MISSED 2023-24 PLAYOFFS, COULD MAKE 2024-25 PLAYOFFS

Chicago Blackhawks

If you think I played it too safe with the Devils, it’s time to provoke some spit takes. Chicago? One year after it finished with the NHL’s 31^st-best record? Hear me out. We’ll start with the Connor Bedard piece of it. He averaged 0.897 points per game as an 18-year-old. The only two 18-year-olds this millennium to exceed that scoring rate are Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. They both underwent major production leaps as second-year players, winning the Hart and Art Ross Trophies and making the playoffs. Given Bedard is on a generational talent trajectory, it’s reasonable to believe he can explode into the 100-point stratosphere as a sophomore – if he has a decent enough team around him. General manager Kyle Davidson set out to provide that this offseason, adding Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen to the top-six forward group, with Ilya Mikheyev and Pat Maroon sprinkled in for depth. Factor in Taylor Hall’s return from injury and that’s a vastly improved forward corps. With TJ Brodie and Alec Martinez added to the D-corps and Laurent Brossoit, arguably the NHL’s best backup this past season, improving their crease, the Hawks look significantly improved on paper. Best of all, they achieved that without a bunch of ill-advised long-term contracts.

MADE 2023-24 PLAYOFFS, COULD MISS 2024-25 PLAYOFFS

Los Angeles Kings

Rob Blake was hired as Kings GM seven years ago. His club has yet to win a playoff series during his tenure. The 2023-24 Kings were enough of a disappointment in his eyes to fire coach Todd McLellan partway through the year. You’d think the Kings would thus rank among the most aggressive improvers this offseason. But while they’ve been busy…they’ve arguably been busy making themselves worse. They freed themselves from Pierre-Luc Dubois’ contract, but in the process they still removed a 40-point scorer and shifted from Cam Talbot to Darcy Kuemper in net, which, based on last season, is a downgrade in net at a higher price. They watched Matt Roy, one of the game’s better shutdown blueliners, and Viktor Arvidsson, who is injury prone but effective when healthy, walk as UFAs. They handed a three-year deal to checking forward Warren Foegele and a four-year deal to stay-at-home blueliner Joel Edmundson, chewing up more than $7 million in combined cap space on depth players. So the Kings are…worse in net, worse offensively and worse defensively than they were a year ago. Even if exciting young forward Quinton Byfield takes another step forward, it won’t offset how badly Blake has struck out this offseason. The Kings are in real danger of missing the playoffs.

“The undisputed No. 1 prospect is as complete as it gets, putting up great numbers while still backchecking like his life depends on it. Celebrini is good in the draw, with his pure strength allowing him to win so many faceoffs even against older competition. He’ll be San Jose’s No. 1 for a while, finding ways to make himself valuable even if he isn’t producing much on the scoresheet. As a middleman, he’s better than Bedard. Skill-wise, not on par, but still quite amazing on his own. First overall picks always get significant attention and sometimes even get overhyped. With Celebrini, you can see all the translatable skills, plus how well he handled playing against older competition at only 17. Just think where he’ll be in five more years.”