NHL Teams Set Up For a Disastrous Start to the 2022 Season

All 32 NHL teams will try to start fast when the puck drops in October on the 2022-23 regular season. A winning record within the opening weeks can set the right tone for the remainder of the season. Those early points could also make the difference in the race for a playoff berth down the stretch in late March and early April.

Some teams, however, have glaring roster weaknesses that could send them stumbling out of the gate unless they're suitably addressed in training camp and the preseason.

Some, such as the Montreal Canadiens, are rebuilding teams with several critical problems that could require more than one season to fix. Others, such as the Vegas Golden Knights, are hoping to bounce back into playoff contention after a disappointing 2021-22.

Here are six NHL teams that could be poised for a disastrous start to the coming campaign.

Much of the focus on the Arizona Coyotes ahead of this season is their move into the 5,000-seat Mullett Arena at Arizona State University while awaiting the hoped-for construction of a new arena in Tempe by 2025-26. It's helped to overshadow the fact that the Coyotes were awful last season and could be again in 2022-23.

General manager Bill Armstrong has engaged in a major roster rebuild since taking over the role in September 2020. He's made several trades, shipping out veterans Darcy Kuemper, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Conor Garland and Christian Dvorak for draft picks and young players to restock his prospect pipeline.

The result saw the Coyotes finish with last season's second-worst record with 25 wins and 57 points in 82 games. Their 2.51 goals-per-game average was the league's lowest, while their 3.77 goals against and 13.9 power-play percentage were each third-worst.

Armstrong and head coach Andre Tourigny will need scoring leader Clayton Keller (leg fracture) and top defenseman Jakob Chychrun (ankle) to make full recoveries from season-ending injuries. They'll also require breakout performances from youngsters such as Barrett Hayton and Conor Timmins as well as improved goaltending depth behind starter Karel Vejmelka.

Even if those things come through, the Coyotes remain a team very much in the midst of a rebuild, as they lack experienced NHL talent throughout the lineup.

The Chicago Blackhawks know only too well how a bad start can affect a season. They had just one win (1-9-2) in their first 12 games in 2021-22 before they replaced head coach Jeremy Colliton with Derek King on Nov. 7. The Blackhawks showed some improvement under King with 27 wins, 33 losses and 10 overtime losses but still finished outside the playoff picture.

Kyle Davidson took over the full-time duties as general manager on March 1 with the intent of rebuilding. He replaced King with Luke Richardson and shipped out Brandon Hagel, Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach with the focus on getting back draft picks and prospects.

Davidson added some veterans in forwards Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou and Colin Blackwell, defenseman Jack Johnson and goaltenders Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock. However, they are short-term additions who likely won't be with the club by the time the rebuild is completed.

The Blackhawks lack a proven, reliable starting goaltender. Seth Jones is the only notable name on an otherwise undistinguished blue line. Superstar winger Patrick Kane and captain Jonathan Toews are heading into the final season of their contracts. There's little real scoring punch on the second line and no standouts among their checking-line depth.

Richardson has considerable experience as an NHL assistant coach and will do his best to help advance Davidson's rebuilding program. Nevertheless, the lack of quality depth throughout their roster for the coming season could spell another disastrous start for the Blackhawks.

Like Chicago, the Montreal Canadiens are another club that knows full well how a poor start can lead to a disastrous season. In their case, they won just two of their first eight games and were 6-16-2 by the end of November en route to finishing last in the overall standings less than a year after reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

The Canadiens shook things up by hiring Kent Hughes as general manager in January and Martin St. Louis as head coach the following month. Under St. Louis, the Habs had a respectable 14-19-4 record in their final 37 games. Still, they finished with a league-worst 3.87 goals against per game, while their 13.7 power-play percentage was second-worst.

Hughes made a series of trades with an emphasis on rebuilding. He shipped out Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot, Artturi Lehkonen, Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov, Jeff Petry and the contract of permanently sidelined defenseman Shea Weber. Most of the returns loaded up the Canadiens with draft picks and promising young players.

The Canadiens possess solid forward-line depth with incoming forwards Sean Monahan, Evgenii Dadonov and Kirby Dach. They'll help take some of the burden from young stars Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Juraj Slafkovsky, the 2022 No. 1 overall pick, could make the lineup and perhaps become a favorite to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year.

