getting it into the playoffs, or he is going to make his season-ending press conference look calm and reasonable with the meltdown he eventually has.

Getting a healthy Roope Hintz back will be a huge addition, and his absence was no doubt felt in their first-round playoff exit.

But it's still a team that took a step backward this past season, did not advance after three consecutive trips to the Western Conference Final, didn't really add anything to the roster, and still has some big questions on the right side of the defense.

If anything, they actually subtracted from the roster by moving Mavrik Bourque to the Nashville Predators.

Making matters even more complicated, they were only able to get Jason Robertson signed to a one-year deal and are heading into a potential lame-duck year with him as unrestricted free agency looms after the season.

Their Stanley Cup window is still open, but the clock is ticking, and this offseason didn't really extend it.

That's how this whole operation comes across right now.

Dylan Larkin requested a trade at the start of the offseason, Steve Yzerman was removed/stepped aside as general manager, and now, with the season just days away, they still do not have a new general manager to run the team.

That has resulted in Larkin not being traded, with nobody actually knowing whether he still wants a trade, and the organization stripping him of his captaincy.

Restricted free agent defenseman Simon Edvinsson (who also happens to be one of their best and most important young players) remains unsigned because they haven't had a general manager to finalize a new deal with him.

Their big offseason additions before all of that chaos started were Viktor Arvidsson and Keegan Kolesar. Arvidsson is a solid addition, but that's not a difference-maker for a team that has missed the playoffs for a decade and keeps collapsing late in the season.

The depth is still sketchy, the roster is still mostly mediocre, and they are about to head into the season with an interim general manager. It's bad. Really bad.

When it comes to the PR nightmare they've created for themselves, they get an F for hiring Mike Babcock and signing Alex Formenton.

Babcock's hiring is so controversial that even franchise legend Mark Messier called it out and said he was horrified by the decision.

What makes these moves even more baffling is that neither Babcock nor Formenton looks like they can even make a positive impact on the ice. At least not based on anything they have done recently.

Babock hasn't won anything of relevance in the NHL in over 15 years, and most of his recent teams have badly underachieved in both the regular season and the playoffs. If you like third-place finishes in your division and first-round playoff exits, this is your guy.

That doesn't even get into the extensive list of burned bridges with former players he's accumulated over the years by treating everybody who isn't a superstar like complete garbage.

As for Formenton, he hasn't played in the NHL in years and was a mid-level player on a Swiss team just this past season.

But if the PR blunders and questionable additions aren't bad enough, it's still a team with some serious depth issues and a very questionable goalie situation.

When it comes to the former, they were outscored 55-86 in 5-on-5 play when neither Connor McDavid nor Leon Draisaitl was on the ice, which is one of the worst marks the team has had during the McDavid-Draisaitl era. That's a testament to how awful the depth was this past season because they have had some truly dreadful performances away from McDavid and Draisaitl over the years.

Is Ryan Shea replacing Darnell Nurse, and will a new coach (who, again, has not won anything in the NHL in over a decade) close that gap?

When it comes to the goalie situation, they are relying on Tristan Jarry, Frederik Andersen, and Devon Levi to keep pucks out of the net. Jarry can't be counted on because he has continued to struggle even after leaving Pittsburgh. Andersen is 36 years old and struggles to stay on the ice. Levi has always had promise, but has never been consistent in the NHL.

The whole thing just seems like a house of cards ready to topple over.

Getting a healthy Aleksander Barkov back is a win just by itself.

But adding Brady Tkachuk, while only having to give up (indirectly) Mackie Samoskevich off the NHL roster, is another huge win.

Tkachuk may have been miscast as the No. 1 guy in Ottawa, but coming into a situation in Florida where he can be the No. 2 or 3 guy is going to be perfect for him. And for Florida.

The goaltending is going to be the big question here, and that's the only thing dropping this from an A offseason down to an A-minus offseason.

Will Jacob Markstrom bounce back from an ugly season in New Jersey? Florida is betting on his ability to do so.

The rest of the team might be so good that he won't need to bounce back much. He doesn't need to steal games; he just needs to avoid losing them. It should be a reasonable bar to reach.

Their biggest addition was getting Mats Zuccarello on a one-year deal. In terms of value, it might end up being one of the bigger steals of the offseason. Even at his age, he can still play and produce, and the Kings needed more offensive punch. He will help.

But outside of that signing and Erik Haula's signing, they didn't really do much and are also dealing with the retirement of long-time captain Anze Kopitar.

