Final Grades for Every NHL Team's 2025 Offseason

Now that the calendar has rolled over to October, the start of the 2025-26 NHL regular season is here. That means it is time to check in and see how every team in the league did with their offseason roster moves.

Yes, that's right, it's report card time again, and we are handing out final offseason grades for all 32 teams.

Grades are based solely on the quality of the moves, as well as their relevance to the team's overall season goal. Did rebuilding teams make good moves for the future? Did Stanley Cup contenders or Stanley Cup playoff contenders make the moves that can improve their roster right now?

Let's go through team-by-team.

When we last checked in with the Ducks, the grade was at a B- for adding Chris Kreider and finally finding a taker for John Gibson's contract.

While there is still a risk associated with trading Trevor Zegras, and while Mikael Granlund may not yield the type of return they are looking for, the NHL roster is now better than it was.

The other significant change to boost the grade slightly was securing restricted free agent forward Mason McTavish to a long-term contract without allowing it to drag into the regular season. The $7 million per year price tag might be a little much now, but if McTavish continues to develop and has a breakout, it will be a steal under the increasing cap—solid deal for a core player.

What exactly is the plan here for the Bruins to get better in both the short-term and the long-term?

David Pastrnak is great.

Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm being healthy should improve the defense, and perhaps Jeremy Swayman will have a better season.

But what else is happening here?

They still lack a No. 1 center, have a weak farm system, and gave Tanner Jeannot too much money over too many years, which counters the shrewd move of acquiring Viktor Arvidsson.

They needed to do more, or at least establish a direction for the future. They did neither.

It's just hard to feel any optimism or excitement here. It's been a subpar roster that has consistently produced poor results, and the only significant addition this offseason was the acquisition of defenseman Michael Kesserling in the JJ Peterka trade.

Is that an upgrade? Not much one of if it is.

Even worse, the Sabres are set to go into another season with more than $5.3 million in unused salary cap space. For a team that has been out of the playoffs for over a decade and a half, has made little to no improvements to the roster, and should be facing pressure to compete, that is unacceptable.

You couldn't find someone for $5 million who could help the roster? The fans here deserve better.

The Flames were better and more competitive than anyone could have expected going into the 2024-25 season, missing the playoffs by a tiebreaker in a year that was supposed to be a rebuilding year. With a slightly better offense, they would have easily made the playoffs.

So what did they do this offseason to upgrade that offense to try to close the gap in the Western Conference?

Not much.

In fact ... nothing.

And they still have $11 million in unused salary cap space. It seems like a big missed opportunity here.

The additions of Nikolaj Ehlers and K'Andre Miller are significant, and Ehlers could be a major game-changer for a team that has needed another top-line finisher.

Ehlers has been one of the NHL's most productive players on a per-minute basis, and it will be fascinating to see if that can translate into bigger box score production in a bigger role.

Even after adding Ehlers and Miller, the Hurricanes still have $11.4 million in salary cap space, creating the opportunity to add an even bigger superstar at some point this season.

Year three of the Connor Bedard era appears to be very similar to years one and two of the Connor Bedard era.

Not very good.

The Blackhawks added some third-tier veterans in Andre Burakovsky, Sam Lafferty, and Matt Grzelcyk. They'll need to rely heavily on several rookies and prospects to improve things from within.

That can be a risky move because young players are likely to struggle, and you don't want them to all develop in a losing environment.

Young center Frank Nazar has signed a long-term contract extension, and the hope is that he will develop into a top-line player and ultimately prove to be a team-friendly steal.

Goalie Spencer Knight also signed a multi-year deal.

Still, there are very few players signed to long-term contracts here, and very little has been done to improve the roster. With as bad as the team has been, and with $16 million in unused salary cap space, Bedard has to be looking around and wondering when his help is going to arrive.

There was nothing overly attractive about this offseason, but dumping the Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood contracts was tidy business, especially as it allowed them to re-sign Brock Nelson and add Brent Burns in free agency.

The big X-factor this season will be what they can get out of Gabriel Landeskog.

