The NHL is starting tonight! I can't put into words how excited I am. It's now time to make my canadian division predictions. Since it is my favorite one, I'll only make predictions for this specific division.

1-Toronto

Why?
-RIELLY HAS A LEGIT PARTNER. That's it. That's the argument.
-they have better role players such as Simmonds who's better than Clifford and Bogosian who's much better than Marincin... even that's not saying much lol
-Andersen now has a proper backup to start a season, which should help him a lot

2-Montreal
Why?
-Price has now help. In a condensed schedule having a proper backup (keep that in ming I'll talk about that for the Oilers) will be more important than ever
-Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson (even if he IS overpaid, let's not make 2 ways about it) will boost MTL's wing scoring. Last season Lehkonen and Armia were 1-2 injuries away from playing in the top 6. Now they're 3-4 injuries away. This changes everything. Literally
-this is a unified group. Weber and Price will do that to any team. We saw what a unified group did to Vegas in 17-18 (also, gosh, it's been 3 years since they've entered the league??? Times flies quickly). I think MTL has a very good dressing room and I believe the additions won't change a thing in that regard.

3-Calgary
Why?
-for the first time since Kiprusoff retired, in 2013 (it's been EIGHT YEARS) they have a legit started. No disrespect to Rittich, Smith and Elliott but Markstrom torches them and it's not even close.
-their entire top 4 at D is perfectly capable of defending.
-they didn't do much on the offense front but they have great role players such as Ryan, Dube, Mangiapane, Bennett and Leivo. They'll do a good job to provide secondary scoring.

4-Edmonton
Why?
-I see them on the brink of missing the playoffs because Smith just stinks
-their D-core is shaky at best. Barrie is a forward playing defense, Nurse is badly underrated, Larsson is just a number 4, nothing special there, Bear can't do everything by himself, Russell is just a number 6 and Jones is just a number 5.
I do see them making the playoffs because I mean come one, McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH and Yamamoto as your 4 best Fs?? That's gross

5-Winnipeg
Why?
-their D-core, unless Forbort turns out to be amazing, or unless Heinola/Samberg breaks out, lacks a top 4 d-man.
-I don't trust Brossoit. I believe he is a below average backup
-Roslovic likely leaving leaves a clear hole in the bottom 6. It will not be very easy to replace, unless Appleton/Harkins «breaks out»(proportional to their talent level, anyway)

6-Vancouver
Why?
-there is no proof that BH will come back to that 17-18 level
-I don't trust their bottom 6
-if Demko doesn't take the next step then it will be hard for them to make the playoffs

7-Ottawa
Why?
-their D-core is a mess. Apart from Chabot they have no real top 4 d-men.
-they lack experience
-I don't trust Murray


PLS DO NOT QUOTE THIS POST, I DON'T WANT EVERYONE TO GET 1372625 NOTIFS, PRESS «REPLY» INSTEAD. Thank you

I trust Murray.
D corps will be fine
Forward group is deep.
Pesky Sens are back.
Will surprise many

Interesting rankings, I still can't see Montreal (specifically) beating Calgary since I think they are basically the same team with the exception of Tkachuk and Gaudreau being legitimate stars, whereas Montreal doesn't have any on forward.

The other thing about TO, they had a pile of injuries. 3rd most in regards to impact minutes. Meaning their injuries were main cogs. That won't happen again. Nor will Hutchinson allowing 4 goals a game or Babs being a bad coach. What does this team look like when a bunch of stuff goes right?

Toronto
Calgary
Edmonton
Winnipeg
Montreal
Vancouver
Ottawa

Winnipeg is such a tough matchup that they will win a bunch of 2-1 games all year and sneak into that last spot
Edmonton and Calgary are interchangeable I think, Edmonton will win a lot of 6-5 games but they can't outscore their problem in the playoffs
Vancouver will push but I just don't think they have the pieces
Montreal/Winnipeg will be close but I think Winnipeg wins more games in a 56 game season, especially in a division they matchup well in
Ottawa will be sneaky, don't count on them being in last

Flames D is much improved, Andersson has taken another step and is quarterbacking PP1, Valimaki has played 20 pro games already this year and looked head and shoulder better in camp than most guys, Tanev replaces Hamonic, that's an upgrade, Valimaki/Nesterov replace Forbort/Gustafsson that's an upgrade, Andersson replaces Brodie, hopefully that proves to be an upgrade.

