2024 New Years Resolutions for six NHL teams
New Year’s resolutions: overrated or underrated?
For some, they’re a pain in the behind that creates invisible pressure. These types of people hit the gym hard for those two weeks in January before giving up.
Others see them as opportunities to create structured goals and accomplish something meaningful. Count me in the latter group.
That said: New Year’s resolutions aren’t always the easiest to draft up for yourself. Sometimes, it helps to ask someone else for advice on what might be a realistic objective.
I’d like to be that friend for a few NHL teams – and offer them potential New Year’s resolutions for the year 2024, particularly as it pertains to the rest of this season.
Arizona Coyotes: Make the playoffs
Two words: Mullett Mania. The Coyotes own a 33-20-5 record at the 4,600-seat venue Mullett Arena, home of the NCAA’s Arizona State Sun Devils. The Coyotes temporarily moved there beginning in 2022-23 after their lease at Gila River Arena was not renewed by the city of Glendale. As of now, the league has given no indication the Desert Dogs would move to a larger arena in the event that they made the playoffs. It’s best not to think about how much playoff revenue they’d be losing if that happened, so let’s focus on the positive: The college-hockey atmosphere would make for an unforgettable experience. Who wouldn’t want to root for Arizona? As the calendar reaches 2024, the Coyotes are firmly in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff berth, which would be their first since 2011-12, excluding the “playoff spot” they earned after pulling a bubble play-in upset in 2020 as a No. 11 seed. Could GM Bill Armstrong enter modest buyer mode in a couple months if his team has a realistic chance to get in?
Calgary Flames: Accept a rebuild
The Flames, under new GM Craig Conroy and new coach Ryan Huska, have sputtered along around the Western Conference playoff periphery, just as they did last season in the final days of GM Brad Treliving and coach Darryl Sutter. Living in the murky middle does little; you miss the playoffs and miss out on a high draft pick to build around. The Flames took a baby step toward a rebuild when they traded defenseman Nikita Zadorov for picks earlier this season, but what will they do with prized pending UFAs Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin? If Conroy doesn’t lose his nerve, he has an opportunity to be the league’s biggest power player approaching the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline. That trio of assets could fetch a hefty haul of draft and prospect capital and accelerate Calgary’s path to long-term contention a few years from now. Gutting the core will be painful, however, and Calgary’s ownership has bristled at the concept of a true rebuild. It’s not inconceivable that Conroy steers toward a retool rather than a full rebuild.
Carolina Hurricanes: Find a game-breaking scorer for the playoffs
The Canes entered this season riding three consecutive Metro Division titles along with 0.0 Stanley Cup Final berths since 2006, when their current head coach Rod Brind’Amour still played for them. As evidenced by a busy 2023 offseason in which GM Don Waddell added left winger Michael Bunting and defenseman Dmitry Orlov, among others, there’s pressure on this core to finally break through. The Canes have played 40 postseason games across the past three seasons, during which center Sebastian Aho leads the team with 15 goals. No other Canes player has even scored at a 30-goal pace in the playoffs over that span. With so many key players reaching free agency this summer, the Canes’ future is cloudy. Waddell missed out on Timo Meier last year at the trade deadline. This time, the Canes need to be major players for any big-ticket scorers who shake loose.
Detroit Red Wings: Find the courage to call out Steve Yzerman
How do you look one of your franchise’s all-time legends in the eyes and tell him he’s done a mediocre job as GM? While Alex DeBrincat was a wise acquisition for Steve Yzerman, the truth is that the Yzerplan is sputtering. He spent the 2022 and 2023 offseasons loading up on middling talent, from Andrew Copp to David Perron to J.T. Compher. Those are perfectly solid players, to be clear; they would’ve made sense as finishing touches on contenders. But the Red Wings didn’t have a strong enough prospect foundation to make moves like those. Simply put: they had no superstar in the system, especially at forward, and then spent a bunch of money on additional non-superstars. It’s thus not a major surprise to see this team slumping and sliding out of a playoff spot after a strong start. Top center Dylan Larkin is a great player but not a superstar. Moritz Seider and, hopefully, Simon Edvinsson provide real long-term hope on defense, but Detroit has no prospect in the system who projects as an MVP-grade game breaker. Yzerman made his move too soon. What happens if this team is doomed to many more years of mediocrity? How much runway does ownership give the Yzerplan if Detroit misses the playoffs for an eighth consecutive season?
New Jersey Devils: Find someone to stop the puck
Have the Devils actually regressed that much as a team in 2023-24? They have a top-10 offense and top-three power play. They allow the seventh-fewest shots on goal. They have the fifth-best shot attempt share and expected goal share at 5-on-5. They’re driving the play almost as well as they did a year ago. But in their breakout 2022-23 campaign, they had the NHL’s 11th-best team save percentage. This year: 31st. Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid haven’t even come close to a .900 mark as a duo, and Schmid was just demoted to the AHL. The Devils undoubtedly should be Stanley Cup contenders, especially if defenseman Dougie Hamilton returns from his pectoral injury in time for the playoffs, but they can’t currently be taken seriously with their Mickey Mouse goaltending. General manager Tom Fitzgerald must don his hard hat and find a solution.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Load up on defense
The Leafs’ overall record looks fine. Sheldon Keefe will repeatedly insist all those overtime and shootout victories still count. But anyone with eyes or a spreadsheet knows this isn’t the same Toronto group as last year’s. Of teams currently occupying playoff spots, only the New York Islanders and Arizona Coyotes allow more scoring chances per 60 at 5-on-5. The Leafs quietly became a high-end defensive team on top of scoring at will in the final few seasons of GM Kyle Dubas’ tenure. Right now, they’re a so-so defensive club, which is a major problem while goaltender Joseph Woll is out with a high ankle sprain. The Leafs need to lock down their own end with at least one but probably two impactful additions on defense. I recently profiled some of their logical targets, and none makes more sense than Tanev.
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