Grading the Offseason: Eastern Conference

Bruins D+

Lost Iginla, Johnson, and Thornton. Trade Boychuk. On the plus side, this is still a pretty good team.

Sabres C+

Sign Andre Benoit, Zac Dalpe, Tyson Strachan, Andrej Meszaros, Matt Moulson, Cody McCormick, Brian Gionta Traded for Josh Georges. Some wheat and some chaff.

Red Wings D

No major moves. Unlike the Kings, this was a club that needed to make some.

Panthers F

Sign Al Montoya, Derek MacKenzie, Jussi Jokinen, Dave Bolland, Shawn Thornton, Willie Mitchell, and Jimmy Hayes. Buyout Ed Jovanovski. Spent a lot. Got more expensive, not better.

Canadiens C

Sign Manny Malhotra, Tom Gilbert, Mike Weaver, and Jiri Sekac. Trade away Josh Georges and Daniel Briere. Trade for PA Parenteau. Mostly treading water.

Senators D

Gave away Spezza. Sign Legwand. Trade for Alex Chiasson. They did resign their goalie tandem for $6.4m a year.

Lightning C+

Sign Brendan Morrow, Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman, Evgeni Nabokov. Trade away Teddy Purcell. Kept salary in the Sam Gagner dump. Stralman is a plus. Everything else is a minus.

Maple Leafs D+

Trade for Matt Frattin, Roman Polak Trade away Carl Gunnarsson, Jerry D'Amigo Sign Stephane Robidas, Leo Komarov, Petri Kontiola, Mike Santorelli, and David Booth. Lost Dave Bolland and Mason Raymond. Gunnarsson for Polak is a step in the wrong direction. I don't see the replacement for Raymond unless all of these guys step into the top-12.

Blue Jackets C

Trade away RJ Umberger and Matt Frattin. Get Jerry D'Amigo and Scott Hartnell. Yawn.

Devils C+

Sign Mike Cammalleri, Marty Havlat, Scott Clemmensen. Lose Mark Fayne and Anton Volchenkov. Let Martin Broduer walk/retire. Better offensively. Fayne leaves a hole on the defense.

Rangers D-

Bought out Brad Richards. Lost Brian Boyle, Anton Stralman, and Benoit Pouliot. Sign Dan Boyle, Lee Stempniak, Matthew Lombardi, Ryan Malone, Kevin Hayes, and Tanner Glass. Richards was the right thing to do but otherwise not much to like.

Flyers D

Lose Kimmo Timonen to illness. Sign Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz. Trade Scott Hartnell for RJ Umberger. Umberger is fun to say. Otherwise, no progress here.

Penguins C-

Sign Christian Ehrhoff, Blake Comeau, Steve Downie, Thomas Greiss Trade for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. Trade away James Neal. Lose Jussi Jokinen, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, Deryk Engelland, Tanner Glass, Joe Vitale, Brian Gibbons, and Tomas Vokoun. I would have cleared cap space by buying out MA Fleury and Rob Scuderi. Some pluses, a lot of minuses. Typical JR.

Capitals C+

Sign Niskanen, Orpik, and Justin Peters. Lose Grabovski, Tyson Strachan, Halak, and Penner. Better defensively. Grabovski leave a hole up front.

The Best?

Islanders A

Sign Jaroslav Halak, Chad Johnson, Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin, Cory Conacher, TJ Brennan. Trade for Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy. Lose Evgeni Nabokov and Radek Martinek. Huge upgrades in goal. Better up front. Better on defense. Overall, a lot of progress.

The Worst?

Hurricanes F

I would have bought out Cam Ward and JM Liles. I would have signed a defenseman (e.g. Fayne). I would have moved Jeff Skinner for another defenseman (dreaming of Ekman-Larsson). Can't afford to buy Cam out? Cam plus the 7 th pick in the draft to Calgary for whatever was on the table. Instead, the Canes do nothing but sign Brad Malone, Drew MacIntyre, Jay McClement, and Tim Gleason. Throw in the injuries to J.Staal and Skinner and this team could be historically bad. Depressing.