The 5 most impressive NHL offseason moves and what they mean for 2023-24

The NHL currently boasts at least eight teams with strong aspirations to win the Stanley Cup in 2024.

Since no team can acquire all of the available luck in any one season, inspired offseason moves are vital.

General managers must work in a dangerous market. One misfire can send a contender into the abyss. On the other hand, a wise signing or trade could provide the margin of victory next spring. As for teams who aren’t in a position to push for the Cup, making shrewd acquisitions is still important to securing a better future.

Here are the five best moves so far in the 2023 offseason.

In truth, the Devils have enjoyed such a prosperous summer it feels wrong to highlight just one move. Re-signing Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt are impact additions and should be considered a major part of the team’s summer positioning.

The key to the Devils’ roster strength comes in how the team was built: an absolute refusal to improve the goaltending situation (No. 25 in the NHL or worse in four of the last five seasons); that led to high draft picks in each draft 2017-2020; followed by signing the young talents who were trending toward elite (Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes) to long contracts that will bring extreme value for years to come.

The organization is in a position to add the final pieces of the Stanley Cup puzzle, with Toffoli as one of the finishing touches.

He is a quality scorer who can play a feature role on the top line or punish lesser opposition if deployed on a second or third line. If he plays on the top line with Hughes and Bratt, 40-plus goals is possible for the veteran.

New Jersey is only a top-flight goaltender away from being truly terrifying, and may have one already in unproven 23-year-old Akira Schmid.

Chicago’s luck ran hot at the 2023 draft lottery, the Blackhawks securing the right to select franchise player Connor Bedard and ignite the rebuild.

Bedard has generational talent and is the kind of offensive dynamo that can change the direction of an organization in a heartbeat.

Having burned the quality of personnel to the ground last summer, it was vital for the team to populate the roster with legit talent.

The trade with Boston was exceptional.

Hall is the marquee player for Chicago. Now 31, and an injury risk, he remains a quality possession winger.

For his career at five-on-five, his on-ice goal share is 52 percent (561-509). That includes some remarkably poor teams early in his career.

If healthy, the ‘Hawks couldn’t have hand-picked a better offensive-minded winger for Bedard. The combination should be formidable.

Chicago signed Foligno in front of free agency, and the veteran projects as a bottom-six contributor on a team that will have plenty of youth in need of support.

The Winnipeg Jets build the old-fashioned way, by drafting and developing talent. Mark Scheifele, Connor Hellebuyck, Josh Morrissey,