Whether you are satisfied or very mad online from the Leafs’ offseason so far, it is all relative. How are the other Atlantic Division teams doing? One team has lost Linus Ullmark but another Atlantic Division team has gained Linus Ullmark. Gone from the Stanley Cup winning Florida Panthers is Brandon Montour. Then there is whatever the hell the Buffalo Sabres are trying to accomplish. It’s worth looking at how the Leafs are doing comparatively to determine how good or bad you should feel.
Boston Bruins
The Bruins have reunited the Lindholms and it feels so good. At least presumably it feels good (I know they aren’t related, but Elias is Calle Jarnkrok’s cousin). It cost a lot to do it, but the Bruins needed a centre who can play in their top six. While Lindholm’s two-way game isn’t up to Bergeron’s standard, Boston certainly knows how to use that archetype to their advantage. The addition of Nikita Zadorov at a steep price addresses the Bruins needing another defenceman.
The biggest decision was to sell off Linus Ullmark relatively cheap and took on Joonas Korpisalo as a project. The Bruins still have re-signing Jeremy Swayman to take care of, but they appear to have more than enough cap space to accomplish that.
The low cost/low risk signing of Max Jones doesn’t replace Jake DeBrusk but between Jones and Zadorov Boston will continue to be a sour pain in the ass for the Leafs to play against.
Buffalo Sabres
I try to put myself in the shoes of other people but I’m not sure I can understand Kevyn Adams decision to give up on top prospect Matt Savoie in order to bring in Ryan McLeod. Even if the Sabres were in win now mode I’m not sure Ryan McLeod helps you win.
I’m also not sure that Jason Zucker is a $5M player anymore.
The Sabres also spent $3.5M on former Leafs fourth liners Sam Lafferty and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Bringing in James Reimer might be their most understandable move as a three goaltender system seems like it will be necessary for them.
All things considered, they probably should have just kept Jeff Skinner and thrown their phones out the window.
Detroit Red Wings
There’s no point to trying to understand Steve Yzerman. Why do the Wings have four goaltenders? Why did they pay to send Jake Walman out? Why did they pay to send Robby Fabbri out? A lot of that will go towards Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, but when you have a $4.75M Ville Husso and a $3.4M Justin Holl that could have been dealt with instead the decisions are confusing at best.
The Red Wings also did some good things. Vladimir Tarasenko coming in definitely helps. Re-signing Patrick Kane doesn’t hurt. And Cam Talbot looks like a strong goaltending option and if anyone should gamble on Jack Campbell it’s probably Detroit.
Florida Panthers
If you are wondering where all the Panthers players went, you can just check the Leafs roster. Ekman-Larsson and Anthony Stolarz have moved on, and more notably Brandon Montour is off to the Seattle Kraken.
The Panthers were able to bring back Sam Reinhart at the friendly price of $8.625M and grabbed Nate Schmidt for pennies on the dollar ($800k).
Anton Lundell was also re-signed which was an important thing on the to-do list, but unless they want/can move Spencer Knight the team will have taken a step back. What a shame.
Ottawa Senators
It’s the summer of Pierre Dorion Part 2. The Senators pulled off a nice little win by getting Linus Ullmark at an absolute steal of a price but somehow managed to shoot themselves in the foot on the Jakob Chychrun deal. Nick Jensen should be a decent fit for their top-four defencemen but only getting a 3rd-round pick in the process of that swap is something that could haunt the Sens.
The Shane Pinto contract came in at a pretty reasonable price but unless Ullmark can will this team into contention they will continue to be a mess.
Montreal Canadiens
Drafting Ivan Demidov is probably all the rebuilding Canadiens really wanted to do this summer. They’ll continue to hope their young players take a step forward and they gave Juraj Slafkovsky an aspirational contract that could work out well for them.
The Canadiens sitting out free agency may mean they will rely on other teams dumping salary to build out the rest of their roster. If that’s not the case the Canadiens could be at the bottom of the league once more.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning put on an absolute deckchair shuffling clinic first by bringing in Ryan McDonagh cheap then selling off Mikhail Sergachev to pay for him. (Though if Conor Geekie is ready to go this could be a reasonable tradeoff.) They followed that move up with bringing in Jake Guentzel and then allowing Steven Stamkos to walk in order to pay for Guentzel. Unloading Tanner Jeannot and then filling his spot on the roster with Cam Atkinson might have been their best net gain.
Re-signing Victor Hedman at a steal is another one of those playing in Florida advantages and while the Lightning might have to fight for a playoff spot, they are still competitive.
So where does that leave the Leafs?
Other than the Bruins with Lindholm and the Senators with Ullmark, no other Atlantic Division team addressed a critical need as well as the Leafs did with their Chris Tanev signing. The Stolarz and Ekman-Larsson signings are gambles on par with those taken by the Bruins as well.
The Tyler Bertuzzi departure isn’t quite up there with the Panthers losing Brandon Montour, but this is one of the more glaring roster holes opening up in the Atlantic Division and the Leafs will need to come up with a plan here.
The Lightning shuffle is at best interesting and they will continue to be the top four fight in the division but any ground the Lightning make up on the Leafs would still come down if Vasilevskiy is going to steal more games for them next season, not Jake Guentzel being an upgrade over Steven Stamkos. If anything, it seems like they took a step back there to get slightly younger.
If there are teams that can come up and compete for playoff spots and potentially knock the Leafs out of playoff contention, I guess you can’t rule out a strong goaltender stealing games. The Senators with Linus Ullmark are a better team and considering that Chychrun didn’t do much for them last season, it’s not a huge step back to replace him with Nick Jensen.
Assuming Linus Ullmark doesn’t have a Hart Trophy tier 2024-25, 5th in the Atlantic still seems like it is the Red Wings to lose.
