We still have two long months until NHL training camps open up, but it’s time to get judgmental.

NHL insiders are adamant trades will continue to unfold as the offseason goes on, more so than in past summers, but we’ll have to see it to believe it. Outside of a few moves here and there, most rosters are pretty set, so it’s a good time to take a look at which teams won the offseason, which teams lost it, and which teams feel like they still have work to do.

Winners

Carolina Hurricanes

It will be fascinating to see how Nikolaj Ehlers performs in Rod Brind’Amour’s system. It’s a system Martin Necas, a very similar player, couldn’t wait to exit. It’s a nice contract for Ehlers, who must shed his reputation as an underperforming postseason player to help the Hurricanes get over the hump. K’Andre Miller is more of a question mark on defense, but he fits the mold of Carolina’s M.O. The Logan Stankoven extension is the real winner and will be a nice steal in the near future.

Montreal Canadiens

They snuck into the playoffs and have a young team that should only continue to improve. As a reward, their general manager acquired a defenseman, Noah Dobson, who is one year removed from getting Norris Trophy votes. On top of all that, they’re still loaded with trade assets if they want to further bolster their current roster.

Florida Panthers

They found a way to get it done, re-signing all of their pending unrestricted free agents in Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad and Brad Marchand. The rich stay rich. They should, once again, be considered the Stanley Cup favorites heading into next season.

Utah Mammoth

They still have question marks in net. But of all the fringe Western Conference teams, they feel the closest to sneaking in next year. JJ Peterka doesn’t bring much on the defensive side but he’s a threat to score 30 goals playing alongside a guy like Clayton Keller. 

Losers

Los Angeles Kings

They wanted a shot at Mitch Marner and never really got the chance to speak to him. It happens. The response was to hand out $13 million in contracts to depth forwards and bottom-pair defensemen. They’re still a good team but continue to lack the gamebreakers necessary to really take that next step.

Columbus Blue Jackets

They were on the cusp of acquiring Noah Dobson, which would have been a huge get for them. When that didn’t work out, it seems like they panicked and backed up the Brinks truck for Ivan Provorov, someone who eats a lot of minutes but isn’t very effective while doing so. Coyle is a solid veteran addition to the lineup, but they didn’t use all their cap space effectively.

Feels incomplete

Colorado Avalanche

Okay, so you cleared cap space by moving Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood. That’s fine. The expectations was they’d replace Coyle on the third line, though. That has not happened — yet. The top six is set, which is a good thing, but the team currently is lacking a bit of depth up front. If this is how they enter the season, which is still a big if, it will feel a little underwhelming and any injuries to the top six could expose that lack of depth. Perhaps they’re just banking cap space to make more in-season moves, which general manager Chris MacFarland isn’t afraid to do.

Edmonton Oilers

They’re not really going into another season with a Stuart Skinner/Calvin Pickard combo in net, are they? Skinner is solid value in net for what you’re paying him ($2.6 million), but given his up-and-down postseason play, you want a better option if he falters. Going into the season with the same combo probably isn’t good enough.

What I’m hearing

—I have reached out to Joel Kiviranta’s camp for an update on his status and have not heard back. He set a career high in points last season but given the fact that he’s still available as a free agent, it doesn’t seem like teams are all that convinced he’s capable of repeating it. If the Avalanche can bring him back on a good contract, it would make a lot of sense. Jared Bednar’s coaching staff really trusts him, especially in the defensive zone.

—Winger Yegor Chinakhov has asked for a trade out of Columbus. He’s the type of guy the Avalanche in the past have targeted on the trade market. He doesn’t make much money, would be under team control for a few more years, has solid underlying numbers and hasn’t fully realized his potential because of injury issues. And those injury issues can’t be ignored. He’s played only 123 games the past three seasons. Colorado doesn’t have a ton of trade assets so it’s a tough deal to make. But given their trade history with the Blue Jackets, he’s an intriguing player.

What I’m seeing

—Avalanche skills coach Toby Petersen has moved on, taking the head coaching job for the Dallas Stars AHL affiliate. That means another opening on the coaching staff. May I recommend a replacement? Denver Pioneers alum Angelo Ricci makes a lot of sense. He has a lot of history in Colorado with running the Colorado Thunderbirds program and has spent the last several years as a skills coach for the Philadelphia Flyers. John Tortorella spoke very highly of him when I asked about him a few years back. 

—Ilya Nabokov visited Denver after development camp and toured the Avalanche facilities. For someone who has never been to North America, that’s a pretty big step and proof of his commitment to making the jump after his KHL season ends. KHL training camps open in early August so he’ll be back in action real soon.

What I’m thinking

—NHL general managers have voted to keep the decentralized draft for at least one more year. There’s no way they can keep the same format they used last month, right? That was an abomination. Eliminate the awkward zoom interviews and it will run a lot smoother.

—The Avalanche hired Dave Hakstol to be their new assistant coach. Some people aren’t happy with the move based on Hakstol’s history as a head coach in the NHL, which I get. He wasn’t hired to be the head coach, though. From the outside, it can be difficult to judge assistant coaches because we don’t know a lot of the work they do beyond the special teams units they run. When Hakstol was Toronto’s assistant coach for two seasons, they finished sixth and 16th in power-play efficiency. That’s likely where he’ll be judged but this is a wait-and-see situation. Some guys just might be better suited as assistants at the NHL level as opposed to being the main bench boss.

Hakstol did coach Brock Nelson at North Dakota, so it’ll be interesting to see if Nelson gets a long look on the top power-play unit.