Offseason keys for NHL teams, including draft, free agency - ESPN

The 2024-25 NHL regular season is over and the playoffs are underway..

This is the place where we look ahead to the offseason for all the teams eliminated from contention: Who will those teams try to add via free agency, trades and the draft? How much better will the team be in 2025-26?

Read on for a look at what went wrong for each eliminated team, along with a breakdown of the biggest keys this offseason and realistic expectations for next season. Note that more teams will be added to this story as they are eliminated.

Note: Profiles for the Atlantic and Metro teams were written by Kristen Shilton, and Ryan S. Clark analyzed the Central and Pacific teams. Stats are collected from sites such as Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference and Evolving Hockey. Projected cap space per PuckPedia. Dates listed with each team are when the entry was published. Teams are listed alphabetically by publication date.

Jump to a team:
ANA | BOS | BUF | CGY
CHI | CBJ | DET | NSH
NYI | NYR | PHI | PIT
SJ | SEA | UTA | VAN

Projected cap space: $13.86 million
2025 draft picks: 2nd, 2nd (EDM), 3rd (VGK), 4th, 6th, 6th (SJ)

What went right? New Jersey overcame significant adversities this season to be a playoff team. It's a testament to the Devils' resiliency that even after losing top skater Jack Hughes in March they managed to stay in the hunt and punch their ticket. The Hughes injury highlighted the seasons that some of New Jersey's other burgeoning stars were having, including Jesper Bratt (in an 88-point campaign) and Nico Hischier (a dominant two-way center, who scored 35 goals).

The Devils owed a large portion of their success to improved goaltending from Jacob Markstrom — and GM Tom Fitzgerald for finally shoring up that position by