Free-agency grades for all 32 NHL teams
The NHL free-agency frenzy of 2021 started 27 days later than the usual opening day of July 1, but it was as wild as any in recent memory, with more than $500 million spent on deals on the first day alone.
A number of valuable players remain who have yet to make their decisions — and potential franchise-altering trades for Jack Eichel and Vladimir Tarasenko are still possible as well. But after the first big wave, here is where things stand for all 32 teams.
Note: Thanks as always to our friends at CapFriendly for salary and contract data. Advanced stats are from Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey. Teams are arrayed alphabetically within each grade level.
Jump to:
ANA | ARI | BOS | BUF
CGY | CAR | CHI | COL
CBJ | DAL | DET | EDM
FLA | LA | MIN | MTL
NSH | NJ | NYI | NYR
OTT | PHI | PIT | SJ
SEA | STL | TB | TOR
VAN | VGS | WSH | WPG
A grades
Key additions: D Conor Timmins, D Shayne Gostisbehere, LW Andrew Ladd, LW Antoine Roussel, LW Loui Eriksson, C Jay Beagle, C Travis Boyd, G Carter Hutton, D Ben Hutton, LW Dmitrij Jaskin, LW Ryan Dzingel, D Anton Stralman
Key losses: G Darcy Kuemper, D Oliver Ekman-Larsson, RW Conor Garland, D Niklas Hjalmarsson, D Alex Goligoski, G Antti Raanta, LW Michael Bunting, C Frederik Gauthier, C Michael Chaput, LW Dryden Hunt, C John Hayden, D Jordan Oesterle, D Tyler Pitlick (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: The Coyotes may not be done trading veteran players yet. Could Christian Dvorak or Phil Kessel be the next to go?
Grade: A+. Now this is how you tank. GM Bill Armstrong was hired in 2020 thanks in part to his prowess as a draft guru in St. Louis. But when he arrived in Arizona, he found a roster that was nudging the cap ceiling as well as an empty cupboard of draft picks — including ones the NHL took away thanks to the previous regime’s draft combine rule violations.
Fast forward a year, and Armstrong managed to move Ekman-Larsson and his onerous contract (although it did cost promising Conor Garland), trade Kuemper for a solid prospect in Timmins and a first-rounder, and build a treasure trove of picks that includes five (!) in next year’s second round.
Meanwhile, the Coyotes have more than $8 million in cap space and just seven players under contract for 2022-23. Arizona has had a top-three pick twice in its existence; a goaltending battery of Hutton and Josef Korenar goes a long way toward rectifying that.
Key additions: G Marc-Andre Fleury, D Seth Jones, C Tyler Johnson, D Caleb Jones, D Jake McCabe, LW Jujhar Khaira
Key losses: D Duncan Keith, D Adam Boqvist, D Brent Seabrook, C Pius Suter, C David Kampf, C Vinnie Hinostroza
Remaining hole: After being one of the busiest teams throughout free agency, through trades and signing, the Blackhawks may just be done for now — unless they find someone who wants to trade for goalies Malcolm Subban or Collin Delia, who lost valuable playing time now that Marc-Andre Fleury is on board.
Grade: A. The Blackhawks acquired the reigning Vezina Trophy winner for nothing. The price was significantly higher for Jones — a swap of 2021 first-rounders, another conditional first-rounder and young defenseman Adam Boqvist — but the Blackhawks landed a true No. 1 defenseman not too far removed from Norris Trophy hype. His $5.4 million cap hit is a bargain this season; the jury’s out on that $9.5 million AAV, eight-year, full no-movement commitment they made beyond that.
McCabe was one of the offseason’s best low-key signings. Johnson still has something to offer, and they snagged a second-rounder from Tampa Bay while saving some real dollars by offloading Brent Seabrook’s contract. The work done this offseason, plus the return of Jonathan Toews, plus the relative weakness of much of the Western Conference, equals a team that could challenge for a playoff spot this season.
Key additions: C Pius Suter, C Mitchell Stephens, D Nick Leddy, G Alex Nedeljkovic
Key losses: G Jonathan Bernier, C Luke Glendening, C Darren Helm, D Dennis Cholowski (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: The Red Wings have the cap space (over $25 million) to pluck some of the contracts that teams might need to shed later in the summer. They also have to do deals with restricted free agent forward Jakub Vrana and defenseman Filip Hronek.
Grade: A. The Red Wings took advantage of a couple of odd decisions by other teams on restricted free agents. The Hurricanes weren’t convinced that Nedeljkovic, a Calder Trophy finalist, had the stuff of a true starting goalie, and they traded him to Detroit. The Blackhawks said there “wasn’t really a match” in contract talks with Suter, walked away and saw the Red Wings snatch him up. Leddy was a salary dump from the Islanders who’ll help their young defensemen.
They also got better by virtue of who left their lineup. It’s still a knee-deep rebuild for Detroit, but it’s very much on the right track. This grade is erring on the side of GM Steve Yzerman (still) being the smartest guy in the room.
Key additions: C Phillip Danault, D Alexander Edler, RW Viktor Arvidsson, G Garret Sparks
Key losses: RW Matt Luff, D Mark Alt
Remaining hole: The rebuild is nearing an end in Los Angeles. Now it’s all about when young hotshot prospects like Quinton Byfield will be able to become lineup regulars.
Grade: A. Just a tremendous offseason for GM Rob Blake, as he starts to really put the veteran pieces in place to supplement the prospect pool he’s amassed. There’s a lot to love about the Danault signing, as the Kings sign a center who can play up on the lineup until Byfield or Alex Turcotte are ready, and then settle in as the key to an effective checking line.
Arvidsson and Edler will help the team’s young Swedes, and if Arvidsson can regain the form he had before a couple of injurious years, he’ll be an asset. He already makes a good penalty kill better. If the youngsters are ripened, the Kings could make noise in the Pacific. If they’re not, this offseason sets the table for their eventuality as a contender.
Key additions: D Dougie Hamilton, D Ryan Graves, G Jonathan Bernier, F Tomas Tatar
Key losses: D Will Butcher, D Connor Carrick, D Ryan Murray
Remaining holes: The Devils still need to re-sign RFA forward Janne Kuokkanen, but could use more forwards for next season. Tatar helps, but they’d do well to give Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier some other veteran scorers to skate with next season.
Grade: A. The Devils landed the best defensive free agent on the open market. Sure, the money talks, but they also had to convince Hamilton to come to New Jersey and to join a team that’s a few years away from real contention. He’s going to immediately make them better in all facets, including their moribund power play (28th last season, 14.2% conversion rate). What this signing looks like three years from now is contingent on how the Devils build around him.
Meanwhile, Graves is a low-cost defenseman who shoots the puck a ton and is better than what they had on the blue line in 2021. Tatar, inexplicably scratched during the Canadiens’ run to the Stanley Cup Final, is a perfect signing in annual cap hit ($4.5 million) and term (two years) as long as he’s still a play driver at 5-on-5. Bernier was good on a bad team last season and is a nice partner for Mackenzie Blackwood. He’s not worth $4.125 million AAV, but it’s not like the Devils are a cap team right now.
Key additions: LW Jakub Voracek, C Sean Kuraly, D Jake Bean, D Adam Boqvist
Key losses: D Seth Jones, LW/RW Cam Atkinson
Remaining holes: The Blue Jackets dangled center Max Domi in the expansion draft and didn’t find a taker. With a $5.3 million cap hit, one year left before unrestricted free agency and coming off his worst offensive season (1.8 points per 60 minutes) in his first season in Columbus, he could still be on the move.
Grade: A-. Jones was the next in a seemingly unending parade of high-profile players who wanted to leave Columbus — Zach Werenski and his new $9,583,333 annual cap hit excepted — which is to say that GM Jarmo Kekalainen has gotten pretty good at maximizing these returns. He pulled two first-round picks and Boqvist from Chicago for Jones, which is a phenomenal return give the limited scope of the teams with whom he’d sign an extension. They traded Atkinson for Voracek, who has one fewer year left on his contract, could be a great setup man for Patrik Laine and most importantly likes Columbus. Kuraly was a nice depth addition at center, too.
It goes without saying that their offseason plans were impacted by the shocking death of goalie Matiss Kivlenieks in a fireworks accident last month, specifically when it came to trading either Elvis Merzlikins or Joonas Korpisalo. But that’s trivial compared to the magnitude of this tragedy.
Key additions: F Sam Reinhart
Key losses: C Alex Wennberg, D Anton Stralman, D Keith Yandle, G Chris Driedger (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: While the Panthers have some young players who could fill out the lineup, they could use a couple more veteran hands in their bottom six. They also have to settle on a new contract with Reinhart.
Grade: A-. On the surface, it looks like the Panthers let too much go in the offseason. But as they say, context is king. Driedger and goalie Devon Levi were from a goalie surplus behind Sergei Bobrovsky (who isn’t going anywhere, contractually) and Spencer Knight (who is the future). They weren’t giving Wennberg $4.5 million per year, term and trade protection like Seattle did. Yandle was on the outs and they bought him out. Reinhart is a legit scoring option for them at center or on the wing, and the first they gave up for him was top-10 protected for next season.
