Quoting: AFOX10900
NYR-added Kakko (who will be good this year, not Matthews level yes, but better than Hughes) added Panarin, added Trouba, added a year of experience for their young core
NJD- keep most of the relatively young core from their playoff run 2 years ago intact, added Hughes, added Subban, added Simmons
CBJ- will fall back (I have them in 8th I'm the division) but if Tex can step up and Vehv overpreforms they got Nyquist as well, they MIGHT not fall as hard
PHI- similar to NJD, they kept most of their playoff core from 2 years ago intact, and fixed their 2 biggest needs without giving up much else (and made some lateral moves on defense)
WSH-it's WSH, they're not suddenly going to collapse or anything
CAR-added to a team that made the conference finals, and added another year of experience for their young core
NYI-they still have Trotz
FLA-they added Bob and got more forward depth to add to their already very deep forward core, also tried to fix their defence with Stralman
BUF-added a ton of players without giving up much (did they give up anyone) off their roster
MTL-have insane forward depth, and Carey Price
DET and OTT-yeah they suck
PIT-has really only made lateral moves and got a worse version of Kessel, oh and they still need to trade away a player to get under the cap
I have already showed that the penguins don't need to trade anyone to "get under the cap" that's just a trolling myth.
Like I said, 3 teams coming out of the Atlantic this year. You can count it.
The Rangers are 2-3 years away from competing, it's not even worth arguing. There isn't enough there.
NJ is in the same boat. Hughes is nice, but I think the adjustment is going to be harder than people think. He'll look good while the games don't mean much, come middle of the year, they will get physical on him and take him out of games. Pernell is over rated. Simmons is old. He's gonna be 31 this year, and he's declining. Only reason they got him was to put a goon next to Hughes. But that's not going to work.
Philly is no better than they were last year. If anything they are worse.
Hart was almost a 500 goaltender last year. If he can't replicate that they are done. This team is still a middle of the pack team. Hayes isn't a fix to any problems. They still lack depth.
CBJ could take a step back, maybe not.
As I said, these are all wild card hopefuls.
Saying PIT has only mad "lateral moves" is just nonsense. Bringing in a player like Kahun wasn't a lateral move. The whole "got a worse version of kessel" we'll see. I like Kessel, but he's 32 this year.
AG is 25-26 this year. He's a faster player. Getting out of a player at the right time and bringing in a younger replacement is how teams stay on top. On top of it Blueger playing full time over Cullen is an improvement and having Schultz back for a full season instead of being injured in game 2 and missing the vast majority of the season and playing on a freshly healed broken leg will be a huge boost.
So lets not sit here and say they made lateral moves or somehow got worse. They didn't. On top of it, they do have players who can be called up that can make an impact. So we'll see.
We all know they will probably make 2-3 trades in the year anyway.
The penguins already started with such a huge gap between them and these other teams. I don't see any of them closing the gap enough to make that jump, much like they didn't close the gap between those teams and washington. That's what it boils down to.