The top 5 Stanley Cup Contenders heading into this season
The Toronto Maple Leafs may or may not be done adding pieces to the roster this offseason, but clearly they have not done enough to cement themselves as a top team, as they currently lack a third-line centre, have inexperienced goaltending and an old blue-line.
Brad Treliving and the Toronto Maple Leafs front office gave the defense core a makeover, bringing in Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. At the same time, they let TJ Brodie, Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin walk in free agency.
While the team is better, they don't crack the top five cup contenders for me.
This current Leafs roster has question marks all around it. From if the goaltending will hold up to how will the new additions on the back end affect the team. Even if these questions end up being a positive for the Leafs this year, I think the five teams in this article are still stronger.
The top 5 Stanley Cup Contenders heading into this season
Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers came up just short of a historic comeback against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final last season. With Leon Draisaitl entering the final year of his contract, the future of the Oilers is a little bit up in the air; however, this is probably the strongest Oilers team of the McDavid era.
This summer the Oilers only lost Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Vincent Desharnais and Sam Carrick off their NHL roster. In return, they were able to bring back or bring in Jeff Skinner, Matthew Savoie, Corey Perry, Adam Henrique, and Viktor Arvidsson.
Edmonton's front office took one of the most dangerous forward cores in the league and added a guy in Jeff Skinner who scored 24 goals on the Sabres last season. I could easily see him scoring over 30 goals with him most likely getting game time with McDavid. Henrique was a good addition at the deadline for the Oilers. He made the third line click when he got into the third-line centre role. Bringing him back was big for this team.
Arvidsson is another very productive forward although he does have a long history of injury issues. I loved the Arvidsson signing for Edmonton and hopefully, he can stay healthy. (All statistics from NHL.com ).
The McLeod trade was fantastic for the Oilers. Getting a very talented forward in Savoie was a surprisingly big return. Adding talent on entry-level deals is big when you're paying big money to guys like McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse and the upcoming Bouchard deal.
While I'm still not a big fan of the blueline or goaltending, they showed they can go on a deep run with both the blueline and goaltending they have.