Who had the NHL’s best offseason? Grades for all 32 teams
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Ryan S. Clark
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Kristen Shilton
The compressed NHL offseason — draft, mega-trades and free agency all within a 10-day period — is an opportunity for every front office to improve its roster. Some general managers need just a few players to remain a top Stanley Cup contender — or ascend to that status. Others need to be a bit more aggressive to raise their club’s competitive level, or perhaps their vision is on 2026-27 or beyond for a serious playoff push.
With the initial wave of additions and adjustments complete, it’s time for an honest assessment of each front office based on what was reasonably expected.
Here are report cards for all 32 NHL teams, based on the moves made through Monday. These are based on the moves they made, the moves they perhaps wanted to make, and their needs entering the proverbial dog days of mid-July through training camps in September.
Note: Advanced statistics are from Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey. Cap and contract information is from PuckPedia as of July 8; teams with negative remaining cap space are that much over the cap, and must be cap-compliant by opening night. Kristen Shilton covered the Atlantic and Metro teams, Ryan S. Clark the Central and Pacific clubs. Teams are listed alphabetically within each letter-grade tier.
Draft recap: All 224 picks
Grades for all 32 teams
Winners and losers
A GRADES
Key players added: D Jeff Petry, G Daniil Tarasov
Key players lost: D Nate Schmidt, G Vitek Vanecek
Remaining cap space: None (projected $2,950,000 over)
Overall grade: A+
Florida GM Bill Zito gets top marks for somehow keeping all the key pieces of the Panthers’ recent Stanley Cup runs off the open market. Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand received long-term contracts from the club that will chisel its name onto hockey’s holy grail for the second straight season. And there’s no doubt Zito was aided by willing participants who left millions on the table by not exploring their options elsewhere. Winning has that sort of appeal.
Zito also found a young netminder in Tarasov to back up Sergei Bobrovsky next season as a possible upgrade over Vanecek.
There were other under-the-radar adds across the board for Florida too from Zito — replacing the departing Schmidt with Petry, re-signing fourth-liner Tomas Nosek and bringing in Brandon Bussi and Nolan Foote.
The Panthers’ depth has been a weapon over long postseason runs and Florida is well-positioned again thanks to Zito’s savvy business moves to be elite again over the next 12 months. Honestly, he couldn’t have done much more to give Florida a chance to create a true dynasty.
Key players added: F Mikael Granlund, G Ville Husso, F Chris Kreider, G Petr Mrazek, F Ryan Poehling
Key players lost: G John Gibson, F Trevor Zegras
Remaining cap space: $28,988,812
Overall grade: A
Simply put, the Ducks might have had one of the strongest offseasons of any team in the NHL. Having “a window” in the NHL is talk that’s usually reserved for championship challengers trying to win before it falls apart. In the Ducks’ case, their “window” is still having a talented core of young players on team-friendly deals that allows them to spend more money elsewhere. For now.
That’s what the Ducks did by trading for Kreider, who has two years left at $6.5 million average annual value. Trading Gibson and Zegras shed $12.15 million in salary.
Some of those savings went toward signing top-nine forward Granlund. What the Ducks received in return from their trades allowed them to fill holes at team-friendly prices. Once July 1 ended, it left Ducks GM Pat Verbeek with what appears to be more than enough money to sign his RFA class of Lukas Dostal, Drew Helleson and Mason McTavish to new contracts.
Key players added: F Nick Bjugstad, D Logan Mailloux, F Pius Suter
Key players lost: F Zach Bolduc, F Radek Faksa
Remaining cap space: $625,150
Overall grade: A
Blues GM Doug Armstrong didn’t need to do a lot this offseason, but the three moves he made were quite impactful.
Armstrong could afford to move on from Bolduc because he had six forwards on the roster who scored more than 18 goals, while also factoring in the role for prized prospect Jimmy Snuggerud. Trading Bolduc for Mailloux provided them with a young blue-line option knowing that Torey Krug won’t play next season (or possibly beyond).
In signing Bjugstad, the Blues added an experienced and sizable third-line center who could anchor a bottom six. Getting Suter on a two-year deal gives the Blues one of the strongest center setups in the league, and another forward who scored more than 18 goals last season.
Key players added: F JJ Peterka, D Nate Schmidt, F Brandon Tanev, G Vitek Vanecek
Key players lost: F Josh Doan, D Michael Kesslering, F Matias Maccelli
Remaining cap space: $6,657,143
Overall grade: A
The Mammoth are either going to be a playoff team this season, or come extremely close.
They swung one of the biggest trades of the offseason to get Peterka, and immediately signed him to a five-year extension, giving them another top-six scorer. That left Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong with more than enough space to sign veterans in other areas.
Schmidt’s arrival means there are seven proven blue-line options under contract. Utah can either stick with that group — to provide insurance against injury — or trade one for help elsewhere.
Key players added: D K’Andre Miller, F Nikolaj Ehlers
Key players lost: D Brent Burns
Remaining cap space: $10,644,291
Overall grade: A-
Carolina finally did the thing. After several swings — and misses — trying to get a top-six scoring winger into their midst, GM Erik Tulsky secured a game-changer by signing coveted free agent Ehlers to a six-year, $51 million contract. That immediately gives Carolina the boost it has been looking for the past two years (at least).
Before Tulsky signed Ehlers, he also pulled off an impressive sign-and-trade with New York for Miller, a promising blueliner who should make Carolina’s back end even better (especially now that Burns has moved on to Colorado in free agency).
While Ehlers is an excellent add, Tulsky has yet to address the Hurricanes’ second-line center position. There’s still time to work something out there.
In the meantime, what Carolina has done is more than enough to put them back as odds-on favorites to make another Eastern Conference finals appearance — or beyond.
1:58
K’Andre Miller’s top plays from the 2024-25 NHL season
Check out the best plays from last season by K’Andre Miller, who has signed a deal with the Hurricanes.