If Sam Bennett repeats his performance from last season, his four-year extension is worth it; ditto the three years they gave Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour. Florida has really built something interesting here — for how long that “something interesting” lasts will depend on a contract extension for Aleksander Barkov, who goes UFA next summer.
Key additions: D Ryan Ellis, D Rasmus Ristolainen, D Keith Yandle, LW/RW Cam Atkinson, G Martin Jones
Key losses: C Nolan Patrick, LW Jakub Voracek, D Robert Hagg, D Philippe Myers, D Shayne Gostisbehere, G Brian Elliott
Remaining hole: The main piece of business left for the Flyers is a new contract for goalie Carter Hart, who is coming off his worst season as a pro. While a contract of around six seasons is possible, Hart’s just as likely to sign something in the three- to four-year range.
Grade: A-. GM Chuck Fletcher was a busy man this offseason, and most of the work was good. Ellis more than fills the hole that Matt Niskanen left with his surprising retirement before last season. The price for Ristolainen was high (2021 first-rounder, 2023 second-rounder), but a change in scenery and defensive partner could make this a coup, which is the word we’d use for signing Yandle for $900,000 on a post-buyout contract. The swap of Voracek for Atkinson gives the Flyers a player with one more contract year (through 2024-25) but more goal-scoring upside.
The only misstep was Jones as safety net for Hart; even at one year and $2 million post-buyout, he’s a goalie who has given up 6.7 goals below average over the past three seasons. Otherwise, the Flyers are trying to be this season’s Canadiens: a team remade and revitalized by veteran additions to key areas in the offseason.
B grades
Key additions: F Nick Foligno, F Erik Haula, F Tomas Nosek, D Derek Forbort, G Linus Ullmark
Key losses: C David Krejci, C Sean Kuraly, LW Nick Ritchie, RW Ondrej Kase, D Jeremy Lauzon (expansion draft), G Jaroslav Halak
Remaining hole: They don’t have much cap space ($1.089 million), but would the Bruins seek to bolster the middle of their lineup with Krejci leaving, or will they seek solutions from within?
Grade: B+. Much of this grade is based on their re-signing of winger Taylor Hall, as well as defensemen Brandon Carlo and Mike Reilly to sensible and smart contracts. Tuukka Rask is out for the first part of next season due to hip surgery and could still return to Boston as a free agent when he’s healed up. But if this is the end for the Bruins and Rask, getting Ullmark at four years ($5 million AAV) was solid — he’s improved every year he’s been an NHL starter.
The toughest call here is Foligno. Three years ago, he would have been a quintessential Bruin. But while he’s physical and can play solid defense, his offensive game has disappeared. As a depth add, he’s fine. As a potential solution at No. 2 center, not so much. (Although that’s most assuredly Charlie Coyle‘s job to lose.) Overall, a solid offseason for a team that’s trying to keep that championship window propped open — something that, admittedly, will be harder with “Playoff Krejci” back in the Czech Republic.
Key additions: LW Zach Hyman, F Warren Foegele, C Derek Ryan, D Duncan Keith, D Cody Ceci
Key losses: D Adam Larsson (expansion draft), D Ethan Bear, D Caleb Jones, F Dominik Kahun, C Jujhar Khaira
Remaining hole: The Oilers are capped out, but if there’s some way to add a little depth on the left side of the defense, that could be the target.
Grade: B+. The Oilers’ offseason had some moves that are going to make this team potentially better in the short term and other moves that were, for lack of a better description, very Oilers.
Hyman is an effective power forward with experience playing with high-end talent in Toronto. An early Christmas present for Connor McDavid. Foegele, who slots onto their third line, plays the same way. Ryan improves their center depth.
Obviously, the defense corps is where the most radical change occurred. Keith needs to prove that his terrible previous season, where he was a liability defensively, wasn’t a harbinger of doom. The Kraken ruined the Oilers’ plan to have him skate with Larsson, but the addition of Ceci is a decent fix. Bringing back Barrie at $4.5 million AAV was a strong move.
They were flirting with an A-minus here if they didn’t run back Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen as their average-at-best goaltending duo, and hand Darnell Nurse a $9.25 million AAV on an eight-year term with significant trade protection, which was a very “won’t be my problem” contract from GM Ken Holland.
Speaking of that: Trading Caleb Jones for what’s left of Keith so the Blackhawks can then acquire Seth Jones, hand him a contract that resets the market and jacks up Nurse’s price tag? Very Oilers.
Key additions: G James Reimer, C Nick Bonino, C Andrew Cogliano, F Nicholas Merkley, G Adin Hill
Key losses: G Martin Jones, D Greg Pateryn, RW Kurtis Gabriel, C Patrick Marleau, RW Marcus Sorensen, C Ryan Donato, D Christian Jaros
Remaining hole: There’s a lot of uncertainty around Evander Kane, who is currently being investigated by the NHL for claims made by his estranged wife that he bet on games. The Athletic reported that some teammates don’t want Kane back in San Jose regardless. It’s a tricky situation for GM Doug Wilson to navigate.
Grade: B+. Simply removing Jones from the narrative earns this team a good grade, even if we’re not exactly sold on that Reimer/Hill battery either. The Sharks did some good things beyond the goalie swap, including solid veteran depth additions in Bonino and Cogliano.
We’re still not exactly sure what the long-term plan here is. The Sharks are anchored to immovable contracts, but they also aren’t trading players like Tomas Hertl who are one year away from free agency and could yield a solid return. In the end, you could argue they’re a better team now than they were a year ago.
Key additions: LW Brandon Saad, LW Pavel Buchnevich
Key losses: LW Jaden Schwartz, LW Alex Steen, D Carl Gunnarsson, C Tyler Bozak, LW Mike Hoffman, LW Sammy Blais, D Vince Dunn (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: Robert Thomas (RFA) needs a new deal, but other than that, GM Doug Armstrong’s focus should be on moving Vladimir Tarasenko. It’s not an easy trade request to navigate (and leverage isn’t on the Blues’ side), but there appear to be several teams still interested in the winger.
Grade: B+. The Rangers’ loss is the Blues’ gain in Buchnevich, a talented winger that they quickly inked to a four-year deal. Saad more than makes up for the loss of Schwartz up front. They were never enamored by either Hoffman or Dunn, the latter of whom was claimed by the Kraken. They’ll miss him on the blue line, but the biggest key for that group is Colton Parayko returning to form.
Obviously a lot is yet to be settled in the lineup depending on what Tarasenko ultimately brings back, but with just two significant moves the Blues did well for themselves.
Key additions: F Nick Ritchie, F Ondrej Kase, F Michael Bunting, C David Kampf, G Petr Mrazek
Key losses: LW Zach Hyman, C Jared McCann (expansion draft), G Frederik Andersen
Remaining hole: The Maple Leafs are looking a little thing at center in their bottom six, but have a little cap space available to address it.
Grade: B+. The Leafs’ offseason losses got the most attention, as top-line forward Hyman left for Edmonton, the Kraken selected newly acquired McCann (as the Leafs chose to protect defenseman Justin Holl) and the Andersen era ended with his signing in Carolina. But GM Kyle Dubas did some really interesting work to fill those holes, get a little younger and play some wild cards.
Ritchie and Bunting could vie for time in the top six; the pesky Bunting is especially interesting, as he had 11 goals in 26 games in two seasons with Arizona. Kase has seen his career basically put on hold due to concussion symptoms; if he can go, and that remains a huge “if,” he was a top-line talent in Anaheim a few years ago. Mrazek, meanwhile, is a statement of faith in Jack Campbell more than anything else. He’s a great tandem goalie, and has been better than Andersen in the last few seasons.
On paper, it all looks good, aka the unofficial slogan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Key additions: C Riley Nash, D Brenden Dillon, D Nate Schmidt
Key losses: G Laurent Brossoit, D Derek Forbort, D Jordie Benn, D Tucker Poolman, C Mathieu Perreault, C Nate Thompson, C Trevor Lewis
Remaining hole: The Jets did a lot of work this offseason and improved their defense (a high-priority item), but still need to figure out new contracts for Andrew Copp and Neal Pionk. Winnipeg has about $6 million in cap space.
Grade: B+. Huzzah! The Jets addressed their defensive shortcomings after two seasons of the blue line being a detriment. Dillon is worth the pair of second-rounders they sent to Washington, especially since the defensive defenseman has three more years left at a reasonable annual cap hit ($3.9 million).
Schmidt’s decision to waive his no-trade clause for the Jets gives them a good puck-moving option. Adding them to what was already there, and with a couple of solid prospects on the way, and things are looking good on the back end.
They’ll miss Perreault at forward and Brossoit as Connor Hellebuyck‘s reliable backup, but the Jets did well here overall — including some addition by subtraction.
Key additions: F Vinnie Hinostroza, D Will Butcher, D Mark Pysyk, D Robert Hagg, G Craig Anderson, G Devon Levi
Key losses: D Rasmus Ristolainen, F Sam Reinhart, D Matt Irwin, D Jake McCabe, D William Borgen (expansion draft) G Linus Ullmark, G Carter Hutton
Remaining holes: Obviously, the future of the Sabres is directly tied to what they do with Jack Eichel, their 24-year-old star center whose agents have anticipated a trade following a disagreement over treatment of his neck injury. But beyond that franchise-altering decision, they need to give new contracts to restricted free-agent center Casey Mittelstadt, defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and defenseman Henri Jokiharju.
