Rejoint: mars 2019
Messages: 976
Mentions "j'aime": 835
Without getting into both deals not brimg worth for the non CBJ teams and being rejected.
In a situation where this is the roster they go into the season with, I think it's still a 50/50 shot at best to make playoffs. Ottawa and Buffalo are both improving and could/should be seriously in contention to make playoffs. Detroit is behind them and this specific hypothetical CBJ team should be better than them, but it's not a big enough gap that they can ignore Detroit. The Isles, Pittsburgh, and even Washington will all still be pretty competitive to some level, and while I wouldn't pick any of them specifically to make playoffs, I'd be far from shocked if 1 of them got in. And all of that is before you even factor in the 7 non NYI playoff teams this year. 1-3 will probably drop out just based on variance and how things change year to year, but every single team in the east that made playoffs this year besides NYI would still be a full tier above this CBJ team.
Long story short, there's just too many good/potentially good teams in the east that some are gonna get left out. Beyond the truly elite teams (depending how many you'd classify there) you'll have a situation where 9 teams are fighting for 4 spots, 6 are fighting for 2 spots, or something in that neighborhood.