The 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs ended with a result nobody saw coming, and the aftermath has already started to reshape the NHL’s balance sheet.
Carolina stormed through the spring, then finished the job in the Final against Vegas, claiming its first championship since 2006. The Hurricanes went 12-1 through their first three rounds before surviving a bruising six-game battle with the Golden Knights.
Game 3 turned into a double-overtime classic, Jordan Staal became the oldest player ever to win the Conn Smythe at 37, and Taylor Hall opened Game 6 with a goal 3:47 in before Carolina closed it out. Even with all that success, the defending champs still enter next season as a +750 second favorite, behind Florida at +650 after the Panthers added Brady Tkachuk to join Matthew Tkachuk on South Beach.
But while some teams strengthened, four others look a lot thinner than they did a year ago.
Anaheim’s offseason turned into a domino effect the moment Pat Verbeek was forced to make a call on Leo Carlsson. The Ducks had seven days to match Philadelphia’s offer sheet - $18 million a year for five seasons and four first-round picks on the other side of the ledger.
Verbeek matched, but the cost was steep. Mason McTavish went to St.
Louis, Olen Zellweger went to Buffalo, and the negotiating rights to Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas were moved instead of paid. Verbeek said of McTavish, “It wasn’t an easy decision.
I lingered over it for a couple of weeks,” and the explanation fits a team that had just ended a seven-year playoff drought, knocked out Edmonton, and pushed Vegas to six games in the second round. Now Troy Terry is rehabbing a hip injury that could keep him out until December.
Buffalo also took a major step backward after finally breaking through. The Sabres ended a 14-year playoff drought - the longest in NHL history - with a 50-23-9 record and a first-place finish in the Atlantic, then pushed Montreal to Game 7 overtime in the second round before losing by a goal.
Instead of building on that, they watched Alex Tuch leave. The hometown winger, who grew up cheering for the franchise, signed an eight-year deal and was then flipped to Washington.
Buffalo also moved Bowen Byram, with GM Jarmo Kekalainen saying, “We like Bowen Byram a lot, wanted to re-sign him,” before dealing him to Chicago for the No. 4 and 45 picks. The question hanging over all of it is simple: is a draft pick enough for a 30-goal winger on opening night?
Dallas, meanwhile, still can’t turn regular-season success into anything sturdier. The Stars made their third straight Western Conference Final run, only to get bounced in the first round by Minnesota after a 112-point season.
They scored just four even-strength goals in the series, and coach Glen Gulutzan didn’t sugarcoat the regular season afterward: “I thought through 82 games, we did some great things,” he said. The front office response was to clear room by moving prospect Mavrik Bourque just to keep Jason Robertson on a one-year, $12 million bridge deal instead of locking him in long term.
Tyler Seguin, now 34, is returning from a torn ACL. It doesn’t look like a team getting closer to the Cup.
It looks like one buying time.
Vegas, the team that reached the Final in June, also spent July looking stripped down. Pavel Dorofeyev, one of only 12 players in the league with back-to-back 35-goal seasons, was traded to the Rangers rather than extended.
Victor Olofsson came back on a bargain deal, but that doesn’t come close to replacing him. The Golden Knights also sent Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon to Nashville, moved Cole Smith to Chicago, Keegan Kolesar to Detroit, and Kaedan Korczak to Pittsburgh.
After the Final, Mark Stone told the room, “We don’t have the panic.” Maybe not.
But for a team that already went through one coaching change this season, letting a 37-goal scorer walk is a different kind of problem.
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For a team trying to sort through depth and develop the next wave, the game offers a useful look at names like Jackson Blake, Logan Stankoven, Felix Unger Sorum, Dominik Badinka and Ruslan Khazheyev. Nashville is expected to counter with a mixed roster and Justus Annunen in goal, which should give the Hurricanes a fair chance to test their pace, structure and poise against a lineup that is also still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]