Whether it's losing many players and not filling those holes or not doing enough to upgrade the roster, Mike Stephens argues these four NHL teams improved the least.
The NHL off-season is nearly at its end, and training camps are slowly approaching the horizon. But before the new season kicks off and optimism springs anew, let's take a look at the four teams who improved the least over the course of the summer.
Boston Bruins
Additions: Milan Lucic, Morgan Geekie, Jesper Boqvist, James van Riemsdyk, Kevin ShattenkirkDepartures: Patrice Bergeron (retirement), David Krejci (retirement), Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Connor Clifton, Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Mike Reilly
Betting against the Bruins is typically a fool's errand, given they were expected to take a big step backward heading into 2022-23 and instead proceeded to crank out the greatest regular-season performance of all-time, but this finally seems like the year their downfall begins.
It's staggering to see the level of talent that walked out of Boston this off-season.
The Bruins lost their heart and soul, respectively, when Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired in early August. The intangible impact both had on the team's culture is one thing, but the sheer value both players gave the team from a production-versus-cap-hit standpoint simply cannot be replicated, either. When taking into account the likes of Hall, Bertuzzi, Hathaway and Foligno also hitting the road while garnering zero assets in return, that vaunted Bruins offense from last season has been gutted significantly.
The back end isn't holding up much better, either. As a deadline addition, Orlov was always meant to be a luxury rental to make a rich blueline even richer. But that doesn't erase the hole his absence leaves in the defense corps – one that could've been filled by Clifton, only for him to walk, as well.
The Bruins still have stars in McAvoy, Pastrnak, and Lindholm. But this talent depletion has a ripple effect throughout the roster – one that potentially even reaches the club's reigning Vezina-winning netminder, who, while impressive himself, did benefit quite a bit from the rock-solid lineup in front of him.
Calgary Flames
Additions: Yegor Sharangovich, Jordan Oesterle
Departures: Tyler Toffoli, Matthew Phillips, Michael Stone, Milan Lucic, Troy Stecher, Nick Ritchie
Frankly, Darryl Sutter getting kicked to the curb after spending last season arguably creating one of the most toxic environments in the NHL for some reason might be the one thing that gets the Flames back on track. The report that several players rescinded their trade requests the day after he was fired seems like a good sign.
Looking at the actual roster, though, leaves a lot to be desired.
The Flames have been one of, if not the most inactive teams on the free-agent market this summer. Their biggest addition came via trade return for a top-six, near-point-per-game forward signed to a reasonable contract in the middle of his prime. Even if Sharangovich exceeds expectations this season after a tough 2022-23, his production will likely, at best, match Toffoli's and bring the value to a net zero. And that's the absolute best-case scenario, too.
Aside from Toffoli, it's not as if the Flames lost a ton of talent. You can win a Stanley Cup without the likes of Nick Ritchie and Troy Stecher. It happens every year. The main problem is that the Flames didn't really add any complementary pieces to support their stars, who are each getting older and, in the case of Jonathan Huberdeau and his new $10.5-million cap hit, more expensive.
A Sutter-less bench might be just what the doctor ordered to cure the illness. But it might take a while for this patient to regain its full strength.
Florida Panthers
Additions: Evan Rodrigues, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Mike Reilly, Dmitry Kulikov
Departures: Radko Gudas, Anthony Duclair, Marc Staal, Eric Staal, Colin White, Alex Lyon
The Panthers' improbable run to the Stanley Cup final, fuelled by R-rated violence, historic goaltending and sheer unadulterated vibes, was a fantastic story. It also helped to mask the fact that this was a 92-point regular-season team that squeaked into the playoffs last year by a single point thanks, tangentially, to Ron Hextall's Pittsburgh Penguins not winning a late-April game against a stripped-bare Blackhawks roster.
Now, the roster responsible for that little taste of playoff magic has been both broken and gutted.
The team's two most important defenders, Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, will likely start the season on LTIR while recovering from their post-season injuries. That would necessitate a top pair featuring the likes of Gustav Forsling and...Nikko Mikkola? The ghost of Oliver Ekman-Larsson? Josh 'Seventh Defenseman in the Playoffs' Mahura? With Gudas and Staal gone, those are the best remaining options.
Up front, the franchise's face and offensive engine, Tkachuk, might also miss a big chunk of time thanks to a broken sternum, placing even more offensive responsibility on Aleksander Barkov and a depleted forward corps that added Evan Rodrigues to fill the hole Duclair and Staal left behind.
To cut to the chase, it's not an ideal situation.
Getting a refreshed and rejuvenated Spencer Knight back in the crease will go a long way in helping the Panthers tread water. But if the notoriously up-and-down Bobrovsky regresses back into his down-year form, and Knight gets injured or isn't ready to return, Anthony Stolarz isn't exactly the most inspiring last man standing.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Additions: Conor Sheary, Calvin de Haan, Luke Glendening, Josh Archibald
Departures: Alex Killorn, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ian Cole, Brian Elliott, Pat Maroon, Corey Perry
All empires will one day fall. It appears as if the Lightning have begun their descent.
Listen, any team boasting the likes of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev will always have a fighting chance to make a run, even in arguably the toughest division in hockey. But the Lightning have lost a lot of supporting pieces over the years to the realities of the salary cap, and this off-season is no different.
Killorn, Bellemare, Cole, Maroon and Perry were all very important pieces to this roster that got bounced in the first round this past year. Losing all of them for ostensibly nothing and replacing them with Sheary and a bunch of bottom-six, league-minimum veterans is a tough blow, particularly when the arms race in the Atlantic Division is just starting to heat up.
The Lightning have the stars and the likes of Sheary, Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel. But their depth is now devastatingly weakened, with the forward corps forced to bank on Tanner Jeannot returning to his rookie-year form just to come close to replicating what ultimately earned them an early ticket home back in April.