After all the moves made at the draft and earlier this month, there are teams that made the playoffs that took a big step back.

In the West, Vegas was the last wildcard team, and at this point in the summer are weaker after the loss of leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault and center Chandler Stephenson, but the Los Angeles Kings appear to be the team most likely to be on the outside looking in. They did get rid of the albatross contract of Pierre-Luc Dubois, but the addition of Darcy Kuemper does not appear to be much of an improvement in goal.

The question in the West is whether any of the non-playoff teams have improved enough to challenge the top eight. St. Louis and Minnesota made depth adds, Seattle signed Cup winners Stephenson and Brandon Montour, and Utah brought in almost an entirely new defensive corps. Those teams will have to show that they are up to the task early in the season to make believers out of me.

Rumors to come

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