There are development camps going on across the NHL and it's really not a great time to assess much. Teams are restricted, for now, to their own prospects, so an elite pick from the 2023 Draft out-performing a 7^th-rounder from 2022 doesn't tell us much. It is also hard to follow along with what is actually going on thanks to the wonderful developments at Twitter over the last few days.

Tom Wallinder was drawing some note for his speed, which is good news for the Vancouver blue line. For better or worse, the Canucks defence is stocked for 2023-24, but there are a few UFAs leaving the year after, so Wallinder may not be long for a roster spot.

Sebastian Cossa was getting interview time at Detroit's camp. Like Wallinder, there's enough blocking him at the NHL level that he's unlikely to make an impact in 2023-24, but a good AHL season to follow up his stellar ECHL season could have him at least pushing for backup starts by 2024-25, if not the year after.

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The Detroit Red Wings made a surprising move:

Detroit has put Filip Zadina on waivers

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 3, 2023

He can be claimed by any team, and I imagine he will be. That there was no trade market for him is surprising, given what Alex Newhook fetched in a trade to Montreal, but here we are. Assuming Zadina is lost on waivers, he finishes his Detroit career with 28 goals and 68 points in 190 games.

One of my beliefs is that unless the prospect is a superstar, it'll be hard for them to stand out playing with bad players. Over the last three seasons, Zadina has spent less than 10% of his 5-on-5 time with Dylan Larkin, so that might have something to do with it. Maybe he never really pans out, but it'd be worthwhile for a rebuilding team to take a look.

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Montreal extended RFA forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard to a two-year deal with an AAV of $1.1M. The 24-year-old had 20 points in 34 games playing in the NHL last season.

It was a good debut for the seventh-round winger from 2019,  even if he did shoot 24.1%. Whatever he did in the past, Harvey-Pinard managed 16 goals in 40 games in the AHL in 2022-23, managing over three shots per game. He also led Montreal's AHL team in scoring the year prior. Two really good years in the AHL plus an excellent performance in the NHL. He had some excellent play-driving metrics in the NHL to go along with that high shooting percentage. All told, there may be something here and it's well worth the bet the Habs just made. Considering his propensity for hits and blocks in that small NHL sample, there really could be a good multi-cat asset waiting to be had in September.

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The last seven days or so have been loaded with movement in the NHL and it has meant a lot for the fantasy outlook of different teams. For my Ramblings both today and Thursday, I want to take the time to go over some signings or trades that will have a fantasy impact, one way or another. Today's Ramblings will be spent looking at specific teams while the next will look over individual players.

As always, data from our Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick, unless otherwise indicated, with cap information from Cap Friendly.

Buffalo

The Achilles injury to Jack Quinn is a very unfortunate one. He had a great AHL season a couple years ago, a very good rookie NHL effort in 2022-23, and looked as if he may be on his way to a breakout in 2023-24. His unfortunate injury does open a spot for one of the young(er) prospects to get a crack like Jiri Kulich, Isak Rosen, Matthew Savoie, or whomever. Hopefully, Quinn can find his game when he returns and starts to hit his peak in 2024.

Buffalo did some work on the blue line, bringing in Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson. Johnson may have a bit of defensive juice left but he's obviously being brought in for some veteran leadership, much like Craig Anderson was in recent seasons.

Clifton is an interesting name here. He jumps into the play but 2022-23 saw his tracked playmaking data really take off, creating or assisting on scoring chances with a profile very similar to Vegas's Alex Pietrangelo. It represents the only time of his career he's played to that level, but also represented a progression from his prior campaigns; he got better in a lot of key playmaking/transition areas season after season. Did a decent player peak on one of the best regular season teams ever, or did a good player get better? Buffalo is betting $3.3M a season it's the latter, and that's not a bad bet to make for them. It should help their offensive depth more than anything.

Anaheim

In the 2022 offseason, the Ducks signed Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano. They doubled down on that in the 2023 offseason by signing Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas. It is kind of weird but when we realize a lot of their prospects from the 2015-2019 drafts never really panned out, there are gaps to fill until the next group of prospects is (hopefully) ready.

Over the next couple seasons, around $17M is coming off the books and even with (possibly) long-term extensions in the offing for Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry, there will be a lot of cap space available for loaded free agency periods over the next couple seasons. It is a balance that GM Pat Verbeek will have to find.

Not for nothing, but even if Gudas is just the player he was over the last couple of seasons in FLA, and Jamie Drysdale is healthy, it is a massive, massive upgrade over John Klingberg and Simon Benoit: Evolving Hockey has those two among the bottom-20 seasons in expected goals against impact since 2007. So, yeah, those guys will help, if only because of addition by subtraction.  

