How many times have we condemned the Bruins in the last decade? After the loss of Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug, the retirement of Tuukka Rask, the aging core, uncertainty regarding the health of Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand.
They stunned the hockey world last year by breaking an NHL record with 65 wins and 135 points in the standings. But every good thing must come to an end, right?
Boston was upset in the first round by the Florida Panthers and their first two centers, now legendary captain Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, retired.
Pavel Zacha will have the delicate task of replacing Bergeron at the center of the first line. He has just had his best career season, mainly on the wing, with 57 points. Charlie Coyle moves from third to second line. He has just one career 45+ point season, six years ago in Minnesota.
We also let go of Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno without being able to retain free agents Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov, who were very useful at the end of the season. But that leaves Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk. We’ll fill in the holes with Kevin Shattenkirk, James Van Riemsdyk and Milan Lucic.
The defense remains solid with Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo and the Bruins retain their two goalies, probably the best duo in the League, Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
Defenseman Hampus Lindholm plays in McAvoy’s shadow, but he’s coming off his career-best offensive season with 53 points and was averaging over 23 minutes per game.
Brad Marchand recently compared the Bruins’ 2022 second-round pick Matthew Poitras to Mitch Marner. Poitras was still in camp with a preseason game to play.
James Van Riemsdyk will have to be better than last year in Philadelphia where he scored just 12 goals and had 29 points in 61 games. But at 34, does he still have the energy left?
65-12-5, 135 points
1st in section
Defeat in the 1st round (Panthers)
Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Dmitry Orlov, Nick Foligno, Tyler Bertuzzi
Milan Lucic, Kevin Shattenkirk, James Van Riemsdyk, Jesper Boqvist, Morgan Geekie
Many teams would have been happy with a 111-point regular season and a first-round win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. But the Maple Leafs have disappointed their fans too many times in previous years and expectations are surpassing last year’s performance.
General manager Kyle Dubas was swept up in the turmoil, but he probably would have kept his job, had it not been for a disagreement with president Brendan Shanahan. Brad Treliving, who left the Flames in a lamentable state, with, among other things, monstrous contracts, takes his place.
Sheldon Keefe returns behind the bench and he has been provided with a luxury assistant and power play specialist, Guy Boucher.
The core remains the same in Toronto. The signing of Auston Matthews for another four years after this one relieved management, players and fans. We also find the usual faces, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, defenders Morgan Rielly, T. J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, to which we add Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi.
The Leafs’ success will come through their goaltender Ilya Samsonov, the undisputed number one with Matt Murray’s long-term injury. He is now assisted by Martin Jones. Toronto has all the elements in place to do even better this season, but the team still plays in the strongest section of the National League.
In the shadow of the big offensive stars, David Kampf, never drafted, does solid defensive work. This young veteran is entering his third season in Toronto. He hasn’t missed a game in the last two years.
Matthew Knies left a great calling card at the end of the season last year, before suffering an injury in the playoffs. Knies, a late second round pick in 2021, is a 6’3″, 210 lb power forward who should make a good impact starting this season.
Amassing 80 points isn’t within everyone’s reach, but John Tavares has had just one season scoring more than a point per game since arriving in Toronto five years ago. This is too little for a player paid 11 million annually.
50-21-11, 111 points
2nd in the section
Defeat in the 2nd round (Panthers)
Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn, Michael Bunting, Alexander Kerfoot, Justin Holl, Wayne Simmonds, Noel Acciari, Victor Mete
Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, John Klingberg, Ryan Reaves, Martin Jones
The sky fell on the Lightning’s head during training camp: their star goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had to undergo back surgery and will miss the first two months of the season. That’s a lot of pressure on the shoulders of 28-year-old Jonas Johansson, hired in the summer to act as Vasilevskiy’s backup. Johansson has played twice as many games in the ECHL as in the National League, but he is coming off an excellent season in the American League with the Avalanche farm club.
Stuck by the salary cap, the Lightning are still losing soldiers. This time, we could not retain Alex Killorn, Patrick Maroon, Corey Perry and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare. Additionally, Steven Stamkos is unhappy with his contractual status. He would have liked to sign a contract extension during the summer, less than a year from his full autonomy.
The Lightning still have a very strong core, with Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Stamkos, Anthony Cirelli, Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev, but the support group is no longer as solid. The young guns of the Atlantic section, the Sabres, the Senators and the Red Wings, will pose as new rivals. Can Tampa hold on?
The Lightning gave up two first-round picks for two fourth-round picks to land Brandon Hagel two years ago, but he’s coming off a 30-goal, 64-point season.
2020 third-round pick Maxim Groshev just made the jump to North America after four seasons in the KHL, but he will begin the season in the American League.
Anthony Cirelli is a vital part of the Lightning, but offensively, his 29 points, including 11 goals, in 58 games are below his usual output.
