NHL Team Season Recaps

Colorado Avalanche

2016-17 season: 22-56-4 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Jared Bednar (2016)
7th Place Central Division	General Manager: Joe Sakic (2013)
14th Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: San Antonio Rampage ECHL Affiliate: Colorado Eagles
Draft Position: Will have the greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
C	21	Nathan MacKinnon	53	16	27	-14	51.9
C	26	Matt Duchene	41	18	23	-34	51.0
RW	20	Mikko Rantanen	39	20	19	-25	49.5
LW	24	Gabriel Landeskog	33	18	15	-25	52.8
C	22	Mikhail Grigorenko	23	10	13	-14	47.2
LW	30	Blake Comeau	20	8	12	-19	50.8
RW	35	Rene Bourque	18	12	6	-19	48.1
RW	39	Jarome Iginla	18	8	10	-21	50.1
RW	23	Sven Andrighetto	15	5	10	0	50.4
C	31	Carl Soderberg	14	6	8	-26	46.5

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	25	Tyson Barrie	38	7	31	-34	50.0
D	36	Francois Beauchemin	18	5	13	-14	47.9
D	28	Erik Johnson	17	2	15	-6	51.2
D	33	Fedor Tyutin	13	1	12	-25	46.8
D	26	Patrick Wiercioch	12	4	8	-18	46.7

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	24	Calvin Pickard	48	15-31-2	2	2.98	.904
G	28	Semyon Varlamov	23	6-17-0	1	3.38	.898
G	27	Jeremy Smith	8	1-6-1	0	3.54	.888
G	21	Spencer Martin	3	0-2-1	0	4.36	.865

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
D Cody Goloubef	Columbus Blue Jackets	D Ryan Stanton
LW Cody McLeod	Nashville Predators	C Felix Girard
Conditional 2018 4th RD Draft Pick	Los Angeles Kings	RW Jarome Iginla
FWD Andreas Martinsen	Montreal Canadiens	RW Sven Andrighetto

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
D	33	Fedor Tyutin	$2,000,000
LW	32	John Mitchell	$1,800,000
LW	26	Gabriel Bourque	$800,000
D	27	Cody Goloubef	$750,000
G	27	Jeremy Smith	$675,000
LW	35	Rene Bourque	$650,000
LW	24	Brendan Ranford	$625,000
D	26	Mat Clark	$600,000
C	28	Jim O’Brien	$600,000
RW	29	Mike Sislo	$600,000
G	27	Joe Cannata	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Avalanche have seven draft picks in the upcoming draft including two fourth round picks. They realistically need a little bit of everything, especially a right winger, a right-handed defensemen, and a goaltender of the future.  In this draft, however, the top six ranked prospects as ranked by NHL's Central Scouting are all centers and the Avalanche are pretty much guaranteed to pick no worse than five.  If they get the first or second overall pick Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier are almost guaranteed to be the first two players off the board. Patrick has been the consensus number one overall prospect for a year now while Hischier has climbed the prospect ranks consistently with a strong season in the QMJHL.  Neither project to be as talented or as impactful as Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews but both could develop into true number one centers.  With the Avalanche potentially trading Matt Duchene this offseason, the team could have a hole to fill at the top of their forward group.  Patrick or Hischier could be that replacement for the future.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I thought that the Avalanche replacing Patrick Roy with Jared Bednar, after Roy's surprising departure right before the season, would be beneficial to the team's success in 2016-17.  Roy didn't implement much of a system during his tenure behind the bench and the team failed the past two seasons.  I thought that the team would improve quite a bit over their 39-39-4 record but that their record may not necessarily be much better.  This means that I thought that individual players would see development that their Corsi would be better but that it wouldn't translate to wins.

Success/Failure

• Big Failure - This isn't a team that was trying to tank this season.  They entered the season absolutely trying to make the playoffs.  They have had a top ten draft pick five of the past seven seasons and have failed to capitalize on it, despite having two of the most electric offensive players in Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon.  The Avalanche are the first team since the '99-00 Atlanta Thrashers to finish with under 50 points and that Thrashers team was its first in franchise history.  It seems nearly impossible to finish with below 50 in today's NHL because of the loser point but the Avalanche managed to accomplish said feat.  The team as a whole was terrible as they finished with the worst shooting percentage and second worst save percentage in the league.  Their defense was really bad and their goaltending was abysmal and there seems to be on real end in sight.

