From adding talent to losing captains: NHL teams that changed the most this offseason

The 2024 NHL offseason moves fast. Consider the following: The Florida Panthers had not yet even hoisted the Stanley Cup when the wheels of player movement were set in motion last month. Only recently has the leaguewide flurry of signings and trades started to slow down.

By now, though, just a few productive veterans — names such as Daniel Sprong, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Shattenkirk — remain unsigned. So with most of this summer’s biggest dominoes having fallen, let’s do a little offseason accounting. Using last season’s goals above replacement (GAR) totals, we’ll be looking at the teams that picked up the most net value (from additions minus subtractions) via trades, free agent signings, retirements and other moves since the end of the 2023-24 regular season.

This won’t take into account rookies — so No. 1 draft pick Macklin Celebrini won’t have any previous GAR to contribute to the San Jose Sharks — but it should otherwise give a good sense for which teams boosted their talent base, and who will have to replace production from a year ago.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a great case study in both areas, for example: They picked up Jake Guentzel from the Carolina Hurricanes in a trade, but they also said goodbye to captain and franchise icon Steven Stamkos. Between those and other moves, the Bolts came out pretty much exactly even on net GAR — ranking 16th out of 32 teams.

How do the other 31 teams grade out? Let’s unpack some of the teams at each end of the spectrum, and then reveal the full rankings:

Jump to:
Teams that added value | Teams that lost value
Full rankings for all 32 teams

Six teams that gained most value since last season

2023-24 GAR: 12.0 (31st) | Offense: minus-13.2 (32nd)
Defense: 18.6 (29th) | Goalies: 6.6 (23rd)

Top additions (GAR): F Teuvo Teravainen (12.3), G Laurent Brossoit (10.4), LW Tyler Bertuzzi (7.2), D TJ Brodie (5.4), F Ilya Mikheyev (3.6), C Craig Smith (3.3), D Alec Martinez (3.2)
Top losses (GAR): C Sam Lafferty* (3.6), Colin Blackwell (0.5)

Despite the play of Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard, no team needed more help on offense last season than Chicago, which finished last in scoring at a sub-replacement level 2.17 goals per game. So the Blackhawks picked up Teravainen and Bertuzzi, both of whom were 20-plus goal scorers last season — and they also simply gained by subtraction, with a number of their most unproductive forwards from a year ago (Taylor Raddysh, MacKenzie Entwistle, Reese Johnson) going elsewhere.

A porous defense that allowed the league’s fifth-most shots per game should also benefit from the addition of the veteran Brodie, and Brossoit will make for a solid tandem in net with Petr Mrazek. The Blackhawks should be among the most improved teams in the NHL next season.

Net Off. GAR: plus-30.6 (1st) | Net Def. GAR: plus-15.5 (1st) | Net Goalie GAR: plus-10.4 (4th)

(*Chicago acquired the negotiating rights to Lafferty but was unable to re-sign him.)