40-30-6, 98 points
3rd in the section
1st round loss (Maple Leafs)
Alex Killorn, Patrick Maroon, Ross Colton, Ian Cole, Corey Perry, Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Brian Elliott
Connor Sheary, Jonas Johansson, Luke Glendening, Calvin de Haan
At one point last winter, Canadiens fans dreamed of seeing the team win the draft lottery with the choice obtained in the Ben Chiarot trade because the Panthers were so desperate.
Florida finally reached the playoffs through the back door, with 92 points, one less than the Calgary Flames, excluded from the playoffs in the West, but surprised the Boston Bruins in the first round then reached, against all expectations, the Stanley Cup final with a resurrected Sergei Bobrovsky in front of the net.
A breakthrough to the final can jeopardize your players, talk to CH, and two of the team’s best defenders, Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, will miss the start of the season.
Dmitry Kulikov, Mike Reilly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson were hired on the cheap to fill the void. The challenge will be significant since the Panthers already had difficulties last year on the defensive front, with a goals against average per game of 3.32, but Bobrovsky had not yet regained his composure and Spencer Knight had challenges. psychological order.
The Panthers remain a formidable offensive team with Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, but with such a poor defense, they could compete hard for a playoff spot with no guarantee of achieving it.
We barely talk about defenseman Gustav Forsling, obtained on waivers in 2021 from the Carolina Hurricanes. Yet he had a 41-point season while playing 23:26 per game.
The 24th pick in 2021, forward Matthew Samoskevich, remains the top prospect after a 43-point season in 39 games at the University of Michigan, and he’s given every chance to succeed. He played as part of a line with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk during one of the team’s final preseason games.
Young Anton Lundell, the club’s first overall pick in 2020, went from 44 points in 65 games to 33 points in 73 games between his first and second seasons in the National League.
42-32-8, 92 points
4th in the section
Stanley Cup Final (loss to Golden Knights)
Anthony Duclair, Radko Gudas, Marc Staal, Alex Lyon, Patric Hornqvist
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov, Evan Rodrigues
The Sabers have lacked patience in their previous rebuilding attempts. GM Kevyn Adams, hired in 2019, understands. He gathered young workers and let them mature.
Buffalo missed the playoffs for the 12th straight season, but reached the 90-point plateau for the first time since… 2011. The best is yet to come.
The first two centers, Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens, are 25 or younger. The first amassed 94 points, including 47 goals, the second obtained 68 points, a high in his young career. There is no shortage of productive wingers with Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner, Casey Mittelstadt and Jack Quinn currently injured. Matthew Savoie, Noah Östlund, Jiri Kulich and Zach Benson wait their turn.
Last year we witnessed the great emergence of the first choice in 2018, defender Rasmus Dahlin, only 23 years old, 6’3″ and 210 lbs, 73 points in 78 games. Another young giant in defense, Owen Power, also first choice three years later, is not far behind. He had 35 points in his first professional season.
We are counting a lot on young Quebec goalkeeper Devon Levi, who impressed at the end of last season in Buffalo after his university career at Northeastern. He’s not the tallest at 6′, but Juuse Saros’ success in Nashville seems to have opened the door for goalies that size. If Levi holds up, Buffalo should be in the playoffs for the first time in ages.
In the shadow of Dahlin and Power, Mattias Samuelsson, a 6’4” and 230 lb colossus, does a lot of defensive work. He averaged 22 minutes per game last year.
Devon Levi is obviously the center of attraction in Buffalo. But he is only 21 years old and few goalkeepers manage to shine at such a young age.
Peyton Krebs was drafted immediately after Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook, at 17th overall, in 2019. He was the heart of the Jack Eichel trade to Vegas. He had just 26 points, including 9 goals, in 74 games last year in his second full season. At 22, 23 in January, it should hatch.
42-33-7, 91 points
5th in the section
Excluded from series
Craig Anderson, Vinnie Hinostroza, Ilya Lyubushkin
Erik Johnson, Connor Clifton, Devon Levi
CEO Pierre Dorion spent the summer fixing his blunders from last year. The goalkeeper he was banking on, Cam Talbot, exchanged for the young Filip Gustavsson, amazing in Minnesota, left. To replace him, Dorion awarded a five-year, $20 million contract to free agent Joonas Korpisalo. He has often been plagued by injuries in recent years, however, like his predecessors in Ottawa Talbot and Matt Murray, and has never reached the mark of 40 games played in a season.
Dorion also traded Alex DeBrincat obtained a year earlier for the 7th and 39th picks. He didn’t get as good a value, but saved face. To replace him, the general manager of the Senators granted 5 million for one year to winger Vladimir Tarasenko, 32 years old in December, 50 points in 69 games last year.
But the Senators now find themselves stuck by the salary cap and still haven’t managed to sign their young center Shane Pinto, 22, 20 goals and 35 points in his first season last year.
For a club excluded from the playoffs for the last six years, finding itself stuck by the ceiling at this stage of its reconstruction, and without having drafted in the first two rounds for two years, is an anomaly.
