Tampa did great work to leverage their position as a premier destination to get talent.
They basically traded Sergachev for McDonagh, Moser, Geekie, and a 4th.
*The 2nd and 7ths are offsetting in both trades.
Then they traded the cap space they would use on Stamkos for Guentzel.
Those trades aren't entirely cap neutral. Depending on what they pay Moser, they might lose another piece by proxy since those trades add a few million to what their cap might have been if they kept Sergachev and Stamkos.
Still, I don't think you will find anyone who will say they would take the other end of those trades for Tampa.
The Sergachev trade in particular, when you consider who little age will matter with McDonagh because Tampa's window might close in the next 2-3 seasons, they got an absolute haul through those two trades.
Sergachev for McDonagh is similar to the personnel swap we made with Chychrun for Jensen where fit wise, McDonagh is what they need. That doesn't account for adding Moser.
So, the difference between 2022-23 sens vs 2023-24
| 22-23 | 23-24 |
GF | 261 | 255 |
FA | 271 | 281 |
Pts | 86 |
78
|
| | |
We weren't that much worse outside of goaltending,
The main point I am making is that I don't think it's productive to look at which teams might have fallen or not fallen, because the league is so random and volatile for all but a small number of teams. There is a lot of luck involved and I don't think we're at the point where we are guaranteed a spot. The team has been perceived as bad for the last few years, yet we were a win and a few bad bounces in other close games away from the playoffs 2 years ago.