The dust has almost settled on another NHL offseason, and we’re starting to get a clearer picture of where each team stands heading into 2023-24. There were a good deal of teams that got significantly better, which we chronicled earlier this week. But every offseason there are winners, and every offseason there are losers.

One of this summer’s losers was the best regular-season squad in NHL history. Another made a Stanley Cup Final run, but paid the price with a trio of crucial injuries. Yet another embraced the rebuild by offloading as many pieces as possible, without bringing in any replacements. This list certainly isn’t the worst NHL teams heading into the 2023-24 campaign — just the ones that improved the least this summer.

5) Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets are in a tough spot. They very likely won’t have the services of two faces of the franchise in Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck for all of next season — both are prime trade candidates whose time in Manitoba are surely numbered. The Pierre-Luc Dubois trade was a long time coming, and Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff got a good return, but it was still a downgrade. Alex Iafallo and Gabriel Vilardi will be everyday players next season, but can’t replace the loss of Dubois.

And buying out Blake Wheeler, who has been a lifetime Winnipeg Jet, was another tough call. Wheeler is still a near point-per-game player, and signed for next to nothing with the New York Rangers. This team is going to be worse next season, and the potential returns for Scheifele and Hellebuyck will go a long way in determining how competitive this squad is in the near future.

4) Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning seem to lose a few key pieces every offseason. This one was no different, with longtime forward Alex Killorn signing with the Anaheim Ducks, Ross Colton headed to Colorado, Corey Perry shipped to Chicago and Ian Cole signing in Vancouver.

The Lightning have been the class of the NHL for the last half-decade; they made back-to-back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals, winning two out of three. But after a first-round loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, it might be time to pay the piper. Tampa Bay is a worse team in the short term, especially without Killorn, who had an excellent season in 2022-23. The hope is that Brandon Hagel can step up after he was awarded a massive contract, as well as Tanner Jeannot after he was acquired from the Nashville Predators for a boatload of draft capital.

Tampa definitely has a few good years left, especially with their superstar core, but they are a couple seasons away from a full-scale rebuild after what has been an incredible decade for the franchise.

3) Philadelphia Flyers

It’s no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers are in the midst of a full-scale rebuild themselves, with new GM Danny Briere already losing three key pieces in Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes and James Van Riemsdyk. Those three relatively useful players were replaced by Sean Walker, Garnet Hathaway, Cal Petersen and Ryan Poehling. None of those guys figure to move the needle much.

It was another downgrade for the Flyers at both defense and forward, and the team will be even thinner next season. It’s a smart move for a team that needs to be bad to rebuild properly — but don’t expect Philadelphia to be anywhere other than close to the basement of the Eastern Conference in 2023-24.

2) Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers didn’t get too much worse in the offseason — but they might have to start a new campaign without Matthew Tkachuk, Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad. Arguably the three most important players on the team all had surgery, and their health and subsequent ability to get back to superstar hockey will go a long way in determining how good this team is next season.

The Panthers just marched all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, but they are already in jeopardy of missing the playoffs in an ultra-competitive Atlantic Division. It doesn’t help that they lost Radko Gudas and replaced him with three short-term, band-aid solutions in  Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov and Mike Reilly.

Up front, it’s more of the same with the signing of Evan Rodrigues from Colorado figuring to be a slight downgrade from Anthony Duclair, who was traded to the San Jose Sharks. How Florida fares next year is truly anyone’s guess, and an intriguing storyline heading into opening night.

1) Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins are easily the least improved NHL team this offseason. That’s obvious with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retiring. But add a few more names to that list: Taylor Hall, Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Clifton, Garnet Hathaway, Nick Foligno and Craig Smith. The best regular-season team in history in 2022-23 has a legitimate chance to miss the postseason altogether in 2023-24.

It truly was a mass exodus of epic proportions, and the Bruins are going to be significantly worse next year. But it’s way too early to count them out, and don’t be surprised if they are back in the dance next April.