Let me start by saying I have no idea what these GM’s plan to use as line combinations. I have just listed players by position and ignored line fits and defensive pairings. It’s just to get a rough idea of what the team has in order to come up with a best guess at the seasons standings come April 2024.

1. New York Islanders (Joseph Bubanj)    

   LW                                   C                                   RW

Kyle Connor            Aleksander Barkov          Matthew Tkachuk

Pavel Zacha             Casey Cizikas                    Travis Konecny

Jonatan Berggren   Paul Stastny                     Nikolaj Ehlers

Mason Shaw           Jason Dickinson              Conor Garland

D

Charlie McAvoy   Brandon Carlo

Ryan Pulock   Mark Giordano

Scott Mayfield   Anton Stralman

Tobias Biornfot

G

Andrei Vasilevskiy   Karel Vejmelka

The Metro division was won last year by Joe’s juggernaut, the Islanders. They only missed out on the Presidents Trophy by one point to the unit that is Dan’s Red Wings. I believe they'll take home another division title on the back of their great roster. He's deep down the middle, has talented wingers to spread throughout the top 6, has a solid top 4 defenders, and Vasilevskiy is still a top goalie in the sim. 

2. Philadelphia Flyers (Anthony Cepparulo)

         LW                        C                         RW

Artemi Panarin     David Krejci           Patrick Kane

Boone Jenner     William Karlsson   Blake Wheeler

Alex Killorn      Ryan Hartman     Brandon Tanev

Anthony Duclair   Morgan Frost   Trevor Moore

Nick Cousins

D

Zachary Werenski   Mortiz Seider

Travis Sanheim   Radko Gudas

Johnathan Kovacevic   Robert Hagg

G

Ilya Sorokin   Jack Campbell   Thomas Greiss

Anthony has slowly built up his roster and should go into next season with high hopes. I gave the Flyers the edge here over Jesse's BJ's because they have a top goalie. While they are weaker up front, it's not that big of a difference compared to what they have in net. The battle for 2nd in this division should be fun to see play out this year.

3. Carolina Hurricanes (Rich Cordell)

LW                                                C                                   RW

Max Domi                         Evgeni Malkin            Jonathan Marchessault

Chandler Stephenson     Patrice Bergeron         Andrew Mangiapane

Mason Marchment         Phillip Danault            Andreas Athanasiou

Drake Caggiula                 Chris Tierney            Jesper Fast

Curtis Lazar

D

Mikhail Sergachev   Brandon Montour

Dylan DeMelo   Alec Martinez

Shayne Gostisbehere   Justin Holl

Matt Tennyson   Nick Holden

G

Vitek Vanecek   Kaapo Kahkonen

Everyone keeps waiting for the Hurricanes to come crashing down to earth, but Rich seems to defy all odds and consistantly bring forth a playoff team. I believe he'll be right there in the hunt this coming season as well and have him finishing 3rd in his division. The team is deep at C but starts thinning out on the wings. I was a bit surprised to see how Vanecek was rated this year, it might be the difference against Jesse.

4. Columbus Blue Jackets (Jesse Vansickle)

   LW                                   C                                RW

Michael Bunting      Brayden Point              Brock Boeser

Zach Hyman              Vincent Trocheck        Vladimir Tarasenko

Conor Sheary            David Kampf                 Trevor Lewis

Brad Malone             Michael Vecchione        Austin Czarnik

D

Jonas Brodin   Torey Krug

Alex Goligoski   Mattias Ekholm

Ryan Graves   William Brogen

Kevin Gravel   Nick Blankenburg

G

Jake Allen   Arvid Holm

I don't think Jesse was able to roll into this year with the same talent he had on the roster as last season, but this still looks like a solid team. If things go sideways for the BJ's they might choose to re-load for next year since they can't jump into the Bedard sweepstakes without their 1st rounder. There's also time for them to acquire another goalie, but as it stands right now it's the biggest weak spot. There were only 11 forwards on the roster, so I'm not sure if he's rolling with 7 D or saving space for a waiver draft selection. For the sake of listing a lineup I grabbed Malone off his AHL team.

