After weeks and months of teasing an exciting summer, the NHL offseason fizzled out quickly. Trade buzz rarely came to fruition, free agency underwhelmed and there are few legitimate offer-sheet candidates left.<\/p>\n
With little NHL news and excitement coming out, the dog days of summer can become the prime time to debate, dissect and overreact. So why not add to the discourse?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dust off the concern-o-meter\u2122\ufe0fto analyze a few red flags that have emerged this summer.<\/p>\n
The Bruins\u2019 direction<\/b><\/p>\n
Concern-o-meter: 5\/10<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s never easy to take a step back and start looking toward the future, so the Bruins deserve credit for making that decision at the trade deadline. Trading for draft picks and prospects such as Fraser Minten will help this team replenish its prospect pipeline. Bets on reclamation projects such as Casey Mittelstadt at the deadline, along with Viktor Arvidsson this summer, could pay off, too.<\/p>\n
As promising as that all is, the real question is whether Don Sweeney has the vision to retool the Bruins into a contender around David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy. His track record of drafting and developing players is suspect at best, and this summer\u2019s direction emphasizing hard-nosed players and size only adds to that concern. The Tanner Jeannot contract may not be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, since it only carries a $3.4 million cap hit. However, it represents Sweeney\u2019s willingness to commit to a five-year deal with a player who brings size, but not nearly enough skill.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early to sound the alarms in Boston, but there are some concerning trends worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks\u2019 rebuild<\/b><\/p>\n
Concern-o-meter: 6\/10<\/b><\/p>\n
The Blackhawks may have gone into the offseason with a ton of cap space, but the reality is that the team isn\u2019t in the position to land a big-name free agent just yet. As tempting as it could have been to offer Mitch Marner $14 million AAV, his timeline doesn\u2019t line up with Chicago\u2019s. There is a difference between accelerating the process and rushing it, and that would have fallen into the latter category.<\/p>\n
Taking the slow and patient approach isn\u2019t perfect, either. Sometimes teams don\u2019t build the right support system to ease their young guns into a lineup. It can put too much pressure on franchise cornerstones to jump into meaningful roles, which can derail their development. While the Blackhawks already have some veterans on the roster, including Jason Dickinson, Nick Foligno and Connor Murphy, management has to be sure those players can provide enough support to their rising core. That starts at the top with Connor Bedard \u2014 who still looks to be on the Jack Eichel and Clayton Keller path, but could always slip to the tier below if Chicago doesn\u2019t play this right \u2014 and trickles down to the likes of Frank Nazar, Alex Vlasic and Sam Rinzel. Rebuilding can be a painful process, so taking this quiet of an offseason approach is somewhat risky.<\/p>\n
The Erik Karlsson trade market<\/b><\/p>\n
Concern-o-meter: 6.5\/10<\/b><\/p>\n
There is time over the next year and a half for a Karlsson trade, so the Penguins don\u2019t have to rush anything this offseason. But how will starting the year in Pittsburgh affect his value?<\/p>\n
A few factors could influence that, including the aging process. Karlsson may have defied typical aging curves, but Father Time eventually comes for everyone \u2014 and that can be further exposed depending on his usage and the support around him.<\/p>\n
So moving Karlsson this summer could be the best path, if there is an available buyer. It\u2019s just that the options have dwindled<\/a> over the last couple of weeks. The Hurricanes may not have signed a clear Brent Burns replacement, but management may not want to take another massive swing on defense after acquiring (and signing) K\u2019Andre Miller. The Panthers are out after extending Aaron Ekblad. The Senators should probably see what Jordan Spence has to offer before committing to Karlsson\u2019s contract. Vegas appears to be a better landing spot for Rasmus Andersson.<\/p>\n The NHL\u2019s growth<\/b><\/p>\n Concern-o-meter: 7\/10<\/b><\/p>\n The league is right in one thing: the game can sell itself. At its core, hockey is an exciting sport that can attract even the most casual fans. The problem is that the NHL doesn\u2019t do enough to get eyeballs on the game, and the 2025-26 schedule is the prime example of that.<\/p>\n The NHL is shifting more toward games starting at 7:00 p.m. local time, instead of on the half hour. That makes sense during the week, to ensure an early enough ending for fans on work\/school nights. But when games are unevenly distributed throughout the week, with clusters on Tuesdays and Thursdays, \u00a0it leads to a lot of overlap. It leans into the assumption that fans only want to watch their own team and aren\u2019t interested in a league-wide view. The data probably backs that up, but it\u2019s flawed because of the usual schedule structure. Fans can\u2019t bounce around to watch other games on busier nights. And lighter nights don\u2019t always have eye-catching marquee matchups. So if the idea is to have a standardized local starting time, there should be more balance across the week so there aren\u2019t seven or eight games starting at once every Tuesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament proved there can be a lot of interest in hockey. But the league failed to build on that down the stretch and into the playoffs. Add in a discombobulated, drawn-out decentralized draft, and the season\u2019s TV coverage ended on a sour note. With the 2025-26 season opening up with a matchup between the Panthers and Blackhawks, since Chicago\u2019s market size and Bedard\u2019s star power were prioritized over actual rivalries, the league looks on track to repeat the same mistakes that keep it behind other major professional leagues.