Wild Offseason: Free Agency Plans and 2026-27 Expectations

NHL teams' offseason keys, including free agency, draft needs

- Ryan S. Clark Close Ryan S. Clark ESPN NHL reporter Ryan S. Clark is an NHL reporter for ESPN. Follow on X and - Kristen Shilton Close Kristen Shilton ESPN NHL reporter Kristen Shilton is a national NHL reporter for ESPN. Follow on X Multiple Authors May 9, 2026, 09:20 PM ET - - Email - Print Open Extended Reactions

The 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs are underway, which means that while some teams are looking forward to their shot at the best trophy in sports, the others will be looking ahead to the offseason.

What went right and wrong for each of the eliminated teams? How should they modify their rosters this summer via trades, free agency and the draft? And what is each club's outlook for 2026-27?

Read on for full breakdown on every team that is no longer eligible to win the Stanley Cup in 2026. More teams will be added to this story as they are eliminated, so keep this page bookmarked.

Note: Profiles for the Atlantic and Metro teams were written by Kristen Shilton. Ryan S. Clark analyzed the Central and Pacific teams. Stats are collected from sites such as Natural Stat Trick , Hockey Reference and Evolving Hockey . Projected cap space per PuckPedia. Dates listed with each team are when the entry was published. Teams are listed alphabetically by publication date.

Jump ahead to a team:

CGY | CHI | CBJ | BOS

DAL | DET | EDM | FLA

LA | MIN | NSH | NJ | NYI

NYR | OTT | PHI | PIT

SJ | SEA | STL | TB

TOR | UTA | VAN

WSH | WPG

Eliminated in Round 2

May 13: Minnesota Wild

Projected cap space: $13.5 million

2026 draft picks: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 5th (SJ), 6th

What went right? A team that had been a perennial first-round exit leveled up in 2025-26 to stake a serious claim within the Western Conference hierarchy.

The Wild won the Quinn Hughes sweepstakes, which signaled that they were serious about trying to make a push for a Stanley Cup, whether it be this season or in the near future.

Hughes' addition brought several new elements to the Wild , and the club showed off its new firepower in preventing the Dallas Stars from reaching a fourth consecutive Western Conference finals, ousting them with a dominant performance in the first round.

What went wrong? "Within reach, while struggling to gain a firm grasp" is the best way to describe the Wild's second-round series against the Colorado Avalanche . It happened in Game 1; they overcame falling into an 0-3 hole to eventually take a 5-4 lead before losing by three in a wild series opener. In Game 2, the penalty kill allowed two goals in a 5-2 defeat, before Minnesota rallied for a 5-1 win in Game 3.

Then there was Game 4, when they staved off pressure to tie the game at 2-2 ... only to allow the Avs to tally the go-ahead score on Parker Kelly 's first career playoff goal, and add two empty-netters thereafter. Colorado was simply able to counterpunch Minnesota at each step of the way.

Keys to the offseason: GM Bill Guerin and his front office will need to navigate an eight-player UFA class featuring Nick Foligno , Marcus Johansson , Vladimir Tarasenko and Mats Zuccarello , among others.

After that, the Wild should consider adding more top-six help. Once again, the Wild are playing with limited cap space because Kirill Kaprizov 's new contract will raise his cap hit from $9 million annually to $17 million annually.

Realistic expectation for 2026-27: The Wild will be right there with the other top Western Conference contenders, and should be challenging for their first trip to the conference finals since 2003.

May 9: Philadelphia Flyers

Projected cap space: $39.5 million

2026 draft picks: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th

What went right? It seemed implausible in October that Philadelphia would be a nearly 100-point team, and earning its postseason ticket for the first time since 2019-20. That's why they play the games, right?

The Flyers exceeded expectations for a number of reasons, from goaltending on out. Dan Vladar had his best season ever with a 29-14-7 record, 2.42 goals-against average and .906 save percentage, which was top 10 among goalies making 40-plus starts. Vladar wasn't the only one with a breakout campaign. Trevor Zegras -- in his first season with Philadelphia following an offseason trade from Anaheim -- set a career high in goals (26) and points (67), while Noah Cates put up his best numbers too (18 goals and 47 points) while Owen Tippett led all Flyers with 28 goals to match his own top total from two seasons ago.

Coach Rick Tocchet's newly implemented, defense-forward structure seemed to steady the Flyers and help them rank ninth in goals against during the regular season, and made them one of the stingier clubs in the postseason as well. Despite being tied as the second-youngest team overall in the playoff field (with an average age of 27) and dressing eight players under age 25 -- three among them who didn't start the season with Philadelphia -- the Flyers surged through their second half with the league's fourth-best winning percentage (.712) out of the Olympic break to earn their spot in the postseason.

The Flyers were in full control for much of their first-round Eastern Conference series there against the Pittsburgh Penguins , taking the first three games and eventually ousting their state rivals with a tight 1-0 overtime victory in Game 6. Philadelphia showed they are finally starting to crack the ceiling on this team's potential.

What went wrong? Philadelphia wouldn't have been in the playoffs at all without the contributions of their young skaters -- but the lack of postseason experience that started hurting them late in the first round was further exposed against the high-flying Carolina Hurricanes . A team like Carolina will make its opponent pay for every mistake, and that is part of how the Hurricanes halted any of the Flyers' momentum and seemingly deflated their confidence.

