The NHL offseason is one of my favorite times of the year. I will freely admit I love following the rumblings, rumors and speculation leading to the chaos. The 2023 offseason has already delivered with Toronto firing Kyle Dubas then he gets a promotion in Pittsburgh, Nashville’s roller coaster of a coaching change, and two significant trades with Columbus at the center of both. And that doesn’t even account for a six year old franchise in Vegas winning its first Stanley Cup. With a salary cap staying relatively flat forcing teams to make difficult contract decisions plus a number of teams looking to take their next step into contention the ingredients are there for even more chaos vibes to reverberate across the NHL world. So what else could we see? Let’s have some fun, put on some tinfoil, and find ways the NHL could go full chaos vibes.
Full transparency – I am not saying these would be smart decisions, just that I would love to see the chaos.
Toronto Cuts the Core Four in Half
Something has to give, right? Toronto has too much talent and too many resources to consistently fall flat in the playoffs. After new GM Brad Treliving sees an incredibly balanced Vegas team march to a Stanley Cup he decides it’s time to go a different direction than the top heavy Leafs teams of the past 7 years. Using his very recent experience with major trades involving top end players Treliving orchestrates trades to send Mitch Marner and William Nylander out to bolster the rest of the roster and pick up some much needed futures. The execution of these moves would create chaos similar to the greatest 20 minutes in hockey offseason when the Taylor Hall trade was 1 for 1, PK Subban and Shea Weber swapped addresses and Steven Stamkos stayed home on a discount to win multiple Stanley Cups.
Arizona Goes on a Buying Spree
The Coyotes have spent years collecting assets and a peek at their Cap Friendly page is patently hilarious. They have twelve 2nd round picks over the next three seasons. You read that right, twelve. With the pressure mounting to take visibility off their failed arena deal, GM Bill Armstrong sees $27M in cap space and goes on a buying spree unlike anything we’ve seen in ages, if ever. Trades, offer sheets, and free agents, oh my!. The deals just keep on coming. At the end of it all the Coyotes have normal looking draft picks, an actually competitive looking roster but still no arena deal to speak of.
Central Division Loses Two Vezina Finalists
Goalie trades don’t happen that often, certainly not with Vezina caliber goalies not named Marc-Andre Fleury who has been weirdly traded kind of a lot lately. But both Nashville and Winnipeg are in situations where it might be time to move on from their netminders, though for different reasons. In Nashville’s case the Predators are in the middle of a retool and appear to have their heir apparent on the rise in Yaroslav Askarov. With two years left at a relative bargain salary Juuse Saros’ value might never be higher than it is right now. In Winnipeg’s case, Connor Hellebuyck is entering the last year of his contract and multiple reports have said he won’t re-sign with the Jets. Coming off a Vezina finalist nomination he would also have significant value on the trade market. With the rarity of two goalies of their caliber being available a bidding war commences and both Nashville and Winnipeg are convinced to make the move.
The Kings are 2023’s Team of the Offseason
The last two seasons have been a solid rise for the Kings after going through a significant rebuild. However both seasons have ended at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers with first round playoff losses. With much of their core locked up and a bevy of young assets the Kings’ GM Rob Blake decides it is time to go big. He targets one of the goalies from the Central plus center Pierre-Luc Dubois and with some creative trade work pulls off acquiring both. All that work puts the Kings squarely in the spotlight as the team who won the offseason.
So do I think any of these are likely? In some form, maybe. Toronto has to consider a bigger change and Arizona has to start building their roster eventually. Also the allure of elite goalies may be too much for LA to resist. And who knows? There may be many other ways the chaos vibes could manifest through this NHL offseason. That is why I love this time of year and can’t wait to see it all play out.
