The NHL off-season has seen a plethora of exciting moves as teams prepare for the 2024-25 season. Amongst the teams that have yet to make moves though, four teams seem primed to break that silence.

Good or bad, some NHL teams made big moves early in free agency. The Nashville Predators were largely considered the winners of the first day, with teams like New Jersey, Washington, Edmonton, and a couple of others helping their cause for next season. Other teams were busy as well.

The Seattle Kraken spent big money on Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson. The Toronto Maple Leafs reshaped their blueline but gave out a significant portion of their remaining cap space to do so. The Carolina Hurricanes lost big names and did what they could to replace them. Chicago was active, but it’s unclear if they did enough to actually make a move up the standings.

Then, there have been some relatively quiet teams. The New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Vegas Golden Knights, Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, Winnipeg Jets, and Montreal Canadiens all signed very few names.

That’s quite a few teams that didn’t do much.

Of that group, fans should expect a few teams to make moves. Acknowledging that the Flyers and Canadiens are rebuilding and their GMs aren’t in a position where they need to make a splash, other teams aren’t looking at the same situation. Namely, the Jets, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and Panthers have some work to do yet this off-season.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets have been extremely quiet. They signed some smaller names to short-term deals, but the Rutger McGroarty situation looms over the franchise. The talented prospect has said he’s not interested in signing and a trade is expected. It will be a potential franchise-altering move if and when it happens. Meanwhile, the team tried to keep Sean Monahan but failed to do so. Finally, there is speculation that Nikolaj Ehlers is on his way out.

This is a team that wants to contend and stars like netminder Connor Hellebuyck stayed on because of his belief the team would try to remain competitive. That said, this team has a lot of work to do when it comes to sorting out their complicated messes.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche are in an interesting spot. They don’t have a lot of cap room with which to play, they are supposed to be a contending team and they currently sit at 41 of 50 contracts, with only 19 of their 23 roster spots taken. In other words, there’s lots to do with open spots available but not a ton of money in which to do anything.

It’s not clear what is happening with Gabriel Landeskog’s injury, and Valeri Nichushkin is out for some time seeking help but potentially never returning, depending on how the organization feels about his repeated disappearing acts at the most inopportune times. The team signed Jonathan Drouin but didn’t sign anyone else with a cap hit over $900,000 in free agency. It feels like the Avs will find a way to be in contention, but doesn’t something have to give there?

Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights are always active, but this summer, the franchise has been shockingly silent. Possibly still reeling from the losses of Logan Thompson, Jonathan Marchessault, Anthony Mantha, Alec Martinez, and Chandler Stephenson, there’s an aura in Vegas that things might be looking a bit bleak for the first time in this franchise’s history. The key to remember here is that this is a ruthless and cutthroat organization that will do anything to improve its situation. That has both positive results and unintended consequences.

The Golden Knights may have taken a step backward, but they are still a strong team, and to think they are done conducting business this off-season would be unwise.

This franchise does not stand pat. Full stop. They have rather limited cap space to use, but that doesn’t seem to matter as they often pull off deals with no cap space at all. They always find a way to make it work and players regularly want to play there, despite how heartless the team can seemingly be in situations. Vegas is at 47 out of 50 contracts; there is room to add more.

Florida Panthers

The current Stanley Cup champions are not as strong a team today as they were just a few weeks ago. The club re-signed Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell, but they lost Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anthony Stolarz, Ryan Lomberg, and Vladimir Tarasenko off their Cup-winning roster. There is also trade talk surrounding Aaron Ekblad. 

The team took big hits – which often happens to winning rosters – but has yet to replace anyone with a player of real significance. The Panthers have less than $1 million to play with on their salary cap, so a trade could be in their future.