Key players added: D Noah Dobson, F Zachary Bolduc
Key players lost: D Logan Mailloux, F Emil Heineman
Remaining cap space: $-4,454,167
Overall grade: A-
The Canadiens won’t be surprise entrants to the NHL playoff field this season. GM Kent Hughes made sure of that when he pulled off a blockbuster trade with the New York Islanders to acquire right-shot defenseman Dobson (and sign him to an eight-year deal with a $9.5 million AAV).
Cheap? No. Worth it? Yes. Montreal has been rebuilding long enough. It’s time to capitalize on the best years Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki & Co. have. Dobson will be a major part of any Canadiens’ success moving forward. Bringing Dobson in also allowed Hughes to flip Mailloux — now with a lesser opportunity in Montreal — to St. Louis for a solid, 22-year-old depth scorer in Bolduc.
Hughes even managed to get Kaapo Kahkonen in the fold for some goalie competition. The Canadiens seem to have hit all the right notes to make sure their playoff appearance in 2025 wasn’t a one-and-done affair.
B GRADES
Key players added: D Matthew Schaefer, F Jonathan Drouin, F Emil Heineman
Key players lost: D Noah Dobson
Remaining cap space: $3,936,667
Overall grade: B+
It’s all happening for the Islanders right now.
They have a new GM in Matheiu Darche, who selected Schaefer as the No. 1 pick in the draft, giving the Islanders a top-tier defensive prospect the likes of which they haven’t had in, well, a very long time. That cushions the blow of moving on from Dobson, but the return on that trade — a pair of first-round picks used on Swedish forward Viktor Eklund and throwback defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson, as well as forward Heineman — allowed Darche to load up at the draft and set New York up for current and future success.
He filled in some edges for the Islanders by signing a veteran forward in Drouin and doled out extensions to Adam Boqvist and Simon Holmstrom. The Islanders have needed to carve out a new identity for some time. Based on what Darche has done — and probably will keep doing — it actually feels as if New York is finding its way toward a truly fresh start.
2:28
Islanders select Matthew Schaefer with 1st overall pick
Matthew Schaefer gets emotional after being selected by the New York Islanders with the first overall pick of the 2025 NHL draft.
Key players added: G Dan Vladar, F Christian Dvorak, F Trevor Zegras
Key players lost: F Ryan Poehling
Remaining cap space: $5,520,238
Overall grade: B+
The centerpiece of Philadelphia’s offseason was trading for Zegras from Anaheim in the hopes he can be a top center for them going forward. If that happens, it’ll be a job well done by GM Danny Briere to tap into the potential of a player who maybe hasn’t shown all he has to give just yet (and the Flyers didn’t have to give up a great deal in return).
Briere’s other major score was a five-year extension for Cam York, at a healthy — but not overpriced — $5.15 million AAV. Well done.
Briere’s work at the draft — including the selection of Porter Martone at No. 6 — is notable too because of how well it continues setting Philadelphia up for longer-term success in the future.
For now, it’ll be Zegras and the veteran Dvorak attempting to improve the Flyers’ offense, while Vladar will provide some possible competition for the crease. And in turn, Philadelphia might be closer to being past its rebuilding phase toward something more competitive.
Key players added: F Adam Gaudette, D Dmitry Orlov, D John Klingberg, F Philipp Kurashev, F Michael Misa, G Alex Nedeljkovic
Key players lost: D Marc-Edouard Vlasic
Remaining cap space: $23,890,832
Overall grade: B+
Sharks GM Mike Grier’s plan was to focus on the here and now in a rebuild that appears to be one of the NHL’s most promising. To help the cause, he added veterans who can help shape their young players build a culture but could also later be moved ahead of the trade deadline in the next two years.
The Sharks added Misa, the No. 2 pick of the draft, to a group that already had Yaroslav Askarov, Macklin Celebrini, William Eklund and Will Smith. They also inked Gaudette, Klingberg, Kurashev, Nedeljkovic and Orlov, who will help improve in areas that resulted in the worst record in the league. Three of those players are on one-year deals, and Gaudette has a two-year contract worth $2 million annually. If the Sharks are not in playoff contention by the trade deadline, those players can be moved for draft capital.
Plus, it leaves the Sharks with eight defensemen on their roster, which suggests they could be open to moving one of them before the season begins.
Key players added: F Viktor Arvidsson, F Tanner Jeannot, F Sean Kuraly, F Michael Eyssimont
Key players lost: None
Remaining cap space: $2,081,667
Overall grade: B
Boston added a haul of forwards via free agency and one trade (for Arvidsson, who cost the Bruins’ a 2027 fifth-round pick). And yet, Boston didn’t address its largest need — a true top-six winger. Instead GM Don Sweeney bolstered the Bruins’ bottom six with a number of players, some of whom probably will have to play higher in the lineup at some point anyway.
The most eye-opening decision by Sweeney was to ink Jeannot to a five-year, $17 million contract. That’s a sizable investment in a third-line (at best) skater who will carry a $3.4 million AAV until he’s 33. He’s physical and feisty. But the Bruins need real scoring help (only two players on their roster finished last season with more than 20 goals), and it’s not clear that Sweeney was able to accomplish that so far.
Key players added: G John Gibson, F Mason Appleton
Key players lost: G Petr Mrazek, F Gustav Nyquist
Remaining cap space: $12,086,628
Overall grade: B
Credit to GM Steve Yzerman for finally finding a new home for Gibson. That pre-free agency trade felt like a long time coming and not only gives Gibson a fresh start but also upgrades Detroit’s goaltending situation (which was a clear priority heading into the offseason).
But Yzerman seemed content to let that be the only serious changes to the Red Wings’ roster. He filled in the edges a bit with bottom-six wingers Appleton and James van Riemsdyk, and has another third-pairing defense option in Jacob Bernard-Docker, but beyond that Detroit will (barring any other movement) enter this season much the way it exited the last.
Depth is a good thing to have. But the Red Wings needed a bigger name to boost their back end, and would have also have benefitted from improved top-six scoring potential. Those areas might still need to be addressed.
