One month into the NHL offseason, the league has already seen plenty of movement. Some teams have pushed hard to win right away, others have started tearing things down, and a few have simply tried to clean up the edges.
A handful, though, have clearly done more than that. They’ve made real strides toward being better teams, and the Washington Capitals, New York Rangers and Nashville Predators stand out as three of the biggest offseason improvers.
The Capitals may end up getting one of their biggest boosts from a player already in the building. Pierre-Luc Dubois was limited to just 27 games a year ago, and Washington missed the playoffs in 2025-26 despite finishing with 96 points.
A healthy season from him would matter a lot. But the front office didn’t stop there.
Washington also went out and made two major additions, landing speedy forward Jordan Kyrou from the St. Louis Blues and then bringing in 30-goal scorer Alex Tuch from the Buffalo Sabres. Tuch’s contract might age poorly, but in the short term he should be a major help, while Kyrou brings the kind of speed and playmaking that can change the feel of a top line.
That gives the Capitals a much more dangerous look on paper. Logan Thompson remains a top-tier goalie, and the forward group now has a stronger mix of experience and youth. That’s the kind of combination that can take a team from the outside of the playoff picture to legitimate Stanley Cup contender status in a single season.
The Rangers’ upgrade is about more than just names on the back of jerseys. It’s also about changing the way they want to play.
For years, one of their biggest problems was a defense that didn’t move well enough and lacked enough puck-moving ability. They attacked that issue this summer by trading veteran center Vincent Trocheck to the Utah Mammoth for defenseman Sean Durzi, then sending a 2030 first-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks for Marcus Pettersson. With Adam Fox and Vladislav Gavrikov already in place, New York now has a top-four blue line that can defend and, just as importantly, move the puck.
Up front, the biggest swing came with the addition of Pavel Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights. He’s coming off back-to-back 35-goal seasons and is still in his prime, with a real chance to push toward 40 goals. That makes him one of the most significant additions any team made this summer.
It may still not be enough to guarantee a playoff return. The Rangers were too far down the standings last season, the Eastern Conference is loaded, and the roster still has some flaws. But they are unquestionably better, and they belong in the conversation as one of the league’s most improved teams.
Nashville’s offseason is a little harder to pin down. The Predators seem caught between two timelines, trying to compete now while also keeping one eye on the future. New general manager Chris MacFarland inherited a roster with some high-end talent, but not nearly enough depth around it.
His answer was to add more support pieces and see whether that can help push the team back into the playoffs. Nashville brought in Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Nils Hoglander, Alexander Kerfoot and Mavrik Bourque.
There isn’t a true headline-grabber in that group. None of them rank among the top five, or even top 10, most impactful players to change teams this offseason.
But the point isn’t star power here. It’s depth.
Nobody in that list looks like a bad fit, and all of them should be able to help in some way.
That makes the Predators a deeper team than they were before. Whether that translates into success will depend on the returning core and whether there’s still enough left in the tank to make a playoff push.
In Other News...
This Rangers Season Could Decide More Than The Standings
The Rangers have spent the offseason trying to reshape the roster with real intent, adding Sean Durzi, Marcus Pettersson, Pavel Dorofeyev and Oliver Bjorkstrand while also bringing in Albert Smits through the draft. It is the kind of aggressive retool that suggests a team trying to move faster than a full rebuild, but the bigger issue in New York is not just improving the lineup on paper. It is proving the franchise can win enough again to matter to the leagues top players.
For all the movement already made, the Rangers still look like a club searching for the kind of first-line center that can pull the whole plan together. That matters because the next phase is not only about trades and cap space, but about reputation, and recent history has not always helped there. When star players have had chances to pick destinations, New York has not always been the preferred answer, which leaves this season carrying a little more weight than the standings alone would suggest. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers May Have Found The Young Defense Piece They Needed
Among the nine players the Rangers added in the 2026 NHL Draft, one of the more intriguing names was Ben Macbeath, a defenseman out of the Calgary Hitmen who went 64th overall. He looked like the kind of pick that can quietly age well for a front office, because several scouting outlets had him higher on their boards than where he actually landed, which is the sort of draft-day slide teams love to exploit when they are hunting for value.
Macbeath brings more than just a favorable price tag. He put together a strong 2025-26 season in Calgary, producing 51 points in 67 games while leading Hitmen defensemen, and he also got a taste of international competition with Team Canada at the U-18 World Juniors. For a Rangers organization always searching for young blue-line help, the appeal is obvious, even if the real question is how quickly that blend of mobility, puck movement and responsibility translates to the pro level. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Trade May Have Quietly Answered Their Biggest Long Term Need
The Rangers trade for Sean Durzi gives them the immediate NHL help they were looking for on the blue line, but the quieter part of the deal may be what matters most down the road. Cole Beaudoin, a 20-year-old center prospect, arrives as the kind of long-term piece this organization has been missing, especially after moving Vincent Trocheck and leaving a thinner pipeline down the middle.
Beaudoin was a first-round pick in 2024 and has the kind of physical, workmanlike profile that can translate in time if the offense keeps coming along. He is not expected to help the Rangers right away, but with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller set as the top two centers and little certainty behind them, the appeal is obvious. The question now is how quickly Beaudoin can turn promise into something the Rangers can actually count on. [Read more 🡒]