That's not going to be enough to get this team through the first-round ceiling it keeps ramming itself into. It might not even be enough to get them back in the playoffs.

The Brandt Clarke re-signing, however, was a really strong move, and getting him at $7.4 million over the next five years should be a steal. That bumps the letter grade up a bit.

Blake Coleman is a really strong pickup and the type of two-way winger that contending teams need. He's getting older, but he can still bring a spark.

The downside to the offseason is that they didn't do enough to upgrade their center depth, and they gave Michael McCarron too much money, over too many years for what he does.

Until they get more center help, you have to wonder how high this team's ceiling actually is, and they still have the big question of what to do with defenseman Quinn Hughes hanging over their heads. He is in the final year of his contract, has not signed an extension, and everyone in the league seems to think it is inevitable that he will go to New Jersey after this season.

Montreal didn't really add much this offseason until very late in the game, when it pounced on Chris Kreider after Anaheim let him go.

Setting aside the awkwardness of adding perhaps the most loathed active NHL player among Canadiens fans, it's a great fit and a great bargain. Especially that late in the summer. They needed another middle-six winger, and Kreider not only brings offense but also plenty of experience and chaos to the lineup.

The offseason began with the Canadiens getting another key player (forward Ivan Demidov) signed to a long-term deal that is going to end up being well below market value for almost all of its duration. It was the perfect storm of getting him signed before salaries exploded, and also the Canadiens' core being willing to sign so cheaply (relatively speaking). That is a huge advantage in a salary cap league, and Montreal should be set up for sustained, long-term success.

Easily the weirdest offseason in the NHL.

If you look at all of the moves they made as singular moves, they were all really good value.

The additions of Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Nils Hoglander, and Mavrik Bourque add some quality depth, and they didn't really have to give up a lot to get them. But they are the type of additions a team with a Stanley Cup-contending core would make to round out a championship roster. And Nashville simply doesn't have that sort of core, so it's just kind of hard to get a sense of where they think they are and what they want to be.

It's not bad. Nothing here is bad. And the team isn't going to be bad.

It's just an interesting approach from a first-year general manager, Chris MacFarland, who's inheriting a pretty average team.

Seems like a high-floor, low-ceiling kind of season is on the horizon.

The only move this offseason that seemed negative was trading Luke Evangelista to New Jersey after a 56-point season with strong underlying numbers. That might come back to haunt them.

Very promising debut for first-year general manager Sunny Mehta.

The Devils needed to improve their depth around star forwards Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, and they did that in a really solid way with Evan Rodrigues, Luke Evangelista, and Anthony Mantha.

Mantha scored 33 goals a year ago and signed for just $4.75 million per season on a two-year deal, while Rodrigues is one of the more underrated two-way forwards in the league. Evangelista was also a solid pickup from Nashville and should be a strong top-six winger.

They also got Hischier signed to a new long-term contract extension that should age wonderfully, while also getting a strong return for Simon Nemec in a trade with Calgary, which set them up with additional draft pick capital.

They still have some concerns in goal, and they need Hughes to stay healthy for once, but this is a potential playoff team if a few things go right. They also have four first-round picks over the next three years and seem to be in the driver's seat to get Quinn Hughes next summer.

Way too quiet an offseason for a team that missed the playoffs and needed more offense.

Mattias Maccelli is the only major addition, and it's hard to even quantify it as such.

Matthew Schaefer is going to be a superstar, and Ilya Sorokin is capable of winning the Vezina Trophy and putting the team on his back and carrying it in any given season. They are going to need him to do that again, and for Schaefer to come back even better in year two for them to have a chance.

I do like Peter DeBoer as a head coach and think he can get a little more out of this team. But since that hiring happened during the 2025-26 season it does not get included in the offseason grade.

The Rangers needed a lot of help after a brutally disappointing 2025-26 season, and they did a really good job of finding a lot of what they needed.

Pavel Dorofeyev is a legit top-line winger who can score 35 goals, and even though he's not the guy to drive his line, he is an outstanding finisher. Eeli Tolvanen and Oliver Bjorkstrand are also solid, under-the-radar additions, especially given the fact that they had some chemistry when they played on a line together in Seattle.

They also overhauled their defense with the additions of Sean Durzi (as part of the Vincent Trocheck trade) and Marcus Pettersson, giving them what should be a very good top-four with Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov.