Key players added: F Connor Brown, F Evgenii Dadonov
Key players lost: D Brian Dumoulin, F Erik Haula, F Curtis Lazar
Remaining cap space: $6,906,667
Overall grade: B
New Jersey wasn’t looking to overhaul its roster. But GM Tom Fitzgerald has made sensible moves to give the Devils added oomph.
Brown is a superb depth forward with experience and leadership potential. Dadonov could prove to be the same. Both players should take over bottom-six jobs with ease.
New Jersey also held onto some of its own pending UFAs, keeping Jake Allen on a five-year deal (at a time when the dearth of available goalies is an issue for other teams) and inking trade deadline acquisition Cody Glass on a two-year extension.
That’s all good. What Fitzgerald hasn’t done yet — and insists will be priority one from here — is get restricted free agent Luke Hughes signed to a long-term deal. Fitzgerald acknowledged there might be more New Jersey could do this summer — like improve its top six — but it can’t happen without figuring out where Hughes’ extension falls on the payment scale. So, stay tuned?
Key players added: D Vladislav Gavrikov, D Scott Morrow, F Taylor Raddysh
Key players lost: D K’Andre Miller
Remaining cap space: $777,976
Overall grade: B
New York came out of the gate hard going after one of the open market’s best available defenders in Gavrikov. GM Chris Drury doled out a seven-year, $49 million contract for Gavrikov — and that subsequently cost him the ability to keep Miller, a restricted free agent. Drury traded Miller to Carolina for draft picks and Morrow.
It remains to be seen what sort of long-term implications there are on that deal — for both sides — but in the moment it was the only way Drury was getting Gavrikov into the fold. No risk, no reward.
Drury’s other moves were more low-key, getting breakout star Will Cuylle signed to an extension and adding bottom-six forward Raddysh. The Rangers’ offseason will be defined by Gavrikov, and how he fits onto their blue line.
Key players added: D Jeremy Lauzon, F Mitch Marner, F Colton Sissons
Key players lost: D Nicolas Hague, F Tanner Pearson, F Nicolas Roy
Remaining cap space: None (projected $7,638,571 over)
Overall grade: B
Vegas was strategic in that it re-signed Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith to one-year contracts to have middle-six forward depth. Moving on from Hague allowed them to get another depth forward with Sissons and another NHL defenseman in Lauzon.
Then came the summer’s biggest move: packaging Roy in the sign-and-trade deal for Marner, adding one of the NHL’s top stars to a team that remains among the West’s top contenders. As always, Kelly McCrimmon and the Knights’ front office found a way to make a blockbuster happen.
The announcement that Alex Pietrangelo will sit out next season — and possibly never play again — to recover from femur reconstruction surgery creates questions about what Vegas will do on the back end, given the absence left by its No. 1 defenseman.
1:49
Why Mitch Marner is a great fit for Vegas
Greg Wyshynski reports on Mitch Marner getting traded from the Maple Leafs to the Golden Knights.
Key players added: None
Key players lost: G Dan Vladar
Remaining cap space: $15,412,500
Overall grade: B-
Flames GM Craig Conroy said that once the players his team targeted in free agency were gone, there was no need to deviate from their original plan of trusting the team’s youth. Conroy added that he wanted to continue to provide opportunities for the Flames’ young players, who he hopes look at what they didn’t do on July 1 and think, “I’m going to work even harder this summer because I want to make that team.”
Obviously, there’s a belief that the club’s homegrown talent could make enough of a difference so that the Flames go from narrowly missing the 2025 playoffs to making it in 2026.
It’s a prudent approach, not only because of the message it sends to their young players, but because it also allows them to spend their money on re-signing RFA forwards such as Connor Zary along with Morgan Frost, who later signed a two-year extension worth $4.38 million annually.
Key players added: F Curtis Lazar, F Andrew Mangiapane
Key players lost: F Viktor Arvidsson, F Connor Brown, D John Klingberg, F Evander Kane, F Corey Perry
Remaining cap space: $175,834
Overall grade: B-
The new deals for Evan Bouchard and Trent Frederic played a major role in another challenging offseason for Edmonton.
Like other teams in championship windows, the goal for the Oilers was about strategically maximizing their cap space. For example, Oilers GM Stan Bowman’s decision to trade Kane ($5.125 million cap hit) was followed up by signing Mangiapane and Lazar ($4.375 million combined) to stretch their dollars.
One other way the team can help manage their salary concerns is trusting young players such as Matt Savoie with a bigger role, while determining whether David Tomasek, the 29-year-old Czechia forward they signed in April, could earn a roster spot out of training camp.
Key players added: F Joel Armia, D Cody Ceci, D Brian Dumoulin, G Anton Forsberg, D Nick Leddy, F Corey Perry
Key players lost: D Vladislav Gavrikov, F Tanner Jeannot, G David Rittich, D Jordan Spence
Remaining cap space: $6,768,333
Overall grade: B-
Was it a more prudent use of salary cap space to sign two free agent defensemen while knowing an additional $1.5 million per year could have prevented Vladislav Gavrikov from signing with the Rangers instead?
This is one of a few questions facing Kings GM Ken Holland following his first offseason in charge. Holland used the Kings’ cap space to essentially buy in bulk, adding five players to reinforce their bottom-six forward group, their defensive options and a backup goalie.
As for whether those moves can get the Kings beyond the first round of the playoffs? That remains to be seen.
Key players added: F Nico Sturm, F Vladimir Tarasenko
Key players lost: F Frederick Gaudreau
Remaining cap space: $10,186,835
Overall grade: B-
Moving on from Gaudreau provided the Wild a cushion that allowed them to trade for Tarasenko, who gives them a potential top-six forward in a market in which most potential options remained in place.
Bringing back a two-time Stanley Cup champion in Sturm after a three-year hiatus provides additional bottom-six depth, while serving as a potential Gaudreau replacement.
But there are still other items that must be addressed. There’s a new contract for RFA Marco Rossi, along with decisions on how to use that cap space: Should they bring in veterans to fill holes in their lineup, or save it for later by relying on prospects from one of the NHL’s strongest farm systems?
