Zero off-season movements

[alko]

Did ever happened? That some franchise was so happy with their team, that they didnt make a single move in summer?

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[sr edler]

Rosters are so big nowadays there is always some minor signing or whatever, even if that player isn't projected to make the line-up for the up-coming season. I think you'll have to narrow it down to regulars and then focus on successful teams with a long assembled core and loyal role players/secondary cast.

 

[brachyrynchos]

The closest I found was the Islanders in '82. Hector Marini was traded to NJ 10/1/82, their roster for '82-83 was the same as the previous season with 25 players remaining with the team and no changes throughout the lineup with the exception to Neil Hawrylil who played one game in '81-82, the only 'new' players that played the upcoming season were Kevin Devine (2 games) and Darcy Regier (6 games), who was part of a trade in 1978, and Mats Hallin (30 games).The goalies (Smith+Melanson) stayed the same, as did the defense (Potvin, Jonsson, Langevin, Morrow, Persson, Dineen, Lane, McEwen, Boutilier) and offense (Bossy, Trottier, Tonelli, Bourne, Gillies, B. Sutter, Goring, D. Sutter, Nystrom, Gilbert, Merrick, Kallur, and Carroll. Nothing much changed besides Hallin (free agent signing) and the minutes played.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I don't think you'll find a hard 0 anywhere in history. Teams have always spent the offseason trying to add young talent, replacing retirees, etc. Even if the same guys come back on the official roster, you still have transactions during the summer.

@brachyrynchos above is probably about as close as it's going to get, even if you go back to the days of very stable rosters.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Closest in recent Red Wings history was the 2014 offseason where they really only made necessary subtractions to their roster, although I don't think it was because they were so happy with their team...

In goal: They re-signed Jonas Gustavsson to mostly hang out in the trainers room on IR and play back up goalie every once in a while for a 3rd season

At forward: They only really made subtractions and promoted young guys to regular roles. Most which were unofficially made the prior season. Samuelsson and Bertuzzi were basically done and had been pushed to the pressbox or GR so they weren't retained. They used their 2nd compliance buyout on Jordin Tootoo who'd been mostly in GR. David Legwand, who they acquired as a rental and were initially interested in retaining, wasn't re-signed after making no real impact. The door was open for Alfredsson to return, but he opted to retire.

They didn't really go after any UFA forwards as they had re-signed Dan Cleary, wanted to leave the door open for Alfredsson to return and earmarked regular spots for young guys who had come up from GR or out of the press box to take regular roles the year before (Tatar, Nyquist, Sheahan, Glendening and Jurco). When Alfredsson decided to retire, they didn't bring anyone else in

Defense: This was where they actually tried to make a change, but ultimately settled at being happy with exactly what they had. They retained 6 of the 7 regular D on the team and let Kyle Quincey hit the UFA market. They tried to upgrade on Quincey by sending offers to Niskanen, Boyle and Ehrhoff. However, when all three signed elsewhere, they re-signed Quincey and went into the next season with the same 7 dmen they had the previous year.

After accounting for injuries, the line-up for their first game in 14-15 is nearly identical to their 2nd to last game of the previous season.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Another close Red Wings example was the 2000 offseason.

In goal, their #2 and #3 goalies from the previous year swap places with Legace taking the #2 spot and Ken Wregget in #3.

The D is the exact same guys that finished the season before.

At forward, Stacy Roest (who was really a depth piece when everyone was healthy) was lost to the Wild in the expansion draft, and Igor Larionov (who IIRC, they wanted to retain but apparently lowballed) signed with the Panthers and then was brought back halfway through the season. Boyd Devereaux was the only addition. Oh and Joey Kocur decided to retire and joined the coaching staff right before the season started. He had actually spent the entire 99-00 season under contract and with the team trying to return from his groin/hernia issue before being shutdown for good in April.

 

[tony d]

Not really in my memory. Seems like every team always does something during the off season with their team.

 

[Brodeur]

Harder nowadays with UFA age being 27 (or lower). The 2000 Devils had a pretty quiet offseason which was understandable coming off a Cup, plus they had quite a bit of roster movement during the 1999-00 season partly due to the final phase of that era's Expansion Draft. Offseason consisted of:

- Trading Krzysztof Oliwa to Columbus for Turner Stevenson
- Not re-signing Claude Lemieux and Vladimir Malakhov
- Signed enforcer Jim McKenzie to replace Oliwa

Lemieux/Malakhov were expected to be rentals, but they more or less returned everybody else who had won the Cup. Devils were saving money for new contracts for Jason Arnott and Scott Niedermayer; Both would end up holding out until right before Thanksgiving. I also think that was the offseason snafu where Lou didn't handle Madden/Rafalski's qualifying offers correctly so they were briefly UFAs and the team had to pay them more than expected.

 

[PurpleMouse]

Not what the OP is looking for, but along the same vein is no trades were made during the 66-67 season. Teams unsure of how expansion I guess? Nowadays it triggers the opposite approach....

 

[Brodeur]

Devils 2002-03 to 2003-04 was pretty uneventful from what I can remember.

- Ken Daneyko retired
- Didn't give qualifying offer to Oleg Tverdovsky
- 4th line center Pascal Rheaume opted to become a Group V free agent; He had a good showing in the playoffs, so perhaps his agent overestimated the market as Rheaume didn't get a contract offer until after the season began.
- Signed depth pieces in Sean Brown and Erik Rasmussen
- Joe Nieuwendyk signed with Toronto a week before training camp; Nieuwendyk seemed to be upset with Lou as though there had been a handshake agreement for him to stay
- Igor Larionov was signed the day after Nieuwendyk left

 

[Brodeur]

2012 offseason for the Kings was very quiet, partially due to the lockout but I think Lombardi was happy enough with the group that had won the Cup:

- Quick/Stoll/Penner/Fraser/King extended
- Minor trade before start of season sent enforcer Kevin Westgarth to Carolina for Anthony Stewart and a pair of late draft picks. Westgarth had only played 25 games in 2011-12 and none in the playoffs. I don't think Stewart was in the Kings' plans, they were more or less buying a couple of draft picks for taking on Stewart's contract.
- Lost Thomas Hickey and Richard Clune on waivers on the eve of the season, but neither had played on the 2011-12 club.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

There has to be an O6 team with no movement somewhere out there, right?

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Beyond signing 1983 draft pick Pelle Eklund, the Flyers made no other moves to their roster in the 1985 offseason.