By the NHL’s usual standards, the 2023 offseason was relatively tame.
Most of the big names with expiring contracts managed to resign with their 2022/23 teams, leaving most of the action to those willing to trade.
That’s not to say that a few teams have changed their outlooks through some savvy free agency deals, but those who made the biggest moves did so when one GM picked up the phone to strike a deal with another.
Here, we’re looking at the biggest moves of the 2023 NHL offseason that saw players move to different teams. This looks beyond the draft and massive contracts that retained players, like the Auston Matthews deal.
Erik Karlsson Gets Traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins
The San Jose Sharks haven’t been going anywhere for quite some time, and a big reason behind that was the colossal contract given to Erik Karlsson to inhibit any chance of building depth.
Ultimately, Karlsson gave very little back in return, partially due to injury and partially due to the team fading. Last season, however, he suddenly transformed back into the Norris Trophy winner that the Sharks paid for.
Now a three-time Norris Trophy winner, Sharks GM Mike Grier – who’s hell-bent on finally committing the team to a rebuild – decided to cash in, but by the looks of it, making the move possible wasn’t easy.
San Jose had to loop in the Montréal Canadiens to make the trade of Karlsson to the Pittsburgh Penguins possible, overseeing three draft picks and nine players moving around the league.
In the end, a first-rounder, Mikael Granlund, Jan Rutta, and Mike Hoffman went to the Sharks; the Habs collected Casey DeSmith, Nathan Legare, a second-rounder, and welcomed back Jeff Petry; and the Penguins got Karlsson, Rem Pitlick, a third-rounder, and Dillon Hamaliuk.
In terms of the sheer number of moving parts as well as the contract of the focal point of the deal, it’s tough to argue with the Karlsson trade being the biggest move of the 2023 NHL offseason.
Ottawa Senators Sign Vladimir Tarasenko
Once one of the most feared snipers in the NHL, Vladimir Tarasenko is in his physical prime, played the majority of the games last season, and was picked up on a one-year, $5 million deal by the Ottawa Senators.
Considering that the Russian winger played for two teams, his regular season haul of 18 goals and 50 points in 67 games wasn’t bad, but it’s still far from the 82 points in 75 games of 2021/22.
The Sens will be hoping that, with an exciting young team around him, Tarasenko can add a veteran presence to the line and find the consistent scoring that once made him one of the league’s elite.
Just to highlight how much the Sens needed a bit of veteran know-how, only he and Claude Giroux are the team’s over-30 forwards. Then, only Dominik Kubalik and Zack MacEwen are in the over-27s bracket.
With the addition, and another major offseason move that we’ll get to shortly, the Senators could contend for a Wild Card place and will certainly be favoured to win more games in the NHL betting from the get-go this season.
Alex DeBrincat Traded to the Detroit Red Wings
A year and two days after trading a first and an early second-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Ottawa Senators faced losing Alex DeBrincat to the free agency for nothing.
DeBrincat didn’t quite hit the heights he’d reached in Chicago, scoring 27 goals and 66 points to drop from 41 goals and 78 points the season prior, but he’s clearly still one of the league’s premier snipers.
Luckily, the Detroit Red Wings were intent enough on having the first crack at signing DeBrincat that they sent Kubalik, a conditional first-round pick, a 2024 fourth-rounder, and prospect Donovan Sebrango to the Sens.
This was a huge win for the Senators after the disappointment of not keeping a skater who was clearly meant to be a key piece for years to come, and for the Red Wings, it should finally pump some goals and excitement to the lines.
Tyler Toffoli Traded to the New Jersey Devils
Suddenly finishing second in the Metropolitan Division, the New Jersey Devils need to come out and prove that last season wasn’t a flash in the pan, and this trade seeks to help with that.
Now 31-years-old, Toffoli is rarely kept off of the stats sheet. Last season, he played 82 games for the first time since 2018/19 and scored 34 goals and 73 points for the Calgary Flames, but even in those interrupted campaigns, he’d average 0.7 points per game.
Returning with what looks to be a high-powered team with an even higher ceiling next season, Toffoli and the Devils enter the NHL futures lines at +1000 to win the Stanley Cup – narrowly behind the +800 Toronto Maple Leafs.
Pierre-Luc Dubious Traded to the Los Angeles Kings
In 2020, Pierre-Luc Dubois requested a trade from the Columbus Blue Jackets a short time after signing a new contract. In 2022, he went to the draft in Montréal convinced that he’d be traded to the Canadiens, but that didn’t come to fruition.
Later that year, he accepted a one-year qualifying offer from the Jets, but a year on from that, the Jets found a trade partner in the Los Angeles Kings, where he signed an eight-year deal on arrival.
Winnipeg did well to get a strong return on a player who has wanted away for quite some time, bringing in Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari, and a second-round pick.
Still, the trade isn’t so much about what the Jets received as it is the huge boost that the Kings will get if Dubois plays to his proven elite-tier ability as a two-way center.
Even while seemingly not wanting to be in Winnipeg anymore, Dubois put up 27 goals, 63 points, 71 hits, 47 blocked shots, a +5 rating, but a 48.9 faceoff win percentage that could do with bumping up when Kings centers Anze Kopitar, Phillip Danault, and Blake Lizotte were all between 51.2 and 55.9 percent in the duel last season.
Vladimir Tarasenko, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Tyler Toffoli, Alex DeBrincat, and Erik Karlsson headline the biggest moves of the 2023 NHL offseason, and there are sure to be some even bigger deals around the March 8 Trade Deadline.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