Key players added: D Nicolas Hague, F Eric Haula, D Nick Perbix
Key players lost: F Colton Sissons, D Jeremy Lauzon
Remaining cap space: $10,116,039
Overall grade: B-
The Predators’ dismal finish in 2024-25 made it clear the team had holes it needed to fill this summer, with the aim of finding experienced players. That process started by getting an experienced top-nine, two-way winger in Haula, who is an eight-time 20-goal scorer and can also be an anchor on a penalty kill.
GM Barry Trotz also landed a pair of defensemen in Hague and Perbix. Both have logged top-four minutes as fill-in replacements. Could they be entrusted with those types of roles on a more permanent basis in Nashville?
Key players added: F Frederick Gaudreau, D Ryan Lindgren, F Mason Marchment
Key players lost: F Andre Burakovsky, Michael Eyssimont
Remaining cap space: $10,757,621
Overall grade: B-
New GM Jason Botterill utilized the Kraken’s cap space in ways that others couldn’t, which was crucial to his first offseason in the role.
It all started by trading Burakovsky and his $5.5 million cap hit to the Blackhawks. From there, he took advantage of the Stars’ cap issues to get another winger with consecutive 22-goal seasons in Marchment, then added a two-way, bottom-six anchor down the middle in Gaudreau from the Wild.
They still had to have enough space to sign Lindgren in free agency and re-sign RFA Tye Kartye, while Ryker Evans and Kaapo Kakko await new deals.
Key players added: F Pontus Holmberg, F Jakob Pelletier
Key players lost: D Nick Perbix
Remaining cap space: $1,180,001
Overall grade: B-
Tampa Bay has been conservative in its offseason signings, and that’s to be expected given the Lightning’s general lack of cap space or glaring holes to fill.
GM Julien BriseBois signed Yanni Gourde and Gage Goncalves to contract extensions to protect scoring depth, then added Holmberg and Pelletier to further help in that area. Pelletier especially will insulate the team’s core, and will be a factor in the bottom six.
What BriseBois didn’t do was either keep free agent Perbix or sign someone to replace him on the blue line. The Lightning are looking light on the back end, and it could be a problem if BriseBois doesn’t have anything else up his sleeve before training camp. Right now it doesn’t look as if Tampa Bay is any worse — or better — than it was at season’s end.
Key players added: F Evander Kane
Key players lost: D Noah Juulsen, F Pius Suter
Remaining cap space: $556,667
Overall grade: B-
Might that be some optimism emanating from Vancouver? The Canucks brought back Brock Boeser — one of the most coveted free agents this summer — and goaltender Thatcher Demko and forward Conor Garland signed contract extensions.
Of course, many have wondered if the $5.125 million AAV they committed to top-six winger Kane, who arrived in a trade, would have been better spent to address the situation around their centers. Especially when they face questions about who can replace Suter in the bottom six, and if they can create the cap space to find that answer at some point before or during training camp.
Key players added: F Gustav Nyquist, F Tanner Pearson, F Jonathan Toews
Key players lost: F Mason Appleton, F Nikolaj Ehlers, F Brandon Tanev
Remaining cap space: $19,898,810
Overall grade: B-
Knowing that they were going to lose Ehlers led to a conversation about how the Jets would fill the gap created by his exit. Signing Nyquist to a one-year contract was done with the belief that he can help the Jets retain the offensive balance they had last season, when 12 players finished with more than 10 goals. Pearson, who has scored more than 10 goals in nine seasons, could also play a role on that front.
The same could be said for future Hall of Famer Jonathan Toews, with the caveat he hasn’t played since 2023 because of health issues.
Those arrivals still left the Jets with more than $18 million in cap space as they still seek to find a new contract with pending RFA forward Gabriel Vilardi, who was third on the team with 27 goals last season.
C GRADES
Key players added: D Jordan Spence, F Lars Eller
Key players lost: D Travis Hamonic, F Adam Gaudette, G Anton Forsberg
Remaining cap space: $4,294,286
Overall grade: C+
Ottawa’s most exciting offseason signing was probably the one-year extension doled out for Claude Giroux. Retaining the services of a key forward and leader in the room was GM Steve Staois’ priority, and that’s done.
Staois also showed the value he puts on right-side blue-line depth by grabbing Spence — a potential upgrade over Hamonic — in a trade with the Kings. And Eller — who scored 10 goals last season — has a chance to add some punch to the Senators’ fourth line.
It’s all fine. Whether anything Staois has done will move the needle for Ottawa and help them stay on pace in the ultracompetitive Atlantic Division remains to be seen.
The Senators’ goaltending tandem is also a question, given that Forsberg is gone and 22-year-old Leevi Merilainen signed a one-year extension to be Linus Ullmark‘s backup. Will that be enough? It could be that Staois simply replaced one kind of player with another, and that complacency could hurt Ottawa. Or, the fresh energy coming off a season in which the Senators did get back to the playoffs will have everyone hitting a new stride. Time will tell.
Key players added: D Alexander Alexeyev, D Parker Wotherspoon, F Justin Brazeau, F Anthony Mantha
Key players lost: G Alex Nedeljkovic
Remaining cap space: $15,816,904
Overall grade: C+
This has been a very … uninspired offseason thus for the Penguins. But perhaps that’s GM Kyle Dubas’ grand plan. Pittsburgh is in that mushy middle of not entirely rebuilding and not entirely able to go all-in for one last kick at the can (they’ve tried it before and it didn’t work). In that sense, Dubas did all right with some straightforward signings.
Mantha and Brazeau should give the Penguins’ bottom six some solid depth, and there are third-pairing minutes up for grabs if you’re Wotherspoon and Alexeyev. Dealing away Nedeljkovic puts some of the Penguins’ younger goaltenders — such as Joel Blomqvist — in the spotlight. But it also gives an air that maybe Dubas isn’t done just yet?
Perhaps free agency was just the first wave and those long-rumored trades — involving Erik Karlsson, maybe? — are still in the offing.
