5 Teams That Are Still a Mess After NHL Free Agency

It's been over a month since the NHL's annual free-agent period began July 1. As usual, most of the top talent was signed up within the first day, leaving slim pickings for teams searching for quality free agents.

We're now in the dog days of the offseason, and the start of September training camps are still weeks away. This is a good opportunity to look at which NHL teams are still a mess following last month's frenzy of free-agent signings.

The clubs on our listing are in the middle of rebuilding or retooling their rosters. They all made changes during the offseason, including adding players via trades or free agency.

Some, like the San Jose Sharks, made significant moves, while others, like the Vancouver Canucks, made depth additions. All of them, however, face what could be another difficult season ahead because of a lack of overall roster talent or the absence of an established star to build around.

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.

Under general manager Pat Verbeek, the Anaheim Ducks have been rebuilding with younger talent. Their future rests with forwards Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Troy Terry, defenseman Jamie Drysdale and promising prospects such as 2023 second overall pick Leo Carlsson and blueliners Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger.

Verbeek dove into this summer's free-agent pool to provide some experienced help for his roster. He signed two-way winger Alex Killorn to a four-year contract and inked rugged defenseman Radko Gudas to a three-year deal. He also replaced Dallas Eakins as head coach with Greg Cronin, who spent five years with the AHL's Colorado Eagles.

Nevertheless, the Ducks have some issues to address for 2023-24. Topping the list is whether they can get more production out of their current forwards. Despite the presence of rising stars in Zegras, Terry and McTavish, they had the league's second-lowest goals-per-game average (2.51) last season. Adding Killorn will help a bit, but they need more scoring punch.

The defense was also an issue, giving up the most shots against per game (39.1) and the most goals against per game (4.09). A healthy Drysdale skating with the puck-moving Cam Fowler along with Gudas' physical style should bring about some improvement, but they're still lacking sufficient skilled blue-line depth to make a significant rise up the standings.

John Gibson's future with the Ducks remains a nagging issue. There was a report claiming the 29-year-old goaltender requested a trade in early July, but that was swiftly denied by his agent. Nevertheless, Gibson has been a hot topic of trade chatter this summer, making our July NHL Trade Block Big Board.

Winning the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery, Chicago hit the jackpot by choosing Connor Bedard with the first overall pick. The 18-year-old center is considered a generational talent comparable to Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid. He will become the foundation for their current rebuilding process.

General manager Kyle Davidson also added some veteran forwards, bringing in Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno in a trade with the Boston Bruins. Davidson also acquired winger Corey Perry from the Tampa Bay Lightning and signed him to a contract, as well as signing former Seattle Kraken winger Ryan Donato.

Chicago still has skilled defenseman Seth Jones anchoring their blue-line corps, while promising rearguard Kevin Korchinski could crack the lineup this season. Young forward Taylor Raddysh and Lukas Reichel will continue to be key components of the rebuild.

That's the good news. The bad news is this rebuilding team will still struggle to score goals and keep the puck out of its own net.

Hall, Foligno and Perry bring plenty of experience and leadership to their forward lines and will help to mentor the promising Berard. However, they're also now well past their best-before dates. Andreas Athanasiou reached 20 goals and 40 points last season for the first time since 2018-19, but there's no certainty he'll do it again.

Oft-injured starting goalie Petr Mrázek will share the duties with the promising but still green Arvid Söderblom. That doesn't bode well for a significant reduction from last season's 3.65 goals-against per game. Meanwhile, the blue-line depth drops considerably beyond Jones and whoever his partner will be on the first defense pairing.

In his first offseason as Philadelphia Flyers general manager, Daniel Brière wasted no time shaking things up. His biggest move was shipping Ivan Provorov to Columbus Blue Jackets in a three-team deal involving the Los Angeles Kings that fetched goalie Cal Petersen, blueliners Sean Walker and Helge Grans along with two draft picks.