Grade: B. The Sabres made two significant trades and did well in both of them. Ristolainen, one year away from free agency, earned them the 14th overall pick in this summer’s draft and a 2023 second-rounder from Philly. Reinhart netted them a top 10-protected first-rounder in 2022 and Levi, a promising young goalie, from the Florida Panthers.
Watching Ullmark leave for nothing as a free agent is rough asset management, but they’ll be able to be worse without him, which has to be the plan at this point. Why else coax Anderson out of near-retirement to be your goalie unless you’re planning to, um, “not contend”?
Key additions: F Richard Panik
Key losses: F Jordan Eberle (expansion draft), F Andrew Ladd, D Nick Leddy
Remaining hole: The Islanders need to add a veteran defenseman on the left side, where they currently have Adam Pelech, Andy Greene (who turns 39 in October) and Sebastian Aho (the other one); getting Pelech locked in for eight seasons is a solid investment, given that he’s 26 years old. Replacing the offense that left with Eberle being plucked by the Kraken would also seem paramount … although that help is on the way, allegedly.
Grade: B. As of this writing, the Islanders’ cone of silence has mostly yet to be lifted on their offseason signings and re-signings. It’s been reported that trade deadline additions Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac have been re-signed; that Casey Cizikas is back to center the Islanders’ checking line, which they defiantly protected in the expansion draft; and that Zach Parise will finally reunite with Lamoriello after taking a buyout from the Wild. One assumes they see Parise as a thrifty replacement for Eberle.
If all of that happens … well, they still need another defenseman. But clearing Ladd’s remaining two years to Arizona without sacrificing a first-rounder was admirable. The Islanders track to have another roster much like their new UBS Arena: high floor, low ceiling.
Key additions (beyond the expansion draft): G Philipp Grubauer, F Alex Wennberg, D Connor Carrick, F Marcus Johansson
Key losses: G Vitek Vanecek, D Kurtis MacDermid, RW Tyler Pitlick
Remaining hole: The Kraken remain thin at center and have more than $9 million in cap space available should they choose to address it.
Grade: B. The success of the Kraken in their first offseason depends on how one feels about Grubauer being signed to a six-year deal with a $5.9 million cap hit. If he’s their Marc-Andre Fleury, then this grade will look perilously low. If it turns out his success in Denver had more to do with the Avalanche than his own abilities, perhaps it’s properly graded. He’s a very good goalie, in either case, but this still felt like a deviation from Seattle’s plan just because he unexpectedly hit the market.
As for the rest of the non-expansion draft additions, Wennberg and Johansson have been better in theory than on the ice. The Kraken did pick up three draft picks after failing to leverage any out of the expansion draft protected lists.
Key additions: G Vitek Vanecek
Key losses: D Zdeno Chara, D Brenden Dillon, G Vitek Vanecek, G Craig Anderson, G Henrik Lundqvist
Remaining hole: Finding a hockey trade for center Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Capitals would very much like to move on from their troubling star, who has four more seasons at $7.8 million against the cap per year. Problem No. 1: His stock is low. Problem No. 2: The Capitals don’t want to trade him just to trade him. “I think [GM Brian] MacLellan is hesitant to trade him for nothing, and then he puts up massive numbers somewhere else, and then he looks like an idiot,” said one NHL source.
Grade: B. The Capitals had one mission this offseason, and that was re-signing Alex Ovechkin. His new contract pays him $9.5 million against the cap for the next five seasons, making up for his stagnant salary for the past 13 seasons. As an over-35 deal, it’s a potentially risky one as the Russian Machine grows older. That said: It’s a no-brainer. Ovechkin was going to get what he wanted as a player who remains a premier goal-scorer and franchise icon.
It came at the price of trading Dillon, one of their better defensemen, to Winnipeg for two second-rounders. Vanecek is listed twice here because the Capitals lost him in the Seattle expansion draft and then reacquired him for one of the second-rounders they got for Dillon. So, essentially, the Capitals lose Dillon for salary space (like they hoped they would in the expansion draft) and pull a 2022 second-round pick out of it, while keeping their young goalie they had to expose to Seattle. Not a bad bit of business. They’re still cap-strapped and have an old roster in a young league. But hey, Ovi’s back to provide a nice distraction if the decline suddenly hits.
Key additions: D Nick Holden, D Michael Del Zotto
Key losses: G Joey Daccord (expansion draft), C Derek Stepan, LW Ryan Dzingel, LW/RW Evgenii Dadonov
Remaining holes: Restricted free agent Brady Tkachuk needs his next contract. Beyond that, the Senators have more than $28 million in cap space in case there are any late-summer veteran pickups worth adding to their still-rebuilding team — specifically a top-six center.
Grade: B-. Not a heck of a lot happening with the Senators this offseason outside of correcting an error. Dadonov was supposed to be a free-agent coup last offseason, but he never clicked. They offloaded the full freight of his last two contract years to Vegas, getting a third-rounder in 2022 and Holden in the process. Everyone else was an acceptable loss, although perhaps they would have preferred to lose a veteran forward like Chris Tierney in the expansion draft instead of Daccord.
Key additions: G Jaroslav Halak, D Oliver Ekman-Larsson, RW Conor Garland, F Jason Dickinson, D Tucker Poolman, C Justin Dowling, D Luke Schenn, D Brad Hunt
Key losses: D Alexander Edler, D Nate Schmidt, G Braden Holtby, RW Jake Virtanen, LW Jimmy Vesey, C Travis Boyd, C Brandon Sutter, LW Antoine Roussel, LW Loui Eriksson, C Jay Beagle
Remaining hole: New contracts for two franchise cornerstones — Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson — are a priority for GM Jim Benning. It may not be easy, as this has been a slow process so far.
Grade: B-. One thing you can say about Benning: The man knows how to erase his own mistakes.
He flipped Schmidt to the Jets (after that signing didn’t work) for a 2022 third-round pick, which is what he sent to Vegas to get him last offseason. He bought out the last year of Holtby’s deal after the Kraken passed on him. He traded free-agent mistakes Roussel, Eriksson and Beagle to the Coyotes for Ekman-Larsson and his massive contract — which itself was a mistake, although one that Benning might not be around to witness at its worst. He also acquired Garland in that trade, shipping out the ninth overall pick in the process.
Halak and Dickinson are solid additions. Poolman is the defensive version of the deals he handed out to Roussel and Beagle at forward. But beyond all of this was the fact that the Canucks scared up enough cap space for Pettersson and Hughes. Another thing you can say about Benning: His offseasons are never boring.
C grades
Key additions: C Blake Coleman, D Nikita Zadorov, D Andy Welinski, C Trevor Lewis, G Dan Vladar, RW Tyler Pitlick
Key losses: D Mark Giordano (expansion draft), G Louis Domingue, C Derek Ryan, LW Josh Leivo, D Michael Stone, LW Joakim Nordstrom, C Dominik Simon, RW Buddy Robinson, C Zac Rinaldo
Remaining hole: The Flames have more than $12 million available in cap space. They still need to get contracts for RFAs like Dillon Dube and Nikita Zadorov, but GM Brad Treliving may still have flexibility to engineer a big trade — perhaps for a certain disgruntled center from Buffalo.
Grade: C+. The Coleman signing was a pleasant surprise. While he played a defensive role with Tampa Bay, he’s a former 20-goal scorer who can slide into their top six and immediately helps a middling penalty kill (15th last season). His wheels will hold up for most of that six-year deal.
Of greater concern is that the Flames haven’t replaced the point production and nearly 23 minutes per game of quality ice time that the Kraken got in Mark Giordano. One assumes that’s where some of that cap space will be earmarked. And not for nothing, but they still haven’t traded Johnny Gaudreau, one year away from unrestricted free agency?
Key additions: G Frederik Andersen, G Antti Raanta, D Ethan Bear, D Tony DeAngelo, D Brendan Smith, D Ian Cole, F Stefan Noesen, C Derek Stepan
Key losses: D Dougie Hamilton, F Warren Foegele, F Morgan Geekie (expansion draft), F Cedric Paquette, F Brock McGinn, G Alex Nedeljkovic, G Petr Mrazek, G James Reimer
Remaining hole: The only bit of business left for the Hurricanes is signing restricted free agent winger Andrei Svechnikov, and they have considerable salary cap space to do so (over $12 million, per CapFriendly).
Grade: C+. The Hurricanes were never going to hand Hamilton the $9 million annually that he received from the Devils. They hoped he wouldn’t find the grass was greener elsewhere, but he ended up finding that meadow from “The Sound of Music,” and Carolina lost its elite offensive defenseman. But if they’re going to lose anyone, let it be from the deepest part of their team that got even deeper in the offseason — although that spree included the repellent, bargain-basement addition of DeAngelo, aka how to squander the goodwill of fans with one signing.
