School’s still out, but for NHL clubs, it’s report card season.
As we enter August, the focus starts to shift to the campaign ahead. But before it does, we’re looking back on the summer and the transactions made by each franchise. Although we won’t really know how these moves pan out until players are back on the ice, these off-season dealings give us a glimpse of what to expect.
With that in mind, we’re looking at each division and assigning a grade to every club’s off-season. On Monday, we kicked things off by examining the Metropolitan Division.
Today, we turn our attention to the Atlantic, where a former champ is loading up, some quality young teams are trying to take the next step and a team that finished near the bottom of the conference last year is trying to get back on its feet.
(Teams are listed alphabetically)
Key arrivals: JJ Peterka, W; Will Borgen, D
Key departures: Viktor Arvidsson, W; Joonas Korpisalo, G
Things were really popping off around the NHL at the precise moment Boston acquired Peterka from Utah, and there’s a chance, when the dust settles, we’ll look back and think we should have talked more about that move.
This, of course, is the second straight summer that Peterka moved. And when Utah got him from the Sabres in 2025, many predicted an offensive breakout that didn’t materialize during his single go-round with the Mammoth.
However, a surge could still be coming in Boston, especially if the German lines up across from stud winger David Pastrnak on the top line.
As it happens, Arvidsson scored the exact same number of goals Peterka did last year (25), so the Bruins will definitely be counting on their shiny new toy for at least that many strikes again. This is a player people saw 35-goal potential in, though, and if Boston can tease that out, the deal is a huge win.
Borgen helps stabilize the defence as a six-foot-three righty, while Korpisalo’s departure means the backup duties could fall to unproven Michael DiPietro.
Key arrivals: Olen Zellweger, D; Louis Crevier, D
Key departures: Alex Tuch, W; Bowen Byram, D
This is a tricky one. On one hand, the Sabres have lost some serious players — one up front in Tuch, one on the blueline in Byram — and have not acquired players of commensurate abilities from outside the organization to immediately fill the holes.
On the other, you could see why Tuch’s contract demands — he ultimately got a $10.5-million AAV on an eighth-year contract from the Washington Capitals — were a little too rich for the franchise. As for Byram, the Sabres sent him to Chicago for a package headlined by the fourth-overall pick and were universally lauded for the transaction.
But it’s hard to say — even if you can understand why both players are gone — that Buffalo is better off next fall without them.
The key here will be internal growth from the likes of 21-year-old Zach Benson (who inked a new, seven-year deal with the club) 22-year-old Noah Ostlund and 20-year-old Konsta Helenius. All three forwards, to varying degrees, could be important pieces for the Sabres next season.
On the back end, Byram’s departure is offset by the acquisition of Zellweger, a young puck-mover picked up from the Anaheim Ducks. Also, the Sabres received the six-foot-eight Crevier from Chicago in the Byram trade and he could be a perfect fit on the right side of the third pair.
The question that will hang over Western New York until there’s clear resolution is, can the Sabres swing a deal for Connor Hellebuyck, if the decorated goalie is indeed moved by the Winnipeg Jets? We know Buffalo has thrown its hat in the ring and pulling that one off would make this an off-season to remember.
Key arrivals: Viktor Arvidsson, W; Daniil Tarasov, G; Keegan Kolesar, W
Key departures: Patrick Kane, W
The Wings’ off-season was thrown into chaos when we learned captain Dylan Larkin had requested a trade. Then, just as we were wrapping our heads around how Larkin’s demand might play out, it was announced Steve Yzerman would be coming off his post as general manager and moving upstairs.
Now, with the calendar having flipped to August and the start of training camp basically six weeks away, it just feels as though Detroit is in a giant holding pattern. The GM search has yet to yield a replacement for Yzerman and, as far as we know, nothing the organization does between now and the end of the summer is going to change the way Larkin sees his NHL future.
Add to that the fact burgeoning defenceman Simon Edvinsson needs a new contract and that sniper Alex DeBrincat is entering the final year of his deal, and there’s just uncertainty everywhere you look in the Motor City.
Maybe a new GM will land on the scene and deftly move to address all the issues. But it sure feels like — with the team now 10 years removed from its most recent playoff appearance — momentum is moving the wrong way in Detroit.
Key arrivals: Brady Tkachuk, W; Jacob Markstrom, G; Radko Gudas, D; Akira Schmid, G; Garnet Hathaway, W; Lars Eller, C.
Key departures: Sergei Bobrovsky, G; Mackie Samoskevich, W; Evan Rodrigues, W; A.J. Greer, W
The Panthers got the off-season going with a bang when they acquired Brady Tkachuk from the Ottawa Senators for a package built around the ninth-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. That draft pick was only in Florida’s possession by virtue of an injury-plagued campaign that saw the two-time defending champs miss the playoffs while playing the entire season without captain Aleksander Barkov, to say nothing of numerous other high-profile players who missed huge chunks of the campaign.
Now, the Cats add a hungry Brady Tkachuk to a team that features his brother, Matthew, and a host of other decorated vets who are healthy, rested and ready to take another run at the top prize.