Brière also shipped center Kevin Hayes to the St. Louis Blues for a draft pick and bought out the remaining year of defenseman Tony DeAngelo's contract. He dipped into the free-agent market for veteran help, adding forwards Garnet Hathaway and Ryan Poehling and defenseman Marc Staal.

Under head coach John Tortorella, the Flyers will remain a hard-working bunch. After being sidelined last season, veteran forwards Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson will return to the lineup. Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost and Cam York provide some hope for the future. However, there's still a lot more work to be done to improve this roster.

The Flyers offense won't improve much over last season's 2.68 goals-per-game average if Couturier and Atkinson struggle to regain their form. Any regression from Tippett and Frost will further hamper the club's production. They also lack a reliable No.1 defenseman to anchor their blue-line corps.

Hathaway is a good addition to the Flyers' checking line, but Brière's other free-agent addition probably won't bring about a significant reversal in the club's fortunes. Staal was once a blue-line stalwart with the New York Rangers, but his best seasons are well behind him. Poehling, meanwhile, is now on his third NHL club since 2021-22.

San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier addressed one major issue by trading Erik Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a three-team deal involving the Montreal Canadiens. The move shed all but $1.5 million of Karlsson's $11.5 million cap hit from the Sharks' books while adding forwards Mikael Granlund and Mike Hoffman and defenseman Jan Rutta.

Grier made several other moves earlier this summer. He acquired winger Anthony Duclair from the Florida Panthers and the rights to goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the New Jersey Devils and winger Filip Zadina from the Detroit Red Wings, signing the latter two to new contracts.

Trading Karlsson, however, removes the Sharks' leading scorer from last season (101 points) as well as last season's top NHL defenseman from their roster. Among the league's lowest-scoring teams in 2022-23 with a 2.84 goals-per-game average with Karlsson in the lineup, they're going to find goals more difficult to come by.

The additions of Granlund, Hoffman and Rutta likely won't significantly improve the Sharks' performance. All three struggled with their former clubs last season and could be past their playing prime. If any of them improve, they could be shopped at the trade deadline.

The Sharks still have expensive veterans eating up valuable cap space. They include 34-year-old center Logan Couture ($8 million AAV through 2026-27), 29-year-old center Tomas Hertl ($8.1 million AAV through 2029-30) and 36-year-old defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic ($7 million AAV through 2025-26). They also carry no-trade clauses.

In Blackwood and Kaapo Kähkönen, the Sharks have a goaltending tandem that has yet to establish themselves as NHL starters. If they fail to make significant improvement this season, this club will once again find itself near the bottom of the standings.

The Vancouver Canucks made a few notable changes since the calendar flipped to 2023. Captain Bo Horvat was traded to the New York Islanders on Jan. 30 while Bruce Boudreau was replaced as head coach a week prior by Rick Tocchet. On June 16, they bought out veteran defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Reaching the playoffs just once in the last eight years, one would assume major changes would be in store this offseason. Instead, they're heading toward 2023-24 with most of last season's roster still intact.

The Canucks have a budding superstar in center Elias Pettersson, a talented No.1 defenseman in Quinn Hughes, a versatile two-way star in forward J.T. Miller and a skilled (if oft-injured) scorer in Brock Boeser. Nevertheless, they've made few additions that will be considered a significant improvement over last season's lineup.

Salary-cap constraints were partly to blame. Buying out Ekman-Larsson was done to free up much-needed cap room. Some of it was put toward adding more size and experience to their defense corps by signing free agents Carson Soucy and Ian Cole. They also added checking-line forward Teddy Blueger.

Soucy, Cole and Blueger should help defensively, but not enough to make the Canucks a legitimate playoff contender. Their blue line remains dependent on Hughes and Filip Hronek, who was acquired before the March trade deadline. The Canucks will be in big trouble should one or both become sidelined by injuries.

Goaltending also remains an area of concern. Starter Thatcher Demko was a reliable workhorse in 2021-22, but struggled early last season behind a porous defense and subsequently missed 35 games with a groin injury. If Demko doesn't bounce back, they've got no one who can suitably replace him.

Stats via NHL.com with salary info via Cap Friendly.