Today, we begin by addressing the offseason question marks facing each NHL team as they head into the summer. This week, we’ll focus on four of the teams that missed the playoffs, many of whom face significant challenges. Next week, we’ll turn our attention to the remaining four non-playoff teams, and then we’ll move on to the playoff teams as they are eliminated – teams whose offseason questions are generally less pressing.

Across the league, there has been a flurry of coaching changes, including the recent dismissal of Mike Sullivan in Pittsburgh. In the Eastern Conference, the Rangers, Penguins, Bruins and Flyers are all currently without a permanent head coach. Greg Cronin (formerly of the Anaheim Ducks) and Dan Bylsma (most recently with the Seattle Kraken) now join Peter Laviolette, Mike Sullivan, and John Tortorella among coaches who served during the 2024-25 season and are currently on the market.

Boston Bruins – What direction are the Bruins headed?

The Bruins missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years, a season that also saw them post their lowest goals-per-game (GF/gm) and highest goals-against-per-game (GA/gm) marks of that span. At the trade deadline, Boston shifted toward youth, acquiring Fraser Minten from Toronto in the Brandon Carlo deal and Casey Mittelstadt from Colorado in exchange for Charlie Coyle. Other younger additions include Marat Khusnutdinov, Jakob Lauko, William Zellers, and a stockpile of draft picks.

The decision to trade a franchise pillar like Brad Marchand raises questions about whether the Bruins are preparing for a full organizational reset. Since the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, Boston had managed to cobble together competitive rosters — until this past season. Now, significant contracts awarded to David Pastrnak and Jeremy Swayman, along with existing large cap hits like Charlie McAvoy‘s, will make supplementing the core increasingly difficult.

Pastrnak, Swayman, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, Mittelstadt, and Nikita Zadorov all carry cap hits north of $5 million, combining for $54 million of Boston’s $92.4 million cap for 2024-25. Even with the cap rising to $95.5 million in 2025-26, more than half of Boston’s space will be tied up in just six players. Meanwhile, Joe Sacco remains a candidate for the permanent head coaching role but still holds the "interim" tag and an eight-year worst GF/gm and GA/gm will not look good on his resume. Whether Boston chooses to weaponize its young assets to retool quickly or lean into a longer-term rebuild will become clearer as offseason trades and signings unfold.

Buffalo Sabres – When will the tides turn?

Fourteen seasons without a playoff appearance. Eighteen seasons without a playoff series win. For the Sabres, falling short is no longer unfamiliar territory. Yet there are signs of hope: Buffalo boasts one of the NHL’s strongest farm systems, and many of their prospects have already graduated to the NHL roster.

Despite their continued absence from the playoffs, the last three seasons mark the highest goals-for-per-game (GF/G) totals the franchise has posted in over a decade. The 2024-25 campaign represents their second-highest GF/G season, trailing only the 2022-23 team. The persistent issue, however, remains their goal differential — the Sabres have not scored more goals than they’ve allowed since 2010. (For context: iPhones still had home buttons in 2010.)

Offense has not been the problem. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Sabres rank sixth in the NHL in scoring. This year’s squad matched the goals-per-game rate of the Stanley Cup-winning 2023-24 Florida Panthers and outpaced the 2024 playoff-bound Montreal Canadiens — a team that qualified for the postseason despite a negative goal differential.

The real problems lie on the other side of the puck: defense and goaltending.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (UPL) and Devon Levi, both highly regarded prospects, have yet to deliver consistent results. Since Linus Ullmark‘s departure, the only Sabres goaltenders to maintain a save percentage above .900 are James Reimer (.901 SV%, 22 games played) and Craig Anderson (.902 SV%, 57 games played). And it's not just the goalies — the team has ranked among the league's worst defensively over the past three seasons, sitting sixth-worst in expected goals against and bottom-ten in expected goals percentage, scoring chance percentage, and high-danger chance percentage. Their team save percentage has been the third-worst in the NHL over that span. Without boosting the defense, the Sabres are doomed for a fifteenth season without a playoff appearance.

Columbus Blue Jackets – Can They Solve the Goaltending?