Offseason Needs

• I think that the first things the Avalanche need to do are to replace Joe Sakic as GM with someone who doesn't have such a vested interest in the franchise and also replace Jared Bednar. This season's struggles weren't Bednar's fault but he seems to be in over his head and moving in a new direction can't hurt.  They also need to finally move on tanking and rebuilding this roster group.  They have discussed trading Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog this past season but never moved on it and it's time to pursue those transactions.  Nashville or Carolina would be excellent trade partners for Colorado as the Avalanche need to get NHL-ready top four defensemen in return and both of these franchises of those to offer.  Duchene will yield them a larger return but and it has been rumored that they want an NHL-ready defenseman, a top prospect, and a draft pick as minimum of a return for Duchene and a return for Landeskog wouldn't be much less.  Losing either or both of these players will certainly hurt the Avalanche but currently they are wasting their prime years on a middling franchise that won't be competitive anytime soon.  The Avalanche also need to figure out their defense situation which has some reasons for encouragement in Nikita Zadorov and Tyson Barrie but they desperately need a quality puck-moving defenseman.  They also need to figure out their goaltending situation, which is a position of problem as Semyon Varlamov can't stay healthy and Calvin Pickard and Jeremy Smith most likely aren't good enough to be the franchise future.  It's time to finally sell off their veteran players, recoup what value they can, and start this process over again.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, and eliteprospects.com*

Vancouver Canucks

2016-17 season: 30-43-9 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Fired - Willie Desjardins (2014)
7th Place Pacific Division	General Manager: Jim Benning (2014)
13th  Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: Utica Comets ECHL Affiliate: Alaska Aces
Draft Position: Will have the second greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
C	21	Bo Horvat	52	20	32	-7	48.2
C	36	Henrik Sedin	51	15	36	-27	50.5
LW	36	Daniel Sedin	44	15	29	-16	50.6
LW	24	Sven Baertschi	35	18	17	-6	46.3
C	27	Brandon Sutter	34	17	17	-20	46.2
C	23	Markus Granlund	32	19	13	-19	51.1
LW	31	Loui Eriksson	24	11	13	-9	50.5
RW	35	Alexander Burrows	20	9	11	-3	48.7
RW	30	Jannik Hansen	13	6	7	2	48.0
RW	29	Jack Skille	9	5	4	0	48.8

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	22	Troy Stecher	24	3	21	-16	49.4
D	30	Alexander Edler	21	6	15	-20	49.3
D	23	Ben Hutton	19	5	14	-22	48.4
D	27	Luca Sbisa	13	2	11	-1	45.7
D	27	Chris Tanev	10	2	8	3	47.3

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	36	Ryan Miller	54	18-29-6	3	2.80	.914
G	27	Jacob Markstrom	23	10-11-3	0	2.63	.910
G	29	Richard Bachman	5	2-3-0	0	2.64	.920

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
LW Jonathan Dahlen	Ottawa Senators	LW Alexandre Burrows
RW Nikolay Goldobin Conditional 2017 4th RD Draft Pick	San Jose Sharks	RW Jannik Hansen

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
G	36	Ryan Miller	$6,000,000
D	27	Philip Larsen	$1,025,000
LW	30	Jack Skille	$700,000
D	27	Chad Billins	$600,000
LW	25	Alexander Grenier	$600,000
RW	25	Borna Rendulic	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Canucks have six draft picks in the upcoming draft, including two fourth rounders, one of which is conditional upon whether or not the Sharks win the Stanley Cup.  If they do, that fourth round pick becomes a first rounder.  The Canucks have the second best odds to win the NHL Draft Lottery and will most likely draft in the top five.  If Vancouver gets the second overall draft pick like their record says they should, they must take whoever is available between Nico Hischier and Nolan Patrick.  The Canucks, like virtually every team, could use a potential number one center and, even though neither are generational, both can help jumpstart the franchise's future.  Beyond that pick, the Canucks need everything and drafting a potential game-changer at any of the positions is helpful.  A couple of the mock drafts I have looked at have them taking several defensemen with their picks, which would be smart moves since their current defense group is older.  They also need to address their goaltending situation but I don't know if that's worth addressing until the team is closer to competing.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I thought that the Canucks would actually be much worse than they ended up being, as their roster group is very unexciting and just not very talented.  I questioned the signing of Loui Eriksson since he is as old as he is and will be old when his contract is up.  I questioned the team's direction in net as Ryan Miller is 36 years old and is a free agent this offseason and no one really knows if Jakob Markstrom has the ability to be a starting goaltender in the NHL or not.  I actually thought that head coach Willie Desjardins would be fired during the season and that Vancouver was going to be the worst team in the league this season.

