Atlantic Division

Ottawa Senators - 2nd place

Steph has big shoes to fill. If the Senators finish 1st in the division, we will all say it was due to it being "Kirk's team". If the Senators squeak into the playoffs, it will be Stephs fault. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation unless Steph can rub Kirk's stink off the team. The Senators are a deep team up front and on the back end. They upgraded by trading for Luongo as well. The move won't work out in the long run, but gives them a good chance at another deep playoff run. Expect Tavares, Lee, Duchene and Huberdeau to play big roles on the offense, while Ekman-Larsson, Nurse, Ekholm and Niskanen lock it down on the back end.

Detroit Red Wings - 1st place

The Wings were the team to beat in the Atlantic last season. A crazy hot start made the rest of the season a cakewalk for them. They did faulter towards the end, and had a disappointing playoff run though. Stamkos, Draisaitl, Neal and Kessel lead the forwards, but the depth is there as well with Oshie, Dvorak and Kase. On the backend they have underrated defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Tyson Barrie to go with overrated defensemen Shea Weber. Hellebuyck debuts finally as an Elite goaltender. The Wings need to shore up the #6 spot on D before the post-season.

Buffalo Sabres - 6th place

I love Jared's enthusiasm, but he must be looking at his team with rose colored glasses. The trading of a 3rd round pick for Neuvirth had people scratching their heads. Does he expect to compete in a very deep division?. We all know Crosby is wasting away in Buffalo, but we could be talking about Ristolainen wasting away in a couple of years as well. There is a lot of work to be done here, but they have the pieces to move to make the rebuild a little quicker.

Tampa Bay Lightning - 3rd place

After a failed attempt at the playoffs last season, the Lightning went even more aggressive this off-season to fill holes. The team comes into this season as a much deeper squad up front, and on the back-end. Unfortunately since Cam Talbot shit the bed for them last season, they haven't found a true replacement. Mike Smith and Anton Khudobin will have to work their magic for the Lightning to make a successful post-season run. The forwards up front more then make up for the average to poor goaltending. The top 6 is strong with Jaden Schwartz, Anze Kopitar, Reilly Smith, Erik Haula, Jakub Voracek and Kyle Palmieri. There is secondary scoring on the bottom lines as well with Jake Guentzel, Jordan Staal and Mattias Janmark. On defense, new arrival Brent Burns should play with Brett Pesce while Matt Dumba and Keith Yandle lock down the top minutes.

Montreal Canadiens - 5th place

I wouldn't say what the Canadiens are doing is a full rebuild, but a quick re-tool on the fly. The team is not nearly as dangerous as they were last season, but still good enough to be in contention. The influx of talent from the draft should have this franchise back in the playoff picture quicker then expected. Trocheck, Marchessault and Atkinson are good pieces at forward to build around. They will be joined by Eriksson Ek, Forsbacka-Karlsson, Mittelstadt and Necas soon. The team could use some help on defense, as I expect that is where there focus will be next. Brodie, Chychrun, Fowler and Hjalmarsson make up a solid, but aging top 4. Sergei Bobrovsky still remains an elite goaltender. The Canadiens can sneak into the playoffs, but the East is so deep.

Boston Bruins - 4th place

The Bruins are a much improved team heading into this off-season. There big off-season acquisition of Alex Ovechkin was a great move, and they are in on Patrice Bergeron still. Depending on where Bergeron lands, the Bruins can increase their stock big time in this division. It's tough to predict where the Bruins will finish, as they can easily finish #1 or #4 in the division. The same can be said for the Senators, Wings and Lightning. The big soft Bruins are led by Tyler Seguin, Nick Backstrom, David Pastrnak, JVR and now Alex Ovechkin. Not a pair of muscles between them, but lots of skill. On the back end the team has Letang, Lindholm and newly acquired Cody Ceci. In net, they should be set with Frederik Andersen.

Florida Panthers - 8th place

A new team enters the Atlantic this season. I cannot for the life of me remember who Sober Tyler's team was last season. All I know is his team is destined for another last place finish. There are some nice young pieces already on the roster in Tyson Jost, Klim Kostin and Luke Kunin. There are also some intriguing young players like A.J. Greer, Phillipe Myers and Marko Dano. Either way, it's going to be a long season and there rebuild is still about 3 more seasons a way.

Toronto Maple Leafs - 7th place

We all know the Leafs have the 7th place locked down in this division, but I am more interested in seeing which brother combination does better this season. Will it be the Hansford's or the Cordell's?. Jordan's team has playoff aspirations this year while the new GM in Pittsburgh has a potential run in him. It will be a tightly contested race this year as the spawns of Rich look to take the Brother title. Dubois proved to be a great draft pick. So did Samuel Girard. They also have one of the best defensemen in the game in Drew Doughty. A combination of Dubois, Turris, Doughty and Reilly will keep them out of the basement, but not good enough for the playoffs.