Key players added: F Matias Maccelli, F Michael Pezzetta, F Nicolas Roy
Key players lost: F Mitch Marner, F Max Pacioretty
Remaining cap space: $4,983,081
Overall grade: C+
There are no two ways about it; the Maple Leafs are a worse team without Marner. The silver lining is that GM Brad Treliving was able to get something for his departing free agent in a sign-and-trade with Vegas for depth forward Roy. Treliving carried on adding third- and fourth-line skaters in Maccelli and Pezzetta.
Now, any of those three could prove to be valuable assets. But they don’t remotely replace what Toronto lost in Marner. What can you do?
Well, Treliving shouldn’t have stopped making moves. Another scoring winger with potential to contribute in the top six would be huge, and the Leafs also could use help on the back end.
Getting extensions done for John Tavares and Matthew Knies was undoubtedly important (and bumped up the Leafs’ grade here) but how Toronto gets over the loss of Marner will be enormous in how next season plays out.
Key players added: D Michael Kesselring, G Alex Lyon
Key players lost: F JJ Peterka
Remaining cap space: $13,640,319
Overall grade: C
Buffalo did fine taking care of their own by getting key RFAs such as Jack Quinn, Ryan McLeod and Ryan Johnson signed to new deals. The return of Kesselring from Utah in the Peterka trade also boosts the Sabres’ blue line on the right side, where the team was lacking depth.
Otherwise, Buffalo hasn’t done much to make itself better heading into next season. There was no splashy move or even a notable acquisition on July 1. Buffalo had money to spend and didn’t. That’s not the sort of noncommitment to improvement that fans — or, frankly, ownership — should want to be settling for when the Sabres are staring down a potential 15th consecutive season without making the playoffs.
There’s just not much left to say in defending the Sabres if they’re not going to invest in taking a swing — at anyone — when they have the resources to do it.
Key players added: F Andre Burakovsky, F Sam Lafferty
Key players lost: None
Remaining cap space: $22,312,024
Overall grade: C
Some will argue that the Blackhawks should have done more. Others will say they didn’t need to do anything else. Those who believe they could have done more will point to how they could have used their cap space to acquire proven scorers to help address the challenges on offense they faced last season in addition to their issues on defense.
But for the audience that feels otherwise? They’ll point out how a key step for the Blackhawks’ future is seeing how their young core performs, with the idea that they have 15 players on their active roster who are younger than 25 and one of the NHL’s most impressive young pipelines.
Key players added: D Brent Burns
Key players lost: F Charlie Coyle, F Jonathan Drouin, D Ryan Lindgren, F Miles Wood
Remaining cap space: $4,123,333
Overall grade: C
Everything about the decision to sign Burns to a one-year deal is indicative of a much larger dynamic.
Teams like the Avs that are in championship windows face the annual task of either rebuilding or revamping their bottom six and/or third defense pairing. Finding and then signing those players at team-friendly prices was and will remain the mission for Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland and his front office staff until camp starts.
Having a little more than $4 million in cap space is flexibility that they’ll look to maximize to build upon a roster that has failed to get out of the first two rounds since winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Key players added: F Radek Faksa
Key players lost: D Cody Ceci, F Evgenii Dadonov, F Mikael Granlund, F Mason Marchment
Remaining cap space: None (projected $1,794,916 over)
Overall grade: C
The decisions made by Stars GM Jim Nill that paved the way for his team to advance to three consecutive conference finals are now why the team can’t use that road map anymore.
Extensions for the Stars’ core players used quite a bit of cap space, which is why they traded Marchment to Seattle and let Ceci, Dadonov and Granlund sign elsewhere.
Their most notable move to this point was signing Faksa, who returned to the club that drafted him in 2012 after spending last season with the Blues. But even that decision left the Stars needing to clear cap space to become compliant by opening night, and be in a position to add should they feel it’s necessary.
Key players added: D Declan Chisholm
Key players lost: None
Remaining cap space: $4,125,000
Overall grade: C-
It’s not that Washington didn’t try to address its needs. GM Chris Patrick was in on the Nikolaj Ehlers sweepstakes right up until Ehlers chose Carolina over a Capitals’ club that topped the Eastern Conference standings last season. All Patrick could do from there was re-sign Anthony Beauvillier, a fine player but not one who is going to bring the top-six skill set of Ehlers. That’s how the free agency carousel goes, though.
The Capitals get some blue-line depth in Chisholm, but other than that they haven’t significantly re-tooled anywhere to suggest they’ll be even tougher to play against next season. Patrick has time to correct that with some trades and will need to be in the mood for a little homework this summer.
D GRADES
Key players added: F Charlie Coyle, F Miles Wood
Key players lost: F Justin Danforth, F Sean Kuraly
Remaining cap space: $16,342,501
Overall grade: D+
Columbus had a decent list of players for free agency. But the Blue Jackets didn’t actually go ahead and make an abundance of moves.
Instead of finding a winger to improve their top six or a right-side defenseman to bolster their top-four group, GM Don Waddell decided to massively overpay Columbus’ own pending free agent defender Ivan Provorov with a seven-year, $59.5 million contract. That was not ideal.
The skaters Waddell did add from the outside — namely Coyle and Wood — will replace the bottom-six players who left Columbus in free agency, including Danforth and Kuraly. So that’s not improving the Blue Jackets’ prospects, either.
It’s all just going to be more of the same for Columbus — which fell just short of a postseason berth last season — if Waddell doesn’t do something this summer to actively make the team better than it was.
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Dan Hajducky
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — It’s the top of the 11th inning of an early March baseball game at North Carolina. With a runner on first and two outs, a Coastal Carolina batter laces a single through the right side of the infield. The Tar Heels’ right fielder bobbles the ball, then slips. The runner barrels around third toward home, where catcher Luke Stevenson awaits.
The relay throw naturally takes Stevenson to the third base side of home plate, into the path of the runner diving headfirst. Stevenson slaps a tag between his shoulder blades, shows the umpire the mitted ball and erupts into a fist pump. The game remains tied. In the bottom half of the inning, UNC wins on a sacrifice fly.
