Changes In The Pacific: A Look At Each Team’s Additions And Subtractions This Summer

As Training Camps around the league open up this week, now seems like a good time to do a quick primer on what has changed around the Pacific Division. The Golden Knights were the biggest movers this summer, which means the division has not changed drastically from where it has been the last few seasons. That being said, the other seven teams (ok, six, Calgary did nothing) all made some moves that will bring a slightly different flavor to each opponent this year.

Edmonton Oilers
In: Andrew Mangiapane, Curtis Lazar, Isaac Howard
Out: Connor Brown, Viktor Arvidsson, Corey Perry, Jeff Skinner, John Klingberg, Evander Kane

As long as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl remain on the roster (which may not be for that much longer, the way Connor has been speaking), the Oilers are going to be a problem for the Golden Knights. Mangiapane is an excellent addition that could be a great fit on a top line with the big guns. He’s proven he can score in this division and it wouldn’t be shocking for him to break out once again this season. Howard is a player the Oilers are excited about. A former 1st round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, he’s a highly skilled offensive player with a high motor. He is just 21 years old, though, and has yet to play a single professional game. The players exiting are all fairly large names, and each played different roles in their last two Cup Final runs. They are certainly losing a bit of a veteran presence with the subtractions, but it’ll open up room for younger players to step into the lineup, which could make them even more dangerous.

Los Angeles Kings
In: Cody Ceci, Joel Armia, Brian Dumoulin, Corey Perry, Anton Forsberg
Out: Vladislav Gavrikov, Tanner Jeannot, David Rittich, Jordan Spence

The Kings appear to have had the exact opposite plan of the Oilers this summer. They went out and collected older players who most believe are on the downward trajectory of their careers. Perry has already been injured and will miss at least a month or so, while the combination of Ceci and Dumoulin could work as a way to shore up their defense, but could also easily make them slower, older, and much worse. Losing Gavrikov is significant as he’s a massive upgrade over who they brought in. The others won’t move the needle too much.

Calgary Flames
In: Ivan Prosvetov
Out: Anthony Mantha, Dan Vladar

Typically, during an offseason, teams make an attempt to improve, either for now or for the future. The Flames did neither this summer, instead electing to simply sit on their hands and hope the team that missed the playoffs by the tiebreaker will be able to continue to capture the magic they had going on down the stretch. It’s extremely odd to see a team with this limited amount of movement from the end of one season to the next. Calgary remains excited about a lot of its younger talent, but it’s hard to believe they’ll be much, if any, better than last year.

Vancouver Canucks
In: Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Evander Kane
Out: Pius Suter, Dakota Joshua

Vancouver spent much of their summer focused on retaining the most important players on their roster. They were able to extend all three of Thatcher Demko, Brock Boeser, and Conor Garland, which would have been considered a long shot when the summer began. It’s hard to understand what they feel they are gaining from Evander Kane, and P.O. Joseph is a replacement-level bottom-six guy who won’t make much impact. Suter is the player they’ll likely miss the most, and though he could flourish in St. Louis, it’s not an overwhelming loss for the Canucks.

Anaheim Ducks
In: Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, Petr Mrazek, Ryan Poehling
Out: John Gibson, Trevor Zegras, Isac Lundestrom, Brian Dumoulin

The Ducks are the team, aside from Vegas, that made the biggest moves this summer in an effort to improve. Kreider, Granlund, and Poehling will give Anaheim a much different look offensively. They are going to be much harder to play against, and it should help their young roster along. In addition, the biggest move Anaheim made was hiring Stanley Cup champion head coach Joel Quenneville. Of course, there’s a PR firestorm that has to be dealt with with Coach Q, but there’s no question the man knows how to win hockey games. The losses actually may end up making the team better, especially the departure of Zegras. There will just be a different feel about this team this season that hasn’t existed since Zegras kind of stepped into the foreground in Anaheim. Are they good enough to challenge the Golden Knights? Probably not. But, they won’t be the pushover they’ve been for the last seven years.

Seattle Kraken
In: Mason Marchment, Frederick Gaudreau, Ryan Lindgren, Matt Murray
Out: Andre Burakovsky, Michael Eyssimont

This is far from a splashy offseason for Seattle, but it does have the potential to look a lot better if they can get a bit more out of the roster already in place. If Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, and Kaapo Kakko can continue to improve, there is enough for this team to at least be competitive, something they were not last season. The coaching change from Dan Bylsma to Lane Lambert is almost a guaranteed upgrade, and there are a lot of guys on the roster needing to prove last year was a bit of a fluke. They posted a miserable .463 points percentage in 24-25. You have to imagine they’ll improve on that, but it’s unlikely to be by a ton.

San Jose Sharks
In: Dmitry Orlov, Adam Gaudette, Jeff Skinner, Philipp Kurashev, John Klingberg, Nick Leddy, Alex Nedeljkovic
Out: Henry Thrun, Walker Duehr, Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko

This team is still probably a few years away from being ready to truly compete, but the additions may actually make them a bit harder to play than they have been for the last few seasons. There’s enough young talent on the roster that simply having grown-ups around will help them be a bit more consistent over the course of individual games. At some point, the draft picks are going to start making massive impacts, and they’ll win games because of it. There will be more flashes of it this year, and they’ll surprise a lot of teams, but in the end, they’ll still almost certainly find the basement of the Pacific Division for the third straight season.