Goaltending and defense, however, could prove their undoing. Longtime starter Carey Price is expected to miss the coming season recovering from knee surgery, and there's no one of equal stature to take his place. Joel Edmundson, David Savard, Mike Matheson and Chris Wideman are their projected top four but none of them can be considered top-tier defensemen.

After finishing with one of the worst records in franchise history over a non-shortened season, the 25-46-11 Philadelphia Flyers hired John Tortorella as their head coach. It's hoped the two-time Jack Adams Award winner can help them reverse their fortunes after they've floundered over the past two years.

Tortorella has a solid record for turning around struggling teams, but he could be hard-pressed to significantly immediately improve the Flyers. This is almost the same roster that finished with the league's worst power-play percentage (12.6), second-lowest goals per game (2.56), sixth-worst goals against per game (3.59) and the seventh-worst penalty kill (75.7).

Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher did little else this offseason to improve his roster. His only trade was acquiring puck-moving defenseman Tony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes. Fletcher's notable free-agent additions were defenseman Justin Braun and grinding forward Nicolas Deslauriers.

Having Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes healthy for the coming season should help, but Fletcher hasn't found a suitable replacement for former captain Claude Giroux since trading him to Florida before the March 21 deadline. First-pairing defenseman Ryan Ellis (groin injury) and promising winger Joel Farabee (neck surgery) are expected to miss the start of the season.

Tortorella's efforts to change the culture and improve the work ethic could lead to improvement during the season. Still, it could take time to fix those glaring issues, setting them up for what could be a poor start that puts them into an early-season hole too deep to escape.

Once a Western Conference powerhouse, the San Jose Sharks have missed the playoffs in the last three seasons. Their chances of reversing that trend in 2022-23 don't look good. They've hired a new general manager in Mike Grier, while David Quinn will take over as head coach but made little noticeable improvement to their roster.

The Sharks had a toothless offense with a goals-per-game average (2.57) that was third-worst overall. Grier didn't bring in anyone to bolster that production in part because of salary-cap constraints he inherited when he took over as GM. They still have decent scorers in Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier but not much scoring punch beyond them.

Their production could take a further hit with the departure of puck-moving defenseman Brent Burns. Grier traded the 2016-17 Norris Trophy winner to the Carolina Hurricanes on July 13 as a cost-cutting measure. His departure also creates a void on their blue line that will be difficult to fill.

The Sharks also lack a proven starting goaltender capable of stealing wins and keeping them competitive in closely contested games. James Riemer is a fine career backup who will support promising Kaapo Kahkonen this season. If the latter doesn't establish himself this season, the Sharks could be in trouble.

It took until midseason for the wheels to start coming off the Sharks' wagon in 2021-22. Things could come undone much sooner for them this year.

Last season marked the first time in the Vegas Golden Knights' short history that they missed the playoffs. Unless they can get off to a good start to 2022-23, they could be outside the postseason picture for the second straight year.

Injuries were a contributing factor to the Golden Knights' struggles, as core players Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Robin Lehner missed considerable time to injuries or played hurt before eventually having to sit out. Recovery from neck surgery sidelined Jack Eichel most of the season, and he was hampered by a wrist injury down the stretch.

Eichel and Stone are healthy and appear ready for the coming season. Pacioretty, however, was traded to Carolina in a cost-cutting move, leaving a big void at left wing on their top line. Lehner, meanwhile, is out for the season recovering from hip surgery while backup goalie Laurent Brossoit's offseason hip surgery makes his status for training camp uncertain.

The absence of Lehner leaves the Golden Knights without a reliable starting goaltender. They'll turn to promising Logan Thompson, recently acquired Adin Hill and Brossoit once he's fully recovered to handle the workload. Thompson, however, has a limited body of NHL work, while Hill has struggled to establish himself as an NHL starter.

A healthy Eichel and Stone should help the Golden Knights overcome the absence of Pacioretty. However, their chances for a strong start to this season rests with their goaltending. If Lehner's replacements are not up to the task, the Golden Knights could be poised for their worst start in franchise history.

Stats via NHL.com, season results via Hockey Reference, and salary and depth chart info via CapFriendly.