Faces in new places for the 2022-23 NHL season
It has been an exciting offseason across the NHL so far with a stunning free agent signing, a couple of blockbuster trades, and contenders adding what they hope is the missing piece to their Stanley Cup recipe. We look at some of the most significant changes across the league so far with our New Faces In New Places feature.
Patrik Laine. It was a massive win for the Blue Jackets as they have spent most of their existence watching star players leave town. This time they were able to bring one in. That duo should make this a very exciting team this season and maybe help push them to playoff contention.
Aleksander Barkov.
Edmonton Oilers forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek were not getting the job done, and while it may not have been the only problem, it was undoubtedly one of the biggest problems. They addressed that with a five-year contract for Stanley Cup-winning goalie Darcy Kuemper. Kuemper may have struggled in the playoffs for Colorado, but his track record over the past five years is among the best in hockey. He has the potential to be a significant addition to an already strong team.
Igor Shesterkin already in place, and given his status as a restricted free agent, a trade seemed inevitable. He struggled at times this season, but he is going to a Colorado team that is absolutely loaded on defense and will provide any goalie with plenty of goal support. It is the best environment for a goalie and each of their past two starters (Philipp Grubauer and Kuemper) excelled playing behind that roster. Both of them turned that success into long-term contracts in free agency. It will be fascinating to see if Georgiev can repeat their success.
Ryan Strome (Anaheim), Frank Vatrano (Anaheim), and Andrew Copp (Detroit). Those three were a huge part of New York’s depth in the playoffs, and now all are gone. Is Trocheck good enough to overcome all of that?
Ville Husso), a new defenseman (Olli Maatta), and several new forwards. The most significant contract among those forwards is the five-year deal to Copp. This deal is very similar to the one signed by Phillip Danault in Los Angeles last offseason in terms of contract length and salary cap hit. Copp is also a similar player in that he provides strong second-line scoring and is an outstanding defensive presence. Detroit finally found its core players with Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider. Now it needed to build around them. Copp should be a significant part of that.
St. Louis Blues. He has had three different stops in St. Louis during his career, and is now moving on to Detroit. It also has the potential to be a steal of a deal for the Red Wings. Perron has very quietly been one of the league’s top-performing wingers the past five years and along with Copp and Dominik Kubalik should help provide some much-needed scoring depth to a Red Wings team that needs to show some real progress this season.
Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Alex Iafallo, Philip Danault, Viktor Arvidsson, and now Fiala the Kings have an outstanding group of veteran forwards to complement one of the best young talent pools in the league. If Quinton Byfield and Arthur Kaliyev can progress this season this could be a very dangerous team in the Western Conference.
Philadelphia Flyers, but he is still an outstanding player and should be a significant boost to an improving Senators forward group. With DeBrincat and Giroux joining Ottawa this offseason, they now have a very formidable top-six that already includes Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, and Josh Norris. Defense and goaltending are big question marks, but their games should not be boring this season.
Erik Gudbranson (questionable signing) and also re-signed Patrik Laine to a significant four-year extension. That meant somebody had to go, and that somebody was Bjorkstrand. Seattle ended up getting him for two draft picks (none of them a first-round pick) which is a steal for what Bjorkstrand provides. Seattle did not have a good expansion draft or initial roster build, but it has made up for it in a big way this offseason.
John Marino was traded to New Jersey for Ty Smith, while Jan Rutta was signed in free agency. The most significant deal, though, was to trade Mike Matheson to Montreal for Petry and forward Ryan Poehling. Petry is an excellent addition because he gives them a legit second-pairing defenseman to play on the right side behind Kris Letang, meaning that on any given night the Penguins will have either Letang or Petry on the right side of their defense for the majority of the game. There are not many teams in the league that can top that.
San Jose Sharks, replacing Tony DeAngelo on the blue line after he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. Burns is nearing the end of his career and has some flaws defensively at this point, but he can still score and drive offense from the blue line. He is a better version of DeAngelo.
Vegas Golden Knights in a salary dump move. On the surface, this trade is huge because Pacioretty is precisely what the Hurricanes need. That is the good news. The bad news is just a couple of weeks after the trade the Hurricanes announced that Pacioretty is going to miss six months after undergoing surgery to repair an Achilles injury. He should be back later in the season and in time for the playoffs (which could open up some more salary cap room when Pacioretty goes on the long-term injured list) but this is probably not how the Hurricanes drew this up for this season.
Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes.
Jack Campbell, leave in free agency, the Maple Leafs addressed the opening by acquiring Matt Murray from Ottawa and signing Ilya Samsonov after he was not given a qualifying offer by the Washington Capitals. Murray and Samsonov have been of the least productive goalies in hockey the past two seasons. The Maple Leafs are rolling the dice with the most important and impactful position in the sport in a season where the pressure is on to win, and win a lot.
Ken Holland era (or they have been bad at it) but they at least attempted to address one of their biggest this offseason by bringing in Campbell to be their new starting goalie. I have some questions about his consistency and whether or not he is the guy to help them reach the next level, but I do think he is an upgrade over the Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen duo they were using the past two years.
Filip Forsberg, they added Nino Niederreiter on a great short-term contract to bolster their forward depth, and then picked up Ryan McDonagh from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a salary cap move. McDonagh has definitely slowed down a little bit, but he can still make an impact as a top-four defenseman. The concern is how well his career holds up over the remainder of his contract, which still has four more years with a $6.75 million salary cap number.
