Which non-playoff NHL team needs to blow it up this summer?
We’re at the time of year in which the eliminated NHL teams are delivering their year-end pressers, firing or retaining coaches and wondering how they can fix their outlooks.
So, Roundtable:Among the eliminated teams, which one needs to completely blow it up and start over?
MATT LARKIN: I like the way Kyle Dubas has spoken about the Pittsburgh Penguins this week. It doesn’t sound like he’s planning to patch over his roster with another array of 30-something veterans this time. The Pens actually have 11 picks for the 2025 NHL Draft, and they have three first-rounders and five second-rounders across the next two Drafts.They’re positioned to blow it up at least a little bit if they so desire. If they could buy out Tristan Jarry and explore a sell-high trade for Rickard Rakell, maybe they get even younger next year. Is there any universe in which Erik Karlsson’s remaining three years are tradeable, too? The Pens have one salary retention spot left. What Dubas does is a matter of how willing Sidney Crosby is to go backward to go forward.
PAUL PIDUTTI: It’s an interesting time in the NHL as there are so many teams in various stages of teardowns, rebuilds, or retools. For me, it’s the New York Islanders that need to officially start all over. With a new arena in 2021 and consecutive trips to the final four (2021, 2022), it’s easy to see why the Isles leaned in on an older group in recent years. But the expiry date of this plucky core feels over. The Brock Nelson trade and now the exits of GM Lou Lamoriello and Cal Clutterbuck are the first signs of a changing of the guard. The Islanders have relatively few young or cost-controlled parts to move, but there are plenty of veterans that might be attractive in the summer with a rising cap. Even with a healthy Mat Barzal and a still-in-his-prime Ilya Sorokin, there isn’t enough upside to think Patrick Roy can make this a perennially threatening roster. While it’s commendable from an anti-tanking standpoint, hoping to sneak into the playoffs and upset much better teams remains a nearly impossible road.
SCOTT MAXWELL: I’m going to join Paul here in saying that the New York Islanders should be the team that goes for more of an aggressive teardown. But I’m going to go a step further and say that that teardown should possibly include Mat Barzal and Ilya Sorokin. In an absolutely perfect world, it might take three to four years for the Islanders to rebuild, and that’s assuming they do it very well and hit on almost everything. Going off that window, Barzal will be 30 and Sorokin will be 33, both likely to be outside of their prime years at that point. You don’t want to go full Buffalo Sabres and get rid of every asset that positively contributes to the team, so I wouldn’t say sell them for the sake of selling them, but if the right deal comes around for them, I wouldn’t view them as untouchable. This franchise needs a reset, and by the time things truly turn around, those two might be past their primes (and maybe even Noah Dobson, too), so exploring those avenues wouldn’t be a bad thing.
STEVEN ELLIS: Good choices here – but I’m going with the Vancouver Canucks. This season was such a cluster-bleep filled with drama and injuries. Anything they do this summer will feel like patch work. Moving on from Elias Pettersson would probably be a mistake – but at the same time, maybe it’s the right thing to do. Is Thatcher Demko capable of being a No. 1? If not, do they really trust Kevin Lankinen in the long run? If they lose Brock Boeser, whom do they replace him with? What a difference a year made for this club. The team has good pieces, but I think they just need to restart and refocus. Get the bad mojo out of there.
ANTHONY DI MARCO: I’ll preface this by saying it is a complete impossibility after last summer, but what about the Nashville Predators? I was a proponent of them blowing it up before Trotz’s arrival as GM and vehemently disagreed with the direction he took the team in with his moves last summer. You added good but not great players last summer (save for Steven Stamkos, who is just past his prime at this juncture) who weren’t what the team needed stylistically – specifically up front. I understand that you had Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi already locked up, but why further compound that with re-signing Juuse Saros? Forgoing assets that could’ve been obtained via trade, all while being forced to move off of Yaroslav Askarov. I don’t think the team had a superstar coming up the pipeline, something they are in desperate need of up front and especially down the middle of the ice. I get that the rebuilding ship has sailed after last summer’s moves, but if we’re objectively analyzing the states of the Preds’ roster, they should be looking to blow it up.
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