Is it time for hockey to start yet? It has felt like an eternity since the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Stanley Cup all the way back in June. The wait will come to an end soon as preseason hockey is just a few weeks away. Before we start looking at the beginning of the season, we need to look back at the busy offseason. Many familiar faces are now in new places. These players will be looking to make a big impact that will help contribute to a Stanley Cup run.
Possibly the biggest offseason acquisition came in the way of a trade. The Ottawa Senators sent center Jason Spezza to the Dallas Stars in a five player trade. Spezza adds another great veteran presence to an already talented Dallas team. Adding Spezza to a team that already boasted great scorers like Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn will make the Stars a team that could contend immediately in a competitive Western Conference.
A team that was a big surprise last season seems to have added another weapon to their arsenal. The St. Louis Blues were able to sign free agent center Paul Stastny. Stastny will add another potential 30-goal scorer to a Blues team that was already fourth in the Western Conference in scoring. Look for the Blues to make another jump this upcoming season with Stastny now on their side.
The Vancouver Canucks made some clever shuffling this offseason. It looked like the team was bound to go through a tough rebuilding period, but was able to make some moves to make that process faster. After going from having two good goalie options in Corey Schneider and Roberto Luongo in 2013, to having a combination of Jacob Markstrom and Eddie Lack at the end of this past season, it looked like they were going to struggle in goal. The Canucks solved that problem by signing the best goaltender on the free agent market, Ryan Miller. The team was also able to free up some flexibility for the future by unloading big contracts for Ryan Kesler and Jason Garrison for young assets and draft picks.
The Colorado Avalanche lost Stastny to free agency but was able to replace him with veteran scorer Jarome Iginla. Coming off a 30-goal season, Iginla will look to continue his stellar career in Colorado. Colorado should get the production that they paid for after signing Iginla to a three year deal worth $16 million.
The New Jersey Devils have been cautious about giving about long term, big money contracts ever since the Ilya Kovalchuk experiment went horribly wrong. Now, they are a team that has been in the middle of the pack since the departure of Kovalchuk and Zach Parise. Moreover, New Jersey had to make some moves to be more competitive. They did just that by signing former Calgary Flames star Mike Cammalleri. Cammalleri adds a consistent goal scorer to a Devils team that finished 27th in the league in scoring last season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning may have had the best offseason of any team in the NHL. They were extremely active throughout the summer, making over twenty different transactions. It started with locking up Calder Trophy finalists Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat to three year deals, and extending breakout goaltender Ben Bishop for two more seasons.
The Lightning were also able to re-sign Ryan Callahan, whom they acquired in the trade deadline deal that sent Martin St. Louis to the Rangers. The Lightning made many smart moves to shed some cap room to set them up in free agency. They took advantage of that extra money by signing defenseman Anton Stralman, forwards Brian Boyle and Brenden Morrow, and back-up goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
Overall, Tampa Bay had a great offseason by adding experience and depth to an already young and very talented team which will look to improve on their 101 point effort in the 2013-2014 season.
Dominick Falco can be reached at dominick.falco@spartans.ut.edu