The trade market and free agency reshaped the Metropolitan this summer, from the boldest contract of the offseason in New York to a defending champion that barely touched its roster. Here is the single biggest new face on every Metro team, run through the HighDanger numbers: expected goals, finishing, on-ice share, and our 2026-27 projection with an honest floor and ceiling. The box score is where these stories start. It is rarely where they end.
Carolina Hurricanes: Brandon Bussi
Carolina is the exception on this list. The defending champion had no need to add a new face, so its story is not an arrival but a promotion. The one meaningful subtraction came in net, where veteran Frederik Andersen walked to Edmonton, and that leaves Bussi, already on the roster, in the crease now. He quietly carried the net last season: 39 games, a 31-6-2 record, and, more telling, +3.5 goals saved above expected, meaning he stopped more than a league-average goalie would have on the same shots. At 1.9 million through 2029 he is a bargain, and the follow-up looks strong, a 2.34 projected GAA and a .900 save percentage in what profiles as a tandem with Pyotr Kochetkov. The one hesitation is the track record: last season was Bussi's first real run in the NHL, and those 39 games were a career high, so the open question is whether he can handle the jump to the 45 to 55 game workload Carolina will likely ask of him.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Valeri Nichushkin
Columbus is buying a play-driver, not a finisher. Nichushkin's 57.5 percent on-ice xGF share at 5v5 was elite, meaning the ice tilted hard in his team's favor when he was out there, and yet only 17 pucks went in on nearly 24 individual expected goals. That gap is the story: the chances were there, the finish was not. There is a role bump to bet on, too. He arrives from a stacked Colorado lineup where minutes and power-play time were scarce, just 4 power-play points all year, and steps into a featured job in Columbus, so more ice time and a real man-advantage role are the clearest paths to a production bump. The projection still lands at 60, trusting the underlying play and the jump to 32 assists. The cautions are real, a run of injury-shortened years before last season's healthy 72 games, and at 31 the cold finishing may not fully rebound. But a healthy season of that chance creation, with more opportunity behind it, lands in the high 50s. Columbus is paying for the process and betting the goals follow.
New Jersey Devils: Evan Rodrigues
New Jersey's biggest addition is a depth bet, not a splash. Rodrigues arrives from Florida with a championship pedigree and a resume as a versatile middle-six forward, but the production has slid three years running, 39 to 39 to 32 to 31. The model sees more of the same, 37 points with a tight 34 to 40 band, reflecting a 32-year-old in a complementary role. He did run cold, 11 goals on 16 individual expected goals, so a few could come back, but at even strength his on-ice share was almost exactly even. This is a plug-and-play center who kills penalties and moves up and down the lineup, not a needle-mover. For a Devils team already built around its top end, that is a reasonable use of three million dollars.
New York Islanders: Matias Maccelli
This is the best kind of buy-low. Two years ago Maccelli put up 57 points as a 22-year-old playmaker; last year that fell apart in Toronto, an 18-point crater in a role that never fit. The bounce back to 39 is the tell that the 57 was closer to the truth than the 18. The projection splits the difference at 46, but the ceiling runs to 56, and at 25 with a 2.14 5v5 scoring rate the upside is where the bet lives. He is a pass-first winger whose value climbs with the quality of his linemates, so his number on the Island depends on who he rides with. Give him a scorer to feed and real power-play time, and the assists climb in a hurry. Two million for a former 57-point player entering his prime is exactly the kind of low-risk swing a team should take.
New York Rangers: Pavel Dorofeyev
The Rangers made the summer's boldest bet: $11 million AAV over seven years for a 25-year-old coming off a 37-goal, 64-point season. The arrow could not point up more clearly, 9 to 24 to 52 to 64 points across four years, with back-to-back 35-goal campaigns his finishing backs up, scoring nearly 4 above his expected total, a real shooting talent rather than a fluke. He is a power-play weapon first, 30 of his points came on the man advantage, and a 55.9 percent on-ice xGF share says the play tilted his team's way at 5v5 too. Those 64 points came in Vegas alongside Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner, two elite setup men he leaves behind, but New York did not sign him into a crowded top six. It signed him to fill the opening Artemi Panarin left when he went to Los Angeles. Dorofeyev is a different animal than Panarin, a finisher rather than a passer, yet the vacancy is the same: top-line minutes, a power-play spot, and a setup crew of Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox built to feed a shooter. The projected 57 reads conservative because it anchors on recent output and taxes the elite finish, but the role says the goals should travel. The price is enormous; so is the opportunity Panarin left behind.
Philadelphia Flyers: Joseph Woll
Philadelphia's summer was defined as much by the miss as the addition. The Flyers fired an offer sheet at Anaheim's Leo Carlsson and watched the Ducks match it, five years and 18 million, so the headline splash never landed. It still made noise: an aggressive swing at a young cornerstone is the kind of move that ripples across a league, and it has rival GMs moving faster to lock up their own young talent long-term rather than risk being the next team caught flat-footed. The other move was a curious one. Philadelphia had already handed Dan Vladar a five-year, 5.5-million extension to lock down the starter's job, then spent another 3.67 million to bring in Woll from Toronto, a lot of money for a crease that was already settled. The fit is odd on paper, because Vladar was the better goalie last season, a .906 save percentage across 52 games to Woll's .899, and Woll's number came with -4.1 goals saved above expected, 4 more than a league-average goalie would have allowed. The bet is that a change of scenery and a lighter load behind Vladar steady a talented goalie who ran below expected in Toronto. Philadelphia did not land its headline target, but the swing left a mark, and there is real upside if Woll rebounds to his prior form.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Andrei Kuzmenko
Pittsburgh's actual bet is a reclamation project. Three years ago Kuzmenko scored 39 goals and 74 points as a Vancouver rookie; since then the production has fallen off a cliff, 46 points, then 37, then just 25 last season. Pittsburgh will be his fifth team in five years, the wheels coming off right after Vancouver traded him to Calgary. At 30 on a one-year, five-million-dollar deal, he is a low-commitment flier for a Penguins team that needs cheap scoring around its aging core. The underlying signs are not all bad: he still drove a 53 percent on-ice xGF share and finished a touch above expected, 13 goals on under 11 individual expected goals, with 13 of his 25 points coming on the power play. The projection sees a modest bounce to 44, well short of his Vancouver peak but a real lift from 25. The bet is simple. If a look next to Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin revives even part of the player who once scored 39, five million for one year is a bargain. If not, it comes off the books next summer.
Washington Capitals: Alex Tuch
Washington paid up for two-way steadiness, $10.5 million AAV over eight years for a big, physical scoring winger who just went 33-33-66 with 82 hits. Tuch is a genuine finisher, scoring better than 6 goals above expected, and he backs the scorer's touch with real bite, a top penalty-kill presence and a 2.60 5v5 points-per-60 that ranks among the better even-strength rates on this list. The projection lands at 67, right on his recent form, and his floor is sturdier than most: across four healthy seasons he has ranged from 59 to a high of 79, never bottoming out. That, plus a game built on size and shot volume rather than fragile puck luck, is the kind of profile that ages reasonably well. The one honest note is the even-strength on-ice share, a hair under 50 percent, meaning the run of play with him out there was roughly even rather than dominant. The other is the length of the deal, which runs a 30-year-old all the way to 38. For a Capitals team chasing one more window, though, a durable 65-point winger locked in long-term is a clean, if expensive, fit.