But the core in place is solid with talented forwards like Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Claude Giroux and defensemen Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson and Jakob Chychrun. But to win, young leaders Stützle, Tkachuk and Chabot will have to set a better example for the rest of the troops and improve their defensive efforts.
Defender Artem Zub doesn’t get much attention, but his top-4 defensive efficiency makes him an essential piece.
Ridly Greig, a 2020 first-round pick at No. 28, has a chance to break through. He may not have a great offensive career in the NHL, but he’s a tough guy who will be worth his weight in gold.
Thomas Chabot is a good offensive defender, but he must return to being the more defensively stable defender he was at the start of his career.
39-35-8, 86 points
6th in the section
Excluded from series
Alex DeBrincat, Cam Talbot, Austin Watson, Derick Brassard
Joonas Korpisalo, Dominik Kubalik, Vladimir Tarasenko
Steve Yzerman seems to have had enough of the reconstruction. He brought in many veterans as reinforcements over the summer: Jeff Petry, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl, Alex DeBrincat and J. T. Compher, who join David Perron, Andrew Copp and Ben Chiarot.
We therefore find only one player under 23 years old in the defensive top 6, Moritz Seider, the others are all 30 years old or older, except Jake Walman, 27 years old. Of the top nine forwards, only Lucas Raymond is under 24 years old. However, Detroit has drafted 19 times in the first two rounds of the last five vintages. Where are they all hiding?
The Red Wings have been out of the playoffs for the last seven seasons. Yzerman has been in the role since 2019, when the rebuilding of the team was already underway.
Does he believe he has the core to reach the playoffs and be successful with a defensive quartet led by Seider, but complemented by Walman, Chiarot and Petry? With Ville Husso and James Reimer in net? With Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp and J. T. Compher as the starting three centers?
The next generation is not bad, however, with Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper and Simon Edvinsson, among others. But they have to wait their turn.
The aging phase of the team suggests a desire for short-term success. If Detroit is excluded from the playoffs again, the blame will now be directed at Yzerman.
David Perron does not appear to have an expiration date. At 34 years old, he is coming off another very good offensive season with 24 goals and 56 points. He has 721 career points. Another good season could see him join Pavel Bure, Claude Lemieux and Alexei Yashin in the all-time top 200.
The 2022 first pick at No. 8, center Marco Kasper, had a good training camp. He knocks on the door.
Lucas Raymond made a splash in his first NHL season with 57 points, including 23 goals, in 82 games. His production dropped to 45 points, including 17 goals, in 74 games last year.
35-37-10, 80 points
7th in the section
Excluded from series
Dominik Kubalik, Filip Zadina, Pius Suter, Alex Chiasson, Adam Erne, Gustav Lindstrom
Jeff Petry, Alex DeBrincat, J.T. Compher, Shayne Gostisbehere, Klim Kostin, Justin Holl, Daniel Sprong, James Reimer
The years go by and are similar for the Canadian. Within management, we prefer realism to bold or unrealistic predictions, and for the second season in a row we will aim for a winter of collective and individual growth for the organization’s young players, without real expectations in terms of results.
We are getting even younger in Montreal. Jonathan Drouin and Paul Byron are gone, and Kent Hughes managed to jettison Joel Edmundson and Mike Hoffman while picking up a few draft picks in return.
The center line is promising with Nick Suzuki, 24, Kirby Dach, 22, and maybe Alex Newhook, also 22, all three top-15 picks on teams other than CH. Who said it’s impossible to find good centers on the transaction market?
Montreal is quite well endowed on the wings with Cole Caufield, Josh Anderson, the surprising Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Sean Monahan and Juraj Slafkovsky, of whom we have observed definite progress since the start of training camp.
The Canadian is still missing this elite number one defender capable of changing the course of a match. Mike Matheson did it at times last year when he was healthy. Does Kaiden Guhle have enough offensive instincts in him to become one? We will probably have to wait a few years, when Lane Hutson and David Reinbacher will be 22, 23 years old, and also, who knows, Logan Mailloux, William Trudeau or Mattias Norlinder, who increased their rating in training camp.
It’s also up to Samuel Montembeault to prove during the winter that he can be the leading goaltender sought by the organization.
Ignored during his first two years of eligibility for the draft, finally chosen in the seventh round by the CH in 2019, entered the professionals with an American League contract only, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard will start the season on one of the two offensive trios , after scoring 20 points, including 14 goals, in just 34 games last year.
Against all expectations, Mattias Norlinder was still with the Canadian towards the end of training camp. He is still considered a rookie even though he has been on the scene for a few years. He and Logan Mailloux should have the chance to play games in Montreal this season.
With just 8 goals in 37 games last year, and 7 in 56 games the previous season, can Brendan Gallagher give more, or is he worn out from his many seasons of giving and receiving hits?
31-45-6, 68 points
8th in the section
Excluded from series
Jonathan Drouin, Mike Hoffman, Joel Edmundson, Denis Gurianov, Rem Pitlick, Paul Byron
Alex Newhook, Gustav Lindstrom
