There were a few teams that were rebuilding last season that have become contenders this season, most notably, the Vancouver Canucks. Then there are a few teams that weren’t considered rebuilders but are back, specifically the Ottawa Senators. Then, there are a few teams that weren’t considered rebuilders but are back, specifically the Ottawa Senators. Then, there are plenty of teams in the middle and tough areas to evaluate. Are the Philadelphia Flyers still rebuilding despite clinging to the third-best record in the Metropolitan Division? What about the Minnesota Wild, New Jersey Devils, Seattle Kraken, and other teams that are having rough seasons but otherwise were expected to be competitive?
For this season’s edition of the rebuild rankings, the teams that are included had at least one of the three below qualifications.
- Teams near the bottom of the standings and in draft lottery position (they aren’t tanking but in play for the top pick).
- Sellers at the trade deadline.
- Teams that have been disappointing for years and are hopefully turning a corner.
With this in mind, 10 teams fit into the rebuild category: the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, and St. Louis Blues.
Related: Canadiens Development Plan Is Now in Focus
The trade deadline is in the rearview mirror, and the playoffs are still a few weeks away, so this is a prime opportunity to look at which rebuilds look successful and which ones aren’t. The important things to keep in mind are the core players, specifically the stars that can lead a team to contention, the roster depth, the prospect pool, draft assets, and stability in both the front office and behind the bench. The rebuild rankings start with a familiar face at the bottom, a team that is not only far from contending but somehow is worse than they were a season ago.
Note: The farm system rankings are reflected in The Hockey Writers (THW) midseason update edition. To dive deeper into each team’s prospect pool, check out the rankings here.
10 – San Jose Sharks
The Sharks went 22-44-16 last season, and it looked like they hit rock bottom. More importantly, it looked like they had moved out all the players necessary to start rebuilding and improving. They have a 16-44-7 record through 66 games this season, the worst in the NHL. Just in case they didn’t have any more veterans to trade, they dealt Tomas Hertl at the trade deadline, a move that signaled that the Sharks were tearing it down and starting all over from scratch.
The good news is that the Hertl trade, coupled with the Erik Karlsson trade in the 2023 offseason, gives this team a clean slate, and they can properly rebuild without veteran or cap space preventing them from putting together a great roster. The bad news is that they don’t have a core to build around or much of one at the moment. William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund are two forwards they can bank on, while Mario Ferraro is a reliable defenseman, all of whom are 25 years old or younger. The question is if any of them can become stars and carry the Sharks when the rebuild is complete. The best bet is that Eklund develops into one, as the 21-year-old winger has 10 goals and 20 assists in his first full season in the NHL.
Then there’s the question of how many depth skaters can contribute to a contender. Eklund, Ferraro, Kyle Burroughs, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic are the only four players on the active roster who aren’t free agents after the 2024-25 season (Logan Couture has four years left on his contract and is on long-term injured reserve). With the Sharks, the assumption is they’ll re-sign some of the younger skaters to keep around as role players, with forward Thomas Bordeleau and defensemen Ty Emberson and Calen Addison coming to mind. With Zetterlund stepping up as a top-six contributor and Ferraro remaining a reliable top-four defenseman, the team has depth to work with, but they still lack a great core for those skaters to emerge as complementary pieces.
This is where the farm system becomes the best attribute for the Sharks. They have one of the best systems, with Will Smith, the fourth overall selection in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, leading the way. Along with Smith, the Sharks have put together a strong draft class with a few skaters to watch. Quentin Musty, the 26th overall pick in the 2023 Draft, has impressed at the junior hockey level, along with fourth-round selection defenseman Luca Cagnoni, while forward Kasper Halttunen is one of the best overseas prospects. All four skaters panning out can revamp the Sharks and give them a reliable forward unit and defense for years to come. The prospects recently drafted are still a few years away, but Daniil Gushchin and Shakir Mukhamadullin both had a cup of coffee in the NHL and could become regulars by next season.
The prospect pool gives the Sharks a lot of potential, but at the same time, they have to hope these prospects work out. They are starting from scratch, and this phase of the rebuild is pivotal, as failing in the development could set them back even further. This team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2019, and a three-year project could leave the fans without playoff hockey until 2027. That’s a long time and a lot of suffering to endure (fans of the Buffalo Sabres can relate).
The other positive for the Sharks is the number of future first-round draft selections they have. From 2024-26, they have five of them, thanks to the Karlsson and Hertl trades. It also helps that in this draft, they’ll have a top-five pick and possibly the number-one overall selection, assuming they don’t somehow turn their season around. The negative is the lack of draft capital outside of the first round. While they have four second-round picks in the next three drafts, they only have one third-round pick and eight from rounds four through six. Ideally, a rebuilding team is stocked up on draft assets, and the Sharks have only done so in the first round.
