pacioretty to wear 67 with CAR
goligoski is switching from 47 to 33 with MIN
lazar to wear 20 with VAN
kunin to wear 11 with SJS
haula to wear 56 with NJD
gustafsson to wear 56 with WSH

Because arbitration leads to 1-2 year deals ( assuming they don’t reach a settlement before ). They most likely want term

Buffalo Rookies to watch is more than just Power

Quinn was probably the best forward not in the NHL last year, he is also a point per game in the NHL. Peterka is soo good, potential is almost unmeasurable, and the UPL could fit in if he makes the NHL to start the season. Samuelsson is just not a rookie but he is a guy with under 40 NHL games to watch as well. If any other rookie breaks in I would be surprised but u never know. Either way Power - Quinn - Peterka are all ones to watch for a calder race

he’s played 2 games 💀💀

So tired of hearing casuals say the Sens can’t make the playoffs because they won’t close a 27 point gap.

1) Teams at the top got worse and the bottom got much better so it will be closer.

2) Also the Sens aren’t only adding Debrincat and Giroux. They’re adding Sanderson, Pinto, Joseph for a full year. They’re also adding Talbot .

3) Injuries to Batherson, White, Pinto and Norris with no depth scoring to replace them really killed them. Formenton-Stutzle-Brown just didn’t have enough scoring to keep them in it.

4) Tierney at 2C and Murray to start the year put them quickly under .500. This won’t happen again

Ik, that was just a funny little point I decided to throw in there
Still think Quinn is going to be in the calder race.

Someone just told me Detroit improved their defence substantially. 💀💀💀

Chiarot-Seider
Maata-Hronek
Edvinsson-Lindstrom

What was it before? Like it definitely isn't good, but ... it seems a bit better than last year at least.

I mean Chiarot-Maatta > DeKeyser-Staal... but susbtantially? lol

Leddy, Dekeyser and Staal for LD

So they practically went from Bad to OK. definitely not substantially. According to analytics lol Staal was better than Chairot last year...

Great analysis of last season, but this thread was about next season. Wings entire team has improved substantially including the D line and goaltenders. They’ve got the best TANDEM in the East now. Chariot, Hronek, Maata and Seider with another year of experience is not shabby

— please stop drooling (@UpliftDemocracy) July 18, 2022

what the...how can you have the best tandem and not even a guaranteed number 1. I definitely will take Anderson - Raanta, Vasi - Elliot, Bob - Knight, Ullmark - Swayman, Shesterkin - Halak, Sorokin - Varlomav over that tandem. Kuemper - Lingren, Merz - Korp, are probably pretty close.

brown wearing 28 with WSH
borgstrom wearing 13 with WSH

I think the capitals improved a lot this this offseason. Kuemper is a huge upgrade over Samsonov/Vanicek and they added a few great play driving forwards which was a big weakness last season. This is a solid top 9

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Brown
Mantha-Strome-Wilson
Sheary-Mcmichael-Oshie

Wilson gonna be out till January...

More likely the end of the November, early December

Yeah it’s kinda nuts. Even if we go by goal differential, injecting a 40 goal scorer (DeBrincat) into last year’s lineup without losing a roster player brings us up to around an even goal differential, and teams around 0 are right in the playoff mix (Dallas got in with a -8 goal differential lol, and while the East was more min-maxed last year, it should get a lot tighter next year, so the 2nd wildcard team I’d predict will probably be around +15 goal differential). Sanderson is better than Mete, Joseph/DeBrincat/Pinto/Giroux are much better to have in the top 9 than Ennis/Paul/White/Brown (as much as I love Paul and Brown, I don’t think anyone would choose them over DeBrincat and Giroux lol), Talbot is better than Gustavsson, Stutzle should improve (he was on a heater with 31 points in his last 27 games and I wouldn’t be surprised if he continued at that pace, especially with DeBrincat and Giroux as linemates). We have two legitimate scoring lines, one that was among the best lines in the league last year and is only improving as they enter their prime, and the other has the potential to be significantly better. Our 4th line might be iffy (Kelly, Kastelic, and Gambrell don’t provide much offense and getting 10 from Watson is nice and within his power to be repeatable but shouldn’t necessarily be relied upon) but they just need to hit people and kill penalties lol, plus we’ve got the cap space to bring in either a project like Sam Steel or Janne Kuokkanen, or a veteran like Victor Rask, Evan Rodrigues, or Zach Aston-Reese to shore that up if we really wanted to. Like even if we don’t bring in another top 4 RD to solidify the blueline, we’re right in the playoff mix due to our improved goaltending and forward group, and Sanderson still makes our defense better than last year’s. I think that if the chemistry clicks, we have the potential to be pretty scary next year.

If the Sens have Zaitsev and Hamonic in the lineup at the same time, I don’t think they will make the playoffs. If they trade Zaitsev and limit Hamonics ice time I think they’re close to a lock to make the playoffs

The latter is definitely the plan

Trading Zaitsev seems to be what they're trying to do. Regardless, having our four best D be Chabot, Zub, Sanderson, and Holden is better than last year, and if Hamonic gets 3rd pair minutes I think we'll be okay. It'll be a problem if Zaitsev is in the top 4 at all (Hamonic MIGHT be ok as a 2nd pair guy, probably a little above his head but not too bad when compared to last year). And we might have the firepower to outscore our problems now, especially if we get decent goaltending (which is reasonable to expect now, it's not as bad as when we were hoping Murray-Hogberg could stop a single puck ever lmao).

Am I crazy to think that this year's Sabres might finish with around 95-100 points? Last year in there last 30 games they where on pace to get 105 points for the season, and they where playing some very tough competition looking to make there way into the playoffs.

Sens are also adding by subtraction as well. Think the Sens, Sabres, and Wings will all make a leap this year.

Am I the only one that gets pissed off when people call signing someone to a massive contract getting them for “free”?

Just because you didn’t trade anything doesn’t mean they’re free lmao

Very solid top 9, they just need to trade or dump eller and let McMike be 3C