State of the Rebuild: Eastern Conference (2023 Edition)

This is the first of two articles on rebuilds going on in the NHL. Today, we will be looking at the six teams rebuilding in the Eastern Conference. In the next article, it will be the six teams in the Western Conference. We’ll look at where each team is in their rebuild, how they got here, what concerns there are for each team, and were I think each rebuild is heading.

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Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres having been rebuilding for seemingly forever, but after hiring Kevyn Adams to be their General Manager, the rebuild is finally going somewhere. Outside their blue line, they don’t have any real holes. They have a high-scoring offense that’s only going to get better as their young talent gets better or make their way to Buffalo (just imagine when this team adds Savoie and Benson). They may finally have a solution in net with Devon Levi. This team was in the playoff race in the final week. The light at the end of the road can finally be seen for this long-suffering fanbase, so, what’s next, outside actually making the playoffs this upcoming season? Honestly, not much. Add some quality defensive depth to the blue line and maintain course is what I’d do if I were Adams, and that’s sort of what he’s done this off-season. To be fair, this free agent class was pretty bad, especially defensively, but signing Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton shows that solidifying the defense is on his mind. You build a team through defense and the middle, and this team has the center position filled. They have stars on the blue line, but they’re more offensive minded than defensive. This team may not be ready to compete for a Cup yet, but if the course is maintained, and they get more defensive minded help on the blue line, I could see this team being a genuine Cup contender in 2–3 years.

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Columbus Blue Jackets

I may have been glowing in my thoughts on the Sabres rebuild, but here’s where I get critical. Now, I’m going to put this out there, so you understand my biases: I am both a Blue Jackets (and Red Wings fan), and so I’m not a hater or just looking to dunk on Columbus when I say what I’m about to say. I love the Blue Jackets, and I want to see this team succeed. I don’t think this team has handled the rebuild well at all, despite having been given all the resources to thrive. This team, like the Sabres only needed to do one thing: maintain the course. The only legitimate hole this team had was goaltender. Sure, the blue line going into this off-season was bad, but they have lots of great defensive prospects coming up, namely Jiricek and Svozil. The Jackets were well on their way to being a long-term Cup contender, and they just needed another year or two to wait for prospects to come up and either get a good goaltender or hope that either Daniil Tarasov or Elvis Merzļikins would get it together. Unfortunately, Jarmo Kekäläinen was either told “playoffs this year, or you’re fired” by ownership, or is just a terrible General Manager. Personally, I don’t think he’s a bad General Manager, so I’m more inclined to believe his job is on the line because oh my god, what did you do this off season? This team needs defense, that’s by far its biggest weakness, so what does Jarmo do? Go get Provorov and Severson, two defenders who notoriously aren’t good at defense and are offensive-minded. That’s not what this team needs more of, especially when Jiricek, Werenski, and Blankenburg already bring the offense. This team is on track to possibly having the best offense this league has ever seen, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The top six will likely look like this for a very long time:

Gaudreau - Fantilli - Marchenko

Johnson - (Hopefully) Sillinger - Laine

(And this is leaving out that prospects such as Gavin Brindley and Jordan Dumais have top-six potential as well.)

Just those two lines alone will be putting up points at a ridiculous level, and add how offensive-minded the blue line is, other teams will struggle to keep the puck out of their net. Unfortunately, the Blue Jackets will struggle in the same way. The goal here seems to win games 7 – 5, be a regular season juggernaut and then get stomped in the playoffs because being all skill and offense doesn’t work in the playoffs. The Jackets had the world in their palm, they just had to get healthy, get better at goaltending, and wait for the prospects. Unfortunately, the rebuild has been accelerated without fixing any of their problems. Add to that the hiring of Babcock as coach, who is notoriously terrible with young players and developing talent, I’m actually in amazement at how sideways this rebuild has gone in such a short time. The goal of rebuild should be to build a Cup contender, not a regular-season juggernaut. The Blue Jackets missed the memo.