The other issues on full display this season involve general manager (GM) Mike Grier and head coach David Quinn. Starting with Quinn, the hope is that in his second season behind the bench, the team will show signs of progress. They’ve looked hapless on both ends of the ice and, at numerous points this season, look like they’ve given up. The Sharks had an 11-game losing streak to start the season, a 12-game losing streak from Dec. 15 until Jan. 9, and a nine-game skid in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline. Well-coached teams don’t fall apart multiple times in one season, and this team has, putting into doubt the ability of this head coach to turn them into a contender.
With Grier, he’s done a good job with the teardown, but with that comes the pressure for the trades to work out. The Timo Meier blockbuster provided a strong return, notably with Zetterlund and Mukhamadullin, but the jury’s still out on the Karlsson and Hertl trades. The Hertl deal in the immediate aftermath is a bad look, as they only received two pieces for arguably the best skater on their team. If the Sharks don’t see the players from those deals working out, then the pressure to replace Grier will be in play.
The bottom line is that the Sharks started to rebuild following the 2019-20 season and are still rebuilding. Why? Because they had to rebuild after a failed rebuild. Now, after restarting things again, they are behind schedule. This season is a lost one for the Sharks, and next season will likely be as well. They might see progress halfway through next season, but it will be a while until they are contenders again.
9 – Pittsburgh Penguins
The Penguins finally made a move that felt like a long time coming. They traded away a handful of players at the 2024 Deadline with Jake Guentzel being the primary player moved. Suddenly, for the first time in the Sidney Crosby era, the Penguins are a rebuilding team and unfortunately, they aren’t in a good shape to contend anytime soon.
The reason is that their core, while still one of the best in the NHL, is older and doesn’t have a lot of years left. Crosby is 36 while Evgeni Malkin is 37 and both stars aren’t on long-term contracts either. By the time the Penguins are competitive, it’s hard to tell if either skater will be on the team. Kris Letang is 36 but unlike Crosby, he’s locked into a long-term contract as he won’t be a free agent until the 2028 offseason. Assuming Letang continues playing at a high level, he will be a core part of the roster. Otherwise, the Penguins are scraping the bottom of the barrel as Karlsson can be another star defenseman and Bryan Rust can be a key part of the forward unit but then there’s a drop in elite players.
The other Penguins who are under contract long-term are not star players rather they can add depth to a contender in the future. Michael Bunting and Rickard Rakell are two of the forwards who stand out while Ryan Graves can be a depth defenseman for the next six seasons. They have the depth players in place but unless Crosby signs a long-term extension, they lack the star power to be competitive. On top of that, this is an older team and they must move on from a lot of veterans if they hope to rebuild or even retool this roster.
This leads to the biggest issue regarding the Penguins. They have no pipeline to bring young talent to the NHL team and lack the draft assets to turn things around quickly. It’s the price to pay for a team that kept making a push to contend and pushed off the rebuild until it was too late and now it’s too late. Owen Pickering is a promising defenseman and the same can be said about Brayden Yager, who can become a middle-six forward but otherwise, the farm system is depleted. To make matters worse, they only have two picks in the first round in the next three drafts and only six picks in the second and third rounds. The risk of acquiring Karlsson and moving a first-round pick in the deal was mortgaging the future and with the team staring at a rebuild, it looks like that trade did just that.
The mismanagement of the Penguins forced the ownership group to fire former GM Ron Hextall and hire Kyle Dubas last offseason. For now, Dubas looks like the right GM to turn this team into a contender. He was brought in to help this team retool and possibly start over from scratch and he’ll be given a long leash to do that. The question is if head coach Mike Sullivan will have that same luxury. Sullivan’s one of the longest-tenured head coaches in the league and continuously brought the best out of the roster he had. He’s not to blame for the team’s struggles but the continued struggles make his return after this season questionable.
The Penguins aren’t in a great place to have a successful rebuild, making the next steps unclear and complicated. Crosby and Malkin will influence some if not all of the decision-making. If both skaters want to retire with the team that drafted them, then it will be a priority from the front office to quickly retool and provide them with a chance to win the Cup. If both skaters want to play on a contender elsewhere then the outlook involves a stronger focus on drafting and developing young talent to start all over and bring in a new era of Penguins hockey.
Trading Guentzel was a necessary move and trading other veterans might also have to happen to help add both youth and draft assets. Having multiple skaters on no-movement clauses doesn’t help the case (Reilly Smith and Marcus Pettersson for example have eight-team no-trade lists). Without many resources, Dubas must not only draft well, he must also find the right complementary pieces for Rust, Letang, and Karlsson to help turn the Penguins around both in the short and long term.