His return in the playoffs last year was inspiring, and now he should be ready for a full season. If he still has something left in the tank, that will be as good as any free agency addition they could have made.

The offseason started with such promise. A great young core of talent. Salary-cap space. An aggressive general manager who had two first-round picks he was willing to trade. An on-the-rise team that competed for a playoff spot until the final week of the season.

And then they mostly kinda just ... sleepwalked through the offseason by re-signing Ivan Provorov to a contract that is sure to disappoint, acquiring Charlie Coyle, and doing pretty much nothing else of significance, all while still having more than $14 million in salary-cap space.

Another team that missed a big opportunity to make its roster better.

Still a promising team long-term. Just an underwhelming offseason.

The best move for the Stars this offseason was the move they didn't make -- not trading Jason Robertson.

His name was in the rumor mill in the early stages of the offseason, but they avoided the temptation to deal him, and for good reason. He's one of their best players and one of the best forwards in the league. They were not going to win any trade involving him.

Beyond that, the offseason was mostly about dumping some salary by trading Mason Marchment and Matt Dumba, while also letting Evgenii Dadonov leave in free agency.

Nothing terribly exciting.

The season will ultimately come down to whether Mikko Rantanen lives up to the expectations of being a superstar and living up to the massive extension he signed.

The big addition here is goalie John Gibson. Those would have been awesome moves eight years ago. But in 2025? Not really anything that will move the needle or advance Detroit's rebuild.

I just can't get over the fact that general manager Steve Yzerman's rebuild has been moving at a glacial pace, and he is prepared to enter the season with $12 million in unused salary-cap space with a roster that is mostly the same as the one that has not been good enough the past few years.

It's time for the Yzer-plan to start producing some results before it officially becomes the Yzer-sham.

Jettisoning Evander Kane's contract was a significant financial win, and acquiring Isaac Howard adds another young forward to the pipeline who might be able to provide strong play at a low price. That is always important for a Stanley Cup contender.

The two major concerns are that the goalie situation remains unsettled, and they do not yet have a contract extension in place for Connor McDavid.

The longer the latter point drags on, the more concerned fans should be. You have to think they will eventually get something done, but nothing is official until pen gets put to paper.

It's really difficult not to love this offseason for the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, as they managed to not only keep all of their major pending unrestricted free agents — Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad — but also do so at team-friendly contracts.

Again.

They will need that depth with Aleksander Barkov likely out for the entire season and Matthew Tkachuk out for a couple of months.

There are some concerns with those injuries, but the offseason overall is a win.

This might have been one of the worst and most confusing offseasons in the NHL.

The Kings have obviously hit a plateau with four consecutive first-round exits, and it's hard to see how things are going to get better after what Ken Holland did to the roster this offseason.

There was no meaningful upgrade to a mid-level offense, and he weakened the strength of the team -- the defense -- by letting Vladislav Gavrikov walk and trading Jordan Spence for a third-round pick, while replacing them with Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin on multi-year deals. They are either going to overpay third-pairing defenders (Dumoulin and Ceci) or play those two in roles they should not be in at this stage of their careers.

Neither solution is promising.

The offseason was short on outside moves by big on retaining key players.

After months of speculation about Marco Rossi's trade, they ended up re-signing him to a multi-year deal and then making Kirill Kaprizov the highest-paid player in NHL history. The Kaprizov move is huge because he is one of the best players in the NHL and is an MVP-level player when healthy.

Minnesota has a strong roster and one of the NHL's best farm systems, and now they are free from the worst years of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.

The window is wide open here.

What a fantastic offseason for a rapidly improving team that took a huge step forward in its rebuild during the 2024-25 season. Making the playoffs was a significant step, but the roster needed upgrades to return and continue improving.

Management made those upgrades by getting a legitimate top-pairing defender in Noah Dobson and an outstanding young middle-six forward in Zac Bolduc, who should fit in perfectly with the already existing core.

The playoffs are no longer a surprise or a hope here. They should be an expectation.

The Predators swung for the fences in 2024 and mostly whiffed, given the way Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei performed.