Certainly, Florida will have some questions to answer in the crease, where the Panthers are turning to Jacob Markstrom — a Florida draft pick 18 years ago, in 2008 — after the departure of Bobrovsky via free agency.
With Brady Tkachuk in the mix, though, this top-nine forward group is terrifying.
Key departures: Brendan Gallagher, W; Joe Veleno, C/W
It feels like the most appropriate grade for the Habs would be “incomplete” because — despite their best efforts — they were not able to land the difference-making top-six forward they covet.
It’s been a quiet off-season in Montreal in terms of new players coming to the organization, but the one big bit of business GM Kent Hughes executed did reinforce the overall strong standing of the ascendant team. That came on July 1, when Calder Trophy runner-up Ivan Demidov — on the first day he was eligible — inked an eight-year extension that carries an AAV of just over $9 million through 2034-35. With Demidov in the fold long-term, the Canadiens have essentially locked down their entire young core on contracts that can be described as very team-friendly.
So while nothing earth-shattering has occurred in Montreal this summer, Demidov’s new deal — and the growth potential he has in the early years of the contract — represent more steady progress for the Canadiens.
If it can still manage to swing a meaningful deal for a forward to play with Demidov on the second line before training camp, Montreal will feel fantastic about the off-season.
Key arrivals: William Eklund, W; Andre Burakovsky, W; Samuel Ersson, G
Key departures: Brady Tkachuk, W; Lars Eller, C
When the initial shock of the Tkachuk trade wore off, it quickly gave way to a deep understanding that this was something that had to happen for Ottawa. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear the former Sens captain wasn’t long for Canada’s capital and it was best to move on and bring that chapter to a close.
The countermove to acquire Eklund — a 23-year-old winger with upside — from San Jose would feel a lot better if Ottawa didn’t have to burn the No. 9 pick it got from Florida for Tkachuk to do it, but that’s not how things played out.
If Eklund makes good on his potential and jumps up from being a 55-point player to something more, the Senators should feel just fine about the move.
The vibe around town would be more gloomy if local boy Claude Giroux followed Tkachuk out the door, but Giroux’s decision to stay feels like both a tangible and symbolic victory for the team.
If, by chance, the Sens can lock up pending-UFA Drake Batherson on an extension before the season starts, the summer will officially feel like a success.
Key arrivals: John Carlson, D; Dennis Hildeby, G
Key departures: Darren Raddysh, D; Nick Paul; W; Corey Perry, W
The Bolts are in a bit of a rut, having failed in four straight years to get past the first round of the playoffs. Still, the off-season was never likely to bring massive turnover — not with so many good players still locked into long-term deals — and, indeed, the story with Tampa is limited to a swap of right-shot, PP1 defencemen.
Raddysh had a breakout year for the Lightning with 70 points in his age-29 season, but the two sides weren’t going to make it work on an eight-year deal. Instead, veteran John Carlson — the longtime Washington Capital — comes back east on a two-year pact after a brief sojourn with the Anaheim Ducks.
Even if Carlson is 36 years old, Tampa surely feels it knows what it’s getting in the smart, offence-first blue-liner. The intrigue — and potential upside — comes in goal, where Hildeby was acquired from Toronto in the hopes he can spell starter Andrei Vasilevskiy more reliably than Jonas Johansson did last season. If the six-foot-seven, 24-year-old Hildeby can be a quality No. 2, Vasilevskiy — the reigning Vezina Trophy winner — might be fresher for the playoffs, where he’s struggled the past couple springs.
On balance, though, it’s a case of “drive on” in Tampa.
Key arrivals: Gavin McKenna, W; Sergei Bobrovsky, G; Darren Raddysh, D; Nick Paul, W; Emil Andrae, D; Jack Roslovic, W; Colton Sissons, C; Teddy Blueger, C; Brandon Duhaime, W
Key departures: Joseph Woll, G; Brandon Carlo, D; Nick Robertson, W; Simon Benoit, D; Mattias Maccelli, W; Dennis Hildeby, G
Honestly, what didn’t happen in Toronto since the Leafs played Game 82? New GM John Chayka made everyone stand up and take notice when he swooped in to acquire Raddysh — one of the most coveted players set to hit a barren UFA market — from Tampa and inked him to an eight-year deal before July 1. Then, when the market did open, Toronto signed everyone on it. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration — and most of the Buds’ moves were for bottom-six guys — but you can’t ignore adding a piece like the Hall of Fame-bound Bobrovsky, even if he’s going to be 38 when the season begins.
We can’t really credit Toronto grade-wise for winning the draft lottery, but the end result is still the Leafs putting what they hope will be a difference-making winger on the top line in the form McKenna, an 18-year-old puck wizard.
A tandem of Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz has strong potential, the forward group figures to be much tougher to play against under new coach Jim Hiller and, if the Raddysh move pays off, the club has a new top-four, right-shot defenceman who can breathe new life into a wheezy power play.
The Maple Leafs still have questions to answer, but the organization has done all it possibly could to prop the team back up this off-season.