5. Washington Capitals (Larry Linke)

          LW                           C                   RW

Carter Verhaeghe   Robert Thomas   Seth Jarvis

Pavel Buchnevich   Trevor Zegras   Frank Vatrano

William Carrier   Christian Dvorak   Joel Armia

Maxime Comtois   Sam Lafferty   Blake Coleman

Walker Duehr

D

Jacob Trouba   Nils Lundkvist

Anthony Deangelo   Adam Larsson

Riley Stillman   Simon Benoit

Scott Perunovich   Nikolai Knyzhov

G

Adin Hill   Laurent Brossoit

I have Larry's Caps finishing 5th in their division and they should be in the hunt for a wildcard spot. The defense is weaker than those ranked ahead, but is pretty solid still. Hill has decent rates outside of DU & EN, so he may run into trouble when a stretch of games are close together.

6. New Jersey Devils (Ken Hogan)

LW                                     C                                 RW

Rafael Harvey-Pinard   Tim Stutzle        Dylan Guenther

Mike Hoffman         Adam Henrique      Marcus Johansson

Ryan Dzingel            Adam Gaudette         Zach Aston-Reese

Nick Foligno               Travis Boyd               Derek Stepan

Derick Brassard                                             Adam Erne

D

Dougie Hamilton   Tyler Myers

Ryan Suter   Alexander Edler

Troy Stecher   Zach Bogosian

Sean Durzi

G

Jacob Markstrom   James Reimer

I don't think this roster is bad enough to be in the Bedard sweepstakes, but don't think it's good enough for a playoff spot. That said, they should be in the hunt for a wildcard spot like last season. The goaltending is decent and the defence is pretty strong. Things really thin out past the top line, Henrique is a passable 2nd line C, but not the greatest. 

7. New York Rangers (PJ Jennings)

LW                                             C                              RW

Juraj Slafkovsky            Joshua Norris                Dillon Dube

Bryan Rust                  Casey Mittelstadt           Daniel Sprong

Evgeny Svechnikov     Michael Rasmussen      Emil Bemstrom

Alexander Nylander     Isac Lundestrom          Wade Allison

D

Joshua Morrissey   Cale Makar

Alexander Romanov   Dante Fabbro

Josh Mahura   Rasmus Sandin

Urho Vaakanainen

G

Connor Ingram   Cal Petersen

The young defenders are tremendous in Makar and Morrissey. Also lots of youth up front in Slafkovsky & Lundestrom. Outside of that this team looks like it has plenty of holes throughout the lineup. I don't suspect the Rangers will be in the playoff picture this season but they'll be in the race to the bottom for a shot at Bedard.

8. Pittsburgh Penguins (Tyler Cordell)

LW                             C                       RW

Jason Zucker    Nico Hischier    Kevin LeBlanc

Ryan Donato   Nicklas Backstrom   Kyle Palmieri

Denis Malgin   Cole Perfetti   Alexander Holtz

Austin Watson  Quinton Byfield   Cory Conacher

Isak Rosen                                   Taylor Raddysh

D

Juuso Valimaki   Nicolas Hague

Breden Dillon   Jakub Zboril

Logan Stanley   Nate Schmidt

Michael Del Zotto   Artem Zub

Devon Toews

G

Martin Jones   Petr Mrazek

I just about put the Pens ahead of the Rangers, but Tyler will be actively tanking for Bedard I think. That means setting lines & strategy to lose intentionally. I actually don't hate the forward group right now, lots of potential going forward.

Metro Standings Guess:

1. New York Islanders - 129 points

2. Philadelphia Flyers - 105 points

3. Carolina Hurricanes - 101 points

4. Columbus Blue Jackets - 95 points

5. Washington Capitals - 85 points

6. New Jersey Devils - 83 points

7. New York Rangers - 75 points

8. Pittsburgh Penguins - 46 points