This offseason was a little quieter, but not necessarily better.

Paying Nicolas Hague over $5 million per year on a multi-year deal is a strange move for a team in this position, while Erik Haula doesn't really bring much game-changing ability to the roster.

It's a team that's not good enough to compete and is not clearly in the process of rebuilding. That mushy middle ground is like quicksand ... you can't escape it.

Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov are rock-solid depth pieces for a team that needed depth pieces exactly like that. Getting Dadonov, a 20-goal scorer, for around $1 million per season is some really slick business by the Devils' front office.

The biggest move of the offseason, however, was getting defenseman Luke Hughes signed long-term. They are banking a lot on him getting better and improving, but the potential is certainly there, and it's one less headache to worry about from a contract perspective.

The Islanders may not be a better team in 2025-26 than they were in 2024-25, but the long-term outlook is significantly better.

Moving on from Lou Lamoriello brought in a fresh new voice and direction, and the farm system has rapidly improved thanks to the Brock Nelson and Noah Dobson trades over the past few months, as well as some lottery ball magic to land defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 overall pick.

Getting Jonathan Drouin in free agency was also a nice move for the short-term, and perhaps one of the better value free agent signings of the summer.

There are some things to really like about this offseason and some things to be skeptical about.

The good news: Vladislav Gavrikov is going to significantly upgrade their top defense pairing and give Adam Fox a steady, reliable partner that he can count on. Their top pairing should be one of the best in hockey.

They also brought in a new voice with two-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Sullivan coming in from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The bad news: There are still some big depth issues at both forward and defense, and some of those questionable contracts acquired on defense last year forced them into moving K'Andre Miller.

Gavrikov over Miller is a win.

But the Rangers would have been better off having both of them.

That would have been possible.

The Senators didn't make many changes to their roster, but they did complete one under-the-radar trade to acquire Jordan Spence from the Los Angeles Kings for a draft pick.

Spence has excelled in sheltered, third-pairing minutes, and the Senators could use a player like that to help solidify the back-end of their defense. He's not somebody who's going to be a superstar, but he's the type of quiet, solid addition that can improve a spot that had been a weakness. Solid, even if not spectacular.

There is a very real chance that Trevor Zegras will excel in Philadelphia.

If that happens, and if they can get him to reach his potential, that would add a blue-chip talent to a roster that needs more blue-chip talent at forward. He might drive new head coach Rick Tocchet insane with his defensive play, but the offensive potential is there.

The biggest negative for the offseason is that the Flyers' attempt to address their biggest weakness from the past two years -- goaltending -- was to bring in veteran Dan Vladar, who might have been worse than the goalies the Flyers were running out on the ice a year ago. There's not a bad roster here if it can just get a few saves on occasion.

It's kind of a shocking offseason in the sense that Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust, and Rickard Rakell are all still on the roster. It seemed to be a given that at least one of them would be moved. Is that a big-missed opportunity? Or will one (or more) still get moved before the trade deadline?

Or is this a sign that the Penguins are not going with a full-scale rebuild and are instead hoping to compete sooner, rather than later?

In terms of additions, it was very similar to last year's offseason, with them taking on a bad contract (Matt Dumba) for a draft pick, signing some veterans whose production they can pump up in an effort to trade at the deadline (Anthony Mantha) and an occasional intriguing young player that might need a fresh start (goalie Artus Silovs).

The forwards might be good enough to make the team competitive, but the defense and goaltending will keep them in the Gavin McKenna lottery.

The Sharks brought in a lot of veterans with the additions of Jeff Skinner, Dmitry Orlov, and Alex Nedeljkovic, and those guys will help them win a few more games. Not a lot, but a few.

The biggest hope for the Sharks here is continued development from second-year standout Macklin Celebrini and the rest of the talented young core in place. They added another potential star to that mix with forward Michael Misa in the draft. This team should win 10-15 more games this season, given its veterans and the caliber of young talent it has.

San Jose is still far away from the playoffs, but getting closer.