8 – St. Louis Blues
This season made it clear how far the Blues have been removed from their 2019 Stanley Cup title. The players on that championship-winning team have either moved on or are now the older, aging part of the roster. More importantly, the team fired head coach Craig Berube early on in the season and replaced him with Drew Bannister. The coaching change was a signal that this team will have to start thinking about the future and with that comes a difficult path back to contention.
The Blues have a particularly rough path because they don’t have a great core. Robert Thomas has established himself as a superstar and Jordan Kyrou is a young forward with high upside but is having a rough season, making him a questionable player to build around. Goaltender Jordan Binnington will be a key part of the team’s turnaround but he’s far from an elite goaltender as he’s fallen into elongated slumps throughout his career.
If Kyrou and Binnington aren’t stars, then they’ll be key contributors to a contending roster, but it leaves the Blues without much top-end talent. Pavel Buchnevich is one of their best forwards but is a free agent after next season, making him a prime trade candidate this offseason or at the trade deadline next season instead. The only other contributor who will likely be around for the long term is Jake Neighbours, a 22-year-old power forward who has 22 goals in 68 games played. Excluding Binnington, all the players mentioned above are on the forward unit and not the defense. That’s part of the reason the Blues are staring at a rebuild.
In the recent offseasons, the Blues bet on four veteran defensemen to become the anchors of the unit for the foreseeable future. They locked up Torey Krug, Justin Faulk, Colton Parayko, and Nick Leddy in long-term deals. The defensemen have battled injuries, declines in production, and at times been liabilities on the ice. It looks like the Blues lost that bet and with all four defensemen having no-trade clauses in their contracts, the team must deal with them for at least the next three seasons. The gamble looks even worse considering they let Alex Pietrangelo sign with the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2020 offseason as a free agent and they left Vince Dunn unprotected in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. Pietrangelo and Dunn have played their best hockey since and are two of the top two-way defensemen in the league.
The bright spot is that the Blues have a handful of promising prospects who can make an impact soon. Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky are two forwards with high upside who can slide into the top six to play alongside Thomas and Kyrou. Likewise, Zachary Bolduc and Zach Dean can make the NHL roster next season and become regulars in the middle of the forward unit. The problem is that they lack defensive prospects aside from Theo Lindstein, who is a great puck-moving defenseman but still has yet to play in North America and will have to adapt to the different style of play before making an impact at the NHL level.
The Blues need help on defense and don’t have the defensemen in the pipeline to resolve the issue. The best way to fix that would be by drafting defensemen and it’s where the draft becomes a valuable resource. They have five picks in the first three rounds in the upcoming draft and can stockpile on the position. After that, it becomes problematic since the Blues lack a surplus of draft selections in the 2025 and 2026 Drafts with only one pick in each round. That of course can all change if they trade Buchnevich in the offseason as he can provide them with at least one more first-round selection.
With the team left in a state of disarray, it’s hard to see GM Doug Armstrong leading them back to contention. He’s been the GM for over a decade yet the string of bad decisions leaves his job status in question. He’ll likely be replaced either this offseason or the next and with a GM change will likely come another coaching change as well. Bannister is the interim who knows the younger players from the American Hockey League (AHL) as he was the coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds before the coaching change. However, the Blues will likely look for a new face to lead the team if they are starting from scratch and a different GM wants to bring in their own hire.
The path forward is simple in the sense that the Blues should let their younger players take on greater roles and from a team-building standpoint, they should invest in defense. The problem is that this rebuild will take some time, especially since they have to wait until some of the contracts, notably on the defense, are off the books.
7 – Columbus Blue Jackets
Just about everything that could go wrong for the Blue Jackets did and as a result, their rebuild went from being one of the best to one of the worst. It’s hard to get caught up on everything that happened since the last season ended but here’s a basic rundown.
- They select Adam Fantilli with the third overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. The future looks even brighter since they added arguably the second-best player in the draft. Things went downhill from here.
- With Brad Larsen out as head coach, they hired Mike Babcock, a questionable decision considering he’s a win-now coach and more importantly one of the retreads who has been hired and fired by multiple teams.
- The Blue Jackets aggressively address the needs on the defense, acquiring both Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson in trades, another questionable decision considering they drafted two defensemen in the first round of the 2022 Draft.
- They fired Babcock days before the season started amid an investigation involving the head coach. Pascal Vincent is hired as the interim.
- The Blue Jackets start the season 4-15 and only win back-to-back games twice all season (they’ve never had a three-game winning streak).
- Long-time GM Jarmo Kekalainen was relieved of his duties on Feb. 15 and replaced by John Davidson.
