The top 5 Stanley Cup Contenders heading into this season
5 Best Teams in the NHL
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.
New York Rangers
The Rangers are coming off an Eastern Conference Semi-Final loss to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers.
The Rangers have studs all over their roster. Starting in the net with arguably the best goaltender in the NHL in Igor Shesterkin, a top three defenseman in the NHL in Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin amongst others in the forward group.
The Rangers have been a very solid team over the past three seasons. They've had two conference finals exits and a first-round exit to their divisional rivals, the New Jersey Devils.
During this offseason, the Rangers lost Barclay Goodrow, Erik Gustafsson, Alexander Wennberg and Jack Roslovic while bringing in Sam Carrick and Reilly Smith.
The offseason wasn't what puts the Rangers on this list. The losses aren't that significant and neither are the additions, although I don't mind Sam Carrick.
What puts New York on this list is what I outlined at the beginning. Their core is talented and I could see them getting over the hump and punching their ticket to a Stanley Cup Final.
If they do get over the hump, similar to the Leafs they're going to need to get more production from some of their big forwards in the playoffs. Specifically, Mika Zibanejad was held to just two assists in the six-game series loss at the hands of the Florida Panthers last season.
Florida Panthers
Unfortunately for the Leafs and the rest of the Atlantic Division, the Stanley Cup champions are going to be a good team again.
Coming off the first Stanley Cup victory in franchise history Florida had to let go of Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenlund and Anthony Stolarz. Panthers general manager Bill Zito brought in Nate Schmidt, Adam Boqvist, Jesper Boqvist, AJ Greer, MacKenzie Entwistle, Jaycob Megna and Chris Driedger.
There is no denying Florida took some hits with the outgoing players this offseason. While Montour didn't play as well last year as he did in the 2022-23 season, he was playing big minutes for Florida as he averaged 23:27 time on the ice. Oliver Ekman-Larsson found a role on the roster and was solid after he received tons of criticism for his play before his move to Florida.
Tarasenko was a deadline acquisition and played 19 games for the Panthers, scoring six goals and eight assists for 14 points. In the playoffs, he played in 24 games where he scored five goals and four assists for nine points. While his production wasn't spectacular, he was still a valuable part of the depth on the cup-winning roster.
There weren't any unreal additions for Florida this offseason however, they still have their core guys like Barkov, Tkachuk, Verhaeghe and Bobrovsky. Their blue line is still solid with guys like Ekblad, Forsling and Kulikov. I like the Nate Schmidt pick-up; he posted solid even-strength numbers with Winnipeg last year. DailyFaceoff.com has him listed as the third-pairing right-hand side defenseman. I think he can perform in that role.
We all know about their top forwards and they were able to extend Lundell to a five-year deal with an AAV of 5 million dollars. Keeping Reinhart was huge for them and they didn't lose much of their forward core from last year. I would like to see them make a move for another middle-six forward like they did with Tarasenko at the deadline last year.
Dallas Stars
These next two I think are probably a tier below Edmonton, New York and Florida but they're still very strong teams.
I haven't liked the Stars' moves this offseason however they still have their main core of players that got them to game six of the Western Conference final last year.
This offseason they lost Chris Tanev, Joe Pavelski, Ryan Suter, Radek Faska, Craig Smith, Ty Dellandrea and Scott Wedgewood.
The two biggest losses are Chris Tanev who was arguably the best deadline acquisition league-wide last season and Joe Pavelski. He retired after yet another solid season where he posted 27 goals and 40 assists for 67 points.
The Stars brought back Duchene on a good deal that is a year-long and worth three million dollars, Ilya Lyubushkin, Matt Dumba, Brendan Smith, Colin Blackwell and Casey DeSmith (All salary statistics from PuckPedia.com).
Lyubushkin and Dumba were two of my five worst signings of the offseason. Lyubushkin was locked up to a three-year deal with an average annual value of 3.25 million dollars. Dumba got a two-year deal with an AAV of 3.75 million. The money on both of the deals is way too expensive and the term doesn't make sense to me. I'm relieved Brad Treliving didn't make that Lyubushkin deal.
Even with those two bad deals, the Stars are still going to get another year of Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Miro Heiskanen, and a wildcard in Mavrik Bourque. Bourque is projected as the third-line centre on dailyfaceoff.com heading into his rookie year. They also have a strong veteran core with Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene.
Oettinger had a down year last regular season for his standards. He played 54 games posting a .905 save percentage, 0.49 goals saved above average and a goals saved above expected of 1.46. He had a great playoff, playing 19 games and posted a .915 save percentage, 3.77 goals saved above average and 4.93 goals saved above expected (All advanced statistics from EvolvingHockey.com).
This team has a lot of talent and I'm excited to watch another year of their young forwards. They're always solid and they'll be a top team in the West yet again.
Nashville Predators
Nashville was the biggest player in free agency this summer. Barry Trotz added Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Brady Skjei and Scott Wedgewood. They lost Jason Zucker, Kiefer Sherwood and Anthony Beauvillier.
The Predators have built a very solid forward core, headlined by Ryan O'Reilly, Steven Stamkos, Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault. I also like some of their other forwards like Tommy Novak and Luke Evangelista.
The defence core is solid and is currently projected on DailyFaceoff.com as Skjei and Josi on the first pair, followed by Jeremy Lauzon and Alexandre Carrier as well as a third pair of Spencer Stastney and former Leaf, Luke Schenn.
I'm a big fan of Saros and was hoping he would become available in a trade for the Leafs but Nashville locked him up to an eight-year deal with an AAV of 7.74 million dollars. If Saros plays up to his ability they have an elite number one in between the pipes.
This team is built to win now and I can't wait to watch them hit the ice. Stamkos and Marchessault are both upset with their former teams and are coming into the season with a chip on their shoulder.
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Forsberg doesn't get enough credit for how good he is and Ryan O'Reilly is still a good player at the age of 33. I would like to see them trade for another centre but there is time throughout the season to make that happen.