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. Detroit Red Wings (Dan Sanders)

LW                                                 C                            RW

Leon Draisaitl                    Tage Thompson             Alex Tuch

Elias Pettersson                 Mika Zibanejad             Adrian Kempe

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins       Joel Eriksson-Ek            T.J. Oshie

Marcus Foligno                   Blake Murray            Tanner Jeannot

D

Victor Hedman   Alex Pietrangelo

MacKenzie Weegar   Jeff Petry

Jake McCabe   Jani Hakanpaa

Brayden McNabb

G

Linus Ullmark

Casey DeSmith

Dan should cake walk all over the Atlantic division again this year. It's an even stronger team this year than last. Absolute embarassment of riches. The third line could be a top line on most other teams. There aren't many weaknesses here now that Dan got his top 6 RWer in Kempe.

2. Montreal Canadiens (Steve Vardy)

LW                                            C                         RW

Johnny Gaudreau          Bo Horvat            Jonathan Huberdeau

Brock Nelson                 Sean Monahan    Joe Pavelski

Robby Fabbri                 Jake Evans           Viktor Arvidsson

                                        Derek Grant        Mathieu Joseph

D

Damon Severson   Vladislav Gavrikov

Matt Irwin   Nick Jensen

Travis Hamonic   Dysin Mayo

David Savard

G

Craig Anderson   Scott Wedgewood   Alex Nedeljkovic

Steve's got another strong team this year, but I only see 11 forwards listed. I guess we can roll with 11 / 7 in this senario but he might have something up his sleeve for a 12th forward. He's weaker in net than Greg who I have finishing below him, but he also is rolling with a better backup. 

3. Boston Bruins (Greg Almeida)

LW                                   C                         RW

Patrik Laine        Tomas Hertl            David Pastrnak

Jamie Benn          Mikael Backlund   Tom Wilson

Lucas Raymond   Scott Laughton   Kirill Marchenko

Barclay Goodrow  Erik Haula         Owen Tippett

Trent Frederic        Cole Sillinger     Joey Anderson

D

Cody Ceci    Connor Clifton

Brady Skjei   Filip Hronek

Ilya Lyubushkin   Hampus Lindholm

G

Juuse Saros   Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

If Greg can get figure out the sim quicker this year, he won't have to make a late run to the playoffs. He's also got 15 forwards...not sure if he's got something in the works or if someone like Anderson will get waived. He'll have up and comers on his heels for a playoff spot this year.

4. Florida Panthers (Tyler Bell)

LW                                    C                             RW

Cole Caufield      Jeff Carter             Jordan Eberle

Max Pacioretty   Filip Chytil             Kaapo Kakko

Lukas Reichel     Wyatt Johnston   Luke Kunin

Ryan Poehling   Tyson Jost              Ryan Strome

Jakob Silfverberg

D

Chris Tanev   Brent Burns

Shea Theodore   Patrik Nemeth

Robert Bortuzzo   Dylan Samberg

G

Pavel Francouz   Antti Raanta

Coming in at 4 is the Florida Panthers. They were in the hunt for a wildcard spot last year but lost steam late and finished tied with the Lightning. Johnston comes in as a good middle 6 center option for him. 

5. Tampa Bay Lightning (Eric Ferraro)

LW                                        C                     RW

Victor Olofsson    Mathew Barzal     Troy Terry

Eeli Tolvanen      Dylan Strome      Matt Duchene

Jakub Voracek   Charlie Coyle     Fabian Zetterlund

Zach Parise       Morgan Geekie     Nick Bjugstad

Lias Andersson                                 Brandon Saad

D

Jan Rutta   Marcus Pettersson

Timothy Liljegren   Andrew Peeke

Owen Power   Jake Sanderson

G

Kevin Lankinen   David Rittich

This division is tough to predict beyond the top, but I think the Lightning will finish ahead of the Maple Leafs judging by the rosters in their current state. I have the Lightning with an edge on D and in net.

6. Toronto Maple Leafs (Garrett Hansford)

LW                                         C                                      RW

Taylor Hall                  Pierre-Luc Dubois   Alexander Barabanov

Oliver Bjorkstrand   Evgeny Kuznetsov     Kasperi Kapanen

Alexander Kerfoot   Thomas Novak       Denis Gurianov

Ross Colten             Brett Howden           Logan Shaw

D

John Marino   Luke Schenn

Erik Cernak   Samuel Girard

Jacob Middleton   Ryan McDonagh

Gustav Lindstrom   Pierre-Olivier Joseph

Cal Foote

G

John Gibson   Pheonix Copley

Gibson's ratings have been sliding due to being on a terrible Ducks team in the NHL and Copley isn't rated overly well either. The defense isn't bad, so they'll have to bail Garrett out on most nights.

7. Buffalo Sabres (Jared Mitchell)

LW                             C                                  RW

Dylan Cozens      Dylan Larkin            Gabriel Vilardi

Ivan Barbashev   Nazem Kadri            Dawson Mercer

Jack McBain        Michael McLeod    Ondrej Palat

Tomas Nosek      Joseph Veleno        Nicolas Roy

Drew O’Connor

D

Kris Letang   Evan Bouchard

Josh Manson   Connor Murphy

Jarred Tinordi   Rasmus Ristolainen

Ty Smith    Ian Mitchell

G

Alexandar Georgiev   Marc-Andre Fleury

Maybe I'm being too harsh on my own team here, but I don't think I've done enough to be a playoff team yet in the Atlantic. I have a goalie with decent ratings in Georgiev, but the defense infront of him is lacking. On top of that my forward lines leave a bit to be desired.

8. Ottawa Senators (Steph Villeneuve)

LW                                       C                               RW

Brady Tkachuk          Kevin Rooney      Evgeni Dadonov

Jason Robertson    Gerald Mayhew   Phil Kessel

Calle Jarnkrok    Nate Thompson   Corey Perry

Greg Printz      Graeme Clarke   Ondrej Kase

Greg McKegg   Cameron Hebig   Mathieu Olivier

Travis Barron                                  Kole Lind

D

Lassi Thomson   Jamie Drysdale

William Villeneuve   Erik Johnson

Mark Staal   Griffin Luce

G

Jonas Johansson

Mitchell Weeks

Odd, this lineup isn't even compliant currently with 25 players on a 23 man roster. And there isn't even enough players to ice a farm team. 

Altantic Standings Guess:

1. Detroit Red Wings - 130 points

2. Montreal Canadiens - 97 points

3. Boston Bruins - 94 points

4. Florida Panthers - 90 points

5. Tampa Bay Lightning - 88 points

6. Toronto Maple Leafs - 85 points

7. Buffalo Sabres - 81 points

8. Ottawa Senators - 38 points