Eight Burning Questions facing the NHL’s Eight Eliminated Round 1 teams

A topsy-turvy Round 1 is just the beginning of the turbulence for some of the NHL’s opening round exits. Here are eight burning questions facing the eight eliminated teams:

1. Will Gerard Gallant survive as New York Rangers coach?

With only two full seasons at his post, there’s been no shortage of speculation about Gallant’s job security as a loaded Rangers roster took two steps backward from the Eastern Conference final last year. In fact, industry executives have already linked three-time Stanley Cup winning coach Joel Quenneville to the job, even before the Rangers fell in Game 7 on Monday night. Gallant didn’t do himself any favors by publicly blasting his top players last round – even if his assessment was accurate. Right or wrong, “Turk” is seen by opposition staffs as lacking the creative approach to make appropriate in-game or in-series changes. But when you coach a group with as much firepower as the Rangers, bowing out in Round 1 will put you on mercurial owner James Dolan’s radar. The Rangers have gone 99-46-19 (.662) under Gallant with a 13-14 mark in the playoffs.

2. What will the Jets do with Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck?

Trade him? Re-sign him? Play out the final year on his deal? Hellebuyck himself gave us limited insight into his thought process at the Jets’ locker cleanout day, only saying that he’s not interested in signing up for a rebuild. The truth is the Jets really aren’t capable of truly bottoming out, not with Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey sticking around. So it would be a reboot, not a rebuild. Does Hellebuyck want to be part of the next iteration in Winnipeg? Does he like living there? Would he rather pick his next destination in 2024? The tough part of the calculus for the Jets is that even if perhaps the most prudent thing to do is to trade Hellebuyck with a year remaining on his deal, goalies typically don’t fetch much on the trade market, likely not commensurate to the value he’s shown he has to Winnipeg.

3. Will Lou Lamoriello remain at his GM post with New York Islanders?

After quadrupling down on his aging core that is locked-up long-term on Long Island, there were whispers on Monday that Lamoriello might be angling upward toward a president role in the Islanders’ front office. Good luck getting the truth – the Islanders belong in the “Only God and Lou know” category.  The Hall of Fame Builder is the NHL’s first-ever 80-year-old GM. Critics were wondering whether Lamoriello lost his fastball five years ago when he landed on Long Island, but the Islanders’ best runs in three decades resulted. The issue now is the Islanders are totally committed to that group. They have 12 skaters signed through at least the next two seasons, according to CapFriendly. Nine of their forwards are on the wrong side of 30. And that doesn’t include Bo Horvat, who struggled mightily after his blockbuster trade, and signed an 8-year, $68 million deal that takes him to age 36. Since they barely snuck in as assembled, when will the Islanders make the playoffs again? It’s a fair question.

4. How will the Avalanche navigate their new salary cap hell?

Coming out of their rebuild that brought them Cale Makar, the Avalanche have enjoyed a few years of mostly easy living on the salary cap table thanks to smart management and prudent decisions. With success comes a whole new slate of challenges, including now trying to keep it all together. Nathan MacKinnon will double his salary cap hit from $6.3 million to $12.6 million this summer, leaving some to wonder whether the Avs did enough at this year’s trade deadline to maximize their window. Repeating is hard – and maybe this just wasn’t the Avs’ year. This summer, GM Chris MacFarland has 10 players to sign with approximately $14 million in space. That’s why Samuel Girard prominently appeared on our first Trade Targets board of the offseason. Colorado still needs a bona fide No. 2 center and losing free agent J.T. Compher will only compound the problem. The Avs have some tough decisions to make. Maybe with a depressed Free Agent class this summer, it’s the perfect time to hunt for value.

5. How do the Los Angeles Kings restructure their blueline?

Yes, the goaltending question is a big one for the Kings, too. They’ve got to find a way to dump Cal Petersen’s $5 million contract. It would be easy to re-sign Joonas Korpisalo or find another free agent to play with Pheonix Copley. It’s a critical component to the Kings’ success, but I’m more interested in how Los Angeles re-configures its crowded back end. One GM called the Kings the “NHL’s bullpen for right-shot defensemen.” It’s an embarrassment of riches, a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. There are too many guys. How do the Kings better balance out their blueline? The first guy to go would seemingly be Sean Walker. In an ideal world, Sean Durzi would move back to his natural right side. But that doesn’t seem like it’s happening any time soon. Jordan Spence is ready and Brandt Clarke isn’t far behind. If the Kings would part with any of those young guys, expect a return similar to what the Rangers got for Nils Lundkvist last September: first and fourth-round picks.

6. Can the Minnesota Wild land a game-breaking center?

If this feels like an age-old question, it is. The Wild have been searching for a franchise center for a long time. They’ve got a great piece in Joel Eriksson Ek, who showed all sorts of heart attempting to skate on a broken leg in the first round against Dallas. Ryan Hartman can play the role. Freddie Gaudreau was one of the great stories of the season, signing a $10.5 million extension. But they likely need three players of Eriksson-Ek’s ilk down the middle to really vault into the contender category. This season was frustrating on so many levels for Minnesota because they showed just how close, yet really how far they are from breaking through. They were one of the league’s most competitive teams this season, yet were dispatched quietly in the first round. The trouble is their cap limitations won’t be alleviated for two more seasons, limiting what they’ll be able to add without major roster surgery.

7. Will Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci return for another run with the Bruins?

There is zero doubt this record-setting season left a sour taste in the mouth of the Bruins’ conscience in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. They squandered perhaps their best chance to hoist a second career Stanley Cup. It wasn’t just up 3-1 in the series, it was up 3-2 in Game 7 with a minute left that will haunt them for a long time. Is that enough to draw them back in for one more run? If it is, it’s going to have to be at a different pay scale, because Bergeron and Krejci’s bonus-laden contracts have given the B’s a $4.5 million overage that carries over to next season. In other words, if next year’s cap is $83.5 million, the Bruins will be starting at $79 million. And that means the Bruins will be forced to say goodbye to some players, including rentals and likely a tough roster decision or two. Matt Grzelcyk and Taylor Hall were just two of the Bruins to make our first Trade Targets board. 

8. How do the Lightning reboot for another run at Lord Stanley?

Finally, a chance for the Lightning’s battered core to rest and regroup and enjoy a long summer. That isn’t how they drew it up, but the recharge will be beneficial nonetheless, particularly with someone like Victor Herman playing with a hip impingement and Brayden Point skating through a rib cartilage fracture. Tampa Bay has played 77 Stanley Cup playoff games in the last 30 months – essentially one additional entire season of hockey than everyone else. With that will come another summer of difficult questions. Last year, the Lightning said goodbye to Ondrej Palat. This time around, it seems the same fate awaits Alex Killorn. It might also include Ross Colton, who contributed to their second Stanley Cup in 2021. Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak all have long-term extensions kicking in that will complicate the roster construction process, but Lightning management always has a plan. And this Tampa core has a few more runs at glory left in them.