It's not a perfect team by any stretch, and it might still only be a fringe playoff team. But the playoffs are very much within reach, especially with a superstar goalie in Igor Shesterkin and a potential Norris-caliber defenseman in Fox. If those two guys have big years (and especially Shesterkin), there is some upside here.

Their center situation and the lack of team speed are still a concern, but this should be a very competitive team.

Brady Tkachuk forced their hands not only by asking for a trade mid-contract, but also by being willing to go to Florida to play alongside his brother.

Given that situation, getting William Eklund and two additional first-round picks out of it isn't terrible. Eklund is a good player with upside, and those additional picks can be used to restock the farm system or as additional trade bait (one of the picks they received from Florida was already used to acquire Eklund).

Keeping Jordan Spence was a nice piece of business, while they also re-signed Drake Batherson to a long-term contract worth over $10 million per season. The Batherson contract seems a little rich for the player he's been, but this offseason, especially the second half of it, is going to force us to start re-evaluating what contracts look like and what their value actually is.

Nobody made a bolder move this summer than the Flyers' offer sheet for Leo Carlsson. Had they pulled it off, it would have been a franchise-changing move and taken them to an easy A for the summer. But other than the offer sheet, which Anaheim matched, the offseason was mostly about locking up their own players, including Tyson Foerster, Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, and Dan Vladar.

Vladar's contract is the riskiest of them given his position and how much concern there should be over his ability to repeat his 2025-26 performance, but they did give themselves a potentially solid fallback option in Joseph Woll.

The Flyers are still very committed to their rebuild, and a lot of young talent is hitting the NHL. A lot of their success or failure this season will depend on the goalies and how much of a breakthrough they get from players like Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov.

There was some hope in Pittsburgh at the start of the offseason that maybe the Penguins could pull off a blockbuster move, but nothing ever came together.

Instead, this offseason looked very similar to the 2025 offseason, with some low-risk free-agent moves and a few low-risk, potentially high-reward gambles.

On paper, the team looks very similar to the one that made the playoffs in 2025-26, but with a core group that is another year older. There are some wild cards here that could shift the season in a couple of different directions. If Ben Kindel has a big second season, and if Egor Chinakhov proves the second half of the 2025-26 season was not a fluke, and if Nicholas Robertson can take advantage of an increased role, there is the potential for a really deep group of forwards.

What they really need is the goalie duo of Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs to show they are ready to carry the load for an NHL team. There is upside with them, especially Murashov, but they might be the biggest wild cards on the team. If they are good, the Penguins will be good. If they are not good, the Penguins might be a lottery team.

The best thing that happened to the Sharks this offseason was something completely out of their control — moving from No. 9 in the NHL Draft to the No. 2 spot thanks to some lottery luck. That allowed them to pick forward Ivar Stenberg, giving them another potential star forward to join Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, and Michael Misa.

Their second-best move? Getting Celebrini signed to a long-term deal before having to worry about it next summer, when he would have been a restricted free agent.

Mason Marchment is a fantastic forward addition, but the defensive moves leave a lot to be desired.

Adding one of Jacob Trouba or Darnell Nurse would have been understandable.

Adding both, at a combined salary-cap hit of over $17 million per season, is harder to understand.

They will have the chance to score many goals as a team, but stopping opponents will still be a major concern. They took a big step forward in 2025-26 and at least competed for a playoff spot. Given that progress and the offseason moves, it is time to start expecting the playoffs.

They thought they had a deal for Jason Robertson, but there was one small hiccup in that plan. He didn't actually want to go there. That is a shame for Seattle because it absolutely needs a player like him, and they made a great effort to get him. It just didn't work out. Nothing you can do about that. You can't make a player want to join you if they have other plans.

They did end up adding Mackie Samoskevich from Florida and re-signing Bobby McMann, but they are not really franchise-shifting moves the way Robertson could have been. If anything, they are just more of what Seattle's roster is already loaded with: Good, but not great players.

Jordan Kyrou is out, but Connor McMichael and Mason McTavish are in to join a pretty solid core group of players that already includes Robert Thomas, Jake Neighbours and Jimmy Snuggerud.

There is still some question as to how good McTavish and McMichael actually are, but the Blues are taking a big bet that they can both reach their potential in St. Louis. If they are right, they have the makings of a pretty good top-six, especially after keeping Thomas, who remains one of the league's most underrated star-level players.

The Brandon Carlo addition on defense doesn't seem to have the same upside, and they still have a big question mark in goal with the Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer duo.

