Boston Bruins

What Went Right: Well...they were able to get veterans James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk and long-time favorite Milan Lucic signed to one-year, $1 million-ish contracts. For a team that's pressed against the cap ceiling, that's pretty good work. Getting 25-year-old Morgan Geekie for a one-year, $2 million contract is a nice addition, too. After all, a team that put up 135 points and won the Presidents' Trophy doesn't need too much work on the roster...right?

What Went Wrong: Losing a future Hall of Fame center in Patrice Bergeron and a top-tier No. 2 center in David Krejčí to retirement is sure going to cast a pall on the offseason. Bergeron is an irreplaceable performer as a defender and scorer. Krejci's return to Boston last season helped make them the league's best team because he didn't miss a beat after his time back in Czechia.

Asking anyone to recreate what those players did is asking to be disappointed. At least Florida's success last season after it had a disappointing end to a Presidents' Trophy season the year before provides a blueprint of sorts. What also hurts is losing Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno in a trade with Chicago and seeing Connor Clifton, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov walk in free agency. It was a brutal offseason.

Buffalo Sabres

What Went Right: The Sabres needed to fix up their defense, and they attacked that immediately by signing veterans Erik Johnson (one year) and Connor Clifton (three years). Johnson brings veteran know-how to a very young blue line group that includes Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson and Henri Jokiharju. They can all benefit from learning from him, and he's even made them all sauna guys, too. Clifton will get the opportunity to show he's a true top-four guy after years in Boston, and the Sabres hope his physical play provides an element they were lacking.

The Sabres also drafted Zach Benson with the 13th pick, and he just might make the team immediately. A good key to drafting is to take a really good player when they fall in your lap.

What Went Wrong: The offseason got off to a bumpy start when forward Jack Quinn ruptured his Achilles tendon during summer workouts, an injury that will keep him out until December or January at the latest. But the Sabres can score goals with everyone, so that doesn't hurt too badly.

Another area where the Sabres struggled last season was goaltending, and rookie Devon Levi showed late last year that he might be the guy they've been waiting for since Ryan Miller was traded in 2014. But also, he's a 21-year-old rookie with seven NHL games under his belt, and they opted to run it back with Eric Comrie and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in competition. They missed the playoffs by two points last season, so all eyes will be on the goalies.

Detroit Red Wings

What Went Right: GM Steve Yzerman was one of the busiest executives in the league once again and made it even more apparent that getting the Red Wings back to the playoffs is the goal. He acquired forward Alex DeBrincat from Ottawa and signed him to a four-year, $31.5 million extension. Taking him from a division foe is a crucial move, particularly because they'll be right there with the Senators in playoff competition.

They also added forwards Klim Kostin from Edmonton and signed free agents J.T. Compher (Colorado), Daniel Sprong (Seattle) and Christian Fischer (Arizona). He also deepened the blue line, adding veterans Shayne Gostisbehere (Carolina) and Justin Holl (Toronto), and acquired Jeff Petry from the Canadiens. James Reimer also signed on to be Ville Husso's backup.

What Went Wrong: While the Wings were busier than most teams, the big question for a lot of the additions is whether most of these guys will address their needs. Yes, Detroit is much deeper with veteran talent, and they all seem to address very specific needs, but that kind of turnover sometimes requires time for chemistry to build, if it even builds at all. This puts a load of pressure on coach Derek Lalonde to get everyone on the same page ASAP because the Eastern Conference is going to be a battlefield.

Florida Panthers

What Went Right: After the Panthers' run to the Stanley Cup Final in which they knew they'd begin this season without defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, Florida made sure to address any possible shortcomings on the blue line by signing as many defensemen as possible to soften the blow. They added the recently bought-out Oliver Ekman-Larsson on a one-year flier and brought back Dmitry Kulikov. They added Niko Mikkola and Mike Reilly as well. It's a lot of defensemen, but guys like Ekblad and Montour are nearly impossible to replace with one or two players each.

They also added Evan Rodrigues on a long-term deal to deepen their forward group, and signed Anthony Stolarz to back up Sergei Bobrovsky in goal and give Spencer Knight the time needed to return to NHL action after he missed most of last season in the NHL's player assistance program.

What Went Wrong: Apart from losing Ekblad and Montour for the first month or two, the Panthers had a quiet offseason. Quiet isn't necessarily a bad thing and for a team fresh off a run to the Cup Final. If Ekman-Larsson has anything left in the tank, it's a great bargain pickup. If not, they've got a pile of other guys signed who can pick up the slack while they wait for their top two guys to return.

Montréal Canadiens

What Went Right: What's going to help the Canadiens most this season is having healthy players. So far, that looks good with Cole Caufield appearing like his old self in training camp and Juraj Slafkovský just being healthy, period. They were able to loose themselves of Mike Hoffman in helping facilitate the Erik Karlsson trade to Pittsburgh.