Success/Failure

• Failure - This is another franchise that isn't trying to fail and yet are terrible.  The front office spent money last offseason to bring in veteran winger Loui Eriksson, a move that shows that they are invested in winning immediately.  Instead, they finished with the second fewest points in the league and have no real direction for the future.  They don't have a great farm system, overall, but have some help coming at the top of their system.  They did get a great offensive output from Bo Horvat in his second full season in the NHL, leading the team in scoring and was their representative at the All-Star Game.  Beyond that, they got very little production from the rest of their forwards.  Their defensemen weren't much better and are a very mediore group in its entirety.  Troy Stecher and Ben Hutton seem to be the team's future at the position but need to develop more as none of their defensive had a positive Corsi.  Finally, in net, Ryan Miller actually played quite well but was unable to convert many of his performances into victories.  His backup goaltenders were good in limited roles leading me to believe that a big reason for the team's struggles were on offense and their issues on defense.

Offseason Needs

• The Canucks' NHL roster is an older group that is nearly a full year older than the league average.  They are led by franchise favorites, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who are now 36 years old.  They also brought in veteran winger Loui Eriksson last offseason on a six year deal and he only contributed 11 goals and 24 points this season.  At the opposite end of that, however, they have Bo Horvat, Jake Virtanen, and Brock Boeser, all of whom figure to be key players for the team going forward.  The team needs to build around this young core and recognize that the Sedin era of the Canucks is over and that they won't be able to win a Stanley Cup with them. The team has to try and trade their veterans, including the Sedins, which would require the Canucks absorbing a large percentage of their contracts since no team has the cap space available to take on two $7 million contracts for aging forwards.  It would be nice to see Vancouver do the twins a solid by moving them to a Cup contender.  Moving Eriksson may not be possible, however, since he has $30 million left on his contract and is coming off a down season.  They may be stuck with him for a few more seasons before they are able to move him. The front office made a mistake at the trade deadline by not moving Ryan Miller, who probably would have yielded the Canucks a solid return since he actually had a good year.  Vancouver has avoided a teardown and rebuild of this roster group for several seasons now but now is the time to pursue said plan.  It's the only way for them to be good again anytime in the near future.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, and eliteprospects.com*

New Jersey Devils

2016-17 season: 28-40-14 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: John Hynes (2015)
8th Place Metropolitan Division	General Manager: Ray Shero (2015)
16th Place Eastern Conference	AHL Affiliate: Albany Devils ECHL Affiliate: None
Draft Position: Will have the fifth greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
RW	25	Kyle Palmieri	53	26	27	2	47.7
LW	25	Taylor Hall	53	20	33	-9	52.2
C	31	Travis Zajac	54	14	31	-9	49.8
C	26	Adam Henrique	40	20	20	-20	46.7
LW	34	Mike Cammalleri	31	10	21	-9	48.2
RW	33	P.A. Parenteau	27	13	14	-17	50.2
C	19	Pavel Zacha	24	8	16	-17	47.4
RW	25	Beau Bennett	19	8	11	-4	53.4
LW	21	Miles Wood	18	8	9	-21	41.4
C	25	Jacob Josefson	10	1	9	-1	47.4

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	22	Damon Severson	31	10	21	-30	50.0
D	26	John Moore	22	12	10	-8	46.9
D	34	Andy Greene	13	4	9	-15	46.7
D	31	Kyle Quincey	12	4	8	3	47.7
D	21	Steven Santini	7	1	6	-6	47.0

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	30	Cory Schneider	59	20-27-11	2	2.82	.908
G	27	Keith Kinkaid	23	8-13-3	1	2.64	.916

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
Future Considerations	Ottawa Senators	D Brandon Gormley
RW Shane Harper	Florida Panthers	D Reece Scarlett
F P.A. Parenteau	Nashville Predators	2017 6th RD Pick
D Dalton Prout	Columbus Blue Jackets	D Kyle Quincey
D Viktor Loov	Toronto Maple Leafs	F Sergey Kalinin
RW Petr Sraka	Philadelphia Flyers	2017 or 2018 Conditional 7th RD Pick

