1. lightning
2. maple leafs
3. panthers
4. bruins
5. sabres
6. canadiens
7. red wings
8. senators

I think that Babcock will continue to use his system which will hurt the Leafs, they miss the playoffs.

Any order:
Bolts
Bruins
Leafs

Any order missed playoffs:
Florida
MTL
Buffalo
Wings
Sens

Leafs, lightning, bruins, canadiens, panthers, sabres, wings, sens. With canadiens and panthers battling devils and flyers for the wildcards, cap, isles, canes, devils, flyers, pens, rangers, blue jackets. That metro is tough middle six could be moved around with no trouble at all

Tampa, Boston, Florida, Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa
My reasoning:
Tampa: Top team in the league, offense, defense, goaltending. Great depth
Boston: Amazing top line, McAvoy will only get better, tuuka is still a stud imo
Florida: Already one of the team top teams offensively, pp is epic, pk is top 10, addittion of bobrovsky will do them wonders. quenville is gonna make the team hella dangerous.
Toronto: insane top 6 with nylander, marner (probably) matthews tavares. barrie is a great addition, will help stabalize the d-core, but i dont see them ending up higher than florida (it'll be tight). andersen needs lighter work load
Montreal: finished just 4 points behind the leafs last year, with a trash pp and weber coming in late. with a healthy weber and price, and the growth of youngsters, they'll be competing for a wild card spot imo.
Buffalo: good team, right side is great, not sold on goaltending and consistency
detroit: young team, needs to trade vets. needs to be patient.
ottawa: eugene melnyk

TO and Tampa will battle for the Presidents trophy all season long. Other than that I agree with you. Although I think Boston does have the potential to decline this year. A long playoff and getting older could be hard on their older players.

Bolts Bruins Leafs should be 1-2-3, the order may depend on whether any of Marner, Point, etc sit out any extended period. If they all get signed up before the season gets going then your order makes sense.

1. bolts
2. leafs
3. panthers
4. bruins (WC)
5. sabres
6. habs
7. wings
8. sens

I think the Habs are better than Buffalo still and a healthy season could push the Habs into wildcard territory

im not as high on the habs as a lot of people are

They are a team that I think if the majority of things go well for them, they'll make the playoffs and if Price gets hurt or a couple of young guys regress more than I am anticipating they could finish below Detroit.

they could finish in a lot of places, every division is so tough to predict thius year

A lot of guys in MTL team have finish with career year this past season so they could regress

I wouldn't say that.

I think all but the Metro you can pick out at least the 2 or 3 teams that look like locks to make it.

In the Pacific, it'll be Vegas, San Jose and Calgary and that's probably it, the rest of the division is a complete dumpster fire.

The Central is harder to pick but you can probably pencil in Colorado, St Louis, and Nashville as locks and then Dallas and Winnipeg are strong as well.

In the Atlantic, Tampa, TO and Boston are locks barring insane injury issues.

The Metro, your guess is as good as mine, that one is a crap shoot.

I do think some will, Domi won't get close to the same totals, but they have other guys who I think will grow. So I think where they have regression, it'll be balanced by progression of other young players. Injuries will be the story for them, if they don't have many, I think the'll fight for and win a wildcard spot. If they deal with a lot of injuries, they won't do well at all.

You sir, are confounding.

I agree Babs isn't a good coach and I think he's going to get fired this season unless they win the cup, which really wouldn't be biggest surprise, regardless of what haters are going to say, they have one of the best rosters top to bottom in the league. Yes their blueline is thin but who knows what happens throughout the season. On paper this team should have one of, if not the best offense in hockey. They have a top 4 in Muzzin, Rielly, Barrie and Dermott that is better than the top 4 that Pittsburgh won the cup with twice. So its not a foregone conclusion that they have no chance at winning it all. The thought that they will struggle to make the playoffs is absolutely insane to me. They are likely going to be much better than last season. A full healthy season from Matthews should equal another 5 points in the standings, a full season from Nylander could add more. Progression from Kapanen, and Johnsson could result in even more. I thought that they will struggle is just negativity that doesn't seem like it has any basis in reality.

They will battle tampa all year for top spot in the conference and NHL