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The top 5 Stanley Cup Contenders heading into this season

5 Best Teams in the NHL

By Matteo Giuliano

Edmonton Oilers v Toronto Maple Leafs
Edmonton Oilers v Toronto Maple Leafs / Claus Andersen/GettyImages
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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.

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