But again, Philadelphia's struggles -- particularly offensively -- first bubbled up when they had Pittsburgh on the ropes with a 3-0 series lead. The Flyers scored just five goals in the three games prior to advancing, and then tallied just three goals in their first three outings against the Hurricanes (with zero scores coming from Christian Dvorak , Travis Konecny or Matvei Michkov ). Injuries to Tippett and Cates only exacerbated the team's scoring problems. Philadelphia's power play -- a season-long issue for the club -- was operating at just 4.3% over that stretch, too.

Frederik Andersen is light-years ahead of Penguins' netminders Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs , and while Vladar performed especially admirably given the Flyers' circumstances, he couldn't quite match how Andersen was protecting the Canes' crease. This season should still be viewed as a win overall for the Flyers. It's a massive steppingstone toward being a perennially competitive group again, and there's no doubt they'll learn from taking a few lumps.

Keys to the offseason: The Flyers are in a good spot. GM Danny Briere's first priority will be negotiating Zegras' next contract. He's a pending restricted free agent at the top of his game, and that's going to cost Philadelphia -- but the fit between team and player has been so strong that both sides will want to get something done. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale is another RFA who Briere will be motivated to keep following his best season in years.

Then there is backup goalie Samuel Ersson . He's an RFA too, but without Zegras or Drysdale-like proficiency to support his cause (Ersson was 14-11-5 with an .870 SV% playing behind Vladar this season).

Philadelphia has cap space to spare, so once Briere is done with his in-house work, he can figure out how to help Philadelphia continue its evolution. If Ersson isn't coming back, who will the Flyers' go with as their No. 2 (assuming Vladar returns to form as their go-to next season)?

Then it's time to fix the team's awful power play, which finished 32nd in the regular season, at 15.7%. Some sort of upgrade/overhaul has to happen. How Briere chooses to address that -- via a coaching change or personnel addition -- will have a notable effect on the Flyers next season.

Realistic expectation for 2026-27: Philadelphia showed enough in the past nine months to put itself firmly in the 2027 playoff conversation from opening night onward. And realistically, when the Flyers do get to the postseason, absolutely no one should be surprised if they make a longer run than this one.

Eliminated in Round 1

May 3: Tampa Bay Lightning

Projected cap space: $13.6 million

2026 draft picks: 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 5th (SEA), 6th, 7th

What went right? The Lightning showed once again why they've been a perennial powerhouse over the past decade. Head coach Jon Cooper, the league's longest-tenured bench boss and 2026 Jack Adams finalist, consistently manages to bring out the best from his team. The Lightning produced an impressive 109-point regular season, finished second in their division and secured a ninth consecutive playoff berth.

Per usual, it was the elite offensive performance of Nikita Kucherov -- second in league scoring with 44 goals and 130 points -- that helped put the Lightning in such prime position, with Jake Guentzel (38 goals and 88 points) and Brandon Hagel (36 goals and 74 points) producing as well. Andrei Vasilevskiy was top-tier in a Vezina Trophy-worthy campaign (.912 SV%, 2.31 GAA), aided by a strong defensive front led by the emergence of J.J. Moser (with a career-high seven goals, 29 points and plus-44 rating) and veterans Ryan McDonagh and Victor Hedman . All told, Tampa Bay finished fourth in offense (3.49 goals per game) and third in goals-against (2.79) and had the third-best penalty kill (82.6).

What went wrong? Too many of Tampa Bay's regular-season standouts went silent in the playoffs. The Lightning had play their entire first-round series against Montreal without Hedman. What Tampa Bay didn't need was players in the lineup to be noticeably invisible at key moments. Kucherov and Brayden Point each scored just one goal and Guentzel had two. Hagel was pulling his weight (with six goals and eight points), but his efforts couldn't make up for the rest of the club's deficiencies as the Lightning ranked in the bottom six in playoff scoring (with fewer than three goals per game).

Would having Hedman have made a significant difference? He's an all-world defenseman, so probably. But Moser and McDonagh were still strong. It was just that the Lightning appeared less cohesive as a group against the Canadiens than they did throughout the year. The number of overtime games in the series also played a factor -- the Lightning were one timely goal or save away from victory in their first three outings -- but that's what separates teams in the spring. On any given night, who gets the job done? On too many occasions it just wasn't Tampa Bay, and so the Lightning bowed out in the first round for the fourth straight season.

Keys to the offseason: The Lightning are mostly locked in with regards to their own talent -- only Darren Raddysh 's expiring deal stands out following his career-best season (22 goals and 70 points in 73 games). Otherwise, Tampa Bay has all the players in place to stay a top contender in the Eastern Conference. But will Father Time catch up with the Lightning? Hedman and McDonagh are both over 35, and Kucherov, Point, Guentzel and Vasilevskiy are in their early 30s. Critics have said before that the Lightning's window is closing, and at some point that will be true.

How will Tampa Bay make the most of the best years their top skaters have to offer? It's a question that should be consuming GM Julien BriseBois. It's hard to nitpick what the Lightning accomplished in the regular season, and analyzing only those games, it doesn't appear they have glaring holes. Perhaps it's more of a mindset shift that Tampa Bay should be chasing. Why did some of the team's major t

_Originally reported by [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/48475221/nhl-2026-offseason-schedule-keys-draft-picks-trades-free-agency-cap-space)._