This off-season has seen plenty of players joining new teams
either via trade, free agency, and almost most importantly the draft. With all
these players changing places most teams should have a different outlook coming
into the season, for better or worse. So, I'm going do a breakdown of a
few teams I think have improved the most and not just on paper. These
teams I think are really going to have a significant improvement in the
standings as opposed to last season.
Let’s start with the easy one, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Are the most improved as a whole, probably not. Defense was never really addressed here, but offense? That's another story. They landed arguably the biggest free agent available in the last 10 years by bringing in the home town kid in John Tavares. They now have top-3 center depth reminiscent of the 2009 Penguins.
Penguins had Crosby, Malkin, and Jordan Staal at center the year they won the cup, now the Leafs have Matthews, Tavares, and Kadri! This is scary, not think about Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Patty Marleau on the wings. That's a lot of high-end talent, each line just needs a gritty and physical guy to go in the corners and really help dig out that puck to get it into space, and these guys don’t need much. As far as D goes, not much happened, but look for Timothy Lilgren to crack the lineup. He was scary good last year when I saw him at USA Arena and thought he was NHL ready then, he definitely should be now. Look for the Leafs to battle for top spot in the League this season.
On to the Buffalo Sabres. Another easy choice, but on a deeper level than just picking up Rasmus Dahlin. They have made some remarkable trades! In the process they had to give up a bit, and even gave up one of the best centers in the league when he is on his game in Ryan O'Reilly, but they got back so much more the team is pretty fantastic on paper.
They have added Skinner, Thompson, Berglund, Sobotka, and Connor Sheary all via trade this off season, On top of already having Eichel, Mittelstadt, and Okposo...thats a pretty formidable top-6 no matter how you put it together, and their 3rd line shouldn’t be too shabby either. On D they have Ristolainen, Dahlin, Bogo, and Scandella; which makes for a nice top4 set of D-men. Now the worry is in goal, which isn’t much of a change from last season. The question now is can Carter Hutton carry the load of being a number 1 goalie for the 1st time at 32 years old? If he can look for the Sabre to battle anywhere from wild card to 2nd overall in the Atlantic Division.
In the west, we have the Arizona Coyotes up first. I don’t think that they had the biggest F.A. signings but they definitely locked up a good player in Grabner. He will be a good fit on the 2nd or 3rd line for them, bringing a little bit of size, but a hell of a lot of speed and some goal scoring ability. He'll also be vital on the PK where he had 2 shorty’s and has had 15 so far in his career. More importantly than signing Grabner, they were able to resign some key players in Raanta, Dvorak, and Hjalmarsson. When healthy last season Raanta was stellar in goal winning 21 of the teams 29 victories, with only 46 starts. Dvorak is a young player with a high ceiling that he began to show last season earning himself a substantial raise. And Hjalmarsson is just a solid, hardworking defense man who has "been there and done that" and provides tremendous leadership to a young D-core.
The biggest move they made was trading, straight up, Max Domi for Alex Galchenyuk. While Domi has a lot of upside, Galchenyuk is a bit bigger and a proven goal scorer who most would expect about 30 goals a season out of. Not to mention he has been great on the power play when he is on his game. Combine that with a young and promising group of forward I would expect a solid top 9 and at least 3 20-goal scorers this season...could there be more or someone even to get 30 goals? Only time will tell. Goaltending is in good shape with Raanta as mentioned before, but how will the D-core perform? A pretty good top-4 led by OEL, but will it stay healthy and the depth players rise up? We'll see but expect to Yotes to be in it till the end this year battling for a wild card spot.
And to finish things off we have the St. Louis Blues. An already solid team, though the just missed the playoffs, really shook things up this off season in a big way. Most of all quite a lot was lost in the Ryan O'Reilly trade that was already talked about back up in the Sabres talk, so I'm going to leave that alone. Other than that, they made some key free agency deals that should help to off-set the loss of a few players. Key signings made were of Bozak and Perron returning from Vegas...I think Perron has been moved from the team and came back now 3-4 times at this point, its nuts. Bozak will now give the Blues solid top-3 center depth with O'Reilly and Schenn, who had his own breakout year last season. Down the wings you have one of the best snipers in the game, Tarasenko, along with Steen, Fabri, and big Patty Marron. With a few younger players who'll be looking to make an impact we have another team with a very solid top-9.
The Defense of the Blues is the real key though, they have likely the 3rd, maybe 4th ,best D core in their division, yet it is still likely in the top 3rd of the league. The top-4 is about as solid as it comes being led by Pietrangelo and Parayko. Though that don’t have much in the way of depth or prospects in the system it will be very important that they stay health and play well. Back in goal they have Jake Allen so has been able to stand on his head often, and with the number one spot secured, it will be gravely important that he plays to his best especially late into the season. In a stacked division they will need every victory they can get to make it into the playoffs, the west really looks like it will be the wild, wild, west again and I would expect the Blues to push for the 3rd place spot trying to avoid the wildcard.
I had 2 honorable mentions until today though...now I have 3. I'm not going to go in depth at all, you can do the work and let your imagination run wild. Number one, the Carolina Hurricanes, and no its not because of Mrazek (though it totally helps). Second the Calgary Flames...funny I think these teams did some business this summer. And Third as of about 2:30 EST this afternoon...the San Jose Sharks...Eric Karlsson, what more needs to be said.