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
C	39	Marc Savard	$4,027,143
G	27	Keith Kinkaid	$725,000
LW	27	Luke Gazdic	$700,000
RW	24	Petr Straka	$650,000
RW	28	Shane Harper	$650,000
D	26	Seth Helgeson	$587,500
LW	28	Bobby Farnham	$575,000
C	28	Carter Camper	$575,000
D	26	Andrew MacWilliam	$575,000
D	29	Karl Stollery	$575,000

Draft Needs

• The Devils will have ten draft picks in the upcoming draft, including five in the first three rounds.  They should end up with a high draft pick in the first round, considering they will have the fifth best odds to win the Draft Lottery.  They have taken centers with their first round picks each of the past two years and this year I think they will take a defenseman, especially if they can draft right after the Coyotes.  Taking either Timothy Liljegren or Miro Heiskanen, whichever one Arizona doesn't take, would be a great move by New Jersey.  They greatly missed Adam Larsson this season, despite how good Taylor Hall is, and finding a way to replace Larsson with anothe potential top-pairing defenseman would be great.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I definitely downplayed the loss of Adam Larsson before the season began.  I called him a "fringe top-4 defenseman" which is pretty far from reality.  I still think that the Devils won that trade because Taylor Hall is a better player, but Larsson's presence has been missed.  I projected that the Devils could be a potential playoff team this season as I thought that the addition of Hall plus the quality of Cory Schneider's play last season would be enough to make them a potential Wild Card team.  

Success/Failure

• Failure - Last season the Devils looked like they were on their way to making the playoffs this year or next season.  Now, this franchise looks like a roster in need of a serious influx of talent, the only kind that can come from a rebuild.  They played poorly for most of the season and were the second worst puck possession team in the league this season.  They were also a bottom ten team in save percentage, had the fifth-worst shooting percentage, and a PDO under 100.  None of these bode well for the long-term success of head coach John Hynes.  He has had a pretty long leash so far at the helm of the Devils and but if the on-ice product doesn't improve, he may not be the coach there for much longer.  

Offseason Needs

• After acquiring Taylor Hall in the Adam Larsson trade, the Devils looked to be on a good path towards rebuilding, since they had gotten their first truly elite offensive threat.  They also have their franchise goaltender in Cory Schneider, who was has proven that he can be excellent but regressed severely this season.  I still believe in his talent, however, and think that he is still the long-term solution for the team.  What they need to do now is determine if Adam Henrique is truly a number one center or if Pavel Zacha or Michael McLeod, their first round pick from last year, can develop into said player.  Finally, they need to address their defense situation and focus on finding a solid top pair.  That should be addressed in this year's draft either with Timothy Liljegren or Miro Heiskanen,who could develop into that type of player and play alongside Damon Severson for the foreseeable future.  I want to be encouraged by the Devils but I just am not and don't see this team as a playoff team next season.  They probably won't be good enough to knock one of the current Eastern Conference playoff teams out of it and Carolina and Philadelphia are both better teams at this moment than the Devils.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, tsn.ca, and eliteprospects.com*

Arizona Coyotes

2016-17 season: 30-42-10 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Dave Tippett (2009)
6th  Place Pacific Division	General Manager: John Chayka (2016)
12th Place Western Conference	AHL Affiliate: Tucson Roadrunners ECHL Affiliate: Rapid City Rush
Draft Position: Will have the third greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery, the same as the Vegas Golden Knights

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
RW	35	Radim Vrbata	55	20	35	-18	46.8
LW	21	Max Domi	38	9	29	-9	45.6
RW	24	Tobias Rieder	34	16	18	-8	45.5
LW	20	Christian Dvorak	33	15	18	7	43.9
RW	40	Shane Doan	27	6	21	-3	47.8
C	29	Martin Hanzal	26	16	10	-15	48.1
LW	24	Jordan Martinook	25	11	14	-8	46.0
LW	20	Brendan Perlini	21	14	7	-4	43.9
LW	28	Jamie McGinn	17	9	8	-23	45.2
LW	21	Anthony Duclair	15	5	10	-7	46.9

