Ranking North division regulars season

Équipe: 2020-21 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 19 mai 2021

Publié: 20 mai 2021

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

This is my ratings for each teams regulars season based on there expectations for the year:

1) Toronto Maple Leafs: They were predicted to contend for the top spot in the division and kinda just ran away with it. The hope was the Mathews and Marner took the step into the discussion of top 5 players in the league. Mathews had a great season while Marner had a pretty good season as well although Toronto would probably like to see Marner take another step to join the elite level in the league. The vets that were signed had a great season with Spezza showing he still has some juice left in his game. Goaltending was the shaky section of the team and it will be interesting to see how it holds up in playoffs. Surprise Player: Hyman

2) Ottawa Senators: The expectations were low, like very low for them coming into this season. If they could not get destroyed, while delevoping their young guns, each game it was going to be a win. Their rookies looked better and better as the season went on and the team played a pretty strong game in the last 1/4 of their games. Stutzle and Pinto had strong showing and they may have stolen Mete from Montreal. As far as expectations for Ottawa I think its safe to say they overachieved. These guys could be scary soon.

3) Edmonton - Edmonton came into the season with some questions marks, no one believed in their goaltending, Barrie had question marks around him and support scoring was in desperate need. Edmonton is home to the 2 best contracts in the NHL, Watching Mcdavid rip apart my Van team was scary but watching him do it to the rest of the division just left me depressed for their future battles. Mcdavid looks like he is entering his league domination period that could last years he is heads and tails above everyone in the league, its not even close. Barrie was a brilliant fit and Nurse put together what should be a norris consideration season. Good on Edmonton as it looks like the saved Jesse and Smith was brilliant. The trouble is they probably should've pushed Toronto a little more for top spot in the division. But the problem Edmonton still has is they don't have anyone on the foward lines beside Mac and Dri to add to their scoring (were you at Nuge?), its can be hidden in the regular season but you usually need someone to step up come playoff time and I don't know they have that.

4)Montreal: A lot of new players that basically signaled a boom or bust year for Bergevien. Toffolio was a brilliant signing and Anderson started strong but trailed off as the season went on. Suski took another step but Kotkaniemi stalled in his development. The goal was to make the playoffs and they achieved that (with maybe a little help from the bottom teams). Montreal is always a scary team to go up against in the playoffs, you never know when Price decides he wants to steal a playoff round. But both he and Weber continue to get older and their contracts dont get cheaper. They will need to relay on those young guys to push them to the next level.

5) Winnipeg - This was an intersting season for Winnipeg. Liane traded, Dubois brought in, Ehlers hurt, Hellybuck rough season. The jets were a little all over the place. I think most people had them contending for top spot in the division and at times it looked liked it but really feel off at the end of the season. Winnipeg has always been a mystery to me, they are such a deep team with one of the best goaltenders in the league, it feels like they should be near the top of the league but just never are (i thought it maybe had something to do with the division they played in but that was proven wrong). Ehlers looked really good this year but Dubois didn't show much when he came over. If they go out in the first round I just don't know which direction this franchise goes going forward.

6) Canucks - You want to talk about a wild season, this was one but very little good coming out of it. After their surprise run last year us fans were excited for this season. Most probably had them challenging for a playoff spot this year but after a tough start , then a Petey injury and then COVID it just never got going overal just a horrible season. The good news is its still a really young team with cornerstone players at FWD, DF and Goalltending plus the development of Hogelander and the arrivial of Poldolskin next year will help this team improve....... hopefully

7) Calgary - Much like Montreal they added a number of new bodies including their new number 1 goalie. Most probably would've had them competing for a playoff spot but they couldn't get it going this season. My concern with Calgary and why I have them ranked at the bottom is Im worried this is who this team is. I don't see a lot of improvement going forward. Their team is mostly at their potential: Markstrum, Gio, Tanev, Hannifin, Lindhom, Gaudreau, Monahan, Anderson are all probably at their peak (as an outsider whats happened to Monahan?) , they have a few young guys that could maybe spark plug it and hope this was maybe an off year for Tkachuk. Do they keep trying with this roster or make some major moves to help rebuild?