So, a once-promising rebuild is left in an uncertain direction as the Blue Jackets will likely have a new coach and GM leading it. If they choose to start over, it’s one of those rebuilds after failing to rebuild situations and one that isn’t in a great place.
For starters, despite years to draft and develop a young core, there aren’t a lot of star players that can lead the Blue Jackets to contention. Johnny Gaudreau is a key player on the forward unit and Zach Werenski is on the defense, but there’s a lot of unknown after that (it also doesn’t help that Gaudreau is 30 and starting to decline). Patrik Laine is ideally another core player but he entered the player assistance program recently and is out indefinitely. Laine’s absence is particularly rough as he’s one of their best wingers and there’s no clear timetable for his return (the hope is he’s back on the ice by the start of next season).
The best thing the Blue Jackets have going for them is their group of prospects, some of whom have already made an impact on the NHL roster. Fantilli headlines the group while Kirill Marchenko has proven he can be a reliable scorer on the wing. Likewise, Dmitri Voronkov is a pleasant surprise, scoring 17 goals and 14 assists this season. On defense, there’s Adam Boqvist and David Jiricek while Denton Mataychuk continues to progress in the farm system. Lastly, they have a young goaltender who can eventually replace Elvis Merzlikins as the starter with Jet Greaves showing flashes in the few games he’s played. They have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL and it provides a glimmer of hope that there will be plenty of young talent contributing soon.
The other obstacle for the Blue Jackets is their draft capital or lack thereof. They’ll have a top-five pick in the upcoming draft but because they acquired Provorov, they don’t have a second-round selection. The trade leaves them with only five draft selections in the first two rounds of the next three drafts which isn’t ideal for a team that might be starting over from scratch.
The Blue Jackets looked like they had all the right pieces in place. Then came a handful of questionable decisions from the front office that ultimately set them back. There’s still a lot to look forward to, and a new regime doesn’t have to clean up a mess per se, but a team that should be contenders at this point is behind schedule as they are at least a season away.
6 – Anaheim Ducks
In recent seasons, the Ducks have become one of those teams that have figured out how to draft and develop. It’s what comes after that which is problematic and ultimately sets them back. The good thing is they have a young core in place, notably with Troy Terry, Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras, and Leo Carlsson leading the forward unit while Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger lead the defense. The problem is that instead of building around the group, they have signed veterans well past their prime with the hope that they’ll mesh with the young players.
Alex Killorn was brought in last offseason. He’s 34 years old and under contract for the next four seasons. Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano, two veteran skaters that a win-now team should acquire, were signed by the Ducks when they were still in the early phases of their rebuild. Radko Gudas has ironically been the bright spot defensively, leading the team with 3.5 defensive point shares but he’s 33 and won’t be a part of their long-term plans. It makes him an ideal trade chip but he has a no-trade clause making him a player the Ducks have to keep around regardless of what direction they might want to head in.
All these moves leave the Ducks without depth. Specifically, they don’t have a lot of young players who can become complementary pieces to the young core when it enters its prime years. Moreover, they’ll have to shed some of these contracts in the upcoming seasons and it leaves them on a longer timetable than desired.
It makes their rebuild all the more frustrating since along with a great core taking shape, they also have one of the best farm systems in the league with plenty of prospects who look poised to make an impact shortly. Carlsson, Mintyukov, and Zellweger have already made an impact at the NHL level and Cutter Gauthier, who was part of the Jamie Drysdale trade earlier in the season, is a power forward poised to round out the unit when he leaps to the NHL. He is regarded as a risky prospect considering how his tenure with the Philadelphia Flyers organization went, but the top-five pick from the 2022 NHL Entry Draft has a high upside and can take an offense to the next level.
The Ducks also have a lot of draft assets working in their favor. Barring a late-season turnaround, they’ll have another top-five pick and because of the Adam Henrique trade at the deadline, they will have another first-round pick. They also have two second-round selections and three third-round selections in the upcoming draft courtesy of multiple trade deadline moves in previous seasons.
There’s a lot of pressure to have a great haul in the upcoming draft and failing to come away with star-caliber prospects will put GM Pat Verbeek on the firing line. Speaking of Verbeek, his decision-making puts into question his ability to lead the Ducks to contention. The constant urge to add veterans in the offseason reflects the disconnect between rebuilding and trying to win immediately and it leaves the Ducks in the same spot year in and year out. After last season, he fired head coach Dallas Eakins and replaced him with Greg Cronin. Eventually, the pressure will shift from behind the bench to the front office, especially if there isn’t progress soon.
