There are plenty of teams that are better. Toronto and Edmonton are better. St. Louis, Carolina, Florida, Colorado are all better. Tampa they may have passed without Palat, I kinda like Washington's but Ottawa's is probably better.

Ottawa got a lot better, but the D is very questionable and the goaltending is better but not good enough to bail them out. They're still the 5th best team in the division.

Top 10 not In order.
MacKinnon, Rantenen, Landeskog, Nichushkin, Newhook, Lehkonen. If Kadri comes back it's better
Kucherov, Point, Stamkos, Cirelli, Paul, Killorn
Barkov, Reinhart, Huberdeau, Lundell, Bennett, Duclair
Matthews, Marner, Tavares, Nylander, Bunting, (idk)
O'Reilly, Tarasenko, Buchnevich, Kyrou, Thomas, Schenn
Aho, Svechnikov, Jarvis, Teräväinen, Pacioretty, Necas
Connor, Scheifele, Ehlers, Dubois, Wheeler, Perfetti
McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane, Nuge, Hyman, Puljujarvi
Panarin, Zibanajed, Kreider, Trochek, Lafrenière, Kakko?

HM
Ovi, Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Oshie, Wilson, Mantha

What I meant in this title is how many teams have a better 5th and 6th forward than Ottawa's. I don't think any teams do.

Ottawa is uniquely built because they have 6 forwards that are all around the same skill level. Most good teams have around 4 core forwards that are by far the best, split them on 2 different lines, and give each line a complementary winger. Ottawa will have no complementary players in their top 6. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out against other top end forward groups

There are plenty of teams that are better. Toronto and Edmonton are better. St. Louis, Carolina, Florida, Colorado are all better. Tampa they may have passed without Palat, I kinda like Washington's but Ottawa's is probably better.

Ottawa got a lot better, but the D is very questionable and the goaltending is better but not good enough to bail them out. They're still the 5th best team in the division.

Is Brady and Giroux your 5th and 6th? I'm taking St.Louis 5th and 6th I think over them. Completely depending on how good Giroux is next year but Carolina with Patches and depends how good Necas is could compete

What I meant in this title is how many teams have a better 5th and 6th forward than Ottawa's. I don't think any teams do.

Ottawa is uniquely built because they have 6 forwards that are all around the same skill level. Most good teams have around 4 core forwards that are by far the best, split them on 2 different lines, and give each line a complementary winger. Ottawa will have no complementary players in their top 6. So it will be interesting to see how this plays out against other top end forward groups

that kind of depends on the order you're putting them in doesn't it? You have Tkachuk and Giroux at the bottom but its probably Stutzle and Norris or Giroux based on numbers from last season, or Batherson who only played 46 games. Are the Leafs 5 and 6 forwards 2 guys from the second line? Or is it Bunting and Kerfoot? Leafs definitely aren't better if its Bunting and Kerfoot, but if its 2 guys from the second line then you're including one of Tavares or Nylander and the Leafs are definitely better. Ottawa's is definitely in the top 5 in that sense. The Jets top 6 I would take over them but the Jets top 6 underperformed like crazy last year.

But you're right, a lot of the teams listed above by buffalofan have 4 really good players and 2 complimentary pieces.

Yeah I mean the 5th and 6th best forward on the team (i.e. Kerfoot/Bunting for leafs). And yeah for Ottawa's it's very debatable who the 5th and 6th are. You mentioned Norris who had 35 goals in 66 games or Batherson who was a point per game player and a +4 on a bottom team, or Giroux who had 23 points in 18 games on the panthers. Whichever way you slice it, the 5th and 6th forwards are pretty nasty for 5th and 6th forwards.

The most interesting thing about it is which 2 forwards won't be on the first unit PP and how will it effect their points (and ego). Like I said, the teams with 4 really good forwards don't have this issue