The NHL standings are not overly difficult to predict, aside from the 2 or 3 teams that seem to find a way to shock us every year. One need only look to the standings from the previous season, along with the transactions that had occurred during the off-season to predict whether or not a team has improved or regressed.
Example: The Florida Panthers are a good team to predict an improvement for this season, with the addition of two-time Vezina winner, Sergei Bobrovsky. The New York Islanders are a good team to predict a regression for, having downgraded in the crease from Robin Lehner, who had a stellar season putting up Vezina caliber numbers, to Semyon Varmalov, who has been a portrait of inconsistency over the last four seasons.
With that said, I would like to take a look at the 7 Canadian franchises and try to best predict where they will finish in the standings this season.
The Calgary Flames are the studs in the West as far as I'm concerned. Sure, the Vegas Golden Knights are poised for another fantastic season, and are sure to improve with a full season of Mark Stone in the fold. Sure, the St. Louis Blues just won the Stanley Cup and are coming back with a very similar roster again this season. Sure, the Nashville Predators have just signed Matt Duchene to give them some very solid depth down the middle. However, the Calgary Flames finished this past season head and shoulders above all of these teams and Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and the rest of the kids in Calgary are only getting better with time.
The Flames have added Cam Talbot and Milan Lucic and removed James Neal and Mike Smith during this off-season. In my opinion, these were both smart moves, as Smith and Neal are not getting any younger and Milan Lucic will produce for his team in a different way than on the scoresheet. Cam Talbot is a serviceable NHL goaltender, but I expect David Rittich to win the starting job and run with it.
Prediction: The Flames finish with 105 points and atop the West once again.
The Edmonton Oilers are a team with an abundance of talent. Unfortunately for them, that talent is spread across only 3 players. There was a lot of hope for the Oilers after posting 103 points and making the playoffs in 2016-'17, but the next two seasons held only disappointment for the them, finishing with under 80 points and outside of the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
It's difficult to imagine the Oilers improving enough internally to win an extra 10 games this season and break into the playoffs, but stranger things have happened. Personally, I don't see James Neal and Mike Smith as the answers.
Prediction: Edmonton starts strong on the heels of McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins, but loses steam by Christmas and falls completely out of the playoff picture by the trade deadline. They do, however, break 80 points.
The Montreal Canadiens were close to making the playoffs last season and this season, they will work their way into a wild card spot. This team is too young and too good to fail to put it together. On top of a talented young core of Max Domi, Jonathan Drouin, Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, they have quite a strong supporting cast in Shea Weber, Tomas Tatar, Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault and one of the best goalies in the world, Carey Price.
This year, Ryan Poehling and Nick Suzuki should have every chance to crack the Habs roster. The Habs don't exactly need an injection of youth, but these kids are too good to stay down. I can see Poehling making the team out of camp and Nick Suzuki starting the season in the AHL, but ending up with the big club by Christmas.
Prediction: The Canadiens grab a wild card spot before the All-Star break and ride it right into the playoffs with 97 points.
The Ottawa Senators are currently in the process of a full rebuild. I don't think this will come as a surprise to anyone, but I see this team finishing dead-last in the standings and heading into the draft lottery with the best chance at drafting 1st overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.
Prediction: The Sens finish dead-last with 63 points and walk onto the draft floor to select Alexis Lafreniere 1st overall in 2020.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are poised for another massive season. That is, of course, unless Mitch Marner happens to sit this one out while negotiating a new contract. The early rumblings had the Leafs and Marner very far apart on both dollars and term. Since then, the consensus seems to be that the sticking point now is the term. If the Leafs can lock Marner up before the season begins, they stand a very good chance at finishing near the top of the Eastern Conference once again. If not, they may be in for a rough season without their 2018-2019 points-leader.
Toronto comes into this season having re-tooled their blue line after the departures of Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev. Newcomers Tyson Barrie, Cody Ceci and Ben Harpur are probably the early favourites to line up beside Jake Muzzin, Morgan Rielly and Travis Dermott (IR), but it's really too early to tell which pairings will stick and whether or not these defensemen will show an improvement over the Buds' past defense corps. There may be a lot of work ahead for Freddie Andersen again this season.
Prediction: Marner signs following training camp, but before the season begins. The Leafs go 3-4-3 in their first 10 games and the Toronto media blows it up, like they do with everything. The Leafs respond by winning 15 of their next 20 games and go on to finish 2nd in the Atlantic, behind the Lightning, with 108 points.
The Vancouver Canucks are a team that seems to be on the cusp of putting it all together. They have a couple of young superstars in the making with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser, some promising prospects in Thatcher Demko, Adam Gaudette, Quinn Hughes and Olli Juolevi, great depth with Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller, Micheal Ferland, Sven Baertschi and Jake Virtanen, and a capable blue line that just added Tyler Myers and Jordie Benn.
They are still a piece or two away from becoming a real threat, but I can see this team surprising and out-working a lot of teams this season. As long as Boeser and Pettersson remain healthy all season, they should have no problem putting the puck in the net 30 or 40 times apiece. Given that they are still missing a couple of pieces though, I don't know if I see them as a playoff team.
Prediction: This Canucks team will be this year's Carolina Hurricanes and win a lot of games they probably shouldn't. I do think they miss the playoffs, but I think they are at least within striking distance for most of the season and finish at 87 points.
The Winnipeg Jets are going to be looked at as an interesting team this season. They have lost Chiarot, Trouba and Myers from the blue line and I'm not sure that Sami Niku, Neal Pionk and Tucker Poolman will adequately fill the holes left behind by the three departed rearguards. There are a lot of question marks here. Hopefully netminders Connor Hellebuyck and Laurent Brossoit are up to the challenge if the new-look Jets D-pairings are slow to develop chemistry.
The blue line aside, the Jets have some of the best forward depth in the NHL. The problem here is that two of their most promising young snipers, Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine, are still restricted free agents and are currently negotiating new contracts, but are as of right now, considered to be far apart on either term or dollars. Assuming these contracts both get sorted out before the start of the season, what they lack in defense, they might make up for on offense.
If one of Laine or Connor happen to miss the start of the season, look for Kristian Vesalainen to squeeze his way into the top 6 and turn some heads in the hockey world.
Prediction: The Jets struggle due to the turnover on their blue line. Due to the lack of quality competition coming out of the Pacific again this season, the Jets sneak in with the final wild card spot, narrowly edging out Arizona's with 91 points.