5 – Ottawa Senators
The Senators were expected to take a step forward this season as they finished last season strong and looked poised to leap into a playoff spot. The Alex DeBrincat trade was something they could shrug at since despite losing a star forward, they have a young core starting to enter its prime. They took a noticeable step back and with the worst record in the Atlantic Division, they fired both their GM Pierre Dorion, and head coach D.J. Smith.
The good news about the Senators returning to the rebuild phase is that they have a lot of players in place to quickly turn things around. Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle are the two star forwards while Jake Sanderson has emerged as the top young defenseman on the team. Claude Giroux is 36, yet he also has an argument to join the list of star players on the Senators and will likely be a key contributor by the time they are competitive.
Speaking of key contributors, the Senators have plenty of those as well, some of whom have star-level potential. Drake Batherson, Shane Pinto, Ridly Greig, and Mathieu Joseph will be staples of the forward unit while Jakob Chychrun and Thomas Chabot will round out the defense. Chychrun is a free agent after next season so he’s the one player they might move on from, especially with the team already locking up the core of Stutzle, Tkachuk, Chabot, and Sanderson. That said, if the Senators can rebuild quickly, Sanderson will be integral to doing so.
The Senators already have three stars and five or even seven depth skaters to help them rebuild and this isn’t even counting their X-factor Josh Norris. The 25-year-old center has battled shoulder injuries in each of the last two seasons and might not return to his 2021-22 form where he scored 35 goals in 66 games. That said, when he’s healthy he can be a viable second-line center and one of the best scorers on the offense.
The young players on the roster leave the Senators with a lot to look forward to. Everything else doesn’t. The farm system is one of the worst in the league and aside from Tyler Kleven, Zack Ostapchuk, Angus Crookshank, and Oskar Pettersson, they don’t have many prospects with a strong chance of making it to the NHL roster. It also doesn’t help that they weren’t able to stock up on draft picks at the trade deadline. They managed to acquire a first-round pick in the DeBrincat trade but only a fourth-round selection in the Vladimir Tarasenko deal, one where their hands were tied at the trade deadline. The good news is that the fourth-round pick is one of four they have in this year’s draft (so hopefully they have a GM who has an eye for talent in that round).
The Senators are also starting over from scratch when it comes to their head coach and GM. Steve Staios just became permanent GM and Jacques Martin is the interim head coach, and it’s doubtful he is the answer in the long run as an older coach (71 years old). It’s also unclear what direction the front office wants to take as Staios can look to start all over again, retool on the fly, or try to push for contention with a roster that has the pieces in place to do so. It makes this offseason a pivotal one for the Senators.
The Senators are in better shape than most teams and it could be argued that they aren’t rebuilding as much as retooling. They have a lot of similarities to the Canucks from a season ago in that they have the star power to leap to the top of the conference but need a few players to plug the gaps on the roster. Goaltending has plagued them for years and the Joonas Korpisalo contract is off to a rocky start and they lack depth on the defense. However, a strong offseason will have this team near the top of the Eastern Conference in 2024-25.
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Another thing that held them back that won’t anymore (at least for the time being) is the ownership. Eugene Melnyk didn’t invest in the team from the arena, the facilities, to the roster, and it always left the Senators a step behind. With a new ownership group, the investments in the team are starting to take shape and the future for the first time in a long time looks bright in Canada’s national capital.
4 – Arizona Coyotes
It wasn’t long ago that the Coyotes looked like a promising team that could sneak into the playoffs. They started the season 13-11 and were 19-16 by New Year’s Day, indicating that the rebuild was turning a corner and they were ready to compete. They’ve unraveled since and at 28-35-5 are expected to finish with the second-worst record in the Central Division. The recent struggles and the arena situation (a common issue with the Coyotes) overshadow the fact that there’s a lot to look forward to with their rebuild.
The core is starting to take shape. Clayton Keller has become the face of the franchise while Lawson Crouse has emerged as a reliable top-six forward as well. Then there’s Logan Cooley who has the potential to be the best of the group and a star in the NHL and after his first full season, proved he can become a player they can build around.
Crouse might not be the superstar that can carry the Coyotes like Cooley or Keller but he headlines the depth that the team has plenty of. Matias Maccelli, Nick Schmaltz, Barrett Hayton, Jack McBain, and Dylan Guenther are all 24 or younger and have established themselves as regulars in the forward unit while J.J. Moser is a 23-year-old defenseman who will anchor the backend. Additionally, the goaltending unit has two netminders under contract for the next two seasons and in their primes with Connor Ingram and Karel Vejmelka being 26 and 27 respectively. In terms of young talent, there’s no glaring weakness on this team and it could allow them to contend very soon.
