This summer’s NHL off-season has been anything but quiet, with teams across the league making moves that could reshape the year ahead. Trades, free-agent signings and contract extensions have changed the outlook for a number of clubs heading into the new season.
Some teams look deeper and stronger than they did a few months ago, while others may have more questions heading into training camp. With the pre-season just around the corner, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of which teams had a productive summer and which may have missed an opportunity to improve.
Before the puck drops on the 2026–27 campaign, let’s take a look at some of the biggest winners and losers of the NHL off-season.
The Biggest Winners
Florida Panthers
The Panthers had a pretty simple goal: make sure last season’s early vacation doesn’t happen again. After missing the playoffs following back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, they wasted little time reshaping the roster.
The biggest move was acquiring Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa, adding another big, physical scorer to a lineup that already includes his brother Matthew. Florida made a major change in net as well, trading for Jacob Markstrom after Sergei Bobrovsky left for Toronto in free agency.
The Panthers also acquired defenceman Radko Gudas from Anaheim, while extending Eetu Luostarinen and signing veterans such as Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway. Following last season’s disappointment, the Panthers certainly didn’t sit around waiting for things to fix themselves.
Toronto Maple Leafs
After missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016, a quiet summer was never an option in Toronto. The Maple Leafs made significant changes to the roster, with new GM John Chayka putting his stamp on the team rather than simply making a few minor tweaks.
Toronto signed two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, while adding Darren Raddysh to bolster the blue line. The Leafs also brought in some size and experience with Nick Paul, Jack Roslovic, Colton Sissons and Brandon Duhaime. And let’s not forget that Toronto won the draft lottery and selected Gavin McKenna first overall.
With Auston Matthews still in his prime, the Leafs have clearly chosen to retool rather than rebuild. Whether all those moves work is another question, but after a disappointing season, Toronto wasn’t afraid to shake things up.
New York Rangers
Speed and youth were the buzzwords around the Rangers during the NHL off-season, and the front office backed them up with some serious changes. Pavel Dorofeyev was the headline addition after a 37-goal, 64-point campaign in Vegas, while Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi were brought in to reshape the second defence pairing.
There was some give and take, with Vincent Trocheck heading to Utah in the deal for Durzi. Losing a reliable two-way centre hurts, but New York acquired Oliver Bjorkstrand and Joe Veleno to give their forward group some added depth. The Rangers also hired Mike Sullivan as their new head coach, bringing in a two-time Stanley Cup winner to lead the way behind the bench.
Overall, New York has made a clear effort to get younger, faster and more mobile, making it a productive off-season for this Original Six franchise.
The Biggest Losers
Detroit Red Wings
Things got ugly quickly in Detroit when Dylan Larkin requested a trade after another season watching the playoffs from home. The longtime captain has a no-trade clause that gives him significant control over where he could go, leaving the situation hanging over the franchise all summer long.
Another organizational shock came when Steve Yzerman stepped down as GM in July, moving into a senior advisor role after seven years trying to rebuild the Red Wings. Detroit never made the playoffs during his tenure, extending the franchise’s drought to 10 straight seasons.
While the Red Wings did add some useful pieces, including Viktor Arvidsson, Daniil Tarasov and Keegan Kolesar, those moves feel secondary to the bigger problems. With Larkin’s future uncertain and a new hockey operations boss still to be hired, Detroit has plenty of work left to do.
Buffalo Sabres
For the first time in what feels like forever, there was genuine optimism in Buffalo. With a young core starting to hit its stride, this looked like the right time to go all-in and build around them.
Instead, Buffalo lost two key pieces in Alex Tuch and Bowen Byram without making any major additions. The Sabres did manage to re-sign Zach Benson, while the Byram trade landed them the fourth overall pick, which they used on defenceman Daxon Rudolph, but that’s hardly the kind of splash you’d expect after their best season in years.
The Sabres are still a team on the rise, but this summer felt like a missed opportunity. After such a dramatic turnaround last season, Buffalo could have used this time to strengthen the roster. Yet the Sabres largely stayed put, leaving the team looking much the same, or arguably a little weaker, than they did a few months ago.
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks didn’t make a bad decision during this NHL off-season, but they were handed a pretty difficult one. After Philadelphia signed Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $90 million offer sheet, Anaheim matched it to keep one of the most important pieces of its young core. Letting Carlsson walk was never really an option, but the massive contract threw a wrench into the Ducks’ off-season plans.
The $18 million annual salary took up a huge chunk of Anaheim’s cap space, limiting what the team could do elsewhere. The Ducks did make some moves to create flexibility, including trading Mason McTavish to St. Louis for two first-round picks, but they also lost defencemen John Carlson, Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas.
None of this makes matching the Carlsson offer sheet a bad decision. The problem is that the situation forced Anaheim to spend heavily on one player at a time when it had other areas to address. For a team entering an important stage of its rebuild, the offer sheet turned what could have been a flexible off-season into a much trickier one.