Islanders, Sens, Leafs, Wings, Sabres, Bruins, Devils, Caps.
They could all be involved in a major brawl for the 2WCs in the east (along with #3 in the atlantic).
I'm only really counting the Flyers and the Habs out for making a playoff push, and even then it wouldn't be the craziest thing in the world if either of them somehow snuck in imo.
This season, and the east in particular, is gonna be fantastic.

edit: also CBJ should've been mentioned as a WC candidate. I always tend to forget them.

Leafs and Isles probs finish top 3 in their divisions like Toronto finished 2nd in their division and 4th in the NHL with 0.893 goaltending for 4 months and Isles wont have a 20 game road trip


I could see with Florida potentially dropping into that group you mentioned as they lost a lot of good players and I feel they are in for a rough season. As I doubt everything goes perfectly again for them like it did last year.

But man the battle for WC 2 between Sens, Panthers, Wings, Sabres, Bruins, Devils, Caps is gonna be intense

maybe a hot take: sens shouldnt be looking to contend this year.

sure, they have a sick forward core. however the defense is still a bit suspect, and they can easily build it from their system in thomson and bernard-docker. maybe even make a chychrun trade (maybe add one of the previously mentioned RD in the trade? zaitsev + thomson + 2024 2nd (WSH) + nordberg + 2024 1st (OTT)?) as well and put him at 1RD. goaltending maybe also needs a bit of help. waiting one year could make an unbelievable team

Tkachuk - Norris - Batherson
DeBrincat - Stutzle - Giroux
Formenton - Pinto - Joseph
Greig - Gambrell - XXXXX

Chabot - Chychrun
Sanderson - Bernard-Docker
Larsson - Brannstrom

Talbot
Forsberg

the downside to this is that stutzle and debrincat will need new deals though so maybe not

edit: if they make the playoffs then great. if not its all good for them, they get another pick in a deep draft but i think they should stay par at the draft

If the sens can win enough games before Boston gets fully healthy and build a sizable point lead could see them get WC1 OR WC2

Any news on Klingberg or Kadri? Not many teams with cap space and both want to go to potential playoff teams

Last thing I heard of Kadri was he was in talks with CGY but then another report came out saying Avs are trying to move Girard to keep him and the NYI could be a landing spot

Funny how I say things and then articles come out about it a week later

As for Klingberg I have heard Detroit come up a few times but nothing more

My prediction is

NYI trade for Girard and then Kadri extends with the Avs

Klingberg either signs with the Wings and Zadina gets traded (have to move a wing anyways) or he signs with Anaheim

I agree about Colorado trading Girard and keeping Kadri but I don’t think it would be the Isles .

Klingberg is tougher . Don’t think he gets 7 x 7 anymore but I truly hopes he signs with like ottawa on a 2 x 7 type deal

id be surprised if the avs did that. they'd have to move someone big next season to make it work. avs can't afford kadri past this upcoming season.

Klingberg on a 2x7 deal would work out unreasonably well for Ottawa. The only assets we'd lose are those required to dump Zaitsev, rather than dumping Zaitsev and paying for a Chychrun or Weegar type, and then we either get one of JBD or Thomson ready to step into the top 4, or know that we need to replace Klingberg with another free agent RD (or trade for one in 2 years, but we'll have the assets for that).

The biggest problem is we have to sign DeBrincat and Stutzle next summer, and while I don't anticipate Stutzle being much of a problem (if we don't get him for a Hughes-esque deal this summer, we should be looking to bridge him I imagine, regardless we have 4 more years of team control remaining after this season), if DeBrincat doesn't sign a long-term extension now, he may choose to just take his QO next summer to walk in 2024 if 2022-23 doesn't go well, so we should really be trying to do well this year to convince him to stay imo. Playoff experience is also invaluable. It's very rare that you go from out of the playoffs to winning the Stanley Cup even if you've got the roster for it, so getting in and doing our best to go as deep as we can this year can't hurt. I really don't even think we need another piece that badly. We probably shouldn't be trading our 2023 1st (unless it's for Chychrun, and even then it has to be protected, but I likely wouldn't even trade it for Weegar), but next year is still a year we should be looking to do well in. We also only have the Talbot-Forsberg tandem for next year. It's very likely that our tandem in 23-24 will be Forsberg-Sogaard (assuming his development goes well), and while Sogaard is the long term future, he probably won't be the starter by 23-24, so our goaltending is likely going to be more solid next season than the year after.

The #Flames have filed for club-elected salary arbitration with Matthew Tkachuk. Per the team, “This provides us the opportunity to continue to work with his representatives towards a contractual resolution while removing the possibility of an offer sheet.”

— Hailey Salvian (@hailey_salvian) July 18, 2022

Honestly I don’t think Tkachuk is lasting long in Calgary

He probably gets 1 year, and straight to UFA
And then gets traded
Can totally see a rebuild in CGY,unfortunate tho, they looked like they would have a bright future

I’m showing Tkachuk the new and shiney Coronato and praying Tkachuk waits for that kid.

He’s got star potential and can replace Johnny.

I doubt it's really a rebuild since they have a young core, just need to retool for a year or 2. After Tkachuk and Gaudreau go I'd trade away all the older playera and try and build around there young Dcore, Zary, Coronato and Pelletier.

Forgot about JJP and Quinn. Similar to SJ I guess.
I’d bet on Power/Eklund.
But Bords, Quinn, JJP are sleeper picks.

Wolf too

With what goalies? You have the fossil of Craig Anderson, UPL and Malcolm Subban as goalie option, none of them scream I’m going to lead my team to 95-100 points this year

Comrie
Not that he's any better..

Flames filed for Aribation with Tkachuk and Mangiapane along with Kylington both filed them selfs. By my understanding none of these players can be OS'd. Am I right?

Yes
Mangiapane and Kylington is automatically 1 year
Tkachuk can choose his term

Yeah that’s right. That’s why the Flames decided to file for club-elected arbitration with Tkachuk. That also forces a decision to be made by a definite point in time so Tkachuk can’t drag it out until December 5th, although the award will likely be for 1 year at above his QO, because he had an insanely good season (although I guess they could argue he wasn’t as good as Gaudreau, which will inexplicably keep the AAV down lol).

Unfortunately for the flames Coronato is going to request a trade back home to long island

Right up until Lou offers him well below market value that is

Habs fans every time someone suggests trading Nick Suzuki and/or Cole Caulfield for PLD 😅pic.twitter.com/WxemwC5UmV

— /r/Habs (@HabsOnReddit) July 18, 2022

They upgraded from abysmal to terrible.

Fan-f*cking-tastic

Instead of allowing 11 goals they will allow 9