The Biggest Flaw to Fix for Every NHL Team Not in the Playoffs

When a team misses the Stanley Cup Playoffs and they join us commoners watching them from our couches, it makes for a time of reflection. Some teams think about what could've been, while others think of what never had a chance of happening. It's like the SpongeBob SquarePants meme with Squidward looking through his blinds while SpongeBob and Patrick are outside having a great time.

When teams stop reflecting and start looking ahead and thinking about what they're going to do to make sure they don't miss out on a good time next season, that's when the real fun begins. Some teams, like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets, got a head start on that by handing out pink slips.

Whether it's one fatal flaw or the worst problem from a stack of them that led to these teams missing the postseason, these ideas of how to make things better in the wake of a losing season will assuredly assuage the sadness fans are feeling.

We'll break the teams down by division to make things a little easier to consume and to better contain the widespread sadness.

Buffalo Sabres

What did the Sabres do really well this season? They scored goals. What did they not do well this season? Stopping other teams from scoring them. While the defense could definitely be stronger, it's the last line of defense, goaltending, that must be better if they're going to make the playoffs. With Craig Anderson retired, it'll be up to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Eric Comrie and rookie Devon Levi to find a way to get it done, and the rookie has the edge based on who played most at the end of the season. That leaves things up in the air, though, doesn't it? Making a trade to bring in a goalie with more experience seems like an obvious move, even if the goalie to acquire isn't obvious. Thatcher Demko, John Gibson or Juuse Saros would be on any Sabres fan's dream wish list. The Sabres clearly love Levi, but asking a 21-year-old rookie to be the guy to end the team's 12-year playoff drought as their No. 1 with seven NHL games under his belt is asking a lot.

Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings had a lot of hype (and hope) before the season, and while they had flashes of what the future might bring, the playoffs were a bit out of their reach for a couple of reasons. They were 24th in goals scored and allowed the 11th-most goals. Finding a solid backup goalie for Ville Husso would save them a world of trouble. Husso had the heaviest workload in his career this season playing 56 games. He showed early in the season how good he can be (9-3-3, .912 save percentage in October and November), but backups Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg didn't provide much in the way of relief. Nedeljkovic was waived and demoted in January, and Hellberg played just about as well. Get a better backup and you get a fresher, better Husso as well as better performance when he's not starting.

Montréal Canadiens

The Canadiens had a lot of young and inexperienced players all throughout their lineup this season. That's partially because they're going through a bit of a rebuild, but it's mostly because they had incredible injury problems. The Habs had the most man games lost to injury this season, and simply better injury luck would go a very long way to addressing that. They lost the likes of Carey Price, Cole Caufield, Sean Monahan, Brendan Gallagher, Mike Matheson and Kaiden Guhle for large chunks of the season, and that's not the entire list of players either. Was Montréal going to be good this season? Probably not, no, but they didn't stand a chance of even sniffing the competition with so many key players out of action. If better luck starts with winning the NHL Draft Lottery, a rough season will feel a lot better in the end.

Ottawa Senators

The Senators had grand designs of making the playoffs this season and weren't too far out of that mix, finishing six points back of Florida for the second wild-card spot. Ottawa got spectacular seasons from Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk and Claude Giroux, but they didn't get a great season out of Cam Talbot. Remember, the Senators got Talbot from Minnesota in a trade over the summer for (hide your eyes, Sens fans) Filip Gustavsson, the Wild's winning goalie in Game 1 of the playoffs against Dallas. Whoops. Talbot battled injuries, as did most of their goalies, but he struggled when he was playing. Ottawa did a lot to improve by adding Alex DeBrincat in the offseason and later trading for Jakob Chychrun, but goaltending was a huge letdown.

