The first day of the NHL’s 2025 free-agent frenzy is now in the books, and as is tradition on THN.com, we’re examining the winners and losers from the beginning of the free-agent period.
On Tuesday, we broke down the five biggest winners, and today, we’re looking at the six teams who, for different reasons, have to be labelled as losers.
In alphabetical order:
Boston Bruins
The Bruins did a lot of roster shuffling, acquiring role players including former Oilers right winger Viktor Arvidsson, former Blue Jackets left winger Sean Kuraly and former Kings left winger Tanner Jeannot. But there’s a reason those three veterans were available – namely, that their previous teams felt they were expendable. And picking up spare parts and reclamation projects was not the way the Bruins operated in their recent heyday.
Boston GM Don Sweeney had a decent amount of salary cap space heading into the free-agent frenzy, but after spending most of it in the past few days, he can’t expect prognosticators to project that the Bs will be a playoff team next season. At best, they look to be only slightly improved on paper, and in a highly competitive Atlantic Division, they haven’t done enough to be pegged as a Stanley Cup post-season team in 2025-26.
Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres made a handful of moves – most notably, the re-signing of RFA center Ryan McLeod, and the UFA signings of or trades for fringe players including goalie Alex Lyon, defensemen Zac Jones and Conor Timmins, and wingers Josh Doan and Justin Danforth. Meanwhile, the status of RFA star defenseman Bowen Byram is still in limbo, with many expecting he’ll be traded by Buffalo GM Kevyn Adams, but there has been no movement on the trade front as of Wednesday afternoon.
Consequently, these current Sabres roster changes are thoroughly underwhelming. Adams is gambling he’s made the team better by buttressing their bottom two lines of forwards and their bottom defense pairing, but we just don’t see anyone Buffalo has added as being true needle-movers.
At a time when Buffalo is desperate to get back in the thick of the playoff race in the Atlantic, there’s not enough there to expect the Sabres will end their 14-year streak without post-season hockey.
Chicago Blackhawks
The Hawks have struggled for years to play at a level that is anywhere close to being a playoff contender, and Chicago GM Kyle Davidson changed coaches this summer in an effort to raise the competitive bar for his team. However, other than trading for fourth-liner Sam Lafferty, the Blackhawks have done nothing of consequence. Budding star Connor Bedard needed some high-end talent to elevate his game in 2025-26, but thus far, Davidson has given him nothing different to work with.
Chicago still has approximately $21.3 million in cap space, and it’s possible that Davidson is hanging onto as much of it as possible to spend on the very deep class of UFA stars on course to be available in the summer of 2026.
But we’re judging this organization based on the here and now, and looking through that prism, you can’t come to any conclusion other than the fact that the Hawks will almost assuredly finish well out of a playoff spot next season.
Detroit Red Wings
Like the Blackhawks, the Red Wings are an Original Six franchise who have seen better days. Detroit GM Steve Yzerman has been preaching patience with his lineup, but Wings fans are starting to grow tired of seeing him kick the competitive can down the road. And very few moves he’s made in the past few days qualify as legitimate roster improvements.
Yzerman did trade for former Anaheim Ducks star goalie John Gibson, so there’s an upgrade in net. But otherwise, Detroit has only retained aging star winger Patrick Kane, and signed veteran winger James van Riemsdyk and fringe defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker. This is hardly the stuff of Grade-A acquisitions.
Even if Yzerman’s gamble on internal improvement comes to pass, the Red Wings don’t have the elite talent to compete with other Atlantic teams. So you can’t say they’ve been anything other than losers through the first couple days of free agency.
Edmonton Oilers
Despite nearly winning a Cup this past season, the Oilers weren’t able to persuade key role players to re-sign with the team. Right winger Connor Brown left via free agency for the New Jersey Devils, while right winger Corey Perry departed for the Kings. Those are two losses that will be hard to address.
Edmonton was able to re-sign star defenseman Evan Bouchard to a four-year, $42-million contract extension, and center Trent Frederic also agreed to a long-term extension. But otherwise, their only additions are bottom-six winger Curtis Lazar and mid-tier winger Andrew Mangiapane, the latter of whom hasn’t scored more than 17 goals in any of the past three seasons.
At best, the Oilers are approximately the same in terms of all-around talent, and that may not be good enough to keep Pacific Division and Western Conference teams at bay next year. That makes them a loser on our list.
Los Angeles Kings
Kings GM Ken Holland had a boatload of cap space heading into free agency and used a whole lot of it, signing Perry away from Edmonton, then inking former Senators backup goalie Anton Forsberg as well as veteran Montreal right winger Joel Armia and former Devils D-man Brian Dumoulin.
But the most dubious signing, from our point of view, was the four-year, $18-million contract Holland gave to journeyman defenseman Cody Ceci, who is now on his seventh NHL team in eight seasons. Were there really competing teams out there who were offering Ceci anything close to what he wound up getting? Sorry, but we just don’t see it.
Basically, the Kings haven’t done nearly enough to see them as being as improved as their Pacific rivals around them. Holland has quickly left his imprint on the roster, and with approximately $5.99 million in cap space, he may not be done making additions to his group. But as it stands, Los Angeles has become more mediocre than anything else, and this is why we have them as a loser thus far in free agency.
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