It’s that time again! As in previous years, I thought that it would be interesting to see how all of the teams stack up against one another heading into Free Agency.

Who are the strongest teams offensively? Which teams have the best group of defensively minded forwards? What teams are strong in one area, but weak in another?

As an Oilers fan of the Eighties, firepower will once again be the primary focus - SC and PA ratings - as it has been in the previous articles. But and in real hockey, we can’t dismiss the importance of defense so I’ve included a breakdown of DF ratings; but for forwards only.

This is because most teams have 80+ DF rated dmen for 4 or more of their top 6 so I felt including them would be a bit irrelevant.

Please note that all pending UFAs were ignored; but, all unsigned RFAs are included since the assumption is that they would be re-signed eventually, ignoring any potential sign-and-trade deals.

Please also note that this is an examination of team rosters on an organizational level; there are plenty of teams with guys that have 70+PA or 70+DF stashed on their farms. And while I know some if not all of them will start on the farm when the season starts, it’s still team depth.

As a reminder, ratings of 80 and above are generally considered ‘elite’ or top line player ratings whereas ratings of 70 to 79 are generally considered secondary ratings. I’ve added 90+ as a separate category this season as well because there are just so many players with these ratings compared to years past.

One major thing to remember when looking at these charts is that this doesn’t mean that the Kings have 2 guys with elite scoring and 5 guys with secondary passing abilities. In a lot of these cases, the scorers and passers shown on a team are the same player; i.e. Conner McDavid is a 93 SC and a 99 PA.

Here’s how the league shakes out heading into FA:

Here’s how grading worked:

90+ SC = 3.5 multiplier; 90+ PA = 3.0  multiplier
80+ SC = 2.5 multiplier; 80+ PA = 2.0  multiplier
70+ SC = 1.5 multiplier; 70+ PA = 1.0  multiplier

I.e. the Rangers had three players with a 90+ SC rating so they got awarded 3 x 3.5 = 10.5, and so on.

As an extra bit of analysis, here’s how all of the teams stack up to one another conference wise:

So what does this all mean?

Well firstly I was wrong; by virtue of all of his secondary scoring, Rumpy’s LA Kings have the most offensive depth in the league.  But he doesn’t possess the most ‘elite’ scoring in the league; that distinction belongs to the NY Rangers with three players that possess 90+ SC ratings. 

However, in terms of overall high-end offence, the best offensive team in the league heading into free agency this season would be Joe and his NY Islanders.  With two 90+ SC players and five 80+ SC players, he can match up with any team in the league in terms of elite scoring. 

Honorable mention has to go to Jesse and his Columbus Blue Jackets.  While he only has one player with a 90+ SC rating, he has *seven*, count them *seven*, other players with a SC of 80+.  This means that he can almost roll three full lines of players with 80+ SCs.  The Jackets also have 5 other players with a SC greater than 70, meaning that he could quite literally roll four scoring lines if he so chose to. 

The most balanced team offensively in the league in my estimation at the moment would have to be Ryan’s Rangers; he has a nice balance of high-end scorers and passers as well as plenty of secondary scoring and passing to back them up. However, while he does have two elite defensive forwards, they are a bit lacking in secondary defense and could stand to add a bit more in that department.

And once again, like the past few seasons, the distribution of firepower is definitely in the East!

The East boasts over a 2:1 ratio of 90+ SC players and almost 20% more of all the 80+ SC players in the league.  The only area where the West has it over the East in in secondary scoring… yay West!

The East is once again incredibly stacked with 9 teams that possess 4 or more elite scorers on their roster with at least an 80+ SC rating; compared to the West with only 5 teams.  The roles are reversed when it comes to PA with the West with 8 teams with at least four players with an 80+ PA rating compared to 6 teams for the East.

Team Needs:

As mentioned before, both the Islanders and Blue Jackets might want to consider adding some high end passing depth to their lineup. The Islanders head into FA with plenty of secondary passing, but only three players with 80+ PA; same with the Blue Jackets, with only four players with a PA of 80+.  Both teams have plenty of guys that can bury the puck in the net, but no one to dish them the puck.

On the other end of the spectrum we have the LA Kings.  The have four players with elite level scoring and 7 players with 80+PA.  Ordinarily the call heading into FA would be to add another 80+ SC forward to balance things out a bit, but the Kings also have a shit-ton of secondary scoring; the most of any other team in the league with 10 players with at least a 70+ SC.  Will this depth of scoring balance out the necessity of adding another elite scorer? It will be interesting to see.

Defense should be the order of the day heading into FA this season for almost all teams; there are only 9 teams with 3 or more forwards with a DF of 80+and on only 6 teams that I would consider contenders.

The bottom three teams in the East should be the Caps, Panthers and Flyers; though it’s not looking very pretty for the Hurricanes at this juncture either.

In the West, to no one’s surprise, it looks like the Devon’s Ducks will finish among the bottom of the West (if not the league) along with Mika’s Sharks and Rob’s Canucks.

Now of course, a lot can change between now and the start of the season, but there’s only 5 ‘elite’ goal – two 90+ and three 80+ SC – scorers and 11 elite passers – two 90+ and nine 80+ PA – available in this year’s UFA crop; and as usual, they are going to be in demand.

So start planning your trade and UFA strategies now folks!