But the entire offseason comes down to the Hurricanes’ decision to nuke their entire goaltending group. They’re betting that Andersen can regain his form, that Raanta can have some semblance of good health, and that we aren’t talking about this Nedeljkovic trade to Detroit like the time Ottawa regretted sending Ben Bishop to the Lightning. Huh, now who was that general manager in Tampa Bay again …
Key additions: D Ryan Suter, G Braden Holtby, LW Michael Raffl, D Jani Hakanpaa, D Andreas Borgman, C Luke Glendening, D Alex Petrovic
Key losses: C Justin Dowling, C Andrew Cogliano, D Mark Pysyk, D Sami Vatanen, D Taylor Fedun, D Stephen Johns, D Julius Honka, D Jamie Oleksiak (expansion draft), F Jason Dickinson
Remaining hole: The Stars are crowded in net, though there’s still a big question mark about Ben Bishop‘s health and when he might be ready. Even still, GM Jim Nill may look to trade Anton Khudobin, who is looking like the odd man out.
Grade: C+. Bringing in Ryan Suter makes a ton of sense, as he slides right into Jamie Oleksiak’s old spot on the left side of Miro Heiskanen. Getting him at a post-buyout $3.65 million cap hit is also solid. But having to go four years on a plus-35 contract with a full no-movement clause to get there really isn’t optimal.
They’re going to miss Dickinson, while the signing of Glendening doesn’t really move the needle. Holtby’s one-year deal seems born out of concern of Bishop’s future and, perhaps, some concern about Jake Oettinger filling the role again. An average offseason for a team looking to make one last Stanley Cup push with this group.
Key additions: D Greg Pateryn, D Brogan Rafferty, LW Danny O’Regan, RW Buddy Robinson
Key losses: C David Backes, RW Carter Rowney, D Andy Welinski, D Haydn Fleury (expansion draft), LW Danton Heinen
Remaining hole: The Ducks still need to sign restricted free agents Sam Steel, Max Comtois, Max Jones and Isac Lundestrom. They could also use another NHL-level forward or two.
Grade: C. Nothing gained, nothing significant lost. The Ducks continue to resist a full-on rebuild, despite three straight non-playoff seasons and an aging core that would undoubtedly draw interest on the trade market. It’s rumored they’re in the Jack Eichel derby — as long as it doesn’t cost them Trevor Zegras or Jamie Drysdale — which would certainly give their franchise a much-needed focal point.
But sparing that, Anaheim is a veteran team with a few brilliant young prospects, hoping it all miraculously gels together in a top-heavy division. Still, getting Ryan Getzlaf back at $3 million is a solid (and age-appropriate) signing.
Key additions: D Dmitry Kulikov, D Alex Goligoski, D Jon Merrill, C Frederick Gaudreau
Key losses: LW Zach Parise, D Ryan Suter, C Nick Bonino, D Ian Cole, D Brad Hunt, C Marcus Johansson, D Matt Bartkowski, D Carson Soucy (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: The Wild have been lurking as a contender in the Jack Eichel sweepstakes for months. GM Bill Guerin has held his ground so far, but he could gain leverage as training camp nears.
Grade: C. One goal for the Wild this offseason was to scare up salary-cap space for this season, with Kirill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala needing new contracts. To accomplish that, they bought out Parise, which was expected, and Suter, which very much was not. The loss of the latter, combined with the Kraken opting for Soucy over goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, meant that Minnesota had to go UFA shopping after sporting one of the deepest defense corps in the NHL for years.
Up front, the Wild could have top prospects Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi sliding in to fill some gaps. Everything the Wild are doing feels like it’s in preparation for bolder moves, but how bold can they be when they’re going to have over $14 million in dead cap space from the buyouts in 2023-24 and 2024-25?
Key additions: F Corey Perry, F Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, G Brian Elliott, D Zach Bogosian, D Brent Seabrook‘s contract
Key losses: C Yanni Gourde (expansion draft), F Blake Coleman, F Barclay Goodrow, C Tyler Johnson, D David Savard
Remaining hole: Figuring out how to replace one of the NHL’s top checking lines, which could be something that falls to Perry and returning center Ross Colton.
Grade: C. It’s great that the Lightning won their second straight Stanley Cup, as the afterglow helped numb the pain of this inevitable offseason. Protecting four forwards and four defensemen in the expansion draft, they were destined to lose a key forward, and that turned out to be Gourde. Coupled with Goodrow leaving for the Rangers and Coleman to the Flames, and the entire checking line from their championship runs has evaporated.
The Lightning made some good veteran depth additions to a team that very much as the potential to three-peat — did Perry really need two years, though? — and they finally found a way to offload Tyler Johnson’s contract, to the Blackhawks. But there was no loophole the Lightning could exploit to avoid this defection of talent in the offseason. The cap finally caught up to them.
Key additions: RW Evgenii Dadonov, G Laurent Brossoit, C Nolan Patrick, C Brett Howden
Key losses: G Marc-Andre Fleury, RW Ryan Reaves, D Nick Holden, C Tomas Nosek, C Cody Glass
Remaining hole: You’d think the Golden Knights made all of the moves they wanted to make.. But this is a team clearly in “go for it” mode. Even with no cap space, don’t be surprised if GM Kelly McCrimmon is still asking around about potential trades and upgrades to the roster.
Grade: C. What a truly bizarre offseason for the Knights. They gave away Fleury for nothing in order to clear the totality of his $7 million cap hit — bear in mind, this goalie just won the Vezina Trophy. They then used $5 million of that cap space to acquire Dadonov, whose underlying numbers have declined for three straight seasons. Even if you’re high on Dadonov, the fact remains that the Knights’ biggest lineup hole is at center.
Barring a move for Eichel — which you can’t count out — or another top center, it appears McCrimmon chose to address the hole by hoping his former Brandon Wheat Kings star Patrick can blossom in the desert.
They kept Mattias Janmark around, Howden’s not a bad bottom-six addition, and Brossoit is solid as Robin Lehner‘s backup. Keeping Alec Martinez in the fold on a new contract was also a win.
Key additions: D Ryan Murray, G Darcy Kuemper, D Jordan Gross, C Dylan Sikura, C Darren Helm, C Stefan Matteau, D Kurtis MacDermid
Key losses: G Philipp Grubauer, LW Brandon Saad, C Carl Soderberg, LW Matt Calvert, RW Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, G Devan Dubnyk, D Patrik Nemeth, D Conor Timmins, D Ryan Graves, F Joonas Donskoi (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: The Avs sit with just $2 million in cap space, so if GM Joe Sakic wants to improve his roster (such as replacing Saad at left wing) he’ll likely need to trade a roster player.
Grade: C-. The Avalanche did some good things: Retaining Gabriel Landeskog at a $7 million AAV and Cale Makar at a $9 million AAV, which already looks like a bargain; plus Murray at one year and $2 million is a fine replacement for Graves, whom they traded before the Kraken had a chance to pluck him. Seattle instead took Donskoi and then signed away Grubauer when the Avalanche couldn’t reach an agreement with him.
The goalie carousel spun too fast and Colorado was left sending Timmins and a first-rounder it would have rather had on hand at the next trade deadline for Kuemper — on the last year of his deal and far less the known commodity that Vezina Trophy finalist Grubauer was for the Avalanche.
Their forward depth took a hit too, although an expanded role for Alex Newhook next season will help. Still, it feels like a team that took a step back from the precipice of a Stanley Cup championship upon which it had been perched.
Key additions: C Mathieu Perreault, C Cedric Paquette, LW Mike Hoffman, D David Savard, D Chris Wideman, D Cale Fleury (expansion draft)
Key losses: C Phillip Danault, F Corey Perry, F Tomas Tatar, D Jon Merrill, D Shea Weber (injury)
Remaining hole: Restricted free-agent center Jesperi Kotkaniemi still needs a new contract, but otherwise it appears the cap-strapped Canadiens have the team they’ll roll with next season.
Grade: C-. Admittedly, we’re grading on a curve here. The loss of No. 1 defenseman Weber for next season — and probably for the rest of his contract — left the Canadiens with a gaping hole in their defense corps that the addition of Savard will only fill on an incomplete basis. The losses of Danault and Tatar mean the losses of two top-line players. Hoffman’s all-offense game can help supplant Tatar’s game and add something to a Weber-less power play, but Danault walking to L.A. really hurts their center depth.
Fleury being selected over Carey Price in the expansion draft either contributes to a downer of an offseason or helps redeem it, depending how one feels about the franchise goalie’s contract.
D grades
Key additions: G David Rittich, D Philippe Myers, C Cody Glass, RW Matt Luff,
Key losses: G Pekka Rinne, D Ryan Ellis, RW Viktor Arvidsson, D Erik Gudbranson, RW Erik Haula, C Brad Richardson, F Calle Jarnkrok (expansion draft)
Remaining hole: The Predators said goodbye to a few longtime veteran stalwarts: Arvidsson, Ellis and — of course — Rinne. Going forward, Nashville wants Mattias Ekholm and Filip Forsberg to still be part of its core. GM David Poile should try to get both inked to extensions before training camp.