The youth movement doesn’t even include the prospects that are poised to make an impact in a few seasons. Josh Doan and Conor Geekie headline the group as two forwards ready to leap to the NHL while Dmitri Simashev and Daniil But will both develop in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for a few seasons before joining the Coyotes. But will be a valuable part of the defensive unit along with Maveric Lamoureux who was the 29th pick in the 2022 Draft, a class where the team also selected Cooley and Geekie in the first round.
The Coyotes have already put together a strong farm system through the draft and fans shouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon. They have 10 second-round selections in the next three drafts and seven selections in the third round. Adding stars like Cooley will be unlikely but it’s where their depth will only improve.
Considering the Coyotes had to tear it down and start all over again, they’ve done a good job with the rebuild, and with that comes confidence in those running it. GM Bill Armstrong has drafted and developed well and when he’s needed to make a big trade, he’s often got the best return. Sure, the return for Chychrun was underwhelming but he acquired Shayne Gostisbehere for the bare minimum and was able to flip him for a third-round pick at the 2023 Trade Deadline. The Gostisbehere deal is just one of the many players he acquired at a low price and then moved at the deadline to help strengthen the young core. Armstrong will remain the GM as the team continues to improve and similarly, Andre Tourigny will remain the head coach for the long term. Tourigny didn’t have a lot to work with in previous seasons yet got the best out of his roster and unless the team takes a step back, he’ll remain behind the bench.
A lot appears to be going right for the Coyotes. So, what’s holding the rebuild back? Two issues stand out and one of which is out of their control. The first issue is time as they simply have to wait for the younger skaters to hit their stride at the NHL level. The other is the uncertainty involving the arena. It doesn’t seem like a big deal from an outsider’s perspective but from a player’s standpoint, it makes a significant difference. It’s no coincidence that the team started to slide in the standings around the same time that both the news about a Salt Lake City group pursuing an NHL team and the arena talks in Arizona started to heat up.
Players, especially veterans, want to know they can call a team and a city their home, even if it’s just for a few seasons. It’s hard to attract star free agents when there’s no confidence in the team staying in the same place for the long term. It’s an issue the ownership group must resolve and if they can find a home in Phoenix, the city will be the hot place to be with one of the best teams in the NHL.
3 – Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks are 16-34-4 when Connor Bedard is in the lineup, they are 3-10-1 when he isn’t. This stat, while basic, helps us understand where this team is in their rebuild and provides two takeaways, both of which involve Bedard.
- Bedard can’t do it all himself and won’t singlehandedly make this team a contender.
- The team looks significantly worse without him in the lineup.
It makes this season a rough one for the Blackhawks as this was supposed to be the one where Bedard played a full season and acclimated to the NHL level to come back next season stronger and capable of carrying the team. He missed multiple weeks with a fractured jaw and it leaves him slightly behind schedule along with the rest of the team. It’s not like Bedard won’t be a star by next season but think about the timeline the Edmonton Oilers had when they drafted Connor McDavid. That first season, the team struggled but it was a learning experience for the generational talent and he took the league by storm the next season, helping the Oilers surge to the top of the standings in the process. While the future looks bright, the Blackhawks aren’t contenders, not yet at least.
The good news is that along with Bedard, a young core is starting to take shape as well. Philipp Kurashev has made his mark as a top-line forward and with 14 goals and 28 assists, he’s primed to be one of the team’s top facilitators in the future. On the defense, this season was a rough one for Kevin Korchinski but he’s shown flashes and by next season, could be the team’s top two-way defenseman. While Seth Jones isn’t a young part of the roster, he’s under contract long-term and at 29, he’s still a skater they can build around.
Depth isn’t a strength of the Blackhawks but they have some promising players in every unit. Taylor Hall will be around for at least one more season and play on Bedard’s line and provide a mentoring role while Alex Vlasic and Connor Murphy will be two key players on the defense. Petr Mrazek is 31 but still capable of being a reliable starter in the net for the next two seasons. The issue is that they lack youth in the middle six and the hope is some of the prospects that will make their way to the NHL will provide that.
Lukas Reichel is one of their top prospects but he’s struggled at the NHL level, scoring only three goals and eight assists in 51 games. At 21 years old, there’s still time for him to find a rhythm with the Blackhawks, and this season, while concerning, isn’t something to be stressed about. Along with Reichel, the Blackhawks have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL with Colton Dach, Frank Nazar, Wyatt Kaiser, and goaltender Drew Commesso all expected to make their way to the pro game within the next few seasons. If just a few of those players work out, the team will suddenly have a great roster surrounding Bedard and a team ready to contend.
