Offseason Roadmap: Atlantic Division

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Atlantic Division.

It will be an interesting summer for the five teams in the Atlantic. Four teams made the playoffs, including the eventual Stanley Cup champion, and the one team that didn't make it -- the New York Islanders -- holds the first pick in Friday's draft, which isn't a bad consolation prize. All around it was a pretty successful season for these five teams.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Coming off their Stanley Cup victory, the Penguins are facing a situation in which many of their role players are going to be free agents as of July 1, but the nucleus of their championship team should stay in tact. They have 15 players under contract next season for a total of $48.6 million, a group that includes most of their stars -- Marc-Andre Fleury, Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Maxime Talbot to name a few.

That leaves the likes of Bill Guerin, Miroslav Satan, Petr Sykora and Ruslan Fedotenko without contracts for next season. Those guys may not be back. However, a pair of important defenseman -- Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi -- will be needing new contracts and would likely get them. Look for the Pens to make a push to bring back those defenders and possibly a one-year deal for Guerin. Guerin had 15 points in 24 games with the Penguins during the postseason and would be worth taking a look at if he doesn't call it quits first.

New Jersey Devils: This summer the Devils will have to make some serious decisions as to which direction they want to head in the future. First up will be to find a new coach. Brent Sutter stepped down at the beginning of June and a successor has yet to be named.

Secondly, they need to decide if they want to continue with Martin Brodeur as their starting netminder. Brodeur missed most of last season due to injury and at age 37 the team needs to decide if this was a bump in the road or the beginning of the end. Scott Clemmensen was stellar in relief of Brodeur this year -- .917 and 2.39 in 40 games -- and is unrestricted. He's the heir to the throne in New Jersey if the Devils want to give it to him. Otherwise, he should be garnering some serious interest from other teams around the league.

The Devils do have a few other key free agents. Brian Gionta, John Madden and Johnny Oduya are all unrestriced while Travis Zajac is restricted. Signing those guys shouldn't be too much of an issue though as the Devils have 14 players signed for next season at around $40 million.

Philadelphia Flyers: For the second year in a row the Flyers were knocked out of the playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Two years ago it was in the Conference Finals and last season it happened in the first round. The Flyers finished fifth in the standings, right behind the Penguins, but were dispatched in six games.

In terms of free agents, the Flyers don't have much of an issue when it comes to skaters. They have 17 skaters under contract for next season for a total of $55 million. Mike Knuble is their only major free agent and he is unrestricted. The main issue for them this summer will be in net. Both Antero Niittymaki and Martin Biron are unrestricted and played pretty mediocre during the season. They ended the year with matching GAA and save percentages that came within .003 of each other. Neither is a clear cut solution at this point. And to add to that the Flyers, for reasons unknown to me, decided to sign Ray Emery, who is currently their only netminder under contract for 2009-10. If I'm the Flyers, I'm getting Clemmensen on the phone ASAP.

New York Rangers: The Rangers took some big risks to make the playoffs last season by replacing their coach, bringing back Sean Avery and acquiring free-agents-to-be in Derek Morris and Nik Antropov. They were able to make the playoffs but ended up getting bounced by the Washington Capitals in seven games after holding a 3-1 lead in the series.

Now, the Rangers pay the price for their risks as they face the possibility of getting nothing in return for Antropov and Morris. The Rangers have the fewest returning players, 10, in the division. Their big name stars -- Henrik Lundqvist, Sean Avery, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival -- are all returning but almost the remainder of the roster is without a deal. If I'm GM Glen Sather, I don't think twice and buy out Redden and get to work on filling the roster and re-signing key RFAs Brandon Dubinsky, Nikolai Zherdev and Ryan Callahan.

New York Islanders: The Islanders finished last season as the worst in the NHL and, for that, were rewarded with the first overall pick in Friday's draft by way of the draft lottery. They accumulated more than 500 man games lost due to injuryr. They likely wouldn't have factored into the playoff mix even without all the injuries, but they surely wouldn't have obtained the first pick without them

Forget about July 1 -- the Isles will likely not make any kind of a splash there -- the draft is their time to shine. In addition to the top pick, they also have six more picks in the first three rounds. Look for them to take a stab at moving up into the middle of the first round after they make the first pick.

The Islanders also have very few free agents of any consequence. Blake Comeau is restricted and should be compensated nicely. They have four UFA skaters, all of which should not be back with the exception of Andy Hilbert who, for some disturbing reason, management likes a lot. If it was up to me, he would have been cut two years ago. But it's not up to me.

The biggest acquisition the Islanders need to make is a goaltender to split time with Rick DiPietro. DiPietro missed all of last season and has been rumored to still be on crutches after season ending surgery in November. After all the injuries he has gone through, the Islanders need to sign a '1B' goaltender to split time with Ricky Franchise in case DiPietro's legs continue to be fragile during future seasons.