Bartnick’s summer grades

It seems crazy to hand out summer grades with so many important RFA’s still unsigned but the RFA’s seem to be waiting on Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner. Knowing Leafs GM Kyle Dubas and Marner might not be signed until after Thanksgiving, American Thanksgiving. I was a tougher grader this year. Not Catholic school nun tough but not public school gym teacher easy.

ATLANTIC-

TORONTO – The Maple Leafs turned Nazem Kadri into Tyson Barrie and Alexander Kerfoot. They signed Andreas Johansson and Kasperi Kapanen to contracts so cheap there should be a criminal investigation. They signed veteran center Jason Spezza for meal money. They traded for defenseman Cody Ceci who is an upgrade over Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev. It seems like a great summer but Mitch Marner’s contract negotiation could make for a very scary Halloween. B

BOSTON – The Bruins let forwards Marcus Johanssen and Noel Acciari go to division rivals for reasonable contracts then gave forward Danton Heinen too much money. The Bruins need to get RFA defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo under contract sooner than later. C-

MONTREAL – The Canadiens lost out on center Sebastian Aho but did not do anything stupid. Defenseman Ben Chiarot will slot nicely onto the blue line. C+

DETROIT – Red Wing legend Stevie Yzerman replaced Ken Holland as GM. Yzerman had a solid draft and didn’t waste any Illitch family money. Signing center Valeri Filppuula and defenseman Patrik Nemeth didn’t make headlines but they add solid depth. C+

OTTAWA – Ottawa hired a new coach, DJ Smith. Artem Anisimov will be a better center than Zach Smith. If he can stomach all the losing in Ottawa. Ron Hainsey will bring a sorely needed veteran presence to their blue line. Nikita Zaitsev will help their defense if he wants to. B-

BUFFALO – The Sabres hired another new coach Ralph Krueger. He will have more scoring with the additions of forwards Marcus Johanssen and Jimmy Vesey, than his predecessor. B

FLORIDA – The Panthers will have no excuses not to make the playoffs. They hired Hall of Fame, 3 x Stanley Cup winning Head Coach Joel Quenneville. They signed the best free agent goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. They added scoring and grit up front with Brett Connolly and Noel Acciari. They also acquired veteran blue liner Anton Stralman. A

TAMPA BAY – The Tampa Bay Lightning moved out salary by shedding forwards JT Miller and Ryan Callahan. Unfortunately, then they turned around and wasted the money by signing disappointing defenseman Kevin Shattenenkirk. They locked up Vezina winning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to a huge but fair contract. They signed goalie Curtis McElhinney as a backup but already have the very capable Louis Domingue. Brayden Point is the best RFA on the market and he is still unsigned. C-

METRO-

PITTSBURGH – The Penguins extended 2 x Stanley Cup winning Head Coach Mike Sullivan for four more years. They shipped out Phil Kessel but got Alex Galchenyuk in return. They signed physical Brandon Tanev to a long contract. They traded reliable yet slow D Ollie Maata for skilled forward Dominik Kahun. They gave their own Zach Aston-Reese too much money but made up for it by under paying their own Teddy Blueger. B+

PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers hired Alain Vigneault as Head Coach. He is a considerable upgrade over Dave Hakstol. They paid to free agent center Kevin Hayes star money. He is not a star. They traded reliably evil defenseman Radko Gudas for the more expensive and declining D Matt Niskanen. B-

ISLANDERS – The Islanders resigned captain Anders Lee to a fair, long-term contract. Their goaltender Robin Lehner left for Chicago. That’s ok, chances are he couldn’t replicate his fabulous 2018-19 season. Unfortunately, they gave the extremely unreliable goaltender Sergei Varlamov a four-year deal. C-

RANGERS – The Rangers brought back Ranger great John Davidson to be Team President. They signed the biggest free agent prize winger Artemi Panarin. They drafted the most NHL-ready player in the draft winger Kaapo Kakko. They signed Jacob Trouba to a long-term deal. He is a horse and the number one defenseman they’ve been looking for. They even got Pavel Buchnevich to resign for less than market value. A

NEW JERSEY – The Devils took superstar center in waiting Jack Hughes number one in the draft. They stole Norris Trophy winner P K Subban from Nashville. They got the best player not in the NHL Nikita Gusev to sign a cap friendly deal. They added what will be a highly motivated F Wayne Simmonds to protect their stars. They also got D Will Butcher to sign a very team friendly deal. A+

COLUMBUS – The Blue Jackets lost their franchise goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky and their best player forward Artemi Panarin. They also lost forwards Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel. They did add forward Gus Nyquist. D+