It also helps that while this season became a lost cause, it put them in a position to land another top-five pick in the upcoming draft. This is where the Blackhawks can add the secondary star to put this team over the top. Just like McDavid has Leon Draisaitl, Wayne Gretzky had Mark Messier in the 1980s, and Batman had Robin (the analogy we were all looking for), Bedard will have another star to complement his game and help carry the team. The top-five projected pick happens to be one of the four first-round selections they’ll have in the next two drafts (they can thank Brandon Hagel and Jake McCabe for that). Even better, their draft capital includes eight selections in the second round in the next three drafts and it will allow the front office to stockpile the roster with more than enough depth.
The Blackhawks won the lottery and a generational talent landed on their lap. That shouldn’t detract from the fact that both GM Kyle Davidson and head coach Luke Richarson have done an excellent job with the rebuild. Richardson for one has gotten the best out of the young skaters and even with a lack of talent, they still play a balanced game where they can adapt to the opposition. That style will translate when the team is competitive.
With Davidson, he was handed a roster in shambles when he took over in the middle of the 2021-22 season. When he traded DeBrincat to the Senators and moved Patrick Kane to the New York Rangers, it looked like he lost both deals. Fast forward and both skaters are on different teams while the assets the Blackhawks received are helping them build a great team. The DeBrincat deal came on draft day and it was paired with the three-team trade during the 2022 Draft where Davidson sent Kirby Dach to the Canadiens for the 13th overall pick. The Blackhawks entered the day without a pick in the first round and left with Korchinski and Nazar, two prospects who are essential to the team’s turnaround.
This team is on track to contend within a few seasons. The only things preventing them from doing so are setbacks from injuries and the inability to find at least one more star player. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time before they return to the top of the Western Conference.
2 – Montreal Canadiens
When Kent Hughes took over the Canadiens as GM, he was tasked with starting over from scratch. There weren’t a lot of building blocks and a lot of veterans taking up spots on the roster on a team that was going nowhere. The Canadiens have not only started to make progress in his tenure but look destined to start contending shortly.
Hughes inherited Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, two key players in the forward unit, but the number one overall pick in the 2022 Draft is when he put his stamp on the team. Instead of selecting Shane Wright to fill a void at the center position, he went with Juraj Slafkovsky, a winger with higher upside. The decision is already paying off as Slafkovsky has 14 goals and 22 assists in 67 games this season and has proven he’s capable of becoming a star in the league. The trio of forwards leads the young group along with 22-year-old defenseman Kaiden Guhle and 23-year-old defenseman Arber Xhekaj.
Guhle and Xhekaj aren’t elite defensemen or star-caliber players but they will play an integral role in the Canadiens’ rise to contention. They will be key parts of the roster along with Kirby Dach, who is projected to be one of the top-six centers, and Alex Newhook who at 23 years old, will be a depth center for the foreseeable future. The question for Hughes is which veterans will remain on the team for the contending period? Brenden Gallagher is 31 and Josh Anderson is 29 while defensemen David Savard and Mike Matheson are 33 and 29 respectively. The Canadiens will keep some of them around as leaders in the locker room, but expect them to move on from most of the aging players either this offseason or by next offseason.
The good news is that the Canadiens have the prospects in place to fill in as depth players. Joshua Roy, Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, and Owen Beck will make an impact at the NHL level at the very least and David Reinbacher, the fifth overall pick in the 2023 Draft, has a high ceiling and could be the next elite defenseman, something the Canadiens haven’t had in a while. It also helps that the Canadiens have two goaltending prospects in the pipeline, Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler, who can fill the void that Carey Price left when he stepped aside from the team.
In recent weeks, head coach Martin St. Louis stepped aside and won’t coach the team for an indefinite time. His absence throws a wrench into the Canadiens’ rebuild as they have the right head coach and GM in place. St. Louis particularly helped the younger skaters acclimate to the NHL and it helped the rebuild take off. If he’s out for a long period, things can unravel but if he’s back behind the bench by next season, the Canadiens could be contenders.
Last season, the biggest issue for the Canadiens was goaltending. Price was one of the greatest of all time and it was hard to replace him. With Samuel Montembeault emerging as the starter and prospects on the way, the position isn’t a glaring issue anymore. Instead, the biggest problem the Canadiens face is the lack of elite talent or superstar players. Caufield, Suzuki, and Slafkovsky are all good but not great and they can’t carry the team and Hughes must add a star player to put them over the top. It’s a minor issue but the one thing keeping them from taking that next step.
1 – Calgary Flames
There’s a good argument to be made that the Flames aren’t rebuilding as much as retooling. Trading Tyler Toffoli in the 2023 offseason and then trading Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, and Chris Tanev would suggest otherwise. The Flames are starting over with a new core, new front office, and head coach, all of which weren’t around last season. After all the moves they’ve made, they are best set up to contend both in the short and long term.