The Tar Heels went on to claim an ACC title, where Stevenson was named MVP. They hosted and won an NCAA tournament regional, rose to No. 1 in Division I, then fell at home to Arizona in a super regional and missed returning to the Men’s College World Series for the second consecutive year. Days later, Stevenson, a draft-eligible sophomore, reported to Phoenix for the MLB combine. Depending on who you ask, Stevenson is the first or second-best pure catcher and a consensus mock top-35 pick for the 2025 MLB draft, which begins July 13 (6 p.m. ET on ESPN).
Stevenson and other catchers with MLB potential have long been evaluated on how well they manage pitchers, frame pitches and lead a team’s defense — including directing positioning and keeping runners from stealing and scoring. But MLB general managers and player personnel say dual-threat backstops such as Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, an AL MVP favorite, now rank as the standard bearers for players in the pipeline to baseball’s major leagues. The gap between a catcher with All-Star potential and one who could hold down the position at a replacement level is glaringly obvious.
What might not be so obvious, however, is just how much MLB’s 2023 rules changes are now influencing how the position is being taught, played, coached and scouted at all levels of the game — and just how much of a premium is being placed on the offensive abilities of catchers such as Stevenson or Coastal Carolina’s Caden Bodine, another likely early draft pick.
From high school and youth ball to college and the minor leagues, a shift has already begun. In fundamental ways, the value of the position itself is being reframed — and Stevenson is a fitting avatar for catchers joining the professional ranks at a time when their livelihoods are in flux, their success most likely dictated by their capacity to adapt to this new reality.
“I don’t want to say it’s a dying position, [but] the bar for a being a good catcher offensively is so low,” said one MLB director of amateur scouting. “You could be an everyday catcher if you hit .210 with 10 home runs. [But] if you hit .210 with 30 home runs and a Platinum Glove? You’re a superstar.”
Jim Koerner, USA Baseball’s director of player development, said it’s still imperative for catchers to wield “middle-infield hands” and a strong arm to be an MLB starter.
“[But] in five years,” he said, “once they institute robo umps, I think it’s going to be completely an offensive position.”
AHEAD OF THE 2023 MLB season, at the behest of on-field consultant and former Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox president Theo Epstein, the league instituted a slew of rule changes intended to energize a purportedly staling sport. Baseball banned defensive shifts, instituted a pitch clock, limited mound disengagements to two per plate appearance and widened the bases from 15 inches to 18 inches — all changes first tested in the minor leagues.
The dividends were immediate. In 2023, runners stole 3,503 bases and upped it to 3,617 last season, the most in 109 years and the third most in any MLB season. The average game time fell to 2 hours, 36 minutes in 2024, the quickest in 40 years. Attendance and television engagement records were set in 2023 and broken in 2024.
Just as quickly, it became harder for catchers to stop runners from stealing. Catchers faced an increase of nearly 12 and 14 more stolen base attempts a season in 2023 and 2024, respectively, than in 2022. Exchange times and pop times increased exponentially to compensate, as did the speed at which catchers throw on steal attempts. But runners are faster and — owed to new limited disengagements rules for pitchers — closer to their would-be stolen bases than ever.
From 2016 to 2022, the lowest average caught stealing percentage for a single season among qualified catchers was 22.28% in 2021. In 2023 it was 17.43% and, last season, it was 18.78%. Through July 7, MLB runners have stolen 1,947 bases, on pace to eclipse 2024’s total. The Minnesota Twins stole an MLB-low 65 bases in 2024; 14 teams already have more in 2025.
Jerry Weinstein, a Chicago Cubs catching consultant, said pitchers get the ball to the plate in the 1.3-second range, and catchers’ pop times are between 1.8 and 2.0 seconds.
“There’s nothing we can do to improve that, that’s a staple,” Weinstein said. “The average runner runs 3.35, one-tenth of a second for the tag … it’s a math problem. If the baserunner is perfect, and the catcher and pitcher are perfect based on those parameters, the guy’s going to be safe most of the time. Which is exactly what we’re seeing.”
But one MLB director of player development said even with the rise in stolen bases’ effect on strategy, the best batteries still control how efficiently they get outs.
“From an analytic standpoint, swinging the count in your favor is more valuable than defending the stolen base,” the player development director said. “Ninety feet matters in certain situations, [but] some teams don’t even care. They’d rather have a guy execute his stuff: High leg kick, deliver the stuff, go for the punch out.”
Behind the plate, he said, there’s a different catching archetype than there was 25 years ago. They’re now bigger, taller and can get under the ball with a one-knee-down stance behind the plate. But, unlike the days when an offensive juggernaut catcher was a rarity — Mike Piazza and Carlton Fisk, or dual-threats like Johnny Bench, Ivan Rodriguez and Yogi Berra — now an adept offensive catcher can separate himself from a logjam.
“If you can’t hit,” he said, “you’re going to have a hard time sticking around.”
From both 1991-1998 and 1999-2007, there were eight MLB catchers (at least 50% of games at catcher) with three or more .800 OPS, 10-home run, 50-RBI seasons. From 2008-2015, that number fell to five. From 2016 through 2024, there were three.
“The offensive product is incredibly low, the physical demands very high, and what we value in catching has changed so much and is on the precipice of changing again,” said a director of amateur scouting. “We put so much value on catchers being able to frame pitches and get extra strikes … and the minute that goes away, that drastically changes how we evaluate amateur and professional catchers.”
When organizations find offensive-minded catchers who are capable behind the plate, they tend to hold onto them.
“It’s getting harder and harder to find those guys that are really offensive, they’re few and far between,” a director of amateur scouting said. “You name one, then I’ll name one. I guarantee it’s going to be a short list.”
Another director of amateur scouting said part of what makes some catchers in this year’s draft so valuable is that they can catch and potentially be a standout offensive performer.
“You don’t want [a catcher you draft in the first round] to have a position change a year and a half down the road,” the scout said. “You’re going to move him to first base or left field, and now the offensive bar is so much higher there.”