Grade: D. The bounty from the Ellis trade ended up being defenseman Philippe Myers, who brings size, and center Cody Glass, whom the Golden Knights clearly felt wasn’t going to blossom into a No. 1 center. They shipped out Arvidsson before they had to leave him exposed in the expansion draft.
Rinne’s retirement means that it’s Juuse Saros‘ crease, with Rittich as his cost-effective backup. The four-year deal with a $5 million AAV handed to Mikael Granlund was an overpayment.
Worst of all, they couldn’t entice Seattle to remove either Ryan Johansen or Matt Duchene from their cap. The offseason was symptomatic of a team moving in the wrong direction.
Key additions: F Barclay Goodrow, F Sammy Blais, F Ryan Reaves, D Jarred Tinordi, D Patrik Nemeth
Key losses: F Pavel Buchnevich, F Brett Howden, C Colin Blackwell (expansion draft), D Brendan Smith
Remaining hole: So, when does that Jack Eichel trade happen? The Rangers have the cap space, the players (young and experienced) and the draft picks to make a deal with the Sabres for their star center. Perhaps it’s his neck injury that gives them pause. Whatever the case, center Mika Zibanejad is one year away from free agency, and that situation greatly impacts this situation.
Grade: D+. This is what happens when you let Tom Wilson build your roster for you. Every player the Rangers added this offseason was intended to address a perceived lack of toughness that was “exposed” in the Wilson/Artemi Panarin incident last season, as well as back-to-back losses to the Islanders that preceded it.
We’ll see how it plays out on the ice, but on paper some of it is specious for new GM Chris Drury. Did he need to immediately extend a 34-year-old Reaves for another season? Didn’t the Canucks provide ample warning that you don’t give long-term deals or trade protection to bottom-six role players, like the Rangers gave six years and a modified no-trade to Goodrow? And they really didn’t want Buchnevich? All of this felt like a deviation from what’s been an otherwise solid plan.
Key additions: F Danton Heinen, F Brock McGinn, F Dominik Simon
Key losses: F Jared McCann, F Brandon Tanev (expansion draft), D Cody Ceci
Remaining holes: Barring another trade, this is likely the team the Penguins are rolling with next season — including the return of Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith in goal.
Grade: D. It’s wild to think that the Penguins were a first-place team in the East Division last season (.688 points percentage) before being ousted by the Islanders in the first round. They weren’t great to begin with, and now they’ve gotten worse. Tanev and McCann were effective forwards that’ll be missed. Ceci defied expectations last season, and now he’s in Edmonton. The Penguins wanted to get more physical. They didn’t. They wanted to get more quality depth. They didn’t. Their goaltending is still suspect since they decided not to dabble in nostalgia with a run at Marc-Andre Fleury.
On top of everything, Evgeni Malkin is rehabbing after knee surgery and might miss the start of the season. GM Ron Hextall took over a team last year that had little in the way of cap flexibility or assets to move, and it shows.
Another full Saturday of spring game action is upon us and there’s no shortage of intriguing storylines to monitor.
New coach Sherrone Moore leads defending champion Michigan, but who will be under center for the Wolverines this fall? The post-Caleb Williams era gets underway at USC, while Oklahoma and Texas get ready for life in the SEC.
What are the key position battles, potential breakout players and must-see newcomers from Saturdays 24 games? Let’s break it down.
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ACC | Big Ten
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Most intriguing newcomer: Kadarius Calloway‘s circuitous path to Berkeley began as one of the nation’s top safety recruits in 2021, when he signed with Alabama only to unenroll before his freshman year and begin his career as a running back at East Mississippi Community College, instead. After two years, he moved on to Old Dominion, where he rushed 88 times for 623 yards last season. His 7.1 yards per carry were enough to warrant interest from bigger programs and now he’ll finish his career on the West Coast playing in the ACC. The Bears have a star running back in Jaydn Ott, but there is space on the depth chart for Calloway to earn a meaningful role. — Kyle Bonagura
Position battle to watch: Duke thinks it has three serviceable quarterbacks, and two — Texas transfer Maalik Murphy and last year’s late-season starter Grayson Loftis — will see plenty of work in the spring, um, game? Yeah, that’s the problem. Duke is so thin on the O-line as spring winds to a close that it won’t hold a traditional scrimmage, which certainly makes the job of evaluating the most important position on the field a little tougher. But as new head coach Manny Diaz said, quarterback might be the one area where the Blue Devils feel particularly comfortable.
Murphy has been a quick study since arriving from Austin, and Loftis battled through some tough times late last year and still produced some memorable performances. The third member of the cast, Henry Belin, is still recovering from an injury, but he could work his way into the mix this summer. Diaz noted that when Duke’s been good, it’s almost always been because it had exceptional quarterback play. He’s got the pieces for 2024, if only he can find enough big guys to stand in front of them. — David Hale
Most intriguing newcomer: You know where we’re going with this. It’s quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who transferred to the Seminoles from Oregon State, after starting his career at Clemson. Florida State lost the bulk of its offensive production from last season, with QB Jordan Travis, RB Trey Benson and WRs Johnny Wilson and Keon Coleman all moving on. But it all starts with the signal-caller, where Uiagalelei must replace Travis and everything he did for the offense.
Uiagalelei said he feels comfortable in the scheme, and though he’s capable of running, don’t expect him to run as much as Travis did. He’s gotten better and better as the spring has progressed, and has some talent at receiver from transfer Malik Benson, veteran Kentron Poitier and speedsters Ja’Khi Douglas and Hykeem Williams that he’s building chemistry with. He may end up getting more reps than usual in the spring game, as coach Mike Norvell said this week that backups Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek will not play due to minor injuries. That leaves Uiagalelei and early enrollee freshman Trever Jackson as the top two quarterbacks available. — Andrea Adelson
Position battle to watch: During last season’s run to the ACC title game, Louisville’s depth at wide receiver was consistently challenged. After Jamari Thrash (63 catches, 858 yards), another consistent threat never quite developed, and when Thrash battled injuries late, it took a toll on the Cards’ offense. Entering 2024, the problem may be even deeper, with Thrash representing just a chunk of the 69% of Louisville’s receiving yardage from last season now gone from the roster.
The top offseason acquisition — Alabama transfer Ja’Corey Brooks, is dealing with an injury, leaving Chris Bell, Caullin Lacy, Jadon Thompson, Jimmy Calloway and others to handle the bulk of the reps. Coach Jeff Brohm looks to dive into the transfer portal looking for some help at the position, but a strong finish from some of the holdovers from 2023 would at least make for a less pressure-packed summer as Brohm looks for more downfield targets. — Adelson
Most intriguing newcomer: How about two intriguing newcomers? Left tackle Howard Sampson (6-8, 325) transferred from North Texas, where he previously worked with new Heels O-line coach Randy Clements, and center Austin Blaske (6-5, 310) arrives from Georgia. They’ve helped remake UNC’s front. Indeed, Mack Brown joked that his wife made a point to tell him that the unit, “looks a lot better getting off the bus.” That’s translated to a far more consistent performance for a unit that is replacing four starters, but it’s OC Chip Lindsey who thinks it could be better than last year’s group.
Sampson and Blaske will be the headlining acts on the O-line in the spring game, but UNC also has two more potential starters — Jakiah Leftwich from Georgia Tech and Zach Greenberg from Muhlenberg — arriving this summer. If the line proves to be a serious strength, as Lindsey expects, the pressure on Max Johnson or Conner Harrell to replace star quarterback Drake Maye gets a lot easier to manage. — Hale
Position battle to watch: As Stanford’s primary quarterback last year, Ashton Daniels showed signs of promise. He finished the year with 2,247 yards passing and had a pair of 350+ yard passing performances, but his inconsistency was one of several issues that plagued the Cardinal in Troy Taylor’s first season as head coach. Daniels certainly is the favorite to win the job to begin the 2024 season, but this is by no means his job. Enter Elijah Brown, California’s Mr. Football in 2023. The Mater Dei High product arrived at Stanford in January as ESPN’s No. 11-ranked pocket passer in the country. Stanford hasn’t traditionally let its true freshman quarterbacks play right away, but perhaps there is a new mindset with Taylor calling the shots. — Bonagura
Most intriguing newcomer: Kyle McCord may have shocked some when he announced he was transferring from Ohio State to Syracuse, but considering all his connections to the coaching staff, the move made sense. Now he has a chance to try to elevate a Syracuse program that has been searching for consistency year in and year out. McCord is from New Jersey and knew coach Fran Brown going back to his prep days. He also played youth football with the son of offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon. McCord says he has complete comfort in the offense Nixon is bringing from the NFL, because it uses similar concepts that he ran under his former coach at Ohio State, Ryan Day. That has helped ease the learning curve somewhat.
McCord says he has spent a lot of time getting to know his new receiver group, pointing out how Jackson Meeks and Trebor Pena have been coming along. This is all without receiver/tight end Oronde Gadsden II, who remains limited with a foot injury, but is expected to be full go by the time fall camp rolls around. — Adelson
Position battle to watch: Quarterbacks Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea have split first-team reps this spring, though coaches have cautioned they did not want either player to feel like they were in the heat of competition. Instead, the focus was on getting better with each practice.
