What We Learned: Will New Jersey Devils get their due in 2025-26?

When thinking about a team's offseason, you have to frame it around where you think they're trying to go.

Sure, most teams in the league would say their goal is to win a Stanley Cup, or to make the playoffs. Few if any — especially this summer — would say they're trying to finish as low in the standings as possible. When people talk about the "mushy middle" in the NHL most of those fall into the latter category, they're talking about teams whose actual goal, if not their stated one, is to simply be like the third-best team in their own division and, once the playoffs start, let the chips fall where they may. In much the same way franchises that weren't particularly good used to say, "Well the Kings won the Cup as an eight seed!" they can now do the same thing regarding the Florida Panthers'