Which is why some MLB scouts are high on Stevenson and think he can handle the adjustments the position now requires. He was steady behind home plate for North Carolina, a great blocker but below-average receiver. But it’s what the 6-foot-1, 210-pound, left-handed hitting All-America catcher did with his bat that has drawn the attention of MLB scouts: Among Division I catchers who have caught 90 games since 2024, Stevenson ranked second in home runs (33), third in runs (104) and sixth in OPS (.960). He drew 29 more walks (107) than any other catcher while having the second-best chase rate (17.2%) and second-most pitches per plate appearance (4.09).
Although some MLB scouts and player development personnel have raised questions about Stevenson’s glove and whether he could thrive behind the plate at the sport’s top level, others say his power and discerning eye come at such a premium that defensive concerns are secondary and correctable. One director of amateur scouting said Stevenson’s floor is backup catcher at the MLB level.
One executive of a team with a top-10 draft pick said Stevenson is in the mix that high because his defensive technique is easily adjustable, but an eye and bat like that at a position such as catcher is too rare to pass up.
“You could be an outstanding defensive catcher, but if you can’t hit a lick, it’s hard to make a roster as an everyday player,” he said.
“Hardest position to evaluate,” another director of amateur scouting said, “amateur catcher.”
He compared the predraft evaluation to college quarterbacks trying to play in the NFL: “Can you transition? With edge rushers, you have less than three seconds to get rid of the ball — same for a catcher, you want him to be better than two and to be able to throw it on the bag. Guys that are 1.78, 1.83, 1.85? They can get away with a higher throw, but the 2.0 guys have to be perfect. It takes a special human being to do it and do it for many years.”
Steve Rodriguez, Stanford University’s catching coach, was Trevor Bauer and Gerritt Cole’s catcher at UCLA before spending six seasons in the Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. He lauded Stevenson’s prowess with a bat and said he is underrated behind the plate.
“[With] his ability and size to be light on his feet and his knees … I watch him and he can scrape the dirt with that knee down so easily: That means his balance and flexibility is at a high level,” Rodriguez said. “When you’re able to do that with the skill set he has with his hands, you have a pretty phenomenal player.”
Stevenson said UNC catching coach Jesse Wierzbicki, a former UNC starting catcher who played in the Houston Astros minor league system, hammered receiving and blocking drills all season — footwork, transfers to second base, stealing strikes. He also had inspiration at home.
“You’ve got eight guys staring at you, being a leader on that field, directing traffic,” Stevenson said. “I was probably 8 years old — my mom caught, so I was always wearing the gear — when I fell in love with it. It’s what I wanted to do.”
ON A FRIGID Tuesday morning in March, more than 50 high school boys in full uniform took the field at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina, with Jim Koerner in the stands. Koerner develops on-field programming and curriculum for USA Baseball’s 13- to 17-year-old teams and is one of amateur American baseball’s most important barometers. His son, Sam, 18, catches for Pro5 Academy’s Premier team, an elite developmental academy.
Scattered around the diamond were players committed to Old Dominion and NC State, Virginia Tech and UNC, Ohio State and Tulane. Haven Fielder, the San Diego State-bound son of Prince Fielder, is Pro5’s designated hitter. Sam committed to Division I Radford University in Virginia. Almost all of them take remote classes and rarely, if ever, attend high school in-person.
The elder Koerner said it’s a moment of extreme change, both for the beloved sport that has long been his livelihood and the position his son fell in love with. From a young age, Sam showed a natural lean toward catching, but Jim said he urged Sam toward the position he thought would provide the best chance of a prosperous baseball life.
Now he’s not so sure.
Twenty years ago, Jim Koerner said, catchers were as still as possible; now, framing and throwing are more important than blocking, and passed balls are skyrocketing.
His son, like Stevenson, is a left-hitting catcher. Sam is just shy of 6 feet and defensively gifted with a plus-arm. He also hits well for contact. He situationally adapts his catching stance: one knee down if the bases are empty, traditional with runners on. Sam said, even with the position under siege, it’s easier to throw out of that. Anything to tip the scales.
“[Sam] has aspirations, like a lot of young kids,” Jim Koerner said. “It’s hard to tell young kids, ‘Hey, man, you’re a really good receiver … but in five years, that might not matter. Just focus on your arm and hitting.'”
Sammy Serrano, Sam’s catching coach and a second-round draft pick in the 1998 MLB draft, said he isn’t worried about Sam or how he’ll adapt to rule changes. Serrano said Sam has an extremely high baseball IQ and he “just happens to be the catcher.”
During a game this spring, Sam Koerner took a relay from right field, swiped his mitt across the plate and waited: Runner out. Seconds later, he was in the dugout asking Serrano, what he could do to improve his timing and technique. It was a good play, but Sam isn’t interested in only good.
“He always wanted to [be a catcher],” his father said. “Two or three years old, he’d squat down in front of the TV and I’d be like, ‘Hey Sam … whatcha doin’?’
“He’d just point at the catcher on TV.”
DAVID ROSS’S WARM laugh spilled through a cellphone speaker when asked how well he would fare as a catcher in today’s MLB.
“I probably wouldn’t have a job,” he said. “I hit .180 my last year in Boston and I laughed: I got a two-year deal. I had a couple of deals on the table. That would’ve never happened early in my career when framing wasn’t a thing.”
Ross’s career was extended by his proclivity in the margins.
“When I was coming up, you had holds, hold pick, pitchouts, slide steps, four or five different signs from coaches that would help you manage the running game,” he said. “Well, that turned into nobody wanted to run anymore because the percentages didn’t match up. Now you see all these teams building with legit base stealers and athletes.”
After retiring following their 2016 World Series victory, Ross became a special assistant with the Cubs, then worked as an ESPN analyst before becoming the Cubs’ manager from 2020 to 2023, the first season under the rule changes. He is torn on some elements of the changes and changes that still might come, such as the Automated Ball-Strike system already implemented in MiLB that MLB tested this spring training.