The core has multiple star-caliber players on it with Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich leading the top six while MacKenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson lead the defense. Sharangovich was part of the Toffoli trade and in one season with the Flames, he’s scored 28 goals and 22 assists while remaining a key part of the team long-term (Toffoli is currently on the Winnipeg Jets). Weeger will always be remembered as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade, a deal that has helped turn the Florida Panthers into one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference yet his incredible play often goes unnoticed. The defenseman has 15 goals and 24 assists and also leads the defensive unit with 3.3 defensive point shares.
The other player in the Tkachuk trade was Jonathan Huberdeau, who has been a disappointment. He is paid to play at an elite level, yet two seasons into his Flames tenure he’s been a middle-six forward and far from the star that he was with the Panthers. That said, Huberdeau is a valuable part of the depth and will be integral to this team’s rise. He’ll add scoring depth along with Blake Coleman, Conor Zary, Matthew Coronato, and Andrei Kuzmenko, who was one of the main players the Flames received in the Lindholm deal. While the defensive unit has been a question mark this season, Oliver Kylington is once again back in the lineup and looks to round out the unit.
At the trade deadline, there was plenty of talk about whether the Flames would trade Jacob Markstrom. By not doing so, they’ve given themselves a goaltending unit that can help them win now and in the long run. Markstrom is in his prime while Dustin Wolf at 22 is still developing but is poised to become a great goaltender at the NHL level. The duo is a wild card as it can be their downfall next season but also turn them into one of the teams to beat in the Pacific Division, a team that sneaks up on everyone the way the 2021-22 team did.
While other rebuilding teams have great farm systems, the Flames, despite the firesale at the deadline, don’t have one. They have some interesting names to watch including Sam Honzek, Jeremie Poirier, Hunter Brzustewicz, and Artem Grushnikov but not many difference-makers who will make an impact at a high level. It’s another reason to make the argument the Flames are a retooling and not a rebuilding team, similar to what the Senators are and the Canucks a season ago were. The draft capital they received however does provide them an avenue to rebuild. They have four first-round picks in the next three drafts and nine in the second and third rounds. They need stars in the pipeline but the quantity of picks allows them to add more depth to the system.
Ryan Huska was hired as head coach and it felt like a sure thing that he’d succeed. He was hired from within and understands the roster better than anyone else. Craig Conroy meanwhile was a less predictable hire as the GM and it was unclear what approach he’d take to turn this team into a contender and how he’d fare replacing Brad Treliving. One season into his tenure and he’s already done a great job turning this team into a competitive one as they not only have a great young team ready to contend next season, but they still have an outside chance of making the playoffs this season.
The Flames, like the Coyotes and the Senators, have external factors that prevent them from contending as superficial as that sounds. The Saddledome is one of the oldest arenas in the NHL and its facilities aren’t up to the same standard as other teams. The city of Calgary is often used as a punching bag and the reputation is that players don’t want to sign there and play in the cold of Alberta. That’s not something that’s said about Edmonton (which is more north in Alberta). Why? Because they’re a perennial Cup contender and they’ve invested in the team, most notably with a new arena and facilities a few years ago. The Flames meanwhile are known for losing players in free agency and struggle to lure free agents barring the occasional Kadri signing. A new arena will go a long way in changing things for the franchise and be the finishing touch for a team that has all the pieces in place to contend.
Other Notes on the Rebuild Rankings
A lot of teams were left off the list as they aren’t in the rebuilding category, at least not yet.
- The Detroit Red Wings, despite their recent struggles, remain alive in the playoff race and at multiple points this season, looked like contenders.
- The New York Islanders and Washington Capitals are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in and both have rosters in dire need of a rebuild but they haven’t hit the rest button, at least not yet.
- The Flyers are a team that can be seen as overachieving and due to come crashing back to earth but for now, they are one of the competitive teams in the Eastern Conference.
- For most of this season, the Buffalo Sabres were in the same boat as the Senators, a team expected to take a step forward but took a step back and entered the rebuild category. A strong trade deadline has them on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
- The Devils, Kraken, and Wild are all having rough seasons but with all three, it’s easier to see the struggles as a bump in the road and not a sign that they must rebuild. The Wild, who have struggled all season, somehow have an outside chance to sneak into the playoffs.
Alex Hutton, Blain Potvin, Chase Beardsley, Cooper Krigbaum, Derek Olsen, Gail Kauchak, Jacob Billington, Josh Berg, Ryan Szporer, Stephen Ground, and Trege Wilson all contributed to the rankings.
Which rebuilding team do you think is closest to contending? Let us know in the comments section below!