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Kristen Shilton, ESPN NHL reporter
Ah, summertime.
A season of relaxation. Reflection. Rejuvenation.
If you’re the architect of an NHL team with aspirations of competing for a Stanley Cup come fall, it’s a combination of all three. Or at least, it should be.
The draft has come and gone. Free agency is in full swing. Granted, there wasn’t an abundance of marquee names populating the 2023 class, but nonetheless good players were — and still are — available on the open market.
July 1 was a frantic afternoon of wheeling and dealing, particularly by those clubs who had zeroed in on their desired targets and were prepared to make a move.
Carolina, for example, did work internally (signing goaltenders Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta) and externally (grabbing top free agent defenseman Dmitry Orlov and coveted UFA forward Michael Bunting). They’re well-positioned to be of the Eastern Conference.
Other clubs waited a day or two (or nine) to make a splash. Detroit was oddly quiet in early July, and then boom, a week and a half in GM Steve Yzerman trades for striker Alex DeBrincat and signs him to a four-year deal. In a blink, the Red Wings got better. Sometimes it happens like that.
And significant post-July 1 improvements shouldn’t end with Detroit, either. There are teams around the league who could still use a summer refresh, to catch a second wind and capitalize on opportunities — whether with players already in their midst or ones waiting on a new landing spot.
Time, as it tends to do, is running out, though. We’re already past the midway mark of free agency’s first month. To that end, here are five teams we see on the clock to make some kind of move(s) before the calendar flips officially towards training camp openings.
Calgary isn’t exactly stampeding through the offseason.
That’s somewhat surprising given the Flames are in flux — with issues to address now and in their near future.
The team is transitioning to a new era under new general manager Craig Conroy and recently instated head coach Ryan Huska, who is taking over for the fired Darryl Sutter. But for all that’s changed around the Flames, some things remain frustratingly the same.
Like their roster, for example.
Calgary dealt last summer with the departure of Johnny Gaudreau in free agency and then were essentially forced into trading a disgruntled Matthew Tkachuk to Florida (in exchange for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar). Brad Treliving did coax UFA forward Nazem Kadri into the mix, a major boon for the then-fragile Flames. The outcome of those transactions simply didn’t yield desired results.
Calgary fumbled their way through the 2022-23 campaign under Sutter. The club failed to make the playoffs for the second time in three years. That seemingly led to more unhappy campers.
This spring Tyler Toffoli told the Flames he would not be re-signing when his contract was over. That solicited Conroy’s one notable (and basically unavoidable) decision thus far, trading Toffoli to New Jersey for Yegor Sharangovich. The 25-year-old Sharangovich then agreed to a two-year, $6.2 million extension with the Flames.
And that’s just about where Calgary’s adjustments (so far) have ended. The Flames still have around $2.4 million in cap space to their credit, enough to possibly add the right impact player. But can they lure anyone of note to fill in a gap? The future of Calgary’s core might depend on Conroy attempting to do just that.
The Flames have a backlog of upcoming free agents yet to be addressed. Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin are all entering the final year of their contracts. Retaining their services could require Calgary to prove it can still be a contending team worth sticking with in the long term. Standing pat may not be the best way to do that.
Surely Calgary has scoured the market to see what’s out there. Maybe it’s the trade route that will produce a spark. Maybe a more settled Huberdeau (who collected just 15 goals and 55 points in 79 games last season) will be the difference-maker Calgary expected in acquiring him. Huska will bring his own energy — and systems — to promote improvement, too.
The Flames re-tooled their front office and coaching staffs. Calgary shouldn’t stop there, at minimum, giving its roster a mini facelift before fall.
Erik Karlsson is the new Jakob Chychrun.
We all know he’s going to be traded. It’s just a matter of when, and to where. And like the Chychrun saga that dragged on (and on… and on), we’re all about ready to see where Karlsson’s headed.
That’s the type of work San Jose needs to focus on before September. The Sharks are not set up to be contenders right now. Leaning into that and re-building the club’s foundation should be a priority. The (projected? assumed? inevitable?) Karlsson deal will fundamentally factor into that given the return for San Jose will be of some significance.
GM Mike Grier has money in the bank (about $5.5 million). Grier, though, has been strategic in small adds. Trading for Anthony Duclair (with one year remaining on his contract). Acquiring MacKenzie Blackwood and inking him on a short-term pact. Taking a flier on free agent reclamation project Filip Zadina.
Through it all, the Karlsson cloud looms. When will that shoe drop?
Can San Jose truly open another chapter of this rebuild until it does? Do the Sharks want to begin camp once again answering question after question about Karlsson’s standing within the organization? San Jose stands to get better when that transaction goes through, of course. It also just removes a distraction their evolving franchise would likely enjoy no longer having.