<\/p>\n The Kings\u2019 blue line<\/b><\/p>\n Concern-o-meter: 7.5\/10<\/b><\/p>\n When the Kings\u2019 playoff window started to close a few years ago, management changed its approach. Los Angeles blended an aging core, led by Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, with some up-and-coming talent. First, Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson emerged as key players. Then the next wave came, with Alex Laferriere and Quinton Byfield breaking out. And now Brandt Clarke, Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas look poised to play more meaningful roles.<\/p>\n But around that infusion of youth, the Kings opted to get older and slower this summer. That is especially glaring on defense, with Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin replacing Spence and Vladislav Gavrikov. Despite no changes in dollars and cents, this defensive swap cost the team 18 goals in Dom Luszczyszyn\u2019s model, which landed the Kings dead last in our offseason improvement round-up.<\/p>\n Ken Holland\u2019s dealings were already questionable in his later years in Detroit. There were quite a few lows in Edmonton that outweighed some of the highs. So the Kings shouldn\u2019t exactly be surprised that this is the direction he\u2019s taking for his newest team. Maybe L.A.\u2019s system will be strong enough to maximize Ceci and Dumoulin\u2019s defensive games, but maintaining that structure with weaker players operating within it could be a challenge.<\/p>\n The post-Marner Maple Leafs<\/b><\/p>\n Concern-o-meter: 8\/10<\/b><\/p>\n Two things held the Maple Leafs back this past season: their stars didn\u2019t shine bright enough in the playoffs and there wasn\u2019t enough bottom-six support.<\/p>\n Matias Maccelli adds a middle-six playmaking presence to the Maple Leafs at a low cost. Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua add positional flexibility to the bottom six. If the Maple Leafs can channel the best from these three, after each experienced a tough 2024-25 campaign, that should solve one problem.<\/p>\n But there is still a Mitch Marner-sized hole in the top six. As flawed as his Maple Leafs tenure was, and though his regular-season caliber didn\u2019t translate to a postseason environment consistently enough, he was still capable of putting up 100 points in the regular season. And there were some glimpses of that star potential in the playoffs.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something management has not replaced at this point in the offseason. The bottom-six support helps. So will another year of progress from Matthew Knies, John Tavares at a much more reasonable price, plus Auston Matthews and William Nylander. But for a team facing the pressure to finally go on a deep run, the offseason feels incomplete with that glaring hole in the top six.<\/p>\n McDavid\u2019s next contract<\/b><\/p>\n Concern-o-meter: 8.5\/10<\/b><\/p>\n In a vacuum, it isn\u2019t that concerning that McDavid hasn\u2019t signed his next contract just yet. Sure, he signed his last contract on July 5, four days after being eligible to extend for the 2018-19 season. But none of the stars heading the 2026 class of free agents have extended, either \u2014 Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor all have yet to ink new contracts.<\/p>\n Leon Draisaitl waited a couple of months after his eligibility opened up last summer, too. That situation wasn\u2019t without its own pressure points<\/a>. Draisaitl, like McDavid, said he needed time to figure out what both he and the team wanted. But an extension was signed in September 2024.<\/p>\n As much as teams may want to have certainty on their franchise cornerstones sooner rather than later, players should take the time to contemplate their next steps. While a short-term contract should be on the table more often for elite players, the assumption should be that this will be McDavid\u2019s career-defining contract. It will likely be his richest deal financially and tie him to a team for the rest of his prime. While trades are always a possibility down the line, players don\u2019t sign seven or eight-year contracts thinking about that.<\/p>\n So it makes perfect sense for McDavid to take the time after another painfully disappointing finish to consider what is best for him moving forward. But there is something about his parting comments that hits differently.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I feel that there\u2019s a good window to win here over and over again, then signing is no problem,\u201d McDavid said, as reported by The Athletic\u2019s Daniel Nugent-Bowman. <\/a><\/p>\n Already, the team has Draisaitl extended for another eight years, four more years of Evan Bouchard, plus another season of Jake Walman to work around. It\u2019s a solid foundation for McDavid to be a part of in Edmonton, but it\u2019s far from the full picture.<\/p>\n The goaltending situation remains unresolved and volatile. While the team managed to clear out cap with the Evander Kane and Arvidsson trades, Edmonton also lost Connor Brown to free agency. Andrew Mangiapane appears to be a solid middle-six fit. Ike Howard and Matt Savoie also have long-term potential and should help balance the books with their entry-level contracts. But those changes may not be enough to replace what was lost and push this team further along. If not, does Stan Bowman have the vision and creativity to change that?<\/p>\n Asking any general manager to build a contender in a cap world is a challenge. Navigating around core contracts such as those for Draisaitl, Bouchard and Darnell Nurse adds another element of difficulty. But Bowman\u2019s track record and decision-making don\u2019t inspire much confidence. The Trent Frederic extension shows some of the shortcomings in his cap management.<\/p>\n The offseason is far from over, so while the alarm is not sounding for McDavid\u2019s contract situation just yet, the Oilers\u2019 future under Bowman is a growing concern.<\/p>\n \u2014 Data via Evolving-Hockey<\/a>, HockeyViz<\/a>, Hockey Stat Cards<\/a>, All Three Zones<\/a>, Dom Luszczyszyn, The Stanley Cap<\/a> and Natural Stat Trick<\/a>. This story relies on shot-based metrics; here is a primer<\/a> on these numbers.<\/p>\n (Top photos of Erik Karlsson and Connor McDavid: Patrick Smith and Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After weeks and months of teasing an exciting summer, the NHL offseason fizzled out quickly. 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