Move Buff up and Ott down

no

Buff and BOS are better than Ott and FLO

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I did say it was a very biased standings. Let me have hope.

I've asked everyone whose had them this way around this, and no one has been able to give me a solid answer. Why Carolina below New Jersey?

Carolina's goaltending is stronger. I don't think anyone would rather have Vanacek and Schmid than Andersen, Raanta and Kochetkov.

Carolina's Blueline is the strongest in the league in its current format. New Jersey's is good, but it lose Graves and Severson, and replaced them with a rookie Luke Hughes and Colin Miller. They lost Tatar, Sharangovich, and only really replaced them with Toffoli, whose now another year older. Palat's a little older now too. Yes, Hughes is a beast, Bratt, Mercer etc and they have all these young talents that could take that next step. But Carolina could see Jarvis take that next step, or Svechnikov, or Kotkaniemi, or Drury. Like, both teams have 4-5 guys who could have major improvements and Carolina's just more complete. Why the Devils ahead of them? It's more curiosity than anything

Sure, why not?

I think VAN will miss out.
Either CGY or NSH will replace them at 8th spot. Nashville mostly because the Central is trash past top 2.

You are absolutely right that Car is going to be hard to score on. I just personally think its going to be very difficult to shut down the offense Jersey has this season. It could go either way, I'm always rooting for Carolina to do well, I just think Jerseys going to win slightly more games, but that narrative can go down the poop shoot if their defense/goaltending gets exposed. Deff not a knock on Carolina, I'm just expecting an incredible offensive season for the Devs.

I get this is going to be close, and I absolutely understand this. But why would the Devils be in a better position than Carolina? Even if we ignore the playoffs where Carolina ordered them without Svechnikov or Teravainen, Carolina's offseason additions aren't replacing losses. You can argue DeAngelo's replacing Gostisbehere I guess, but Orlov is just a clean top 4 D man addition, and Bunting's a clean top six forward addition. Toffoli's replacing Sharangovich and Tatar, Hughes and Miller are replacing Severson and Graves... I'm not saying the Devils are not going to be very good, but it's just confused me how people would put them above Carolina with any confidence.

Bunting is not a top 6 hockey player. CAR is going to regret this contract.

I agree otherwise that CAR should be considered as good as NJ. The difference will likely come down to H2H.

Okay, even if you say he's a middle six guy (he's a top-six winger), the contract's fine. That's still a pure addition they're not replacing a major piece with. They get Svechnikov back for the full season, their goaltending and defense is better, the Canes held off the Devils down the stretch without their starting goaltender, premier winger, and multiple top six pieces, and then beat the Devils in the playoffs in 5 without Teravainen, Svechnikov, or Pacioretty