Way too early Atlantic division predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs

6. Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings were in the race for a wild card spot all the way to the end last season. They ended up missing the playoffs off tie breakers with Washington and finished fifth in the Atlantic with 91 points.

While Detroit had a fun year last year and made things interesting I thought their offseason was confusing and disappointing. Yzerman brought in Vladimir Tarasenko, Erik Gustafsson, Cam Talbot, former Leaf Jack Campbell, former Leaf William Lagesson and Tyler Motte. They lost Jake Walman in a head-scratching trade where they had to attach a second-round pick to him to get him to San Jose. They also lost David Perron, Shayne Gostisbehere, former Leaf James Reimer, former Leaf Zach Aston-Reese, Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong.

The forward core is decent with some young guys like Lucas Raymond, who may be able to take another step as well as studs like Dylan Larkin. DeBrincat didn't even reach 30 goals last season which marks two straight years of him failing to score 30 goals in a full 82 games season. If Detroit wants to take another step he needs to find the form he had in the 2021-22 season, where he scored 41 goals in Chicago. Tarasenko and Kane are both older however, Kane is coming off a year where he still scored close to a point per game but at this point most of his value comes on the power-play. Their centre depth is weak with J.T. Compher as their second-line centre and that needs an upgrade.

On the back end, I like Seider and he can take another step. Simon Edvinsson looks like he is about to play his first full year of NHL hockey. It'll be interesting to see how the 2021 sixth-overall pick performs. As for the rest of it, I'm not a fan of Ben Chiarot and his 4.75 million dollar cap hit, Jeff Petry is an older right-hand shot who has a tough time in his own end and Erik Gustafsson is a solid puck-mover. Olli Maatta and Justin Holl will also slot into the lineup throughout the year(All salary statistics from PuckPedia.com). 

I expect Yzerman to trade Husso and dailyfaceoff.com currently has the tandem as Talbot and Lyon. Both Talbot and Lyon had a decent year last yearbutTalbot is another year older heading into the season at the age of 37. Lyon is fine and was big for Detroit last year. 

I don't think they improved enough in comparison to everybody around them in the division which is why they drop a spot lower from last year.