Both played a season ago. Muskett started the season but dealt with multiple injuries over the course of the year to his shoulder and ankle. With Muskett out, Colandrea got the opportunity to play as a true freshman and made some wow plays at times. At others, he made freshman mistakes, finishing the season with 13 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Expect them to split the reps evenly again in the spring game, but do not expect any decisions on a starter until the fall. — Adelson
Position battle to watch: Quarterback. Wake Forest brought in transfer Hank Bachmeier (now at his third stop) to compete for the starting job with Michael Kern this spring. Unfortunately for Kern, he has missed most of spring camp with a hand injury. That has left Bachmeier and freshman Jeremy Hecklinski to get the bulk of the reps.
Bachmeier has shown his veteran presence and picked up the offense quickly, while Kern has been able to attend all the practices and help him pick up all the nuisances of the offense. Kern is expected back by midsummer, and the competition will continue into fall camp. Don’t expect a starter to be named any time soon. One more position to watch: running back. Demond Claiborne is getting all the first-team reps and will be a focal point of the offense behind a veteran offensive line. — Adelson
Position battle to watch: The reigning national champions have an ongoing five-way quarterback competition to replace J.J. McCarthy, who could be a top-five pick in the upcoming NFL draft. Jack Tuttle, who in February was approved for a seventh college season, is the elder statesman of the group. Tuttle started five games at Indiana before transferring to Michigan last year. He is being pushed by senior Davis Warren, juniors Alex Orji and Jayden Denegal and true freshman Jadyn Davis, who was the No. 4-ranked dual-threat QB recruit in the country before enrolling early. A big performance in Michigan’s spring game could give any of these five quarterbacks an edge in the competition heading into the summer. — Jake Trotter
Most intriguing newcomer: Running back Jo’Quavious “Woody” Marks arrives at USC from Mississippi State after four steady (albeit not exactly standout) seasons in the SEC. Both he and USC are hoping this partnership can be mutually beneficial after Marks totaled 3,339 all-purpose yards and 27 touchdowns for the Bulldogs across four years.
Much like how the additions of Travis Dye and MarShawn Lloyd in previous years via the transfer portal gave the Trojans a deeper veteran backfield presence while boosting the profiles of Dye and Lloyd, Marks has shown the potential to fit well into that role this spring. With a new quarterback under center and a wide receivers room that’s full of talent but also inexperience, running back will be a crucial position in determining how effective Lincoln Riley’s offense is this upcoming season with Caleb Williams no longer there. — Paolo Uggetti
Most intriguing newcomer: Offensive tackle J.C. Davis. Illinois needed to address its offensive line after the 2023 season and picked up several transfers in the winter portal, including Davis, a first-team All-Mountain West selection at New Mexico last season. A one-time junior-college transfer, Davis started two seasons at left tackle for the Lobos. He can be a dominant run-blocker for an Illinois offense trying to reestablish its ground game, which slipped to 96th nationally last fall.
The 6-foot-5, 320-pound Davis will help protect quarterback Luke Altmyer, as Illinois finished 116th nationally in sacks allowed per game in 2023. Coach Bret Bielema’s best teams — at Wisconsin, Arkansas and Illinois — have been built at the line of scrimmage, and Davis will have a significant role in a revamped offensive front trying to reestablish itself after some slippage. — Adam Rittenberg
Position battle to watch: Iowa needs the wide receiver position to contribute much more under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester. Although the receivers haven’t been the only problem during the offense’s historically bad two-year stretch, it didn’t provide much to change the unit’s trajectory. Iowa returns only two receivers, Kaleb Brown and Seth Anderson, who caught passes last season, as they combined for 33 receptions and 365 yards. Who else has emerged this spring, especially with starting quarterback Cade McNamara still recovering from his knee injury? Although Iowa gets a big boost with tight end Luke Lachey’s return, Lester and the staff need to assess whether they have enough at receiver coming out of the spring, and how aggressive they should be in the spring transfer cycle. — Rittenberg
Breakout player: Quarterback Aidan Chiles. New MSU coach Jonathan Smith and his staff added several key transfers during their first few weeks on the job, but none more significant than Chiles. The sophomore from California immediately put himself on the radar for Smith at Oregon State after enrolling early in 2023.
Chiles was efficient in limited action last season, completing 24 of 35 passes for 309 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He added three rushing touchdowns for the Beavers and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. At 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, Chiles has the size and skill set to provide an immediate boost for a Spartans passing game that slipped to 96th nationally in yards per game and to 111th in efficiency last season. He understands the system Smith and offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren want to run, and the added stress placed on the quarterback spot. — Rittenberg
Breakout player: Running back Caleb Komolafe. Wildcats coach David Braun recognizes the team needs more offensive thrust to compete in the new Big Ten. The team is still looking to add offensive line depth and possibly a quarterback in the spring portal, but running back projects well with Cam Porter, Joseph Himon and Komolafe, who sources say might have the highest ceiling of the three.
Komolafe appeared in only three games in 2023, recording a receiving touchdown and two carries, but his role is set to increase under new offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, who wants to use the width of the field to get the team’s top playmakers in space. At 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds, Komolafe has a size-speed combination Northwestern likes. — Rittenberg
Position battle to watch: Dave Aranda made a switch at offensive coordinator, replacing Jeff Grimes and his NFL-style offense with Air Raid stalwart Jake Spavital, which brings a new competition at quarterback. Sawyer Robertson played his freshman year for Mike Leach in the same system at Mississippi State before transferring to Baylor, where he played in six games with four starts last year, throwing for 864 yards and four TDs with two interceptions. Robertson is challenged by Toledo transfer Dequann Finn, who has 32 career starts and led the Rockets to an 11-2 season and a spot in the MAC title game, being named conference MVP after throwing for 2,657 yards and 22 touchdowns and rushing for 563. — Dave Wilson
Breakout player: 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman wide receiver Beni Ngoyi is a Lincoln, Nebraska, native who picked Iowa State over offers from Nebraska and Washington. He’s got the potential to be a big-play target for QB Rocco Becht, last year’s Big 12 offensive freshman of the year, alongside returning WRs Jaylin Noel (66 catches, 820 yards and 7 TDs in 2023) and Jayden Higgins (52-983-6).
Ngoyi showed his speed with a 46-yard catch from Becht in last year’s Liberty Bowl, which he played in while preserving his redshirt, and coach Matt Campbell has praised his performance this spring. — Wilson
Most intriguing newcomer: The Red Raiders and coordinator Zach Kittley like to throw the ball around, and Washington State transfer Josh Kelly (who previously spent three years at Fresno State) figures to be on the receiving end of plenty of those passes. He caught 61 passes for 923 yards and eight touchdowns last year in Pullman and has played in 38 games with 148 career catches. In two of WSU’s biggest games, he had eight catches for 159 yards and three TDs against Oregon State, and eight grabs for 106 yards and a TD in the Apple Cup loss to Washington. In one final season, he could be one of the top receivers in the Big 12. — Wilson
Position battle to watch: Gevani McCoy, Ben Gulbranson and Gabarri Johnson make up a unique quarterback battle as Oregon State navigates a period of uncertainty following the collapse of the Pac-12. First, there’s Gulbranson, who went 7-1 in eight starts for the Beavers in 2022 before being replaced by D.J. Uiagalelei last season. Then there’s McCoy, who had a brilliant two-year run at FCS Idaho, where he was the Jerry Rice Award winner in 2022 (best freshman in FCS) and was a Walter Payton Award finalist last year and a first-team All-Big Sky selection. Finally, there’s Johnson, ESPN’s No. 7 ranked quarterback in the Class of 2023, who spent his freshman year at Missouri before opting to return to the Pacific Northwest. — Bonagura
Most intriguing newcomer: With Will Rogers gone, it appears that Baylor transfer Blake Shapen is going to be the guy in Starkville, and he immediately becomes its most intriguing newcomer. In eight games last year, Shapen completed 61.7% of his passes for 2,188 yards and 13 touchdowns with three interceptions. He is going to be important as new head coach Jeff Lebby makes his mark in his first year as a head coach. Back in December, Lebby said, “When I watch him, I think, ‘That’s our kind of guy.'” If Lebby is that confident in Shapen, it certainly should hold weight given the coach’s track record of potent offenses at UCF, Ole Miss and Oklahoma. — Harry Lyles Jr.
Most intriguing newcomer: The Sooners are losing their leading receiver from a year ago, Drake Stoops. But first-year starting quarterback Jackson Arnold has liked what he has seen this spring from his pass-catchers and thinks OU will be more explosive throwing the football. One of the reasons why is the addition of Purdue transfer Deion Burks, who’s shown versatility and the ability to get open and make big plays. Burks caught 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns last season at Purdue and has experience playing both outside and in the slot. Arnold has already formed a good rapport on the field with Burks, who has great speed and could also factor in the return game on special teams. The addition of Burks and continued development of returnee Jayden Gibson, who has also had a big spring, is good news for an OU passing game that will have a new offensive coordinator and new starting quarterback in 2024. — Chris Low
Position battle to watch: LaNorris Sellers and the quarterbacks will be the thing to keep your eye on in Columbia this weekend. With Spencer Rattler gone to the NFL, the Gamecocks are looking to replace him, and Sellers is the favorite. He was the 293rd ranked player in the ESPN 300 for 2023 out of Florence, South Carolina. He appeared in three games last season, completed all four of his passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns, along with 51 yards on the ground and one touchdown.
