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Keeping up with the Metropolitans: Off-Season Edition

What's the enemy got in store this off-season? Find out with a quick guide for each Metro Division team in this off-season installment of 'Keeping up with the Metropolitans!'

2017 NHL Awards - Arrivals
It’s been a great ride in Pittsburgh, MAF! Best of luck in LV.
Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

With how impressive this regular season was for the top three Metropolitan Division teams, it should come as no surprise that the good luck for the division kept rolling as the NJD and Philadelphia Flyers hit the jackpot and are drafting 1st and 2nd overall. Unfortunately for them, there are no McDavids or Matthews in this years draft, although it never hurts to pick first or second. The Hurricanes and Islanders are still waiting for their good luck to make an appearance, though you never know when it's gonna hit. Also as they say, sometimes you gotta make your own luck.

This is the first of a few Metro Division updates that I will periodically do this summer to keep tabs on the enemy. There will also be a post draft update and free agency recap. Below I will list the Metro teams in order of how they finished the regular season along with where they will be drafting and how their season concluded. With the addition of the 31st NHL Team, the Vegas Golden Knights, each team will lose a contributing member to the new franchise, that player will also be named below. The list will also include each team's UFAs and RFAs along with any major deals that happened leading into and following the Expansion Draft. Now that the Expansion Draft is all said and done, here's what each Metro team's agenda is going to look like.

Washington Capitals

55-19-8, 118 pts / 261GF(3rd)/177GA(1st) / First pick: 120th*
Lost to Pittsburgh in the second round. **COUGH 9-1 COUGH**
*First round pick traded to St. Louis for Kevin Shattenkirk. Second round pick traded to Montreal for Lars Eller. Third round pick traded to Buffalo for Mike Webber.

Your Vegas Golden Capital is: Nate Schmidt

UFA:
Forward: T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, Daniel Winnik
Defense: Karl Alzner, Kevin Shattenkirk

RFA:
Forward: Brett Connolly, Andre Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznetsov
Defense: Dmitry Orlov
Goalie: Phillip Grubauer

Cap room: $24.8 million / 11/23 NHL contracts (Per CapFriendy as of 6/22/17)

Trades:

Pittsburgh Penguins

50-21-11, 111 pts / 278 GF(1st)/229 GA(17th) / First pick: 31st
WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!

Your Vegas Golden Penguin is: Marc-Andre Fleury =( =( =(
(Three sad faces for the Three Cups he brought us Pens fans^)

UFA:
Forward: Nick Bonino, Matt Cullen, Chris Kunitz
Defense: Trevor Daley, Ron Hainsey, Mark Streit, Chad Ruhwedel

RFA:
Forward: Conor Sheary, Oskar Sundqvist, Josh Archibald
Defense: Brian Dumoulin, Justin Schultz

Cap room: $20.0 million / 16/23 NHL contracts

Trades:

Columbus Blue Jackets

50-24-8, 108 pts / 247GF(6th)/193GA(2nd) / First pick: 86th*
Lost to Pittsburgh in the first round.
*First round pick traded to VGK in expansion draft. Second round pick awarded to Vancouver as compensation for signing John Tortorella. (Haha!)

Your Vegas Golden Blue Jacket is: William Karlsson

UFA:
Forward: Sam Gagner, Lauri Korpikoski
Defense: Kyle Quincey

RFA:
Forward: Josh Anderson, Alexander Wennberg
Goalie: Anton Forsberg

Cap room: $10.2 million / 21/23 NHL contracts

Trades:

New York Rangers

48-28-6, 102 pts / 253GF(4th)/216GA(t-12th) / First pick: 21st
Lost to Ottawa in the second round.

Your Vegas Golden Ranger is: Oscar Lindberg

UFA:
Forward: Tanner Glass
Defense: Brendan Smith

RFA:
Forward: Mika Zibanejad, Brandon Pirri, Jesper Fast, Matt Puempel (Signed 1 yr / $725 k deal 6/14/17)
Defense: Adam Clendening

Cap room: $13.3 million / 18/23 NHL contracts

Buy Outs:

New York Islanders

41-29-12, 94 pts / 239GF(10th)/238GA(23rd) / First pick: 46th
Did not qualify for playoffs.

Your Vegas Golden Islander is: Jean-Francois Berube

UFA:
Forward: Stephen Gionta

RFA:
Defense: Calvin De Haan

Cap room: $5.5 million / 21/23 contracts

Trades:

Philadelphia Flyers

39-33-10, 88 pts / 212GF(t-20th)/231GA(19th) / First pick: 2nd(moved up from 13th via draft lottery)
Did not qualify for playoffs.

Your Vegas Golden Flyer is: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

UFA:
Forward: Jordan Weal, Chis VandeVelde
Defense: Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz
Goalie: Steve Mason

RFA:
Forward: Nick Cousins, Roman Lyubimov, Michael Vecchione
Defense: Shayne Gostisbehere (Signed 6 yr / $27 mil contract 6/9/17)

Cap room: $12.1 million / 16/23 NHL contracts

Hiring/Firings:

Carolina Hurricanes

36-31-15, 87 pts / 212GF(t-20th)/230GA(18th) / First pick: 12th
Did not qualify for playoffs.

Your Vegas Golden Hurricane is: Connor Brickley

UFA:
Forward: Jay McClement, Derek Ryan
Defense: Matt Tennyson

RFA:
Forward: Teuvo Teravainen (Signed 2 yr / $5.72 mil deal 6/15/17), Brock McGinn

Cap room: $25.7 million / 18/23 NHL contracts

Trades:

Hiring/Firings:

New Jersey Devils

28-40-14, 70 pts / 180GF(28th)/241GA(t-24th) / First pick: 1st (Up from 5th via draft lottery)
Did not qualify for the playoffs.

Your Vegas Golden Devil is: John Merrill

UFA:
Goalie: Keith Kinkaid

RFA:
Forward: Beau Bennett, Jacob Josefson, Stefan Noesen
Defense: Damon Severson

Cap room: $24.4 million / 13/23 NHL contracts

Trades:

Poll

Who do you think the Devils are going to take with the first overall pick?

This poll is closed

  • 62%
    Nolan Patrick
    (138 votes)
  • 37%
    Nico Hischier
    (82 votes)
220 votes total Vote Now

Keep an eye out for the post-draft installment of KUWTM.