There is going to be a long drawn out battle this year in the Atlantic. The Atlantic is going to be the toughest division in the Eastern Conference if not the NHL.
New Jersey Devils:
The New Jersey Devils look to be weakened with the loss of Brian Rafalski and Scott Gomez. However, they have replaced them with Karl Rachunek, Vitaly Vishnevski and Danius Zubrus.
These acquisitions alone may not seem enough to earn the Devils a playoff spot, but they also have some strong prospects in their system primed to step in. The likes of David Clarkson, Niklas Bergfors and Barry Tallackson are ready to contribute at the NHL level.
You can never count out the Devils with Martin Brodeur in net and Patrick Elias rallying the forwards. Brodeur can carry a team on his back and he will have a heavy work load this year if the Devils are to make the Playoffs.
It is a testament to the work of Devils GM Lou Lamoriello and Director of Scouting David Conte, that the Devils are able to compete year in and year out and have a nice pipeline of NHL caliber talent.
Let us not forget that the Devils also hired one of the most coveted coaches outside of the NHL, Brent Sutter and will undoubtedly bring his winning pedigree to his new job.
New York Islanders:
The Islanders are obviously hurting with the loss of Ryan Smyth and Jason Blake. They may have added Bill Guerin, Mike Comrie and finally bought out the cancer that was Alexie Yashin, however, they just don't seem to have enough talent to make the playoffs.
Mike Comrie just isn't good enough to be a first line center and might end up being replaced by Mike Sillinger when all is said and done. The Islanders have an obvious lack of top end talent in all areas of their team.
They will undoubtedly play with more grit in their second year under Ted Nolan's system, but it is unlikely that they will be able to compete with the All-Star level of talent in their division.
They are still suffering as a result of the years under Mike Milbury. Bad signings, one sided trades and poor drafting has resulted in little depth in the system to help right away.
It would be shocked if the Islanders finished any higher than the basement of the division and the bottom five of the East.
New York Rangers:
The Rangers not only improved their chances to return to the playoffs, but also made themselves a strong candidate to win the Stanley Cup.
They were very aggressive in free agency. They acquired a legitimate first line center in Scott Gomez to replace the departing Michael Nylander and added a clutch playoff contributor in Chris Drury.
The Rangers also re-signed important members of last year's playoff run, Brendan Shanahan, Henrik Lundqvist and Sean Avery.
Tom Renney continued to get the best out of the volatile personality Jaromir Jagr, but will Jagr get over the loss of his good friend Michael Nylander. Jagr can sulk when things don't go his way and he has already voiced his disappointment that Nylander wasn't retained.
The Rangers' defense is still their biggest weakness and they did nothing in the off-season to upgrade it. They did however, let Karl Rachunek leave. This opens up a spot in the lineup for a player with excellent bloodlines, Marc Staal. If he can finally transfer his play in junior into the NHL, he will be an instant upgrade to their defense.
The Rangers' offense is as strong as any in the league, as is their goal tending with the ever strong Henrik Lundqvist. This makes them a strong contender for the division title and more importantly the Stanley Cup.
Philadelphia Flyers:
There is no other team in the NHL that overhauled their roster like the Philadelphia Flyers and boy did they pay out some cash to do it.
No one can question that the Flyers will be the most improved team in the NHL after bringing in top end talent in Daniel Briere, Kimmo Timonen, Jason Smith, Scott Hartnell and more importantly re-signed Marty Biron.
The one problem that might result from all this change, is that they may have hurt their ability to retain some of their young guys in the future. The big money, long term contracts they handed out this off-season could become a burden around the Flyers' neck, if any of those players fail to produce. Their one saving grace is if the cap continues to rise (which recent predictions suggest) that will become less of an issue.
The Flyers will have a potent offense with their new additions plus an ever improving Jeff Carter and a returning Simon Gagne ready to feed off Briere.
Their defense has been improved immensely, the addition of Timonen and Smith will bring leadership and top end talent to a previously stale and slow defense.
They also have some excellent young talent almost ready to step in. Claude Giroux, Ryan Parent and Steve Downie to name a few.
The Flyers will go from the NHL's worse team to a safe bet for the playoffs.
Pittsburgh Penguin:
The Penguins are one of the most exciting teams to watch, lead by one of the most talented players in the game, Sidney Crosby.
The Penguins are still a team of kids, that include current NHL MVP Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Ryan Whitney and Marc-Andre Fluery. However, they have added veteren Petr Sykora to the fold, to give them a proven goal scorer and past Stanley Cup winner.
They were also surprisingly able to re-sign Gary Roberts who proved invaluable to the Penguins in the stretch run. Roberts returns to the Penguins and brings his strong work ethic, tenacious checking and wealth of experience to a very young team.
The Penguins also signed another past Stanley Cup winner, Darryl Sydor. He may not be the player he once was, but he brings more veteran experience that was desperately lacking from last year's team.
The Pens have an offense to match any in the NHL. However, their defence still leaves something to be desired, even with the addition of Sydor and the up and coming Kristopher Letang.
There is still some glaring holes in this team, they are lacking a stay at home, tough as nails defender and one top six scoring winger, which might limit how far they can go into the playoffs.
This team is obviously a playoff caliber team and will be looking to get past the first round. They will also push the Rangers all the way for the Division title, but a Stanley Cup contender they are not.
Predicted Final Division Standings:
1.Rangers
2.Penguins
3.Devils
4.Flyers
5.Islanders
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2 comments:
Price would benefit greatly from another year in the minors and so would the habs long term. Bob Gainey is no fool and i doubt very highly he would throw price to the wolves like the pens did with fleury(also lets not forget the yo yo fleury was on back and forth to the minors over money)
philly spent a ton in the offseason but will they go the way of teams built on money? with the young talent i can not see this happening but i do think it will take time for the team to gel and as a result will be a much better team at the end of the year.
the reangers hit the free agent center bonanza and very quickly become contenders. that is unless jagrs unhappiness over losing nylander produces the sopa opera we saw play out in his last season in pittsburgh.
the penguins have done very little in addressing there key weakness and that is there defense. sydor is a nice veteran addition but the defense is still lacking.
agreed the blueline back including MAF is what will make or break a strong run in the playoffs for the pens
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