The Lightning's core is still in place, but it's starting to look like that window is closing after another first-round exit.

They added some pieces around the edge this offseason, including forward Ilya Mikheyev and defenseman John Carlson.

Carlson is the most significant move because he is still a viable top-four option and can run a power play and generate offense from the back end. They also needed someone to replace Darren Raddysh after he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a sign-and-trade deal.

Solid moves. But the Lightning's success will ultimately come down to the returning core players.

Speaking of which, at what point do Lightning fans start getting concerned that Nikita Kucherov does not have a new contract extension? The Lightning have not been afraid to let go of franchise icons in the past. Would they do it again?

Lottery luck smiled on the Maple Leafs, landing them Gavin McKenna with the No. 1 overall pick, and there is a strong chance he becomes a superstar in Toronto. They didn't do anything to get him except be unexpectedly bad for a year and have some ping-pong balls bounce their way, but it's a huge addition.

As far as moves they had actual control over, defenseman Darren Raddysh and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky are the big ones.

They paid Raddysh over $8 million per season, and if he duplicates his 2025-26 performance, or even comes close, he will be worth every penny of that contract. At least for a few years. The question is whether he can do that again or if he reverts to the good, but not great, player he was for the two years prior to that performance.

He's a two-time Stanley Cup winner and a two-time Vezina Trophy winner. He's a Hall of Famer when he retires. But at 38 years old, is he still capable of playing at anything close to that level? Toronto is taking a $7 million per year gamble that he can. They need to be right.

Swapping out J.J. Peterka for Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee takes away some of the potential excitement and dynamic goal-scoring, but it might make them a better overall team.

Trocheck is a perfect matchup center for what they needed, while Lee is still very capable of causing havoc around the front of the net and scoring some garbage goals.

With Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and Clayton Keller already in place, plus a strong defense, this could be a sneaky contender in the Western Conference.

The big concern is going to be in net. They traded a first-round pick to get Sebastian Cossa from the Detroit Red Wings, but he is completely unproven and a total wild card.

This could be a sleeper destination for Connor Hellebuyck.

The Canucks have made a minimal effort to start a rebuild, trading Nils Hoglander and Marcus Pettersson for future draft picks, including a 2029 first-round pick.

They also brought in Brendan Gallagher to fill a roster spot and kept Elias Pettersson for at least the start of another season.

It's nothing exciting. It's minor deck-chair shuffling. This could be the worst team in the league, and it seems nowhere near a contender. It's hard to argue that this offseason really did much to help them in the short term or the long term.

They re-signed many veteran players, including captain Mark Stone and defenseman Rasmus Andersson, but made few outside additions.

Andersson's extension seems like a significantly bigger risk than the Stone deal, based on its length and the fact that Stone still looks like a better player.

Beyond that, it was a lot of subtraction from the roster, as Pavel Dorofeyev, Keegan Kolesar, and Kaedan Korczak were all traded, with only draft picks and defenseman Parker Wotherspoon coming back. None of that is an immediate upgrade.

Vegas still has a very good team, but goaltending is going to be a big question mark again, and the roster (on paper, at least) does not look as strong as it did when it was skating in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Capitals were good enough to be a playoff team a year ago, and in most years, they would have been a playoff team given the number of wins (43) and points (95) they finished with.

They were already set to improve with the return of a healthy Pierre-Luc Dubois after he missed most of the 2025-26 season, and then they added two more top-six forwards, Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch.

Kyrou and Tuch are two of the best forwards in the league at generating chances and offense off the rush, and their additions should help transform a Washington offense that had grown a little stale.

They have an elite goalie in Logan Thompson, a nice upcoming core of young players (Ryan Leonard, Justin Sourdif, Cole Hutson), and now a completely revamped top-six.

They should not only be a playoff team, but they might also have a chance to win the East.

They added Mario Ferraro and Stuart Skinner.

That is also not enough. It is not enough for where this team was a year ago; it is not enough given the needs the roster still had; and it is not enough given everything at stake this offseason.

Their best and most important player, Connor Hellebuyck, is not with the team and is suspended for not showing up after the team did not yet honor his trade request, and it seems it is only a matter of when, and not if, his Winnipeg tenure comes to an end.

It remains stunning how inactive this organization is under general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and how little urgency there always seems to be.

Another team that is a dysfunctional mess this offseason. They are taking advantage of the loyal fans who fiercely support hockey and the team. None of this is good enough.