Moves I like: Trading for Mason Marchment and adding Freddy Gaudreau.

Move I didn't like: Adding Ryan Lindgren to the defense after multiple Stanley Cup contenders over the past year decided they did not want him on their team anymore.

This is still a confounding franchise to figure out, and it looks like another mediocre season on the horizon, unless Shane Wright and Matty Beniers both break out with huge offensive seasons.

Very similar to the Stars, sometimes the best move is the one you do not make.

The Blues kept Jordan Kyrou after a few weeks of trade speculation, keeping one of their best players on the roster.

I still don't like trading Zac Bolduc for Logan Mallioux, but Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad should bring some solid forward depth for a cheap price.

The Blues returned to their defense dominance last season, and the addition of defenseman Cam Fowler was one of the big turning points for that. He also received a new contract extension just before the start of the season. He seems to have found a home here and a good spot for his game to excel.

An uncharacteristically boring offseason in Tampa Bay, where the biggest move was trading top prospect Isaac Howard to the Edmonton Oilers for Sam O'Reilly after Howard refused to sign in Tampa Bay.

It's still a playoff-caliber roster, but I would have liked to see a better backup goalie come in so Andrei Vasilevskiy can get more rest during the season and not be completely burned out when the playoffs begin.

They finally did what was necessary and broke up part of the core by sending away Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade deal with the Vegas Golden Knights.

It was necessary.

It was probably overdue.

But did the Maple Leafs use his salary cap space and overall absence to their advantage? That's what I'm not sure about, as they have Nicolas Roy, Mattias Macelli, and Dakota Joshua all coming in to replace him. Quantity does not always equal quality, and the Maple Leafs might soon find that out the hard way, even if the big chance was necessary.

The Mammoth accumulated some nice defensive depth and tapped into that depth to get JJ Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres. It's a nice move because, even though Peterka has some defensive shortcomings, he possesses 30-goal potential offensively and provides Utah with another young top-six scorer to complement their young core.

Brandon Tanev is unlikely to bring a ton of offense, but he will bring a lot of energy, solid defensive play, and the occasional goal.

Strong offseason for a team that should have the playoffs on their mind.

The Canucks shocked everybody by actually working out a deal with Brock Boeser just when it looked like he was going to leave in free agency. No issue with that move. I do have a big issue with taking on all of Evander Kane's salary and helping out a division rival by getting them out of their salary cap mess.

Re-signing Thatcher Demko is also a bit of a risk, given the injuries and inconsistent play from the past couple of years.

At the end of the day, nothing done this offseason will matter more than Elias Pettersson getting himself right again. If he does not do that, it's a significant problem for the Canucks' short- and long-term outlooks.

They did it again.

Another top player hit the open market/trade market, and the Golden Knights were there to pounce.

This time, it was forward Mitch Marner, taking advantage of the fact that Alex Pietrangelo is stepping away from hockey for a bit and opening up just enough salary cap space to add a top-line winger.

Vegas needed another scorer for the top of the lineup, and Marner was as good as they were going to find this offseason. It might also be a perfect fit for him to join a winning organization that has an established core in place, one that will face the tough questions and be the face of the franchise.

Even with his salary, he can be more of a complementary player here behind Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. It's their team.

After having one of the NHL's busiest offseasons a year ago, the Capitals followed it up with one of the quietest. The only real outside addition was trading for Justin Sourdif from Florida.

There's really not much else to say here because there really wasn't much else done.

Still a good team, just not much different from a year ago.

Losing Nikolaj Ehlers and replacing him with Tanner Pearson and Gustav Nyquist is a step backwards, and I'm not sure Jonathan Toews is going to do much beyond be a nice PR story as the local player returns home.

The Jets are likely to make the playoffs as long as Connor Hellebuyck plays up to his ability, but then the question will become what he does when he gets there. That has been the big problem here the past few postseasons.

They have a similar situation here to the one the Tampa Bay Lightning currently face with their franchise goalie -- he plays too much during the regular season due to the lack of a quality backup and struggles in the playoffs. They should have looked to fix that.