“As a player, it’s a hard job, mistakes cost games, so, I love the challenge system because you’re going to keep the beauty of the game,” Ross said. “I don’t think we’ll get away from — you’re still going to be teaching kids about receiving, blocking, throwing, calling the game, the little intricacies of baseball. I don’t think that’s going to go away. Even with all the analytics, you still need a sense of feel back there.
“But offense has won out.”
Two-time All-Star catcher Jonathan Lucroy was an offense-first catcher out of college who became an analytic darling of the mid-2010s for his ability to frame pitches.
A mid-2000s ESPN feature on Lucroy pointed to then-Cubs general manager Epstein’s savvy in being an early adopter to the framing movement, which included the signing of Ross. Ironically, it’s the same aspect of the game Epstein might undo if an ABS system is implemented.
“Framing will be so devalued because of the advent of the ABS system and they’ll be prioritizing the offensive side of the position even more,” Lucroy said. “I’m biased, but I’ve experienced it firsthand.”
Lucroy predicted that the bedrocks of the position will remain.
“The most important part of the position is the game management and leadership,” he said. “There’s a lot of psychology that goes into it: How different guys communicate, how they receive information, take it in, apply [it]. You can’t take a paint brush and swipe it across and everyone does it the same way.”
Lucroy got to know his pitchers, learn about their families, how they respond to constructive criticism.
“How do you go out and speak to them properly to reel them in? Get them to change stuff up, change their thought process?” Lucroy said. “Are they a hand-hold guy? Do you have to tell them everything’s good, breathe, slow it down? The majority of guys are like that. On the flip side, a guy like Max Scherzer you can go out and yell at him, insult him a bit, and he responds positively.”
Lucroy said Jason Kendall once told him that the best catchers were also the best communicators, that their job is to make the pitcher look as good as possible.
‘”Make them more important than you,'” Lucroy recalled. “You want them to trust you and believe in you, like any other relationship. ‘Cause 99% of the time, guys don’t feel the best when they go out and play.”
Lucroy said catchers will adapt to the rule changes, because they always do. Lucroy said he thinks once an ABS system is instituted, catchers will go back into a more traditional stance, which means they’ll block balls better and throw out more runners.
But having experienced an analytics revolution himself, he worries about coming into an MLB transitioning between eras.
“The game is always shifting, always evolving,” Lucroy said. “If you go back and look at 2016, remember how the Cubs had Willson Contreras back there? And they put in David Ross. Why? Because David Ross is a veteran who ended up being a future manager who knows what the heck he’s doing and how to handle guys in big situations.”
Lucroy said he doesn’t think that’s an accident.
“Framing is important, to a certain extent,” he said, “but the best framers in the world aren’t catching in the World Series — the better offensive guys are. Even the years when I was one of the top framers in the league, I think I made the playoffs once.”
SAM KOERNER’S PRO5 TEAM took on a Canadian baseball academy at a minor league stadium in Holly Springs, North Carolina. The bases were wider — Sam called them “pizza boxes” — than those at the USA Baseball complex, so they stole more often here.
Sam was one of three catchers on the roster that day, and the only one committed to a college. He didn’t play until the eighth inning, and when he finally got to bat, he cranked the first pitch over the right field wall. It nearly hit a car on the adjacent NC 55 roadway.
His dad rushed to pull the video — it was Sam’s third in-game home run ever — but the camera was off.
In the press box afterward, Sam said he’s taking a gap year. He’ll enroll at Radford in the fall of 2026 and play with Pro5 until then, maximizing his growth literally and technically.
Sam doesn’t have to contend with new MLB-type rules yet, but if aspiration meets opportunity, he soon will.
“It’s already a challenge trying to hold runners on [even] though the rule changes aren’t affecting me,” Sam said. “I don’t know what else [catchers] could do. I’m just tryin’ to be as fast as I can to second base, on the bag.”
In working with thousands of players and coaches across the U.S., Jim Koerner said MLB’s rules changes haven’t been adopted at the youth levels, which means they haven’t directly altered how youth ball is played — yet. But for Sam and his peers, and even younger players, making it to an NCAA baseball team and eventually to MLB are the goals.
“The way pro evaluators are going to look at the catching position is going to start to change now,” Koerner said. “But on the flip side, when you value the guy on the mound as much as he’s valued now at the professional level, they still need to trust the guy catching. There’s still a confidence, a comfort, a leadership aspect.”
It’s the aspect Sam prides himself on most and what Lucroy said was invaluable.
“Building good relationships with my pitchers, always having their back,” Sam said. “It makes them perform better knowing they have a guy behind the plate where they can, even as simple as 0-2, they can spike a brick in the dirt and know I’m going to pick ’em up and block it and throw the guy out at first.”
At lunch in between his game and a weightlifting session, Sam inhaled a Philly cheesesteak. He buzzed while breaking down the catching techniques of Cincinnati’s Jose Trevino and San Francisco’s Patrick Bailey. He also acknowledged that during a game earlier, his middle finger got caught asking for a curveball and he took a 90-mile-per-hour fastball in the chest plate.
Jim said it’s just how Sam is; there is no version of him absent of catching.
“When he was 7 or 8, he’d get back there and see these big guys come to hit and … he’d be excited but he’d look at me like…” Jim said, his eyes going wide.
“I was scared to death,” Sam said.
“But he eventually warmed up to it,” Jim said, smiling.
They fell into a cadence, starting and finishing each other’s anecdotes. They’ve chosen a baseball life, devoid of free time. Jim wishes he were home more often, and Sam might as well live in catching gear. Recently, they tried to game-plan on a rare, shared day off. They couldn’t decide what to do. Eventually, Jim pitched batting practice to Sam.
“[At a] concert the other day, one of the guys was tellin’ a story about fishing, being out there with his daughter and she’s thinking, ‘We’re going fishing?’ The guy says, ‘It’s not … just fishing,'” Jim said.
“When I ask Sam, ‘Hey, do you wanna hit? You wanna go lift?’ For him, it might be just baseball.”
Suddenly, a knock came on the press box door to vacate. Sam and Jim turned in their chairs and shared a glance.
“Well, for me,” Jim said, packing up, “it’s not just baseball.”
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