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	25	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	39	12	27	-25	45.4
D	31	Alex Goligoski	36	6	30	-9	45.9
D	18	Jakob Chychrun	20	7	13	-14	45.6
D	23	Connor Murphy	17	2	15	-13	46.0
D	21	Anthony DeAngelo	14	5	9	-13	46.0

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	34	Mike Smith	55	19-26-9	3	2.92	.914
G	24	Louis Domingue	26	11-15-1	0	3.08	.908
G	30	Justin Peters	1	0-1-0	0	3.16	.900

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
C Peter Holland	Toronto Maple Leafs	Conditional 2018 6th RD Pick
F Brendan Ranford F Branden Troock	Dallas Stars	G Justin Peters D Justin Hache
F Mitchell Moroz	Edmonton Oilers	F Henrik Samuelsson
2018 3rd RD Pick Conditional 2018 5th RD Pick	Calgary Flames	D Michael Stone
2017 1st RD Pick 2018 2nd RD Pick Conditional 2019 4th RD Pick F Grayson Downing	Minnesota Wild	C Martin Hanzal F Ryan White 2017 4th RD Pick
Future Considerations	Minnesota Wild	F Teemu Pulkkinen
F Joe Whitney	Colorado Avalanche	F Brendan Ranford

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
RW	40	Shane Doan	$3,876,134
D	42	Chris Pronger	$4,941,429
RW	35	Radim Vrbata	$1,000,000
D	34	Zbynek Michalek	$3,200,000
D	25	Jarred Tinordi	$700,000
D	29	Jamie McBain	$650,000
LW	26	Craig Cunningham	$600,000
C	31	Chris Mueller	$600,000
LW	24	Garret Ross	$600,000
LW	29	Joe Whitney	$600,000
C	38	Pavel Datsyuk

Draft Needs

• Arizona has seven draft picks in the upcoming draft, including two first round picks (theirs and Minnesota's) and two third round picks.  The Coyotes seem to have a good deal of their core forwards taken care of with their draft picks; Clayton Keller and Dylan Strome have the potential to be future number one and two centers, Max Domi and Christian Dvorak are already proving that they are NHL-ready wings, and Tobias Rieder has seemingly come out of nowhere to be one of the most exciting, young players in the NHL.  What they need now are defensemen and goaltenders.  I think that the Coyotes go a little off the board and take either Miro Heiskanen or Timothy Liljegren, both European defensemen who have played in the professional leagues of Finland and Sweden, respectively.  Both have very high potential and are just 17 years old and could pair with Jakob Chychrun or Oliver Ekman-Larsson as the team's future top pairing defensemen.  I think these are the best bet for the Coyotes' future as the top five or six prospects are all centers and the team doesn't really need one.  I think they should take a chance on a goaltender at somepoint in the draft and see if he works out in the future.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I wrote that Arizona wouldn't be competitive this season but that it was okay for them to be mediocre.  They are in a rebuild, although it seems like they have been in the rebuild for over a decade now, and so it is okay for them to not be good right now.  I believed in the team's change in General Manger from Don Maloney to John Chayka, who was going all-in on analytics.  I was really excited about the upcoming offseason for the Coyotes, as they should have a lot of money to spend on free agents if they want to.

Success/Failure

• Failure - Although I never thought that the Coyotes would be overly competitive this season, I thought that there would be some growth in terms of puck possession.  GM John Chayka was billed as an analytics guru, and perhaps it will still work, but it didn't show up the first season. Arizona had no players with a positive Corsi, something that seems impossible and something that will have to change in order for the team to have success going forward.  Their defensemen really struggled this season, a good reason for the team being such a poor puck possession team. Their goaltending actually wasn't as bad as I originally thought it was, as Mike Smith was actually just below league average in terms of save percentage.  Their forward group is young, on the whole, but they performed fairly well in their first and second years in the league. Christian Dvorak, Tobias Rieder, and Max Domi have all stepped up as the future of the team and there is more help on the way with Clayton Keller in the minors, plus Dylan Strome, if he can finally live up to his potential.  John Chayka did do an excellent job at the few trades he was able to make around the trade deadline, moving Michael Stone to Calgary for two draft picks, and a package of Martin Hanzal and Ryan White for three draft picks.  It would have been nice to see them move Radim Vrbata and Shane Doan, but those trades were made difficult due to Doan's no-movement clause and Vrbata's performance bonuses.  All-in-all it was a season of growth for Arizona's roster as their young players took steps forward and the the roster group, as a whole, began a significant transition.  Perhaps the biggest failure for the team is that they still don't have a solution figured out with their arena and where they are going to play long-term. The NHL has made it known that they are committed to staying in the Phoenix area but that Glendale isn't working.  They had a deal worked out with Arizona State Univesity to share an ice rink but that fell through and currently they are back to square one.  They either need to figure out a way to get a new arena built or they need to seriously consider moving locations to, perhaps, Seattle or Quebec City.

