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I talk about the Senators all the time, but it’s important to compare them to their rivals from time to time. With that in mind, I wanted to analyze the off-seasons for the seven other Atlantic division teams and see what teams are trending up or down. So here they are:
Tampa Bay Lightning
Additions: Andy Andreoff
Subtractions: Matthew Peca, Andrej Sustr, Chris Kunitz, Peter Budaj
The Lightning are still incredibly good, so they didn’t really need to do much this off-season. Their additions and subtractions are so minimal that the 2018-19 team will essentially be the same as 2017-18, which isn’t a bad thing at all. This core isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and Tampa Bay will surely be challenging for the Cup again next spring.
Trending: Neutral
Toronto Maple Leafs
Additions: John Tavares, Tyler Ennis, Adam Cracknell, Josh Jooris
Subtractions: James Van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, Matt Martin, Roman Polak, Tomas Plekanec
They actually did it by getting the hometown star in John Tavares. I thought the whole time that he would end up re-signing with the Islanders, but credit to the Leafs for actually convincing Tavares to come home. He gives them one of the best trio of centres in the league, and their offense will once again be lethal. Although they’re still better on the whole due to the Tavares acquisition and increased roles for players like Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen, we still have to mention that losing JVR and Bozak isn’t nothing.
The other four players they lost were easily replaceable, but it’s not as if it is easy to replace 60 and 45 point players. The Leafs look set with Frederik Andersen in net, but their defense is still very questionable. Jake Gardiner, Morgan Rielly, Nikita Zaitsev, and Ron Hainsey make up their top four, and they better hope that someone like Justin Holl, Travis Dermott, or Connor Carrick can squeeze their way in. The team clearly have lots of fire-power, but it’s laughable that they didn’t try to address the defense in the final season of Auston Matthews’ ELC. Nevertheless, they’re a contender.
Trending: Up
Boston Bruins
Additions: Jaroslav Halak, John Moore, Joakim Nordstrom, Chris Wagner
Subtractions: Riley Nash, Rick Nash, Nick Holden, Anton Khudobin, Austin Czarnik, Tim Schaller, Paul Postma, Tommy Wingels, Brian Gionta
I’m high on the Bruins roster on the whole, but it’s been an underwhelming summer for them. They have a phenomenal top line with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak, Torey Krug and Charlie McAvoy are two incredibly undervalued defensemen, and Tuukka Rask is still solid. Despite that, they didn’t do much to address their losses.
They lost both of the Nash’s, and that production should have gone to someone like Austin Czarnik, but they let him walk as a free agent. Replacing Khudobin with Halak was their one good move, and Holden, Schaller, Postma, Wingels, and Gionta are all insignificant losses. John Moore is an alright defenseman, although giving him five years is a bit much. Nordstrom and Wagner will be on the NHL roster, but they’re 4th liners at best and don’t carry a whole lot of upside.
The only thing that hurts for the Bruins this summer is losing the Nash’s, as those are two top-nine wingers that give them much more depth up front. Boston is still one of the best teams in the league and will be carried by their best players, but it’s fair to wonder why they haven’t done more to re-fortify their forward depth.
Trending: Slightly down
Florida Panthers
Additions: Mike Hoffman, Michael Hutchinson
Subtractions: Radim Vrbata, Harri Sateri, Connor Brickley
The Panthers haven’t done a whole lot, but getting Mike Hoffman for a small price was a great move. Obviously there might be strings attached to that, but that’s a different story. Their top-six forwards look fantastic right now, as it could look something like this:
Hoffman-Barkov-Dadonov
Huberdeau-Trocheck-Bjugstad
With Roberto Luongo still hanging on, Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle anchoring the blueline, and youngsters like Henrik Borgstrom, Denis Malgin, Aleksi Heponiemi, and Maxim Mamin having the potential to be important players this year, the Panthers have an opportunity to make some noise. It’s difficult to understate how badly Dale Tallon messed up last year by giving up Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith up for nothing, but they’re building their way back up.