Let’s start with the easy one, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Are the most improved as a whole, probably not. Defense was never really addressed here, but offense? That's another story. They landed arguably the biggest free agent available in the last 10 years by bringing in the home town kid in John Tavares. They now have top-3 center depth reminiscent of the 2009 Penguins.
Penguins had Crosby, Malkin, and Jordan Staal at center the year they won the cup, now the Leafs have Matthews, Tavares, and Kadri! This is scary, not think about Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Patty Marleau on the wings. That's a lot of high-end talent, each line just needs a gritty and physical guy to go in the corners and really help dig out that puck to get it into space, and these guys don’t need much. As far as D goes, not much happened, but look for Timothy Lilgren to crack the lineup. He was scary good last year when I saw him at USA Arena and thought he was NHL ready then, he definitely should be now. Look for the Leafs to battle for top spot in the League this season.
On to the Buffalo Sabres. Another easy choice, but on a deeper level than just picking up Rasmus Dahlin. They have made some remarkable trades! In the process they had to give up a bit, and even gave up one of the best centers in the league when he is on his game in Ryan O'Reilly, but they got back so much more the team is pretty fantastic on paper.
They have added Skinner, Thompson, Berglund, Sobotka, and Connor Sheary all via trade this off season, On top of already having Eichel, Mittelstadt, and Okposo...thats a pretty formidable top-6 no matter how you put it together, and their 3rd line shouldn’t be too shabby either. On D they have Ristolainen, Dahlin, Bogo, and Scandella; which makes for a nice top4 set of D-men. Now the worry is in goal, which isn’t much of a change from last season. The question now is can Carter Hutton carry the load of being a number 1 goalie for the 1st time at 32 years old? If he can look for the Sabre to battle anywhere from wild card to 2nd overall in the Atlantic Division.
In the west, we have the Arizona Coyotes up first. I don’t think that they had the biggest F.A. signings but they definitely locked up a good player in Grabner. He will be a good fit on the 2nd or 3rd line for them, bringing a little bit of size, but a hell of a lot of speed and some goal scoring ability. He'll also be vital on the PK where he had 2 shorty’s and has had 15 so far in his career. More importantly than signing Grabner, they were able to resign some key players in Raanta, Dvorak, and Hjalmarsson. When healthy last season Raanta was stellar in goal winning 21 of the teams 29 victories, with only 46 starts. Dvorak is a young player with a high ceiling that he began to show last season earning himself a substantial raise. And Hjalmarsson is just a solid, hardworking defense man who has "been there and done that" and provides tremendous leadership to a young D-core.
The biggest move they made was trading, straight up, Max Domi for Alex Galchenyuk. While Domi has a lot of upside, Galchenyuk is a bit bigger and a proven goal scorer who most would expect about 30 goals a season out of. Not to mention he has been great on the power play when he is on his game. Combine that with a young and promising group of forward I would expect a solid top 9 and at least 3 20-goal scorers this season...could there be more or someone even to get 30 goals? Only time will tell. Goaltending is in good shape with Raanta as mentioned before, but how will the D-core perform? A pretty good top-4 led by OEL, but will it stay healthy and the depth players rise up? We'll see but expect to Yotes to be in it till the end this year battling for a wild card spot.
And to finish things off we have the St. Louis Blues. An already solid team, though the just missed the playoffs, really shook things up this off season in a big way. Most of all quite a lot was lost in the Ryan O'Reilly trade that was already talked about back up in the Sabres talk, so I'm going to leave that alone. Other than that, they made some key free agency deals that should help to off-set the loss of a few players. Key signings made were of Bozak and Perron returning from Vegas...I think Perron has been moved from the team and came back now 3-4 times at this point, its nuts. Bozak will now give the Blues solid top-3 center depth with O'Reilly and Schenn, who had his own breakout year last season. Down the wings you have one of the best snipers in the game, Tarasenko, along with Steen, Fabri, and big Patty Marron. With a few younger players who'll be looking to make an impact we have another team with a very solid top-9.
The Defense of the Blues is the real key though, they have likely the 3rd, maybe 4th ,best D core in their division, yet it is still likely in the top 3rd of the league. The top-4 is about as solid as it comes being led by Pietrangelo and Parayko. Though that don’t have much in the way of depth or prospects in the system it will be very important that they stay health and play well. Back in goal they have Jake Allen so has been able to stand on his head often, and with the number one spot secured, it will be gravely important that he plays to his best especially late into the season. In a stacked division they will need every victory they can get to make it into the playoffs, the west really looks like it will be the wild, wild, west again and I would expect the Blues to push for the 3rd place spot trying to avoid the wildcard.
I had 2 honorable mentions until today though...now I have 3. I'm not going to go in depth at all, you can do the work and let your imagination run wild. Number one, the Carolina Hurricanes, and no its not because of Mrazek (though it totally helps). Second the Calgary Flames...funny I think these teams did some business this summer. And Third as of about 2:30 EST this afternoon...the San Jose Sharks...Eric Karlsson, what more needs to be said.
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