Flames forwards don't look that different but the way they're deployed should look much different, if a line of Mangiapane, Lindholm and Tkachuk can take some hard minutes away from Gaudreau and Monahan then that should create a true scoring line with Gaudreau Monahan and Leivo. Backlund is Backlund but will likely play with Dube which has been great for any young guy coming up. The depth also looks much improved with Simon, Nordstrom, Ryan, Robinson rotating in and out of the line up. I really like Calgary's center depth if Lindholm works out, Monahan, Lindholm, Backlund, Bennett and Ryan should be able to drive play all year.

Markstrom is sick and I could not be more excited to have a goalie in Calgary as steady as he is. That being said I think that expectations need to be tempered, with how porous Vancouver was last year he had to stand on his head which is why he became so highly regarded, with the amount of shots he faced it would be tough to recreate that production. I think he gets a steadier D core in front of him and overall better team D which will get him similar numbers to last year it just won't be as flashy.

Looking forward to having hockey back! Enjoy everyone!

I think Calgary will have trouble with Montreal because I think Gaudreau won't be able to use his speed ap effectively against the speed Montreal has, Tkachuck is just too much for them but then their 3rd line is better so it will be interesting. I think against everyone else other than TO Calgary is just better. They have good transition offence which will kill Vancouver, Ottawa is not a good team, Edmonton sucks at 5v5 and Winnipeg is either going to be not good or they good be quite good, I actually don't know what to think about them yet.

Oh I'm not comparing Calgary and Montreal in a head-to-head game. I think the 2 teams are very similar; strong forward depth, great goaltending duo, solid defensive depth both with an excellent #1 vet/leader. The difference however is Calgary has those stars up front where Montreal doesn't. Sure Price is better than Markstrom but the difference between the 2 does not make up for the the offensive power Calgary has.

I guess I just don't see as much firepower in Calgary. I still think they'll have a comfortable lead on whoever finishes 3rd (unless Montreal really does impress) but I see Montreal being a tough opponent for Calgary. Tougher than many think it will be.

I don't really disagree with this, honestly the Canadian division could go any which way, one injury could derail any of the teams, they all have strengths and weaknesses that could expose them, not sure about the Flames, I think they'll be fine but they're hard to figure out, they really need to make some noise this year, think as long as the Oilers can stay healthy they'll outscore their issues, as for the Jets I'm less concerned about the defense then I am their bottom 6 that looks boringly pluggish at best... 😃

Who on Montreal is better offensively than Gaudreau and/or Tkachuk?

My prediction was:
TOR
CGY
EDM
MTL
WPG
VAN
OTT

which is very similar to yours. Not much more to say.

Those are my predictions except Winnipeg and Vancouver are changed but other than that I agree with you

What we lack in star talent, we have in depth, we don’t have players that will be on a point per game pace ( most likely ) but we will have more depth scoring than Calgary imo

In what way? Where does Montreal have more depth?

If their bottom 6 looks like:
Toffoli-KK-Armia
Lehkonen-Evans-Byron

That's better than Ryan, Lucic, Bennett, Nordstrom or Simon, Mangiapane and Leivo or anything that looks a bit like this

Backlund is Calgary's 3C...

Who's 2C? Lindholm?
Also IMO KK will be better than Backlund by season's end

Thats a bold claim, doubt it

Yes Lindholm is centering Tkachuk

So Gaudreau-Monahan-who?
Tkachuk-Lindholm-who?

Dube and one of Leivo/Simon

No one is better than Tkachuck. But I am not that high on Gaudreau

I mean Gaudreau is as good as Marner so I guess you aren't as high on Marner?

No way Gaudreau's as good as Marner lol
Marner's better at D than Gaudreau and is better at offense...

Marner is better defensively ill agree with that, but not better offensively. Johnny had a rough start to the season but by the start of the new year to the pause they both had the exact same ppg.

He most certainly is not.