Columbus Blue Jackets

What don't the Blue Jackets need help with? They scored the third-fewest goals and allowed the second-most in the league. They were really bad, and it got Brad Larsen fired as head coach. The Jackets have some pieces, however. Johnny Gaudreau had a solid season, Patrik Laine, when healthy, is an elite scorer and rookie Kent Johnson had a good first year as well. They'll have a healthy Zach Werenski back on the blue line, and David Jiricek should be a Calder Trophy challenger on the blue line next season. What they need is a coach who can take advantage of a young team that has a lot of offensive upside and, boy, that sounds like a call for someone like Bruce Boudreau to step in and get the best out of them. Be it Boudreau or someone else who wants to lean into the NHL's offensive explosion, it would at least make the Jackets a lot more entertaining.

Philadelphia Flyers

The mood around the Flyers was grim almost all season, and it's not just because John Tortorella runs a tight ship. They played hard and Carter Hart held things down as well as he could in goal, but they just could not score goals. Philly had the league's fourth-worst offense, scoring 220 goals. They went without forwards Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson all season, and defenseman Ryan Ellis might never play again because of a back injury. Finding goals for this franchise is tricky, and trading Kevin Hayes might be the solution. Hayes, an All-Star this season, has three years remaining on a contract with a cap hit north of $7 million, but he needs a change of scenery after winding up catching Tortorella's ire most of the season. Finding a trade partner who could provide a couple of helpful pieces for a very good player would be a great start to boosting the offense.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Penguins addressed their biggest shortcoming already by firing Ron Hextall, Brian Burke and others after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The Pens are older, severely lack top-end prospects and have very little depth. It's not an overly appealing gig for a budding GM to take on unless they're willing to use any and all kinds of information to help make moves. That's right, the best thing for a team without a lot of cap space that needs to make improvements is a GM willing to lean heavily on advanced analytics to find diamonds in the rough to fill out the roster. Look at what the Seattle Kraken have done with a team that doesn't have a superstar player (although Matty Beniers is getting there). They have a strong analytics team and are in the playoffs in their second season. The Pens need to find value until they're able to draft better and refill the prospect pipeline.

Washington Capitals

The Capitals' fall from last season to this season was staggering. They had 100 points last season and finished with 80 this season. Even though they had another great season from Alex Ovechkin, their biggest stars weren't immune from injury. T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson and John Carlson all missed large chunks of games, and the Capitals' lack of quality depth really showed through. General manager Brian MacLellan doesn't have a lot of cap space to work with to help that situation, so trading Evgeny Kuznetsov could be the solution. There were rumblings out of Russia recently that he said he wanted a trade, but he denied them. That doesn't make him less ideal to move, though. He's 30 and has two years left on his contract with a $7.8 million cap hit. Although his numbers were down a bit this year, his skill is tantalizing, and a trade could bring back the kind of help the Caps need to deepen their roster.

Arizona Coyotes

Even with all the noise around the team about their desire to get a new arena built, the Coyotes showed they can play hard and win games at home, and they've got some young players showing out. They'll get Logan Cooley into the mix either next season or the year after, and they'll add another top prospect in this year's draft. They'll also have Dylan Guenther in the fold full-time next season. What the Coyotes need most now is patience. What GM Bill Armstrong is building with coach André Tourigny at the helm is good, but they're not in the position to make a run at the playoffs just yet. With the quality of the players they're drafting, and how Tourigny is coaching them up, they can be good in the years to come, but they cannot rush things along.

Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago was some special brand of bad this season, with a specific purpose to get in the best position to draft Connor Bedard. They've piled up draft picks and have got a lot more of them this year. The team, while lacking in overall talent, plays really hard for coach Luke Richardson (just ask the Pittsburgh Penguins), and playing hard can win games they're not supposed to some nights. But a full teardown and rebuild like this needs time to work. Chicago isn't too far gone from their dynasty so fans can hang onto those memories while GM Kyle Davidson tries to build a new dynasty. They're not going to be good next season, but they're going to be a pain to play against. That'll do for now until top prospects fill out their ranks in the years to come.

