Way too early Atlantic division predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs

2. Florida Panthers

The Stanley Cup champions won the Atlantic last season with 110 points.

Florida did lose some pieces off their roster. Montour, Ekman-Larsson, Stenlund, Lomberg, Tarasenko, Cousins and Stolarz all left the roster this offseason. Their additions consisted of Nate Schmidt, Tomas Nosek, MacKenzie Entwistle, Jesper Boqvist, Adam Boqvist and Chris Dreidger.

The Panthers didn't lose much off of the forward core. Tarasenko was alright for them when he was acquired at the deadline. Stenlund, Lomberg and Cousins are bottom six players who are replaceable and Stolarz didn't play tons of games throughout the season.

The loss of Montour will hurt, but OEL won't be missed as he went to Toronto for an extreme overpayment. Forsling and Ekblad will ensure the Panthers still have a top blue-line, and they may have league's best mix of stars and depth up front.

There isn't much to say about this roster. They won the cup last year and retained all their biggest pieces. The forward core has quality players throughout the lineup and the blue line should still be solid. The goaltending should be solid yet again.

Florida will be a force to be reckoned with yet again this year, although there is some question to whether Barkov and Reinhart can repeat their magical seasons. Especially Renheart, as he played way, way above his head last year and it would be surprising if he continued to play at an MVP level.