North Division
Teams in the North are: Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal
The beloved Leafs and the all-Canadian show down. This is going to be fun and all-out war. I think the cream here are Toronto and Calgary. The next question is likely going to be, “no love for the oilers or canucks?”. Well, let us take a closer look at those two teams before we jump into the rest. Vancouver had a nice run last year and they return a pretty good core. Benning has gotten some slack for some of his trades and his priorities with signings. For Vancouver it is simple for me, can they continue to be as good as they were without Markstrom and Tanev? Can Demko take the next step? It’s really possibly, but I’m going to wait and see, as it is his first full year with a long with Holtby back there. You lose Chris Tanev and Jacob Markstrom to Calgary, the guy you traded for in Tyler Toffoli is gone to Montreal. Their only real acquisition I can see is Nate Schmidt and resigning Virtanen. Goaltending is important in this league more so now with the ‘rona out and about; that’s why you saw some teams load up on them like the Leafs. Look at what happened to the Avs last year during the playoffs, they were a top team and had to rely on a third and fourth string goaltender after injuries.
McJesus and the Oilers! Last, I remember their goalies are still Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen and their D just added Tyson Barrie who took a discount to regain his form. So, while the team is going to be able to score a ton of goals this year, they will not be able to stop much until they address those goaltender needs. It is the same thing the Leafs went through, except the Leafs had a good goalie, their d was just shit. Barrie is more of Dwinger (a winger playing as a d man). He loves to push the puck and is a good skater, but defensively is a pylon. Their d corps doesn’t really shout defense to me.
The Leafs added Thornton, Simmonds, Barabanov, Lehtonen, Vesey, Bogosian, and Brodie. I think the Leafs offseason should give fans some hope. They changed their entire make up on the bottom 6 and we’ll see how that goes for them. A little more grit and I feel this is their best defensive make up in a while now. Early on, Kyle Dubas wanted to play fast and with more skill and I think we have all seen and learned that this isn’t possible (ie. Tampa Bay model). The once touted best scoring team let some of their depth scoring go in Kapenen and Johnsson. If they do not get past the first round, and for me, if they can’t win this division, I think you’re going to see a lot of changes on this team. By all accounts this team is super healthy and it starts with Tavares. If you guys watched the bubble, he was noticeably slower and lethargic in his play. I will attribute this to two things: not training at the level he would have liked cause of ‘rona lock downs but also, he put on some baby weight as he welcomed his first child last year. Reilly looks to be happy and has a chip on his shoulder. His season ending presser pretty much called out the entire team saying, “there’s no more they are close”. Thornton will surprisingly be on the top line with Marner and Matthews but won’t be playing the same amount as them. I think Vesey will be able to slide in nicely with his depth scoring for this team. Excited to see this team play and hoping no injuries. Honestly, if they can’t make a run with this team in this division expect a lot of changes.
Thornton/Matthews/Marner
Vesey/Tavares/Nylander
Mikheyev/Kerfoot/Hyman
Barabanov/Spezza/Simmonds
Reilly/Brodie
Muzzin/Holl
Lehtonen (Dermott)/Bogosian
Calgary adds Tanev, Markstrom and lose Brodie. This team looks good on paper, especially if you’re a believer that Johnny Hockey is going to have a bounce back season from last year. I love their top 3 lines and their d pairings are nice. I think if Markstrom is what he was last year, this team is going to be right there with the leafs. Dillon Dube is in line to take the next step and will eventually move up from the third line. This is the first time in a long time, since Kiprusoff, that Calgary has had a goalie statistical as good as Markstrom. They can score, they can hit and now it looks like they can play defense.
Other notes for the East:
-Ottawa is going to be a fun and competitive team, they are young but headed in the right direction
-Winnipeg will be interesting as they are right in the middle of the pack. A lot of distractions over there with Laine. No real opinion for me on them
-Montreal might be a surprise for some this year, can really create havoc in the standings. Should be a tough out most nights.
