What you need to know for the NHL offseason
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After Vegas (about?) fourth his Stanley Cup championship on the Strip on Saturday night, we’re about to enter the busiest part of the NHL offseason. It begins tomorrow with the unveiling of the 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame class and continues next week with the NHL awards show on Monday night, the draft on Wednesday and Thursday, and the start of free agency on Saturday, July 1.
Here’s a look at what to expect:
Hall of Fame
The only top-shelf candidate among freshmen eligible is goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. He played all 15 of his NHL seasons with the New York Rangers, finishing sixth all-time in wins. Lundqvist won the Vezina Trophy for best goalkeeper in the league in 2012 and Olympic gold with Sweden in 2006, but never captured the Stanley Cup.
Given the lack of strong new candidates, the committee could turn to players it has rejected in the past. These include star forwards Alexander Mogilny, Theo Fleury, Rod Brind’Amour, Pierre Turgeon, Henrik Zetterberg, Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick; defender Sergei Gonchar; and goaltender Curtis Joseph. Up to four men can be chosen in the player category.
Up to two women’s players can also be inducted. The candidates include multiple Olympic and World champions Jennifer Botterill and Caroline Ouellette of Canada and former U.S. captain Meghan Duggan. Read more about the nominees for the Hockey Hall of Fame here.
Awards
There is no intrigue when it comes to the biggest prize. Connor McDavid will almost certainly win the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player after accumulating 153 points – the most in the league since Mario Lemieux had 161 in 1995-96 – to take Edmonton to the second-best record in lead the Western Conference. This will be the third Hart for the 26-year-old McDavid, who equals Lemieux, Bobby Orr and Alex Ovechkin, among others.
McDavid will also pick up his first Rocket Richard trophy after scoring 64 goals in the league and his fifth Art Ross trophy for leading the league in points. Only Lemieux (6), Gordie Howe (6) and Wayne Gretzky (10) have won the Art Ross more times. The Ted Lindsay Award (most outstanding player as voted by the players) will also presumably go to McDavid for the fourth time.
Three other players from Canadian teams are finalists for major awards: Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (Vezina Trophy), Toronto’s Mitch Marner (Selke Trophy for best defensive forward) and Edmonton goaltender Stuart Skinner (Calder Trophy for rookie of the year).
Provisional version
Just as predictable as the Hart Trophy winner is the player who will pick Chicago with the No. 1 overall pick. It will be Connor Bedard, the 17-year-old phenom who scored 71 goals in 57 games this season for the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats and scored another 10 in seven playoff games. Bedard also led Canada to gold at the World Junior Championships in Halifax, where he set numerous scoring records and stunned everyone with his skills – especially with his incredible overtime winner in the quarterfinals.
Montreal, which picks fifth, has the most choice among Canadian teams.
Free desk
Teams looking for a real game changer probably won’t find one in the unrestricted free agent class this year. But there are some guys who can help push a championship-quality team over the top, including some big names in the third period of their careers.
32-year-old Ryan O’Reilly from Toronto doesn’t score as many points as he used to, but he’s still a reliable two-way center who won the Selke and Conn Smythe trophies four years ago. The Rangers’ Vladimir Tarasenko won the Cup with O’Reilly in St. Louis and was not a point-a-game player until 2021-2022. A riskier option is Patrick Kane, the 2015-16 NHL scoring champion and MVP who won three Cups with Chicago before they traded him to the Rangers in February. Kane, 34, recently had hip surgery and will likely miss the start of the regular season.
Teams that really want to roll the dice can try Carolina’s Max Pacioretty, a veteran scorer who has played in just five games for Carolina this season and is coming off his second Achilles surgery. Or Jonathan Toews, the 35-year-old long-time Chicago captain who is unsure if he still wants to play after battling health issues in recent years. Five-time Selke winner Patrice Bergeron is technically about to enter the market as well, but he will almost certainly return to Boston if he doesn’t retire.
Safer (but likely more expensive) choices as a forward include Alex Killorn of Tampa Bay, who helped Tampa Bay to back-to-back Stanley Cups before scoring a career-high 27 goals this season, and Tyler Bertuzzi of Boston, who has 30 goals scored with Detroit two seasons ago.
The consensus top defenseman in the market is Dmitry Orlov, 31, who had 36 points in 66 games for Washington and Boston last season. Minnesota’s Matt Dumba, 28, could also benefit as a younger alternative.
Free-agent goalkeepers always seem to be a crapshoot, and the bet this year includes Adin Hill, who just pushed Vegas back to the Cup but never played in more than 27 games in a regular season. There’s also frequently injured Carolina’s Frederik Andersen and Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry.