NY Rangers

Perhaps the Jonathan Quick signing was an overreach, but the simple fact is that if Quick decides their season, one way or another, something went horribly wrong with the rest of the roster.

My Ramblings on Thursday is going to cover both Blake Wheeler and Erik Gustafsson but I think both are good signings, considering the cost, with Gustafsson carrying good upside both in fantasy and in real life.

More than anything, I realized the team has about $6.1M in cap space and both Alexis Lafrenière and K'Andre Miller left to extend. Both are coming out of their entry-level deals and while either could sign long-term, it seems Miller is much more likely than Laffy. Neither are signed yet, though, and it's really hard to see them coming in under $6.1M combined AAV. That would indicate there are more moves to make here, and possibly some significant ones. I like what New York has done so far this offseason, and it should help them score more consistently, but we'll likely have to re-assess whenever the forthcoming signings and/or trades are finally made.

Nashville

In my mind, Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene were traded and bought out to bring in Ryan O'Reilly. By transferring their remaining cap hits to ROR, it means the newest Nashville signee carries an effective cap hit exceeding $11M in 2023-24, $14.05M in 2024-25, and over $11M once again in 2025-26. It doesn't work that way in real life, but it does in my head, and it amuses me.

The trio of Sherwood-Novak-Evangelista was very good offensively down the stretch last season, and it seems the additions of ROR and Gustav Nyquist were done to give that young trio some shelter. Given the ages of those two players, being charged with shutting down opposing top lines may not go well. We have seen Juuse Saros perform heroics over and over, but it's a wonder if he can do it again. Either way, it gives cover to the younger players, and could allow them to thrive in softer matchups. Novak, in particular, is a guy whose name I'm circling feverishly in points-only formats. He has 92 points in his last 94 AHL games and had similar scoring chance contributions at 5-on-5 with Nashville in 2022-23 as players like Jordan Kyrou, Jordan Eberle, and Reilly Smith. It was a small, one-year sample, but it's a lot of good AHL production followed by a good NHL season. If ROR can help boost the power play a bit, and Novak keeps that role, he could have a very solid production season for cheap.

Washington

That Washington would bank more on getting full, healthy(ish) seasons from Nicklas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, and Tom Wilson, rather than breaking the bank in free agency, makes a lot of sense. Adding Max Pacioretty for cheap gives them more scoring depth but it's Matthew Phillips that is the interesting addition.

Phillips has long been a great AHL producer but, naturally, he's small; HockeyDB has him at 5'7 and 140 lbs., officially. He may be a bit heavier than that but, yes, he's small. But he's also never gotten a real chance at the NHL level, and hopefully he gets one in Washington. They do have a lot of average-to-good forwards but it's not hard to see Phillips playing himself over names like Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Sonny Milano, or Joe Snively if he translates his AHL game to the NHL. There is no guarantee this works, of course, but it's a nice bet by both team and player.

Colorado

It is funny – maybe not funny; interesting, curious? – to see a team completely overhaul how they approach roster-building in the midst of a Cup window. The inability to secure a true second-line centre after the departure of Nazem Kadri, combined with the long-term injury to Gabriel Landeskog, has forced the team to re-focus on its depth. The bottom-6 was pretty bad for Colorado in 2022-23, meaning their top forwards had to play heavy, heavy minutes night in and night out.

While I'm not a fan of six years for Miles Wood, bringing in him, Ryan Johansen, Jonathan Drouin, and Ross Colton was clearly done in name of rebuilding the middle-6. (Yes, Drouin will likely start with Nathan MacKinnon on the top line, it's just part of the depth that isn't their core.) It would not be surprising to see MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen see their respective ice time levels drop a minute or so per game.

Toronto

Tyler Bertuzzi makes a nice replacement for Michael Bunting to the benefit of both player and team: Bertuzzi will get high-end line mates to boost his value before his big free agency cash-in while the team gets a good player on a one-year deal. I really don't get the John Klingberg signing but if he can be just bad defensively, and not one of the worst defensive players in modern NHL history, his offensive upside can help from the blue line.

The curious signing is Max Domi. Not that Domi is a bad player or anything – his playmaking and transition abilities are very good. But he's not a player that can carry his own line, he takes a ton of penalties, and he's poor defensively. The only line Toronto has that is almost certain to be good defensively is the top line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. If Domi plays elsewhere – and he should – there could be difficulties in the defensive end, especially if he's stuck on the third line with David Kampf. For all the vitriol thrown Pierre Engvall's way, I cannot wait to see the reactions to Domi and Klingberg once their defensive issues start glaring like Mr. Clean's forehead after a shower. Toronto's goaltending will be tested.

Happy July 4^th to our neighbours to the south!