Five NHL teams that got noticeably weaker in the 2024-25 offseason

Credit: Nashville Predators left winger Jonathan Marchessault

The fun of the NHL offseason lies in seeing which players change addresses and which teams improve the most via their bold transactions. Have the Nashville Predators, for instance, ever entered a season with more hype around them?

On the other side of all the player movement, receiving considerably less fanfare, are the teams left behind in all the exoduses. Which franchises lost more than they gained this summer and appear noticeably weaker going into 2024-25? Consider these five, with their most significant additions and subtractions noted.

5. Carolina Hurricanes

OUT: Jake Guentzel, Brady Skjei, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce, Stefan Noesen, Evgeny Kuznetsov

IN: Sean Walker, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jack Roslovic, William Carrier, Tyson Jost

I spoke in June with Hurricanes right winger Seth Jarvis about the pain of losing in Round 2 of the 2024 playoffs. He admitted it was still almost too painful to talk about – exacerbated by the fact Carolina had so many pending unrestricted free agents.

“Oh, it made the loss 10 times worse,” Jarvis told Daily Faceoff. “And I think everyone kind of knew what situation we were in and how many deals had to get done at the end of the year. That was the [feeling in] the room, that we have such a fun group, we had such a great time together, but the chance of us all coming back and all being together again, it’d be tough to do.”

A few weeks later, Jarvis’ fears were realized. Carolina watched two top-six forwards in Guentzel and Teravainen depart in free agency, while top-four blueliners Skjei and Pesce walked, too. Carolina, still a dominant play-driving team under coach Rod Brind’Amour and full of impact players in their primes, remains a Stanley Cup contender. Promoted GM Eric Tulsky made some respectable moves to replace what he lost, most notably on defense with the versatile Walker and puck-mover Gostisbehere. But last season was Carolina’s big swing, the year in which it paid up at the trade deadline to get the best forward on the market in Guentzel. It feels like the Canes have come back in the pack now, at least on paper.

4. Los Angeles Kings

OUT: Matt Roy, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Cam Talbot, Viktor Arvidsson, Blake Lizotte

in: Darcy Kuemper, Warren Foegele, Joel Edmundson, Tanner Jeannot, Caleb Jones

I’ve harped on the Kings’ offseason in multiple stories already now, so I’ll try to keep my critique of GM Rob Blake relatively brief here. While it was probably a wise long-term move to escape the final seven years of Dubois’ deal, L.A. still removed a middle-six center from the equation and did not replace his scoring for 2024-25. They also lost a key shutdown defenseman in Roy, a solid-when-healthy play driver up front in Arvidsson and, at least based on last season, they downgraded in net from Talbot to Kuemper. With the likes of Foegele, Edmundson and Jeannot joining the fray, L.A. looks bigger, slower and less talented than it was a year ago. How is this the formula for getting over the hump against the high-flyin’ Edmonton Oilers after losing to them in the first round of the playoffs three years in a row?

3. Florida Panthers

OUT: Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anthony Stolarz, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenlund

IN: Chris Driedger, Nate Schmidt, Jesper Boqvist, Tomas Nosek

It’s pretty much tradition in the salary-cap era for a Stanley Cup champion to get weaker immediately after winning. If you have unrestricted free agents on your triumphant squad, their value will be justifiably inflated by the victory, and many of them will chase the best paydays of their careers now that “Cup ring” is crossed off their bucket lists. That was clearly the case for Montour, who, at 30, scored a seven-year deal from Seattle at a $7.14 million AAV that won’t age well. Since it was such a priority to re-sign Sam Reinhart coming off his amazing 57-goal campaign, Panthers GM Bill Zito had to let some additional quality players go on top of Montour, including ‘OEL’ from the D-corps, Tarasenko from the forward group and Stolarz, who was probably the NHL’s best backup goalie last year.

So, yes, the Panthers got worse. It doesn’t mean they’ll be a bad team. A thinned-out version of the champs still ranks among the elite Stanley Cup challengers for 2024-25.

2. Winnipeg Jets

OUT: Tyler Toffoli, Sean Monahan, Brenden Dillon, Nate Schmidt, Laurent Brossoit

IN: Haydn Fleury, Kaapo Kahkonen, Eric Comrie, Mason Shaw, Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Similarly to the Hurricanes, the Jets really needed to make last season count. En route to equalling their franchise single-season record for wins with 52, they shot their shot and gave up a first- and second-round pick in trades for Monahan and Toffoli, respectively, last winter. The end result was a first-round exit. Woof. Winnipeg didn’t have the cap space to retain its rentals with Mark Scheifele’s and Connor Hellebuyck’s contract extensions kicking in for 2024-25 and youngster Cole Perfetti needing a new deal as an RFA. The Jets’ 2024 offseason has mostly consisted of GM Kevin Cheveldayoff licking his wounds and making depth signings. Hey, it’s all cyclical. The Jets went all-in last year and got nothing out of it. That’s hockey.

1. Vegas Golden Knights

OUT: Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Logan Thompson, Anthony Mantha, Alec Martinez, Mike Amadio, William Carrier

IN: Ilya Samsonov, Alexander Holtz, Victor Olofsson, Akira Schmid, Robert Hagg

It feels strange to see the Evil Empire, forever chasing the shiniest of toys, having such a quiet offseason, which included (a) losing 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner and Original Misfit Marchessault for what seemed like an affordable price of $5.5 million a year and (b) trading Thompson during the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere while he was in the building signing autographs. Stephenson wasn’t worth the $6.25 million Seattle handed him over the next seven years, but he was still an extremely malleable and speedy contributor to Vegas’ forward group who could play multiple positions, so it still hurts to lose him. Thompson was one of the best backups in the NHL, valued enough by Vegas that it even started him over Cup champ Adin Hill to open the 2024 playoffs. Martinez, long one of the NHL’s pre-eminent shot blockers, is a consummate winner.

Of course, while the Golden Knights clearly got worse this offseason, it’s a bit deceiving to paint them as a franchise going in the wrong direction just yet. Part of why they had to let several veterans go was because they acquired some big-ticket pieces at the 2024 trade deadline who were not rentals in Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin. Vegas is still paying $6.75 million of Hertl’s contract for each of the next six years, while Hanifin signed an eight-year extension at a $7.35 million AAV that commences this coming season. While the Golden Knights infamously have their fun with LTIR leading into every postseason, they have to be cap compliant for the regular season, and no franchise is more comfortable coldly cutting ties with key cogs when left with no choice.

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