Summer 2025: NHL Offseason

[jad1]

17 hours ago, steveoath said:

Flyers have hired a UFC fighter

https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3547905/the-philadelphia-flyers-hired-ufc-fighter-andre-petroski-to-bring-back-the-broad-street-bullies-and-teach-the-boys-how-to-fight

Cool, can't wait to see him fight on skates.

[mjd1001]

On 7/3/2025 at 3:17 PM, GoPuckYourself said:

Carolina signs Ehlers. Must be nice!

I think its a good move, but there are a few red flags for me on Ehlers:

-In the past 7 seasons, only once has he played over 80 games and only twice over 70 games.

-He put up good numbers for Winnipeg on a very good team, but what is with him only getting average ice time in the 15 minute range? On Buffalo that is 3rd line ice time practically.  He was never used short handed, and only had just above 13 minutes of even strength ice time per game.

On one hand you can say he doesn't have much 'wear on the tires', so that is good long term. -Or- you can say you can't push him that hard because he might not be able to handle the workload.

Yeah, I'd take him of course, but I don't think he anywhere close to someone that 'gets you over the top' for a team like Carolina, that some are saying on social media.

[Archie Lee]

22 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

I think its a good move, but there are a few red flags for me on Ehlers:

-In the past 7 seasons, only once has he played over 80 games and only twice over 70 games.

-He put up good numbers for Winnipeg on a very good team, but what is with him only getting average ice time in the 15 minute range? On Buffalo that is 3rd line ice time practically.  He was never used short handed, and only had just above 13 minutes of even strength ice time per game.

On one hand you can say he doesn't have much 'wear on the tires', so that is good long term. -Or- you can say you can't push him that hard because he might not be able to handle the workload.

Yeah, I'd take him of course, but I don't think he anywhere close to someone that 'gets you over the top' for a team like Carolina, that some are saying on social media.

No team got "Panthered" in the playoffs, more than the Hurricanes.  It's interesting to me that they have not made any significant attempt to address the grit-gap between then and Florida (Miller perhaps does this to a minor degree). To me, it speaks to the reality that there really are not that many players in the Tkachuk, Bennett, Marchand mold. It's easy to say that a team needs players like that, but how many of them are there?  Somehow, 31 NHL GMs fell asleep and let Zito acquire 3 of them. 

[mjd1001]

19 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

No team got "Panthered" in the playoffs, more than the Hurricanes.  It's interesting to me that they have not made any significant attempt to address the grit-gap between then and Florida (Miller perhaps does this to a minor degree). To me, it speaks to the reality that there really are not that many players in the Tkachuk, Bennett, Marchand mold. It's easy to say that a team needs players like that, but how many of them are there?  Somehow, 31 NHL GMs fell asleep and let Zito acquire 3 of them. 

And Buffalo has been lacking in that for a while.

Last season, even in the less-physical 'pest' role (someone to annoy the other team and draw them into penalties), who do the Sabres have? Benson? Krebs, maybe Kozak? Thats about it, not exacly top-of-the-lineup guys.

Edited 16 hours ago by mjd1001

[Archie Lee]

3 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

And Buffalo has been lacking in that for a while.

Last season, even in the less-physical 'pest' role (someone to annoy the other team and draw them into penalties), who do the Sabres have? Benson? Krebs, maybe Kozak? Thats about it, not exacly top-of-the-lineup guys.

I agree, but Carolina isn't swimming in toughness, size, grit, and wankery. Yet they are consistently among the top 5-6 teams in the NHL. When they lost to the Panthers last year, there was the beginning of "Brind'Amour won't get them over the top" talk. It's crazy. They are 80% Brind'Amour. 

The Sabres need more of that element, but we need not worry about competing with the Panthers. For now, we just need to bridge the cap between us and Montreal, Ottawa, NJ.  

[steveoath]

1 hour ago, Archie Lee said:

wankery

[dudacek]

Is it just me, or did very few teams get obviously better this off-season around us in the eastern conference?

Montreal added two good pieces without losing anyone of importance off their roster but I’m not sure how many teams can say that.

• Bruins got some role players but failed to address their lack of scoring
• Columbus was role players in role players out
• Maybe Gibson is an upgrade for Detroit, but he hasn’t been good the past few years.
• Islanders lost Dobson
• Jersey was around the edges
• Gavrikov is an upgrade on Miller probably for the Rangers, but not huge
• The Senators added depth guys
• Zegras and Dvorak help the Flyers but I’m not sure Vladar will patch their gaping hole in net
• Penguins were quiet
• Lightning were quiet

It feels like a shallow free agent market and a lack of sellers made for a pretty stagnant off-season.

Barring more trades, it looks like any big leaps or drops are going to come from coaching, chemistry and internal growth/regression.

Edited 6 hours ago by dudacek

[thewookie1]

11 minutes ago, dudacek said:

Is it just me, or did very few teams get obviously better this off-season around us in the eastern conference?

Montreal added two good pieces without losing anyone of importance off their roster but I’m not sure how many teams can say that.

• Bruins got some role players but failed to address their lack of scoring
• Columbus was role players in role players out
• Maybe Gibson is an upgrade for Detroit, but he hasn’t been good the past few years.
• Islanders lost Dobson
• Jersey was around the edges
• Gavrikov is an upgrade on Miller probably for the Rangers, but not huge
• The Senators added depth guys
• Zegras and Dvorak help the Flyers but I’m not sure Vladar will patch their gaping hole in net
• Penguins were quiet
• Lightning were quiet

It feels like a shallow free agent market and a lack of sellers made for a pretty stagnant off-season.

Barring more trades, it looks like any big leaps or drops are going to come from coaching, chemistry and internal growth/regression.

This offseason the entire East really haven't done much; MTL got better but everyone else is effectively budging slightly up or down akin to us.

Toronto lost Marner but gain Nick Roy

Florida re-signed their guys

Carolina got better with Ehlers but still has questionable goaltending.