Pierre LeBrun asked 15 executives/scouts/coaches from US teams to rank the teams in a Canadian division. This is how they placed them.
My method was awarding 7 points for a 1st place ranking, 1 point for a 7th and corresponding in between. Add up all 15 rankings and this is the result. Toronto ended up dominating the points, beating out #2 by 21 having only been left out of the top 3 teams once and being put #1 9 times. Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver were all close, within 10 points of each other for the next 4 spots. Ottawa finished with 15 points, having been voted last by everyone.
I still have a lot of trouble seeing Montreal jumping from 2nd last of these teams last year to 2nd. I know they made some solid offseason moves but that's quite a leap