Standing Predictions

Devils above Carolina? What?

Let's just take a look at this. The Devils lost Severson, Graves, Tatar, Sharangovich, Boqvist and added Tyler Toffoli. They still have Schmid and Vanacek in net. They're going to get younger on the blueline which means growing pains. They'll be better, but they're primed for regression this year.

Alternatively, let's look at the Canes. So far, the two players they had at the end of last year that signed elsewhere are Gostisbehere and de Haan. They replaced De Haan with Orlov, added Bunting to that forward group, and will have a healthy Svechnikov this season. Carolina's goaltending with Freddie, Raanta and Kochetkov is also way stronger than the Devils'.

Can you give me some justification for this? I'm looking at this and I cannot see a reason why the Canes should not be the runaway winners in the Metro

Devils forwards are better. Carolina always has problems with scoring unless they change their system which is doubtful.

Top six, sure. Depth? No. Plus, look at the rest of the team. Carolina's defense mops the floor with the Devils' and Carolina's goaltending is streets ahead of the Devils.... I don't get this

The Hurricanes were middle of the pack in terms of scoring last year and we've added Bunting to give us some more top-six scoring

Vanecek had more GSAx than all 3 Canes goalies this season. Schmid had more than Raanta and Andersen. Vanecek and Schmid also had a higher SV% than all 3 Canes goalies

At 5v5 Vanecek and Schmid both had more GSAx than all 3 Canes goalies, and both had a higher 5v5 SV% than Kochetkov and Andersen. Wouldn’t say Carolina’s goalies are streets ahead