Central Report: Recapping Each Central Team’s Offseason

With the NHL season just weeks away, let’s check-in on the Central Division to get you caught up on all the moves from the 2021 offseason.

Arizona Coyotes

Players added: Ryan Dzingel, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson, Connor Timmins, Carter Hutton, Andrew Ladd, Josef Korenar

Players lost: Darcy Kuemper, Connor Garland, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anton Stralman, Niklas Hjalmarsson (retired), Tyler Pitlick, Jason Demers (unsigned UFA), Derrick Brassard, Alex Goligoski, Michael Bunting, Adin Hill

Arizona is a team currently in transition. GM Bill Armstrong brought in new Head Coach, André Tourigny, at the beginning of July and has turned over huge chunks of the Coyotes roster ever since. Losing big names like Darcy Kuemper, Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Larsson, and Connor Garland through trades, and stalwart defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson retired.

Arizona’s additions are more like placeholders as only Ladd and Gostisbehere are signed beyond next season. Only Clayton Keller, Jacob Chychrun, and Nick Schmaltz are signed with long term deals. That’s it, only 5 players are signed beyond the 2021-22.

I think I understand the plan here. Arizona is literally wiping the slate clean as far as payroll. It makes sense from a business standpoint and sure if you’re going to rebuild a franchise this is a quick way to do it. Unfortunately it’s not fun for the fans who will not be watching competitive hockey for quite some time in Arizona. I can’t grade them based off what I think they’re doing, I have to grade from a fans perspective because that’s what I am and if I were a fan of this team. Woof. I would not be happy.

Grade: D

Chicago Blackhawks

Players added: Seth Jones, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tyler Johnson, Jujhar Khaira, Caleb Jones

Players lost: Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Nikita Zadorov, Adam Boqvist, Pius Suter, Andrew Shaw (retired)

If you’re a Chicago Blackhawks fan I think you have to be excited again. Your team adds a top defenseman in Seth Jones and then adds Vezina winning goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury for, get this, NOTHING. Oh and get this, GM Stan Bowman was also able to pawn off an aging veteran defenseman, who already expressed that he wanted to move west, without retaining salary. Just wow. They may have overpaid Seth Jones but in the end Stan got his guy and I respect that. Add in two-time Stanley Cup champion Tyler Johnson and Seth Jones’s brother Caleb, I’d say Mr. Bowman had himself a nice little offseason.

Grade: B

Colorado Avalanche

Players added: Ryan Murray, Darcy Kuemper, Kurtis MacDermid, Jack Johnson,

Players lost: Joonas Donskoi, Branden Saad, Ryan Graves, Connor Timmins, Phillip Grubauer

Look I know the Avalanche have Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar, but this franchise had a rough offseason. Not only did they lose a former Vezina candidate in Phillip Grubauer but they also lose key depth players in Joonas Donskoi, Ryan Graves, and Branden Saad and I for one am not thrilled with what they replaced those players with. Ryan Murray, Kurtis MacDermid, and Jack Johnson just don’t cut it for me on defense.

Grade: D-

Dallas Stars

Players added: Ryan Suter, Braden Holtby, Yanni Hakanpaa, Michael Raffl

Players lost: Jason Dickinson, Andrew Cogliano

Dallas continues with their current trend in adding older veteran guys in Ryan Suter and Braden Holtby. Suter will be a nice steadying presence on the back end for years to come as GM Jim Nill handed him a 4 year deal. The Stars have a whopping 10 players aged 32 and above and no that’s not counting 31 year old Braden Holtby. Will these moves propel Dallas back into the playoffs? No, no I don’t think so, but time will tell.

Grade: C

Minnesota Wild

Players added: Dmitry Kulikov, Frederick Gaudreau, Jon Merril, Jordie Benn

Players lost: Nick Bonino, Ryan Suter, Zach Parise, Carson Soucy, Marcus Johansson, Brad Hunt

As of today, September 13th, Kirill Kaprizov has not yet signed a new contract with Minnesota. So things could change here but as of now, Minnesota’s offseason is underwhelming. For a team that took Vegas to 7 games to add almost nothing of significance to their roster is a little disappointing. Not to mention they lost a handful of veteran players in Suter, Parise, Bonino, Soucy, and Johansson. Until Kaprizov comes back or Minnesota makes another move, I am not sure I can give an honest grade here. So for now they’re incomplete.

Grade: INC

Nashville Predators

Players added: Cody Glass, Phillipe Myers, David Rittich

Players lost: Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Ellis, Pekka Rinne (retired), Calle Jarnkrok, Erik Haula

Nashville got younger over the offseason as they moved on from long time Preds in Ryan Ellis, Viktor Arvidsson, and Calle Jarnkrok, while Pekka Rinne retired. The additions of Cody Glass and Phillipe Myers may not pay off right away but I really like both players and believe they will each grow into very serviceable NHLers in the future. David Rittich is a fine backup to Juuse Saros and that’s all I have to say about David Rittich.

It looks like Nashville had a plan heading into the offseason and if it was to get younger and well they accomplished that.

Grade: B

St. Louis Blues

Players added: Pavel Buchnevich, Branden Saad

Players lost: Mike Hoffman, Jaden Schwartz, Vince Dunn, Sammy Blais

The subtractions of Hoffman, Schwartz, Dunn, and Blais are greater than the additions of Buchnevich and Saad but that’s not to say they aren’t solid additions in their own right. St. Louis is still a solid team and many of their core players are locked up long term. It still remains to be seen what will happen with Vladimir Tarasenko and if the return is significant, which it should be, this grade could change but for now it’s a bit of a meh for me.

Grade: C

Winnipeg Jets

Players added: Nate Schmidt, Brenden Dillon, Eric Comrie, Riley Nash

Players lost: Laurent Brossoit, Mason Appleton, Mathieu Perrault, Derek Forbort, Trevor Lewis, Nate Thompson

Another Central franchise with some turnover. The Jets turned over 7 players during the offseason, including backup net minder, Laurent Brossoit and long time Winnipeg staple, Mathieu Perrault. The additions of Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon on the backend could help immensely during next season as the Jets have lacked quality on the back end.

Grade: B

Get caught up on the other divisions below!

Pacific Report

Atlantic Report

Metro Report

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