Elsewhere at the position, Luke Doty has been focusing on working as a wide receiver, and the Gamecocks added Robby Ashford from Auburn, and Davis Beville from Oklahoma in the portal. South Carolina also has Dante Reno, a four-star out of Cheshire, Connecticut. But it appears this is Sellers’ job to lose. — Lyles
Breakout player: As one of the top true freshmen in the country last season, linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. will hardly be a surprise to anyone in 2024. But he has everything it takes to go from one of the top freshmen to one of the top players, period, in college football in his second season with the Longhorns.
The 6-foot-3, 243-pound Hill started six games last season and didn’t waste any time showing off his talent. He had two sacks in the Week 2 victory at Alabama and finished with five. Hill has been referred to as a “chess piece” because he can be effective in so many different spots. He has spent most of his time in the middle this spring while taking over for two-time All-Big 12 selection Jaylan Ford, but Hill can chase the ball sideline-to-sideline with the best of them and also rush the passer. In short, he’s an impact player wherever he lines up and a player who will be a tone-setter for Texas’ defense this season. — Low
Most intriguing newcomer: Several of Texas A&M’s top performers on defense from a year ago are gone, either to the transfer portal or NFL draft. So going out and getting a proven edge rusher in the portal the caliber of Nic Scourton was critical for first-year coach Mike Elko.
Scourton finished with 10 sacks last season at Purdue to lead the Big Ten and was recently rated as the No. 2 returning edge rusher for the 2024 season by Pro Football Focus. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound Scourton plays with power and is not just a pass-rusher either. He’s equally stout against the run. Scourton played his high school football in nearby Bryan, Texas, but the Aggies didn’t offer. Since then, he’s transformed his body and added more than 50 pounds. Elko, who was Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator at the time, is eager to see what this version of Scourton can do in the SEC. The Aggies lost more than half of the players who accounted for their 42 sacks from last season. Scourton, paired with returning senior defensive lineman Shemar Turner, should help fill that void. — Low
Sports
‘Failure definitely drives me more than anything else’: Inside Corey Seager’s perpetual pursuit of the perfect swing
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
THE BASEBALL SWING is a puzzle, an ever-changing riddle. Even for the best hitters in the world, the fragility of the swing is palpable. Every minuscule detail matters. Batters are not machines, built to replicate the same action countless times before they are replaced. They are human beings aiming to be their most machine-like and grappling with the defect of the endeavor.
Perhaps the best representation of this duality belongs to Corey Seager, the shortstop for the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers. Seager obsesses over his swing. “I love the process,” he says. “You have to enjoy it to be able to do this, right?” Now in his 10th major league season, Seager has grown into one of the game’s finest hitters as much because of the time he spends fine-tuning his swing as the inherent ability packed into his 6-foot-4, 215-pound frame.
Seager’s left-handed swing is gorgeous, rhythmic, elegant even. It is an aesthetic marvel, its art rooted in its science. Seager is a baseball engineer, building complex processes on the fly. Every movement has meaning and the end product — the swing — is a one-man symphony.
And yet Seager lives with perpetual anxiety, worrying that for all of the time and effort and energy he devotes to his swing, it could desert him at the most inopportune moment. For all of the offense his swing produces, it exists equally as a defense mechanism. Seager’s infatuation is also his torment.
“The fear of failure,” he says. “Failure definitely drives me more than anything else.”
So the man widely regarded as the most clutch hitter of his generation focuses on the most microscopic of details. Little invigorates Seager more than the daily rebuild of his swing. This is the process in action.
“It takes an aggressive humility to say, ‘I’ve been a multiple-time World Series MVP, Rookie of the Year and every day I’m going to start with a blank state,'” Rangers bench coach Donnie Ecker says. “‘How do I put this thing together to be ready at 7 o’clock?’ What I appreciate about Corey is there’s no guessing. He’s not willing to do that.”
Seager understands that his cues are ever-evolving, that swings do not exist in vacuums. Aging can degrade them and injuries can contaminate them, and that’s all before trying to calibrate them for a pitcher marrying 98 on the corner with a bastard back-foot slider and a tumbling splitter just to make hitting even more the fool’s errand. The inherent defensiveness of the batter — every hitter, quite literally, is starting on the back foot — forces Seager to vise-grip everything he can control.
On the cusp of 30 years old, Seager is figuring out who he is and what he can be. And for all the help he receives, all the support offered, hitting is ultimately a solo endeavor. It’s just him and himself, raging against the fear and seeking the peace of the perfect swing and things beyond.
“There is no worse feeling than being in a bad spot in a major league batter’s box,” Seager says. “Knowing you’re in a bad spot and not being able to compete. You’re just by yourself. It’s an empty, bad place to be. You have no chance. These guys are way too good. And nobody’s coming to save you.”
BEFORE EVERY AT-BAT, Seager finds a mirror. At Globe Life Field, he heads for the one next to the batting cage or in the weight room. At the other 29 stadiums around Major League Baseball, Seager knows exactly where he can locate one, because it’s every bit as important to him as the bat he’s going to use at the plate.
When Seager stares into the looking glass, he sees angles. It’s less about mathematics than about comparing the mental snapshot of his most idealized batting stance to how closely he is reproducing it in that particular moment. This varies by the day, even the at-bat. For Seager to be who he aspires to be — the best version of himself, which consequently would be the best hitter on the planet — he must constantly tweak and contort his limbs into the proper angles to put himself in an ideal position to punish a baseball.
The mirror is Seager’s muse. He stares at himself with clarity, both literal — he’s got 20/12.5 vision — and figurative, the latter born of thousands of hours studying the angles and knowing himself better than any opponent hunting for a weakness ever could.
“Even with good vision, if you’re in a bad spot you’re not going to be able to dictate your at-bat how I would prefer to,” Seager says. “So I’ve learned that it always comes back to how I move.”
Seager’s main mirror sits in the hallway at Globe Life. A piece of white tape adorns its top frame. Written on the tape is a message: “I’m here to help you look good & move good. Please don’t break me.” Rangers hitters retreat from the dugout to partake of it, none with quite the reverence of Seager.
“The mirror,” he says, “does not lie.”
This kind of single-minded focus has helped him ascend to the highest rung of one of the game’s most successful families. His oldest brother, Kyle, was an All-Star and Gold Glove-winning third baseman with Seattle. The middle sibling, Justin, topped out at Double-A in the Mariners organization. Kyle was in the midst of his first major league season when the Dodgers chose Seager out of high school in North Carolina with the 18th pick of the 2012 draft. Promoted to Double-A two years later after wrecking the lower minor leagues, Seager linked up with then-Dodgers minor league hitting coach Shawn Wooten, a fortuitous pairing that refined his abundant raw skills.
In Wooten, a six-year big leaguer, Seager found a kindred spirit. Seager’s obsessiveness is not limited to his swing. Everything in his orbit has a specific place and if something is not where it belongs it eats at him.
“It’s helped me in my profession to be OCD” — Seager uses the term colloquially, not clinically — “and have things lined up exactly how I need them to be,” he says. “The way he could break it down — put me in different segments of the swing, different points, different parts — is what really clicked with me. Give me how it’s going to go, what you need at that point and let me do it and figure it out. And that’s where it really clicked for us.”
Seager’s early work with Wooten consumed him, even at the oddest times. In the minor leagues, Seager lived with current Oakland A’s right-hander Ross Stripling and Stripling’s future wife, Shelby. Once, when Seager and Shelby were eating breakfast, he stood up from the table, handed her his phone and asked her to take video of him pantomiming a swing. The boundaries of swing enlightenment are anchored to neither place nor time. When Seager takes video of himself, Stripling says, “it looks like he’s doing nothing, but to him he’s doing something so important.”
Prior to games, Seager still meanders through the clubhouse with a bat in one hand and a phone connected to a tripod in the other — a digital complement to his analog mirror — scrutinizing clips of his swing and comparing them to others in a library that spans his minor league days to the present. Optimizing a swing is a constant fire drill and any tool that proves effective finds its place in Seager’s routine.
Seager and Wooten talk every day, speaking a language foreign to even other big leaguers. The nomenclature matters because Seager uses it to discuss with Wooten where his body parts belong at particular points in the swing. Achieving angles is an exercise in subtlety. When Seager arrives in the box and stares out to the endless world of outcomes on the field in front of him, he takes his mirror session and tries to duplicate it. He digs his legs into a wide base. He cantilevers his right arm. His first move starts before the pitcher releases the ball.
“Go watch a game and, if you can, watch before he gets his hands up,” Wooten says. “He just pushes his hips back and turns his front foot in. It’s by design to get on the plane of the pitch.”
Getting on plane — lowering the barrel of the bat to the same level as the incoming ball — is perhaps the most important element of the swing to Wooten. To achieve that, Seager’s back elbow drops into the slot, tucked toward his body. His back knee stays underneath his body to prevent him from lunging. His posture remains upright to allow him to hit high, inside fastballs.
