8. Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal Canadiens are not the same after the Cup, and the transition to Martin St. Louis. They are in a rebuild, and have more prices to tear down before they will be back in contention again. After drafting first in 2022, expect them to be in the lottery in 2023.
Mike Hoffman—Nick Suzuki—Cole Caufield Jonathan Drouin—Christian Dvorak—Brendan Gallagher Evgeni Dadanov—Kirby Dach—Josh Anderson Paul Byron—Sean Monahan—Joel Armia
Joel Edmundsson—David Savard Michael Matheson—Chris Wideman Jordan Harris—Justin Barron
Jake Allen Samuel Montembault
Injured — Carey Price
7. Buffalo Sabres
The Kevyn Adams saga is the most proper build of the Sabres’ era. The strength in the Atlantic will be too much for the Sabres to progress. They will have their kids obtain many minutes in front of the weakest goaltending in the Eastern Conference.
Victor Olofsson—Tage Thompson—Alex Tuch Peyton Krebs—Dylan Cozens—Jack Quinn Jeff Skinner—Casey Mittlestadt—Rasmus Asplund Andres Bjork—Zemgus Girgensons—Kyle Okposo
Rasmus Dahlin—Henri Jokiharju Owen Power—Ilya Lybushukin Jacob Bryson—Matthias Sammuelson
Eric Comrie Craig Anderson
6. Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are continuing to remain the course, and with everyone else getting better, this has been the worst strategy the veteran club could’ve done. Yes, bringing back Bergeron is great. Yes, reacquiring Krejci is great. And yes, moving Haula for Zacha is a winning trade for Boston. However, this is not a winning formula, let alone their injury woes to begin the 2022-2023 season. This is a Bedard sweepstakes team.
Taylor Hall—Patrice Bergeron—David Pasternak Jake DeBrusk—David Krejci—Craig Smith Pavel Zacha—Charlie Coyle—Nick Foligno Tomas Nosek—Trent Federic—Jack Studnicka
Hampus Lindholm—Brandon Carlo Mike Reilly—Derek Forbort Jakub Zboril—Connor Clifton
Linus Ullmark Jeremy Swayman
Injured— Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk
5. Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings look like the New York Rangers last season, poised and preparing for the next step with a young core. With adding a lot of veterans with a rookie NHL coach, the new coach will delay the Wings from a playoff entry this season; however, they’re knocking on the door. Also knocking on the door is the looming contact extensions to their top offensive players in Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi.
Tyler Bertuzzi—Dylan Larkin—Lucas Raymond David Perron—Andrew Copp—Jakub Vrana Dominik Kubalik—Pius Suter—Filip Zadina Adam Erne—Michael Rasmussen—Oskar Sundqvist
Ben Chariot—Mortiz Seider Simon Evidsson—Filip Hronek Olli Maataa—Gustav Lindstrom
Ville Husso Alex Nedeljkovic
Injured— Robby Fabbri
And making the playoffs:
4. Ottawa Senators
The Ottawa Senators are a playoff team. They have gone all out and spent money and got the right players to help their roster. Claude Giroux is the hometown veteran leader the fan base deserves. Alex DeBricant is a top goal scoring left winger to balance out the scoring Tim Stuzle and Drake Batherson provide. Cam Talbot has proven in Minnesota that he is a number one netminder. They got rid of money that wasn’t working including Matt Murray, Colin White, and Michael Del Zotto. This team will be the second wild card team, finishing 8th in the East.
Alex DeBricant—Tim Stuzle—Claude Giroux Brady Tkachuk—Josh Norris—Drake Batherson Alex Formetton—Shane Pinto—Mathieu Joseph Jayce Hawerlyuk—Dylan Gambrell—Austin Watson
Thomas Chabot— Artem Zub Jake Sanderson—Travis Hamonic Erik Branstrom—Nikita Zatisev
Cam Talbot Anton Forsberg
The top of the Atlantic Division is:
3. Tampa Bay Lightning
The regular season does not matter to Tampa Bay. The playoffs do. The Cup matters. With that said, this is the worst the Lightning have looked in a long time. But they’ll be in the playoffs.
Alex Killorn—Brayden Point—Nikita Kucherov Brandon Hagel—Anthony Cirelli—Steven Stamkos Ross Colton—Nic Paul—Vladislav Namestnikov Patrick Maroon—Pierre Edouard—Bellemare—Corey Perry
Victor Hedman—Cal Foote Mikhail Segerachev—Erik Cernak Ian Cole—Zach Bogosian
Andrei Vaslievsky Brian Elliott
2. Florida Panthers
Bill Zito is the craftiest general manger in the National Hockey League. Between working the wheel on the supplementary players in the past 12 months, his follow-up is to revamp the core of the Florida Panthers by adding the piece to rattle any opposing team to their core— Matthew Tkachuk. They will be a Cup contender, and potentially the pick of the Atlantic so long as Spencer Knight an step up; else, it is the other Florida team.
Carter Verhaeghe—Alexander Barkov—Matthew Tkachuk Sam Bennett—Anton Lundell—Sam Reinhart Ryan Lomberg—Colin White—Patrik Hornqvist Chris Tierney—Nick Cousins—Rudolfs Balcers
Gustav Forsling—Aaron Ekblad Lucas Carlsson—Brandon Montour Marc Staal—Radko Gudas
Sergei Bobrovsky Spencer Knight
Injured — Anthony Duclair PTO — Eric Staal
1. Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Presidents Trophy. This smells like a complete regular season champion. Auston Matthews’ goal hunger. Full fire and young offense and defense with sub-mediocre goaltending. This will be a high scoring season in the hockey capitol of the world. Living in Chocolate town for many years, the worry of Ilya Samsonov in a new uniform and becoming a number one goaltender is zero— it will come to him. Leaving Washington and his Russian friends will motivate him to be better than Matt Murray come February 2023.
Michael Bunting—Auston Matthews—Mitch Marner Alex Kerfoot—John Tavares—William Nylander Calle Jarnkrok—David Kampf—Nicolas Aube-Kubel Pierre Engvall—Adam Gaudette—Wayne Simmonds
Morgan Reilly—TJ Brodie Mark Giordano—Jake Muzzin Rasmus Sandin—Timmothy Liljegren
Matt Murray Ilya Samsonov
PTO — Zach Aston-Reese, Dylan Ferguson
In summary, here is where the Atlantic Division stands for the chronological order:
1. Toronto Maple Leafs (P) 2. Florida Panthers 3. Tampa Bay Lightning 4. Ottawa Senators (WC2) 5. Detroit Red Wings 6. Boston Bruins 7. Buffalo Sabres 8. Montreal Canadiens
What are your thoughts on the Atlantic Division? Is this the best division in Hockey? Is this the best conference of the two? More to come…