Offseason Needs

• The Coyotes need to make a few personnel decisions with their own roster, including whether or not they re-sign Shane Doan and Radim Vrbata.  Doan didn't look to have much left this season so there is probably a strong chance that he retires this offseason.  I think that the team should re-sign Vrbata, as he loves playing in Arizona (for some reason), is a fairly consistent goalscorer, and would probably be cheap, although that isn't an issue for the team.  They also need to address their goaltending situation, where Mike Smith won't be around when the team is competitive again and is 35 years old already.  He also lacks consistency and doesn't exactly play a very structured game.  Since they probably don't have their future goaltender on their roster currently they will either need to draft one, which isn't always a guarantee, or try and acquire like the Maple Leafs did with Frederik Andersen.  The Coyotes don't really have anyone else left to trade in an attempt re-coup assets so from here on out they will have to rely on good scouting and drafting and trusting in their ability to develop prospects.  Jakob Chychrun and Clayton Keller should both begin molding into quality NHLers next season.  Max Domi, Tobias Rieder, and Christian Dvorak should be able to take the next step and develop into the next leaders of the team and become bonafide NHL scorers.  They will also need Oliver Ekman-Larsson, their franchise defenseman, to step up and become the player he is supposed to be. Having a solid draft in 2017 will go a long way to taking the next step in this rebuild.  The team has a solid core of young, talented players and should be more competitive next season if they can get better goaltending.  I also think that Dale Tippett's time as head coach of this team has run its course and perhaps now is the time to make the switch with coaches like Gerard Gallant and Darryl Sutter available.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, and eliteprospects.com*

Buffalo Sabres

2016-17 season: 33-37-12 Did not qualify for playoffs	Head Coach: Fired - Dan Bylsma (2015)
8th Place Atlantic Division	General Manager: Fired - Tim Murray (2014)
15th Place Eastern Conference	AHL Affiliate: Rochester Admirals ECHL Affiliate: Elmira Jackals
Draft Position: Will have the sixth  greatest odds in the NHL Draft Lottery

Top Forwards

POS	Age	Name	GP	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
C	20	Jack Eichel	61	57	24	23	-13	47.7
C	25	Ryan O’Reilly	72	55	20	35	-1	49.5
C	21	Sam Reinhart	79	47	17	30	-11	49.2
RW	28	Kyle Okposo	65	45	19	26	-7	47.6
LW	25	Evander Kane	70	43	28	15	-9	47.9
RW	38	Brian Gionta	82	35	15	20	-11	44.9
LW	33	Matt Moulson	81	32	14	18	-4	50.6
LW	25	Marcus Foligno	80	23	13	10	-1	47.3
C	23	Zemgus Girgensons	75	16	7	9	-7	47.0
LW	27	Tyler Ennis	51	13	5	8	-10	48.6

Top Defensemen

POS	Age	Name	GP	Points	Goals	Assists	+/-	CF%
D	22	Rasmus Ristolainen	79	45	6	39	-9	44.1
D	23	Jake McCabe	76	20	3	17	-7	45.9
D	29	Cody Franson	68	19	3	16	-5	50.4
D	26	Zach Bogosian	56	11	2	9	-17	48.9
D	28	Justin Falk	52	8	0	8	-3	50.7

Top Goaltenders

POS	Age	Name	Games Started	W/L Record	Shutouts	GAA	Save %
G	25	Robin Lehner	58	23-26-8	2	2.68	.920
G	26	Anders Nilsson	23	10-10-4	1	2.67	.923
G	23	Linus Ullmark	1	0-1-0	0	3.05	.917

Trades Made During the Season

What They Acquired	Team They Traded With	In Exchange For
D Mat Bodie	New York Rangers	C Daniel Catenacci