The Blue Jackets finished the 2024–25 season as the NHL's eighth-highest scoring team and ranked second in goals scored at even strength. While the power play underwhelmed, it was goaltending that ultimately cost Columbus a playoff berth. Using MoneyPuck's raw Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) metric, Elvis Merzlikins ranked 13th-worst among goaltenders who played 20 or more games, while Daniil Tarasov ranked 18th-worst. On a per-60-minute basis, Tarasov was the 13th-worst performer and Merzlikins the 16th.

Despite the struggles, Tarasov remains a highly regarded prospect with a high ceiling. However, internal expectations for the Blue Jackets are clear: it's playoffs or bust. The offense was firing at an elite level, Zach Werenski stayed healthy and delivered a full season worthy of Norris Trophy consideration, and the young forward group consistently drove play and finished at high rates. In short, everything was in place — except the goaltending.

Merzlikins is signed through 2027–28 at a manageable $5.4 million cap hit, while Tarasov is a restricted free agent this summer and Jet Greaves has one year remaining on his current deal. The key question is whether Columbus will address the position in free agency. Adding a goaltender would likely require an additional $5 million or more in cap space, raising the possibility of a $10M-plus investment in their crease.

Available UFA options include Ilya Samsonov, Frederik Andersen, Alexander Georgiev, Jake Allen, Ville Husso, and Alex Lyon. Trading either Merzlikins or Tarasov appears unlikely, but if the Blue Jackets are serious about turning their high-octane offense into a playoff run, better goaltending will be essential.

Detroit Red Wings – Will management supplement the roster?

Exit interviews revealed frustrations among the Red Wings players, most notably from captain Dylan Larkin, who was outspoken about the team’s inactivity at the trade deadline. "We didn’t do anything. We didn’t gain any momentum from the trade deadline. Guys were kind of down about it," Larkin said, making a pointed comparison to the more aggressive moves made by Montreal and Ottawa. The stagnant approach appeared to deflate the roster heading into the stretch run.

Detroit faces several clear deficiencies: the penalty kill, defensive structure, and a need for a top-line winger to pair with Larkin and Lucas Raymond.

Patrick Kane or Alex DeBrincat seem like the obvious internal options to fill the top-line winger spot, but the chemistry between Kane and DeBrincat complicates matters. Kane spent the majority of his 5-on-5 ice time alongside DeBrincat — logging 997:57 minutes away from Raymond and just 12:40 alongside him. Meanwhile, Larkin’s most common 5-on-5 linemates included 398 minutes with DeBrincat, 218 minutes with Kane, 153 minutes with Vladimir Tarasenko, 82 minutes with Jonatan Berggren, and smaller stretches with Christian Fischer and others. Lucas Raymond, meanwhile, rotated through 225 minutes with DeBrincat, 134 with Tarasenko, 112 with Elmer Soderblom, 95 with J.T. Compher, and 57 with Andrew Copp. Finding a natural left-winger to stabilize the top line is critical for boosting an offense that ranked just 22nd in goals-for per game (GF/G).

The penalty kill, however, remains the Red Wings’ most glaring weakness. Detroit finished dead last in PK percentage, allowing 55 goals while shorthanded — accounting for over 21% of their total goals against. Among players with at least 50 minutes of penalty kill time, J.T. Compher posted the worst goals-against rate (GA/60) in the entire NHL. Moritz Seider, Detroit's leader in PK ice time, recorded the sixth-highest GA/60 league-wide, while Andrew Copp ranked seventh. In total, six Red Wings players appeared among the 25 worst PK performers in the NHL by GA/60.

Shoring up the penalty kill would not only address their league-worst shorthanded play but would likely improve Detroit’s even-strength defense as well. Better penalty killers tend to be defensively sound across all situations — a critical need for a team that ranked 12th-worst in goals-against per game during the 2024-25 season.

That's your Eastern Edge Eastern Conference update for the week. Stay tuned for updates on NYI, NYR, PIT and PHI next week, and the rest of the Eastern Conference following. 

Thank you for reading, feel free to chirp me in the comments below or feel free to reach out on X – @FHFHockey. In the meantime, you can catch updates from me on the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey Podcast.