Some teams shouldn’t be done yet working the phones to add players. The Sharks, meanwhile, should be waiting by theirs for it to ring — with a ready answer on their most tradeable asset.
Minnesota is on track to start this season like it did the last:
Keep the same core of players. Hope there’s a different result come spring.
The strategy didn’t pan out for the Wild in 2022-23 as they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Yet Minnesota has been similarly inactive on the offseason trade and free agency front so far. Plus, there’s question marks internally that need to be worked out. GM Bill Guerin must get busy, right?
To this point, Minnesota’s been filling in the edges. Marcus Johansson returned to the team on a two-year, $4 million contract. The only real trade Minnesota has made was swapping a seventh-round pick for Pat Maroon.
Guerin did lock in RFA Brandon Duhaime for one year at $1.1 million after the two sides avoided arbitration. But RFA Filip Gustavsson remains unsigned with an arbitration hearing scheduled for August 4. RFA Calen Addison has neither arbitration rights or a new deal.
It’s not as if Guerin’s totally handcuffed, cash-wise. Minnesota has approximately $6 million in cap space to work with. Gustavsson and Addison — a key piece for the Wild blue line with Matt Dumba becoming a free agent — will be the priorities. Minnesota should not miss their chance to keep improving from there.
The Wild haven’t won a postseason series since 2014-15. Guerin has done what he had to in shedding the previous behemoth contracts doled out to Ryan Suter and Zach Parise (even if dead cap is a factor in Minnesota’s cash crunch). He clearly believes in the Wild’s nucleus.
Minnesota just needs something more. Maybe it’s not a big splash, but a few ripples wouldn’t hurt. Some secondary scoring that complements Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov, for instance?
Bottom line: The Wild don’t feel finished. There’s more out there for them.
Washington is at a crossroads.
GM Brian MacLellan and company shed veteran/expiring contracts at the trade deadline and are currently in the red when it comes to cap space. Washington’s managed to make a few moves though, inking Max Pacioretty to a two-year deal and trading with Montreal for defenseman Joel Edmundson (getting the Canadiens to retain 50% of Edmundson’s contract was tidy business by MacLellan).
It seems like the Capitals have more to do, though.
Washington brought in rookie NHL head coach Spencer Carbery to breathe new life into the organization. Shouldn’t their roster construction continue to follow suit?
The Capitals must be exploring the trade market to get rid of another veteran deal or two, starting with Evgeny Kuznetsov. The 31-year-old requested to be moved, and while Kuznetsov’s play has declined in recent years, he could still slide into a top-nine role somewhere in the league. MacLellan has reportedly been “aggressive” trying to ship Kuznetsov out, and there’s enough runway left into camps that it could happen. If Washington can get younger in the process, all the better for them.
And that goes for trades beyond just Kuznetsov’s. The Capitals are transitioning from one phase to another, that was clearly signaled by MacLellan’s decisions last winter. Should Washington wish to be a playoff contender this coming season they’ll need reliable forward depth. Whatever transactions MacLellan can complete to improve the Capitals up front will go a long way in securing their status as at least a possible wild-card team in the Eastern Conference mix.
MacLellan has surprised us before. No doubt he’s capable of pulling something off to do it again.
Seattle felt right on the cusp of something when its playoff run ended last season.
GM Ron Francis still has time to nudge them even further in the right direction.
Seattle’s sophomore follow-up to a fraught freshman year was something to behold. There was no quit in the Kraken, who excelled as a collective force without singular star turns. That’s a rarity in the NHL these days. It’s what made Seattle so special.
And yet, Francis did not keep the band together. Seattle failed to qualify RFAs Morgan Geekie and Daniel Sprong. UFA Carson Soucy walked for nothing.
Francis did get RFA Vince Dunn signed to a four-year, $29.4 million deal and also got two-year deals done with RFAs Will Borgen and Cale Fleury. Other than that, Francis’ (moderate) damage has come courtesy of the open market, adding veteran defenseman Brian Dumoulin on a two-year pact and forward Kailer Yamamoto with a one-year deal.
Neither of those fine additions will thrust Seattle into being an indisputable, top-tier postseason challenger. But they could be. One area they could address is goaltending.
Phillip Grubauer works better in tandem than as a primary No. 1 netminder. And it was streaky goaltending — between Grubauer and UFA Martin Jones primarily — that was a major knock on the Kraken all last season. By mid-July, the Kraken had Grubauer, Chris Driedger and Joey Daccord filling out its depth between the pipes.
Francis would do well to at least explore another option before September.
Seattle has some seriously strong cornerstones to their franchise in skaters like Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann. This is no time to rest on the club’s laurels — or previous success. If Seattle can have peace of mind in a true No. 2 to support Philipp Grubauer, there is little chance they’ll be shocking anyone as a Western Conference mover-and-shaker all season long ahead.