DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT WHAT I THINK WILL HAPPEN, JUST THINGS THAT ARE POSSIBLE. THIS IS FOR FUN
Notable standouts:
Atlantic:
Boston:
- Bruins defence and goaltending carry the team, as well as the team’s capable offence keeping up, with pastrnak leading the way showing he can do it on his own
Buffalo:
- sabres unproven goaltending and shaky defence beyond power and dahlin prove to be the downfall once again making them barely miss the playoffs yet again
Florida:
- Panthers lack of notable off-season improvement aside from Rodrigues (basically traded him for duclair), poor goaltending, and injuries on defence to start the year make them miss the playoffs despite their offence
Senators:
- Sens young core with Norris coming back from injury as well as the additions of korpisalo and tarasenko (who we know can be good), and a full year of chychrun sky rocket the team up the standings into second behind the Leafs
Metro:
Columbus:
- Columbus’ additions (including fantilli) plus werenski returning prove to be just what the team needed to bounce back from a truly terribly unfortunate season, they make the playoffs through the wildcard
Penguins:
- penguins let Father Time catch up to the core, karlsson playing along side letang emulates the situation in SJ with him and burns, the penguins struggle with jarry as their starter as well and miss the playoffs likely with the same points as last season
Islanders:
- islanders lack of offence and aging core, despite sorokin’s efforts, are not enough to get the team into the playoffs
Central:
Stars:
- Stars are an absolute wagon without any holes on the roster, win the division easily (might actually happen)
Winnipeg:
- Winnipeg wins the Dubois trade with their entire line they traded for. The offensive depth thus will improve, the defence lead by morrissey (who will have another great year after showing what he is capable of), as well as hellebuyck playing in a contract year make them perform quite well and make the playoffs as the third team in the division
Arizona:
- Arizona shocks the world as an underrated offensive core with Cooley jumping in along with their off-season additions getting more opportunities than in their past respective teams (zucker, kerfoot), along with vejmelka and the improved defence, make the team comr sixth, higher than most would’ve put them (7th) just behind Nashville
- St Louis’ all around mediocrity puts them in a mediocre spot, 7th.
Pacific:
- flames ungodly PDO comes up (shooting percentage and save percentage we’re historic lows), and the team performs much better with new coaching allowing for likely more offence
Canucks:
- the team jells even more with a full year of tocchet behind the bench, along with hronek and the new defensive additions. Pettersson has another great year after seemingly reaching his ceiling and could be getting even better. Demko fully healthy will help a lot. They make the third spot in the division.
LA:
- the Dubois trade proved to have been too much given up from LA, aging core players like Lipitor and doughty get worse, along with the terrible goaltending tandem which over performed last year, makes them just miss the playoffs
Seattle:
- a team which overperformed last year (very high shooting percentage) and lack of star power contribute to a lack of scoring and overall mediocrity cause them to miss the playoffs
The Sabres goaltending could very well be their achillies heel. I think fortunately the Sabres are loaded with higher end prospects, and with at least some cap space, they should be able to find somebody who can at least be average. Plus the goalie market shouldn't require them to empty the vault, goalies dont usually get first round picks. So I guess I would say, the goalies could be a problem, but if it's really bad, it's reasonable to expect them to trade their way out of it. Hopefully Clifton and Erik Johnson can help settle the defense, and the forwards, especially the centers, should be more committed to defense too.