Who finishes bottom 5 in your opinion? (list the order too)

Lol at ottawa

Ottawa is likely losing DeBrincat. I fail to see how they go from missing the playoffs to topping the stacked Atlantic

Columbus ain’t making the playoffs. Guarantee that

Toronto below Tampa, Ottawa and Florida is unlikely... If you flip Ottawa and Toronto, I can see it for the Atlantic but how doesn't Toronto finish ahead of those 3?

love the bold takes. dont listen to the comment sections, if you dont put the same standing as last year, they will complain.

If it were me, it would prob be (from 5th last to last): Arizona, San Jose, Philly, Chicago, Montreal... If we aren't talking about the division factor and just about the team overall, it would probably be (from 5th last to last): Anaheim, Arizona, San Jose, Philly, Chicago but with how stacked the Atlantic is rn, I don't see how Montreal gets pounded on (not spiteful, just opinion), with Philly seeing both the Atlantic and Metro, they also should get pounded too and with the other 4 being lucky they are in the Pacific and Central

So you think the Leafs are a wild card team? Or that the Rangers are a fringe wild card team?

its not my prediction.

So were you supporting the boldness in takes or the standings themselves?

A few galaxy brained takes here.

Ottawa is not going to finish first in the Atlantic. They're far more likely to miss the playoffs.
Columbus is not better than any of NYR, NYI, PIT, or WSH. They're still 2 years away.

the boldness. everyone can have an opinion about prediction and i respect them to some extent. each year things unexpected happen. same with mock draft. you keep hearing things like no way wright falls to number, no way flames miss playoffs, and it all happened. people here lack creativity.

Ohhh sorry for the misunderstanding

A healthy Josh Norris and having Jakob Chychrun for the whole year are two MAJOR additions. If you believe Korpisalo has turned a corner after fixing his long-term hip issue (I'm skeptical but optimistic) , then they're much better in net. I also think there's a pretty good chance they sign Tarasenko/Tatar once the DeBrincat situation is resolved. It's not hard to see them being significantly better this season. Still don't know how to justify having them leading the best division in the league though.

no worries! thanks for the civilized discussion!

People sleeping on the Bruins for the second straight season I see

Dude for real, I’m just trying to think of the worst and best case scenarios for each team and take a couple of each… there are always a couple surprises no one is expecting so if I get one of my reach picks right it’s a win lol 😂 just trying to have fun with it

32nd-Philadelphia
31-Montreal
30-San Jose
29-Anaheim
28-Arizona

My scenario would be Florida is closer to the presidents trophy first round flameout then the barely make the playoffs then go on a run team once again…
Tampa bay will hit on a lot of their cheap depth signings like always…
Toronto I see as being worse than last years team… the goaltending is uncertain, they only added klingberg on D who literally can’t play D, they now have zero depth after losing alot of forwards, and between the Nylander contract drama, tavares’ decline, domis inconsistency, and bertuzzis injury history; the top end forwards have alot of question marks
Ottawa I see as this years New Jersey… they have a goalie tandem that should be good enough, their top-6 should take a huge step forwards, and chabot and Chychrun lead the d big time…

I know it’s a long shot but it would not be the craziest thing that’s happened in an nhl season

Yeah I know it’s a bit of a reach for sure

Yeah it’s a bit far of a reach but I would not be at all shocked to see Ottawa in the playoffs next year and see older teams like Boston, pit, Washington, NYI, NYR miss the playoffs

Sure, but here's my reasoning:

If you look at Florida's entire run this year and the last, it relied on Alex Lyon, who's not with the organization and Sergei Bobrovsky, who's not as likely to repeat what he just did... if those two don't save the Panthers, they don't make the playoffs at all... Tampa Bay isn't very good either TBH, they went 9-16 to finish off the year with Killorn and Colton and was outplayed in round 1 against Toronto, or all teams... Now they lost their 2LW and 3C and still don't have their big TDL acquisition under contract. As for Ottawa, depth is a huge concern and so is goaltending... I don't trust Korpisalo and when you still have guys like Mathieu Joseph on your 3rd line, or Artem Zub on your 2nd pair... it definitely gets my attention. To add, Giroux will be declining (at the young age of 36/37) and DeBrincat will be gone, which leaves another hole to fill.

On a more positive note, Here's a comparison to what the start of season looked like for the 2022-23 Leafs and the 2023-24 Leafs
2022-23:
Bunting - Matthews - Marner
Kerfoot - Tavares - Nylander
Jarnkrok - Kampf - Engvall
Aubel-Kubel - Malgin - Auston-Reese

Rielly - Brodie
Muzzin - Holl
Giodarno - Sandin

Murray
Sammy

2023-24:
Bertuzzi - Matthews - Marner
Domi - Tavares - Nylander
Knies - Kampf - Jarnkrok
Lafferty - Holmberg - Reaves

Rielly (who won't miss 20 games because of a knee injury) - Lilly (who won't miss 20+ games because of an injury)
McCabe - Klingberg
Giodarno - Brodie

Sammy
Woll

Big upgrade here... you can also move Domi to 3C and Knies and Jarnkrok up... Then, you also have that the Toronto Marlies defensive core won't get 15+ games because Lilly won't start injured and Muzzin and Rielly won't get injured and guys like Jordie Benn won't get injured... Then you also have when their top 3 goalies got injury and were an injury away from Keith Pettruzelli being the Starter. Also, Boston got a lot tougher to play against to rival the up and coming team like the Sens as well

If you're still reading this, thanks for hearing me out

Lol yes I finished it… I definitely see where you’re coming from for sure… honestly we’re probably both wrong somehow in our guesses bc every NHL season has alot of drama and cool storylines no one predicts which is one reason why I love it

Exactly, the season can't be already over before it has begun! I do like your hot take of Kings on top but also sort of wonders if the GK finish ahead of EDM as well

It's not a bad first draft. I personally think you have Ottawa, Columbus, LA and NYI too high, with Boston, Rangers and Pittsburgh being the too low candidates.