WASHINGTON – The Capitals added more physicality with forward Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Radko Gudas. Winger Jakub Vrana resigned for a team friendly deal. They hope forward Richard Panik can replace Brett Connolly’s goals. B+

CAROLINA – The Hurricanes received help from the Canadiens. They signed former RFA and franchise center Sebastian Aho to very team friendly contract. They added scoring wingers Erik Haula and Ryan Dzingel. The Canes got goalie Petr Mrazek to return for a fair contract. Will their captain Justin Williams do the same? B

CENTRAL-

COLORADO – Colorado added scoring and snarl up front with center Nazeem Kadri and forwards Andre Burakovsky, F Joonas Donkoi, Pierre Edouard Bellemare. Defenseman Tyson Barrie was lost in the Kadri trade. He was expendable do to the abundance of skill on the Avalanche blue line. B+

CHICAGO – The Blackhawks took a chance goalie Robin Lehner could repeat last season with a one year deal. They sewed-up their blue line bringing in Calvin deHaan and Olli Maatta. They added grit up front with Zach Smith, Andrew Shaw and Ryan Carpenter. B+

ST LOUIS – The Stanley Cup winning Blues resigned goalie Jordan Binnington to fair for both sides contract. They resigned center Oskar Sundqvist to a ridiculously team friendly deal. Head coach Craig Berube was retained, drama free. B+

DALLAS – The Dallas Stars are making a Stanley Cup push. They signed two big game veteran forwards, former Sharks captain Joe Pavelski and former Stanley Cup winner Corey Perry. Perry was pennies on the dollar after the Ducks bought him out. A

WINNIPEG – The Jets lost half the defense core. Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers and Ben Chiarot moved on. They haven’t resigned two of their top three wingers, RFAs Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor. D-

MINNESOTA – The Wild fired GM Paul Fenton after he signed forward Mats Zuccarello to a bad contract. D-

NASHVILLE-The Predators practically gave PK Subban to New Jersey so they could give overrated center Matt Duchene a contract he will never live up to. D

PACIFIC-

LOS ANGELES – The Kings hired Todd McLellan to be their head coach. He’s their first competent coach in three tries. Defenseman Dion Phaneuf was bought out. The other Kings moves were very minor. The Kings are hoping the whole team will improve since they were reluctant or unable to make trades this summer. D

ANAHEIM – The Ducks hired Dallas Eakins to be their new Head Coach. Darryl Sutter was brought into the front office to assist in the rebuild. The rebuild officially began as forward Corey Perry was bought out. B

LAS VEGAS – The Golden Knights missed out on big free agents. Garret Sparks was brought in to replace Malcolm Subban as Marc Andre Fleury’s backup in net. The Knights lost grit and depth when Pierre Edouard Bellemare and Ryan Carpenter were not resigned. C-

ARIZONA – The Coyotes have a new owner, Alex Meruelo. He vows to keep the team in the desert. The Coyotes traded winger Alex Galchenyuk for Phil Kesssel. Season ticket sales went up and so will the power play percentage. A

SAN JOSE – The Sharks lost their Captain Joe Pavelski and maybe their soul if first ballot Hall of Famer Joe Thornton does not resign. Forward Joonas Donskoi and defenseman Justin Braun are also gone. Forwards Timo Meier and Kevin Labanc both resigned very team friendly contracts. D+

EDMONTON – The Oilers have a new GM, Ken Holland. They also have a new coach, Dave Tippett. Holland is a legendary GM and Tippett is a well-respected veteran coach. A new GM and head coach were two things this franchise desperately needed. They also desperately needed a scoring winger. Milan Lucic’s bad contract was replaced with James Neal’s bad contract. Neal will provide Connor McDavid with a true scoring winger. It will enable him and Leon Draisaitl to be on different lines. Fiery Mike Smith is their new goalie. B+

CALGARY – The Flames dumped clubhouse cancer James Neal for the old, slow but tougher than a two dollar steak Milan Lucic. Lucic will protect the Flames smaller, skilled players. Sam Bennett was resigned to a very team friendly contract. RFA Matthew Tkachuk needs resigned at any price. He is the most important to his team RFA out there. Don’t think his agents don’t know that. Cam Talbot signed to share the net with resigned David Rittich. B

VANCOUVER – The Canucks have added beef to their lineup. Huge Tyler Myers is now on the blue line and Michael Ferland is upfront. Forward JT Miller will add scoring and leadership to the young core. RFA Brock Boeser remains unsigned. The only ones missing defenseman Derrick Pouliot will be the pot store owners. B+

(Originally published in Pro Hockey News 2019)