Impending Free Agents

POS	Age	Name	2016-17 Cap Hit
D	26	Dmitry Kulikov	$4,333,334
RW	38	Brian Gionta	$4,250,000
D	29	Cody Franson	$3,325,000
C	33	Cody McCormick	$1,500,000
G	27	Anders Nilsson	$1,000,000
C	30	Cal O’Reilly	$700,000
LW	26	Derek Grant	$650,000
D	28	Taylor Fedun	$600,000
D	27	Mat Bodie	$600,000
LW	26	Cole Schneider	$600,000
D	28	Erik Burgdoerfer	$575,000

Draft Needs

• Buffalo has eight draft picks in this year's draft, including five in the first three rounds.  Buffalo has a solid core built on offense and needs to turn its attention the blueline, which was horrible this season.  They paid Rasmus Ristolainen a lot of money to be their number one defenseman and yet he is a below 50% puck possessor.  There are several quality defensemen at the top of the draft, but Buffalo is at a place where waiting for a prospect to develop doesn't help.  They have a core that is ready to compete right now and no prospect, unless he is Connor McDavid or Austom Matthews, is going to help them get to the playoffs next season.  I think that the best move for the Sabres is to move their top ten draft pick and maybe a prospect for a top four defenseman.  With the rest of their picks, they could then draft a defenseman and address some scoring needs that they have.

What I Said About Them Before the Season

• I was way too hyped on the Sabres roster group and the team's front office before the season started.  I loved the signing of Kyle Okposo and thought that he would be an excellent addition to skate on Jack Eichel's wing.  I thought that acquiring Dmitry Kulkov was going to work out well for the team and could provide some much needed depth to their blueline.  I projected that they could be a fringe playoff team this season and surprise a lot of people and that the team could be in Stanley Cup discussion within a few seasons.

Success/Failure

• Failure - The Sabres were expected to be a borderline Wild Card team in the Eastern Conference and are instead a Lottery team once again.  They got surprisingly good goaltending and actually had the sixth best save percentage in the league this season.  They were also the best powerplay team, but also the sixth worst penalty killing team, and had the sixth worst shooting percentage.  Perhaps most alarming is that they had the third worst Corsi For Percentage in the league at 47.2%.  They had just two regular defensemen with a positive Corsi and neither were franchise defensemen Zach Bogosian or Rasmus Ristolainen.  There were bright spots to the team though as Jack Eichel stepped up in a big way and was nearly a point-per-game player when his season finally started and Ryan O'Reilly is living up to his contract. Kyle Okposo was also pretty good in his first season with the Sabres, nearly eclipsing the 20 goal mark.

Offseason Needs

• As I mentioned in my Draft Needs section, the Sabres need to find a way to get at least a top four defenseman who can move the puck well.  I think that them trading their first round pick to acquire one of these would be a genius move.  If that doesn't work out or if they aren't comfortable trading away high draft picks, then I would like to see them pursue Kevin Shattenkirk in free agency.  He is from the state of New York and would probably like to get closer to home, Buffalo is a talented roster group, and the team has the money to pay him the deal he is looking for, something in the range of $7 million for 7 years.  He would also address Buffalo's need for a top-pairing defenseman and is a great puck mover and puck possessor.  They also need to determine if Robin Lehner is the goaltender of the future for the team since he is an RFA this offseason.  If they don't trust him, then perhaps they try and acquire Marc-Andre Fleury, who would be a quality starter for the Sabres.  The team has to be happy with the development of Jack Eichel, plus they have Hudson Fasching, Nicholas Baptiste, Justin Bailey, and Alex Nylander, who should all be regular NHL players next season.  This is a quality roster which should just get better by next season, especially if they can address their defense and goaltender situations. Following the regular season, the team's brass decided to let both GM Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma following two lackluster years under Bylsma.  I personally think that the team was really quick to pull the trigger with this decision, especially letting Murray go, but understand that this isn't a league where being mediocre for long periods of time leads to success.  I think that there are several quality head coaches available right now which could have led to Buffalo firing Bylsma.  One of these is Darryl Sutter, whom I think would be an excellent fit with the Sabres and their roster.

*All stats and information came from hockey-reference.com, rosterresource.com, spotrac.com, NHL.com, hockeydb.com, capfriendly.com, tsn.ca, and eliteprospects.com*