While they received Jeff Petry and Casey DeSmith in that deal, they sent Petry to Detroit and DeSmith to Vancouver to acquire forward Tanner Pearson. If Pearson is able to come back from the hand injury that ruined his relationship with the Canucks, he's a solid addition. The Habs also brought in Alex Newhook from Colorado to deepen the center position.

These aren't huge additions, but they help Montréal's depth, something that was sorely and brutally tested last season.

What Went Wrong: If there's something that went wrong, it's that the Canadiens didn't really get that much better immediately. Coach Martin St. Louis is helping this rebuilding squad out well with his breath-of-fresh-air style and high-pace play. Montréal has prospects on the way, but they're another year or two away from being NHL factors. For now, they're mostly running it back with the team they had last season that finished last in the Atlantic. While they haven't necessarily gotten worse, they haven't improved enough to keep up with everyone else.

Ottawa Senators

What Went Right: Say this about GM Pierre Dorion: He's going for broke to try to get the Senators back to the playoffs. He landed a starting goalie they believe in when they signed Joonas Korpisalo to a five-year deal, and he brought in Vladimir Tarasenko on a one-year deal to give them another proven sniper.

Goaltending was a problem last season, and if Korpisalo plays the way he did last year with Columbus and Los Angeles, that's a great addition. With young players like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle and Drake Batherson up front, they can score—and they'll need to regularly to keep up with the rest of the division.

What Went Wrong: Ottawa is proof that there's balance in the universe. Jake Sanderson's eight-year extension is great for him, but with the Sens running up against the cap ceiling, it feels questionable at the moment to get him for eight years, $64.4 million before he's shown what kind of player he truly is. He's trending well, but there's certainly some risk.

They've also gotten caught playing hardball with RFA Shane Pinto and don't have the cap space to get him signed just yet. Josh Norris, who's trying to return from shoulder surgery, suffered a setback in camp. The Sens can be good...but can they overcome themselves to do it?

Tampa Bay Lightning

What Went Right: Losing a longtime veteran like Alex Killorn (signed with Anaheim) would be a tough blow to anyone, but Tampa doesn't rebuild, it reloads as best as it can. The Lightning signed Conor Sheary to give them a veteran winger who can handle both ends of the ice. They filled out their defensive ranks with veterans Calvin de Haan and Haydn Fleury, and got Tanner Jeannot and Brandon Hagel signed to extensions. They also retained last year's playoff surprise, Michael Eyissmont, on a two-year deal.

Tampa's big splashes these days come from within via extensions (like with Hagel), and that means they're doing well enough to not have to go big with trades or free agents.

What Went Wrong: The summer started off difficult when they traded Pat Maroon (Minnesota), Corey Perry (Chicago) and Ross Colton (Colorado) because they couldn't afford them, but it got uglier from there.

The Lightning haven't spoken with captain Steven Stamkos about an extension, and that hasn't sat too well with him. Things went from unfortunate to much, much worse when goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy went down for two months after needing back surgery. Going from a Vezina winner to Jonas Johansson and Hugo Alnefelt means the rest of the Lightning lineup will have to play tip-top hockey or GM Julien BriseBois will have to make a trade sooner than later to soften the blow.

You can't prepare for injuries, although you could make the argument that trying to sign a more accomplished backup could've helped out before knowing there was a problem.

Toronto Maple Leafs

What Went Right: We get that no matter what the Maple Leafs do it's going to generate attention/controversy/nonsense...whatever. But after Toronto bowed out meekly in the second round of the playoffs to the Florida Panthers, it needed to do something. The Leafs changed leadership from Kyle Dubas to Brad Treliving and decided to run it back one more time with their Big Four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly. And that's probably a good thing! But they needed something more, and Treliving decided to make it look mean.

Toronto added Max Domi (Carolina), Tyler Bertuzzi (Boston) and Ryan Reaves (Minnesota) to provide a lot of snarl—and in Domi's case, memories of his old man Tie when he drove opponents wild in the 1990s/2000s in Toronto. They also added John Klingberg to their defense to provide more offense from the blue line. Will it work? Who knows. But they did something to change up the atmosphere, and with Boston losing two key players, the Leafs are front-runners in the Atlantic.

What Went Wrong: Depending on how you felt about the job Dubas did as GM, that might be the biggest thing that went wrong. His departure after his contract expired created a change in thought process at the top of management, and the only way to determine whether it worked will be how the team finishes.

Anything less than a second-round playoff appearance will be seen as a failure, and if they're unable to wrest the division away from Boston, Tampa Bay or Florida, then that unto itself will be a crisis and yet another moment to decide if the Big Four should be broken up.