Even though Seager cues himself to swing down — a long-taught tenet that has fallen out of favor in the era of hitters chasing higher launch angles — he’s not actually doing so; it’s simply terminology that Wooten found allows him to stay on plane. Seager’s head barely moves as his hips rotate and the potential energy built through his swing transfers into kinetic energy when bat meets ball.
“If there’s one thing off,” Wooten says, “it’s a big deal.”
All of it is in service of avoiding that bad spot in the box, when the walls of a 40,000-seat stadium seem as if they’re caving in, when the pitcher feels far closer than 60 feet, 6 inches away. Every session in the mirror, every moment spent crafting a routine, goes back to that.
“What makes him an outlier that puts him in the 1% of the 1% is there’s a true obsessive nature about his pursuit of mastery,” Ecker says. “Nothing about that is going to be relatable. When you’re talking about the Kobe Bryants and Tom Bradys and Corey Seagers, everything they do is on the far end of the spectrum.”
As much as Seager studies scouting reports and knows every pitcher’s arsenal, he sees that knowledge as secondary to his swing. The ultimate in control is the capacity to eliminate variables, and rather than do so by guessing what pitch is coming next Seager cuts out one side of the equation altogether, a rare approach because so few have the skill to pull it off.
“That whole question of would you rather know what’s coming or have the perfect swing,” he says, “I’m picking the perfect swing every single time.”
DIFFERENT INCARNATIONS OF Seager have manifested through the years. There was the skinny, pliable kid who arrived in the major leagues at 21 and in 2016 won Rookie of the Year. The maturing masher who when he was healthy did incredible things — his opposite-field World Series home run off Justin Verlander in 2017, punctuated by an unexpected scream of delight, remains a defining highlight of his career — but struggled to stay on the field. The in-his-prime star in 2020 who won his first World Series MVP after retooling his swing. The beneficiary of a 10-year, $325 million free agent deal from the Rangers, who were coming off a 66-96 season in 2021. And the latest build, Seager 5.0, owner of a body that doesn’t move like it once did and needed Wooten’s whispering following a disappointing first year in Texas.
By 2023, because Seager had added weight and strength over time, warping his body into angles he previously achieved was no longer an option. So going into the season, he kept what he did well — his back leg — and overhauled the rest. Ecker learned the language and served as boots on the ground to translate, forging a partnership with Wooten, now an independent hitting coach, that thrived on collaboration and brought out the best in Seager.
“He has the ability to test and retest,” Ecker says. “That second iteration is the most important part. He’s going to stress test it and be able to put it back together.”
For almost all of 2023, Seager operated as if he’d solved the puzzle. After missing six weeks in April and May with a hamstring injury, he finished the year with career highs in batting average (.327), slugging percentage (.623), home runs (33) and RBIs (96), despite playing just 119 games. If not for Shohei Ohtani, Seager would have won the AL MVP award.
And then Seager came the closest he ever has to a perfect swing, at the perfect time: Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, when he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning, one runner on, down two runs, against Arizona Diamondbacks closer Paul Sewald.
Years ago, Sewald learned by accident that his low arm slot could deliver almost-impossible-to-hit high fastballs. The last home run he had issued on a fastball at the top of the strike zone came Sept. 23, 2021. Surely aware that Seager has led MLB in first-pitch-swing percentage for three straight years but not wanting to fall behind in the count, Sewald threw a first-pitch fastball. High in the zone, on the inner quarter of the plate, the well-executed offering was designed to induce a swing-and-miss. Over the previous two years, at-bats that ended on Sewald fastballs as high off the ground as this one — 3.32 feet — had produced six hits, all singles, and a .133 batting average.
Seager hammered the 93.2-mph fastball 418 feet into the right-field stands, stared into the Rangers’ dugout and emitted a primal scream.
“I was watching the World Series,” his former Dodgers teammate and close friend Justin Turner says, “and it was like, ‘Oh my god, he Verlander-ed him.'”
Seager says he does not remember anything about the home run, and as unbelievable as that sounds — an iconic moment for the world was fleeting for the person who made it — his friends and teammates believe him. They see what he turns into in October. The tunnel vision. The attention to detail on every play. If in-season Seager is focused, postseason Seager never lapses — not at the plate, not in the field, not on the bases.
“I don’t remember a lot of the playoffs,” he says. “You know it means more, so you are more focused. You’re trying to make it the same game, but truly the atmosphere, everything else — I don’t remember certain plays, I don’t remember certain sequences of the game. You have bits and pieces that you remember. And especially on homers, I have flashbacks of certain aspects of it, but there’s a lot of ’em I don’t even remember what happened. It’s kind of crazy. It sucks. I wish I remembered.”
Seager’s propensity to meet any moment, any situation, any pitcher is earning him hallowed company. Last October, he hit .318/.451/.682 with six home runs, including three against the Diamondbacks en route to his second World Series MVP. He joined Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson as the only two-time winners. Plenty of people in baseball see him as the modern-day version of Derek Jeter — and Seager is only one postseason home run away from tying the New York Yankees captain despite playing in half as many playoff games. Since 2020, among the 82 players with at least 15 postseason games, Seager has the most home runs (16) and RBIs (38, tied with Houston’s Yordan Alvarez) and the second-most runs and hits.
“This is where I want to be,” Seager says. “You change, you adapt, you learn. But I don’t know if you ever get enough, especially in the postseason.”
For Seager, the names, the comparisons, the accolades — they land with all the impact of a snowflake hitting the pavement. He considers the idea of being clutch and believes there’s something to it, but it’s nothing innate, he thinks, not something he was lucky enough to have inherited. It’s a positive consequence of his process, the routine of which allows him to take advantage at any time — including, yes, those most opportune.
“He doesn’t give a f— who’s on the mound,” Stripling says. “He doesn’t care if it’s Jacob deGrom or the last starter in the big leagues. It is see ball, hit ball. He’s just awful to face.”
When Seager was filming videos at Stripling’s breakfast table, Turner was remaking his own career with the Dodgers, and the two later bonded over their focus on routine. Now, in many ways, the student has exceeded the mentor. They’re peers, exceptional hitters both, and they share that knack for October that Turner believes goes beyond their ability to swing the bat with great conviction in moments that crumble lesser players.
“Clutch is misconceived as the three-run homer,” says Turner, 39, now the Toronto Blue Jays’ designated hitter. “It’s hard because only one guy maybe even gets that opportunity in a game to have that clutch moment. Where can you identify clutch in a game throughout plate appearances when that moment is not present. An aspect of clutch is being prepared and being confident in the work you’ve done to put you in a position of confidence when you’re in those moments. Guys probably get out of character in the big moments if they’re not as prepared or as confident and they’re trying to do too much in those areas.
“He’s prepared. There’s a lot of confident guys, right? But he believes in his work. He believes in everything he does going up to the game to give him that mental freedom where no situation is too big for him. A lot of this is being able to find freedom in your game — that you’re not thinking about a mechanic, a situation. There are no what-ifs. You can get ready on time and let it rip. When you have that freedom, you can do anything.”
ON THE NIGHT he hit the home run off Sewald, Seager returned home and watched a replay. He has not pressed play on the video again since. The yell does not embarrass him, exactly, but anything that generates attention goes against his entrenched approach. Seager is guarded: happy to sing the praises of teammates, loath to talk about himself. Little by little, as with his swing, he’s working on that, too.
“I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I don’t want to be the person who’s talked about. And … it’s where I work,” Seager says. “It took a long time to get used to. I used to be super uncomfortable, especially away from the field when people notice you. It was the most uncomfortable thing that could ever happen. I stopped leaving [the house]. I stopped going out. I stopped going to dinner. I just couldn’t handle it. And then finally my wife kind of was like, ‘We have to go out. We’re going to go out. It’s going to be fine. You’re going to figure it out.'”
He is slowly learning, still grappling with the demands of excellence and the trappings of fame. As obsessed as Seager is with his swing — about once a year he’ll fling his bat with anger into the net of a batting cage when he can’t properly set his angles in his mirror — he’s beginning to recognize what chasing impossibility all this time can unlock in him. It’s the foundation for everything else — particularly growth in what he sees beyond his reflection. There is peace independent of the perfect swing, contentment amid the fear, even if not in quite yet the same quantities.
“As much as I hate the mental grind, I love going in there and fixing the puzzle,” Seager says. “I think that’s what draws me back.”
There’s a growing appreciation in Seager for things beyond swings, something that took years to blossom. On the day of Seager’s debut, Chase Utley, the veteran second baseman, pulled Seager aside and told him to treasure the game and what it has to offer. For Utley, that meant five minutes before he stepped onto the field every day to stretch, he would walk into the dugout, sit on the bench and take in the majesty of it all. Seager, too green to understand the purpose of Utley’s routine, didn’t bother.
“I never really thought about it for four years on why he did it,” Seager says. “And then during COVID, actually weirdly enough, when nobody’s around, is kind of when I started. I went on out on the line, kind of took my time of just being there and not getting rid of the nerves, but being in the emotion, being in everything. And then it just kind of goes away.”
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