With the offseason mostly in the books, the Eastern Conference’s summer losers are starting to come into focus. Some teams were undone by moves they couldn’t control.
Others simply didn’t do enough to offset the damage. And one club, frankly, did everything it could to make a bad situation worse.
There’s no avoiding the Buffalo Sabres here, even if the placement feels a little unconventional. After finishing first in the Atlantic Division, they spent the summer shedding meaningful pieces. Bowen Byram was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks for what was described as an incredible return, and Michael Kesselring was sent to the San Jose Sharks as the team tried to rework its blue line around younger defenders.
The Sabres did bring in Louis Crevier from the Blackhawks and Olen Zellweger from the Anaheim Ducks, and 2025 first round pick Radim Mrtka could be ready to jump in. That gives Buffalo a real chance to lean into a youth movement on defense. But this is still a club that was already a bottom-half defensive team analytically last season, so a step backward is very much on the table.
Up front, the losses could sting just as much. Buffalo did not re-sign Alex Tuch, whose playoff showing was called disappointing, but that doesn’t erase what he gave them in the regular season: 33 goals and 66 points.
Konsta Helenius, Noah Ostlund and Tyson Kozak may be asked to shoulder bigger roles, but replacing that production will not be easy. The Sabres also leaned heavily on goaltending in the regular season, and after what happened in the playoffs, there is understandable doubt about whether Alex Lyon can repeat last year’s form.
Even with all that, Buffalo still looks like a playoff contender and a team with plenty of upside. But after such a strong 2025-26 campaign, this summer left plenty to question and opens the door to a possible regression.
The Blue Jackets are a tougher call because a lot of their mess sits outside GM Don Waddell’s control. Still, the bad vibes around this team are impossible to ignore.
They did add Valeri Nichushkin from the Colorado Avalanche and signed Jet Greaves to a team-friendly deal, which are solid moves on paper. Beyond that, though, the roster looks a lot like the one that fell apart late and ended with Rick Bowness delivering that memorable postgame press conference.
The questions keep piling up. The Zach Werenski situation has quieted down, but has anything been repaired for good?
Boone Jenner is gone in free agency, and there was a time when Werenski looked like the obvious next captain. After the chaos in June, that path doesn’t feel nearly as clean.
Then there’s Kirill Marchenko, who seemingly wants out, adding another high-end name to the growing list of players who have wanted off the ride in Ohio over the last decade.
For a team that already missed the postseason in dramatic fashion, the summer has only deepened the gloom.
The Senators land at No. 2, and their problem starts with a subtraction they couldn’t really prevent: Brady Tkachuk. Like the Blue Jackets’ situation, that departure was not in GM Steve Staios’ control, and with the steady stream of Americans leaving Canadian markets, it had been building for a while.
Still, Ottawa didn’t do enough to make up for it. The Senators got a hefty return of three first round picks for Tkachuk, but only turned one of them into a player ready to help immediately with the addition of William Eklund.
Eklund is a legitimate top-six forward and has posted back-to-back 50-plus point seasons at 23, so the long-term upside is real. But right now, he is going to have a hard time matching Tkachuk’s near point-per-game production from last season, not to mention the edge he brought every night.
Ottawa is loaded at center, but after Eklund and Drake Batherson, the wing depth gets thin fast. Ridly Greig has been shifted to the wing full-time because of that center depth, but he still hasn’t broken through the 40-point mark.
Staios also missed on one of his other key needs, failing to land a top-four right-shot defenseman, something he has been chasing since last season. And the goaltending answer was just as shaky: Samuel Ersson was brought in to back up the starter, despite statistical struggles over the last two seasons.
In what may be the toughest Atlantic Division we have ever seen, the Senators could have a hard time repeating as a second wild card team.
Detroit takes the top spot, and it isn’t a close race. The Red Wings had the worst offseason in the Eastern Conference, and maybe in the entire league.
The list of damage is brutal. Captain Dylan Larkin wants out.
Patrick Kane left in free agency. Up-and-coming goaltender Sebastian Cossa was traded for futures.
No meaningful addition arrived to offset any of it. And to cap it off, Steve Yzerman stepped down as general manager, closing the book on a tenure that ranks among the most disappointing for an executive in recent memory.
Detroit already finds itself behind the eight-ball in a division where every other team can reasonably be projected as a playoff club. Fans may not want to hear it after nearly a decade of rebuilding, but the Red Wings may have to take a step back before they can move forward.
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