Can you imagine this forward group with those two as well? Unreal.
Trending: Up
Montreal Canadiens
Additions: Max Domi, Joel Armia, Tomas Plekanec, Matthew Peca, Michael Chaput, Xavier Ouellet, Kenny Agostino, Hunter Shinkaruk, Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Subtractions: Alex Galchenyuk, Adam Cracknell, Daniel Carr, Kerby Rychel
I never really know how to analyze the Canadiens. Marc Bergevin loves to make moves, and it’s been a mixed bag this summer. I’m including Kotkaniemi on their additions list because I expect him to make the team right away, and he should be able to help out early on. They made some good small bets on players like Peca, Agostino, and Ouellet, although they lost someone who is in a similar situation in Daniel Carr.
Getting Armia for the price of buying out Steve Mason was actually a decent trade, as they badly need centres. Speaking of that, the Galchenyuk for Domi trade was just so strange. I get that they wanted to move on from Galchenyuk (for whatever reason), but forcing Domi to become a centre just isn’t going to work. For starters, he’s probably a worse player and they didn’t even get a draft pick to compensate for that, but they also failed for the second straight summer to acquire a top-notch natural centre that they desperately need.
Despite that strange trade, this summer on the whole is a slight improvement for them because of that added depth, plus I think that Kotkaniemi can be a difference-maker. I don’t think the Canadiens are a playoff team as they have some glaring holes, but their moves on the whole are a slight positive.
Trending: Slightly up
Detroit Red Wings
Additions: Filip Zadina, Jonathan Bernier, Thomas Vanek, Harri Sateri
Subtractions: Xavier Ouellet, Jared Coreau
The Red Wings are still a ways away from being relevant again, and I’ll be completely honest I didn’t even know that Bernier and Vanek had signed with them until I began writing this article. Bernier is a decent backup while Vanek is still surprisingly effective in the offensive zone, plus they didn’t lose anyone of significance. If Zadina makes the team then that will certainly help their forwards too, so there’s nothing to be upset about this off-season in Detroit. Apparently Henrik Zetterberg might not even be able to play at all this season, but that doesn’t factor in that much because we know they won’t be a playoff team anyway:
Nothing here besides Zadina changes the course of their future very much, so it’s just a slight improvement for them.
Trending: Slightly up
Buffalo Sabres
Additions: Rasmus Dahlin, Conor Sheary, Jeff Skinner, Matt Hunwick, Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka, Tage Thompson, Carter Hutton
Subtractions: Ryan O’Reilly, Robin Lehner, Viktor Antipin, Jordan Nolan, Chad Johnson, Jacob Josefson, Benoit Pouliot, Josh Gorges, Justin Falk, Seth Griffith
The Sabres are one of those teams that you expect to take a step forward
at some point, but I don’t feel like predicting that until they actually do. On the whole, the Sabres definitely added a lot of talent to their roster. Dahlin gives them a legitimate top pairing defenseman, while they were able to get Sheary and Skinner for pennies on the dollar. Hutton was a nice signing, although I’m skeptical that he’s good enough to be a full-time starter.
Their off-season would have been fantastic if they didn’t make the O’Reilly trade, as he has been one of the most underrated players in the league for some time. The return on that was subpar, but at least the three forwards they received in return are serviceable (with limited ceilings). This team is going to be good soon, but I still think they’re a year away.
Trending: Up
On the whole, I’d say that Toronto, Florida, and Buffalo got noticeably better, while Detroit and Montreal improved slightly, Tampa Bay stayed the same, and Boston took a small step back. Although the bottom of the division was horrendous last season, there are still some good teams here. It’ll be tough to break into the top three of the Lightning, Maple Leafs, and Bruins, but almost every year there is a team that surprises.
I doubt this needs to be said, but I don’t love the Senators chances of being in the top 3-5 of the Atlantic.
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