Metropolitan Division

New York Islanders - 2nd place

Bubanj inheirited a pretty solid team from Dan. This is a team that should be able to compete for the division this season. There is a lot to like here with Nikita Kucherov, Alex Barkov, Nikolaj Ehlers, Matthew Tkachuk, Travis Konecny and Rickard Rakell in the top 6. On defense they have Dougie Hamilton, Charlie McAvoy and Mike Matheson. Bubanj shored up the blue line by adding Marc Methot in Free Agency. We will need to wait and see what happens with Jamie Benn. Does he end up on the island?

Carolina Hurricanes - 5th place

Rich had an eventful offseason. He started daring other GMs to up his players, doing his best Randy Marsh impression and then got all pissy when they did. He managed to re-sign all of his veteran players in Eric Staal, Henrik Zetterberg and Johnny Boychuk while adding Torrey Mitchell to the mix. The team might be good enough to squeak into the playoffs this season, but with the emergence of Columbus it will be difficult. Staal, Gallagher and Johnson lead the forward group, while Boychuck and Russell lead the back end. It's not a pretty group, but Marc-Andre Fleury should be good enough to get them into the playoff picture.

Columbus Blue Jackets - 4th place

Jessie's team kind of surprised me when I looked at it. He finished towards the bottom of the division last season, but had some very good rerates from Brayden Point, Ryan Dzingel, Jesper Bratt, Brock Boeser and Brandon Carlo. There big off-season signing was Dustin Byfuglien. They will be utilizing a goaltender duo of Ben Bishop and Jacob Markstrom. Leading the way on offense this season will be Boeser, Arvidsson and Point. Overall a real solid team with a bright future. They will be in a dogfight with Carolina for the final playoff spot.

New York Rangers - 1st place

The invisible man Ryan Hicks is managing the Rangers this season. He had one of the top teams last season and he's done a good job by not fucking it up. He in fact made a pretty bold move by acquiring Auston Matthews. Some people liked it better for Joe, but Ryan got the best player in the deal here. The top 6 on the Rangers is basically an allstar lineup. Auston Matthews, Evgeni Malkin, Brad Marchand, Artemi Panarin, Pavel Buchnevich and Jakob Silfverberg. They also have depth in the bottom 6 with Calle Jarnkrok, Charlie Coyle and Nino Neidereitter. On defense they have Victor Hedman, Kevin Shattenkirk and Tyler Myers. They also have everyone's favorite goalie Tuuka Rask. Fuck this team.

New Jersey Devils - 3rd place

Tim is the GM everyone should aspire to be. Well mannered and a winner. Tim seems to slip through the cracks every season and surprise a lot of people. No one really expected the Devils to win last season, but they did believe he would do well. New Jersey is led by Logan Couture, Wayne Simmonds, Paul Stastny and Dustin Brown. They also added Blake Wheeler to make them even more dangerous this season. They have depth in Yanni Gourde and Kevin Hayes as well. If there defense was better, I would expect them to fight for the division, but I believe the Rangers or Islanders will run away with it this year. Orpik, Engelland, Pysyk and Girardi is not a good top 4. Devon Dubnyk should give them some good games between the pipes.

Philadelphia Flyers - 7th place

The merry-go-round continues between the pipes in Philly, just like in real life. Anthony's philosophy seems to be buy low and sell high on goaltenders. Him and Rumpy tried cornering the goaltending market this offseason. His recent trade of Michael Neuvirth was a huge win given the goalie landscape of the league. I believe Anthony prides himself on trading goalies rather then winning games. His team is still average at best. Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere are the only stars of the team. There is some up and coming talent in Travis Sanhiem, Jesse Puljujarvi and Timothy Liljegren bursting on the scene. The only thing stopping the Flyers from 8th place is Larry and his expansion team.

Pittsburgh Penguins - 6th place

After Billy's departure from the BRHL2 and Jamie Benn's status in limbo, Tyler #4 enters the fray to turn around a team that has struggled to make the playoffs. There are a few nice peices here centered around Connor McDavid. Benn, Tarasenko, Trouba, Giordano, Faulk and Parayko are stars of the team. Unfortunately an experienced manager and a tough division does not get them into the playoffs yet again. Jonathan Quick should provide a nice goaltending upgrade this season, but it might be time for the Pens to start rebuilding and trade all there valuable assets for picks.

Washington Capitals - 8th place

The expansion draft was an exciting time for Rex and Larry. Both went into the draft with different ideas on how they wanted to build there teams. Larry has a long road ahead before the Capitals become a respectable team to play against. There is a solid chance that Larry gets to select Rasmus Dahlin next season but the draft lottery never goes as planned. With lots of cap room I expected Larry to go a little harder in free agency but all he was able to do was sign Dakota Mermis.

Atlantic

Detroit
Ottawa
Tampa Bay
Boston
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Montreal
Buffalo
Toronto
Florida

Metropolitan

Long Island
New York
New Jersey
Columbus
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Carolina
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Washington