Nashville Predators

The Predators have a lot of good things going for them. They've got an elite goalie in Juuse Saros, an electric goal scorer in Filip Fosberg and a solid center in Ryan Johansen. Unfortunately, they were without the latter two for the second half of the season when Saros dragged the team into playoff competition. They've got the goaltending, but they need more offense badly. Nashville had one (1) 20-goal scorer (Matt Duchene) and four players with 40-plus points. The Preds have plenty of hard-nosed, grinder-type players to fill out their ranks, but even when healthy Forsberg and Johansen only provide so many goals. Yes, they can help lift their teammates up naturally, peeking around in free agency or sniffing around for a trade for another goal scorer should be new GM Barry Trotz's first priority when he takes over this summer.

St. Louis Blues

It feels like we pick on Jordan Binnington a lot here. But honest criticism of him is deserved when it comes to his performance in goal, and finding a way to work around him and his beefy contract would be a great move by the Blues. Trading him at his lowest value probably isn't likely and if it is they won't get what they'd want in return for a guy that helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2019. This is why they should take a long look at rookie Joel Hofer in goal next season. Hofer got a taste of NHL action late in the season and played very well. He was also one of the best goalies in the AHL this season. His time is coming, and it should be soon. The Blues didn't really lack for scoring, but they couldn't keep opponents off the board with any kind of regularity. Perhaps getting Hofer a long look fixes the problem or lights a fire under Binnington.

Anaheim Ducks

Figuring out what to do with the Ducks is difficult after they scored the second-fewest goals in the league and allowed the most. A healthy Jamie Drysdale on defense will help them out a little, but they'll need more. The same goes up front, where Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry and Mason McTavish are young and very good scorers, but they need more than that to just help out John Gibson in goal. They'll have the best odds of winning the No. 1 pick in the draft, and getting Connor Bedard would solve a lot of problems immediately, but you can't rely on ping pong balls going your way. They'll need a new coach after parting ways with Dallas Eakins, and they'll need a lot of time to get out of this very large hole. Winning the lottery offers the path of least resistance to getting back to the postseason down the road.

Calgary Flames

The Flames had a couple things that stymied their hopes of making the playoffs and a run at the Stanley Cup. Goalies Jacob Markstrom and Daniel Vladar struggled, but they're also going to need forward Jonathan Huberdeau to reclaim the form he had in Florida. Huberdeau had 115 points with the Panthers last season. This season? 55 points, his fewest since 2014-2015. He went from 30 goals to 15 and 85 assists to 40. The Flames got solid seasons from Tyler Toffoli and Elias Lindholm, but without Huberdeau producing like he has the past few seasons, never mind last year, there's little likelihood of Calgary rebounding.

San Jose Sharks

You've read this suggestion for a few other teams already, but my goodness, the Sharks need goaltending help. James Reimer and Kaapo Kähkönen were the main performers on a team that had the league's lowest save percentage. The Sharks are going to get some young forward help in the seasons to come from William Eklund and Thomas Bordeleau, and potentially as well as the player they draft in the first round this summer. Adding them with Tomas Hertl, Logan Couture and Erik Karlsson will give their offense a lift, but they desperately need to find new blood in goal. When you've got one of the worst tandems in the league, doing worse would be an incredible accomplishment, and not the kind anyone wants to pull off. There's not much help in free agency, but any one of Cam Talbot, Semyon Varlamov, Jonathan Quick and Tristan Jarry could be a sizable upgrade.

Vancouver Canucks

Curiously enough, the Canucks aren't as bad off as most of their season showed them to be. After they brought in Rick Tocchet to coach, they went 20-12-4. That also coincided with goalie Thatcher Demko returning from injury and looking like the player we've seen in the past. But it's not just Demko who popped off. J.T. Miller had his game focused, Elias Pettersson produced at an MVP level and Quinn Hughes showed all season long how he's one of the best defensemen in the league. The Canucks need some depth at forward and stronger play on defense, but a full training camp with Tocchet in charge could go a long way to getting Vancouver back to the playoffs sooner than not.