The Atlantic Division

Hot Takes 

Demidov Dominates

A quick look at the BetMGM odds would tell you that backing Canadiens winger Ivan Demidov to win the Calder Trophy is far from a hot take. However, not only will Demidov win the award, he will take the league by storm. Beyond the players included in the above photo, Michael Misa, Zayne Parekh, Jimmy Snuggerud and Ryan Leonard will round out what looks to be a fantastic rookie class. While they are all phenomenal young players, Ivan Demidov will reduce that list of elite young talent to afterthoughts outside of their own fanbases.

At the end of last season, Demidov displayed his elite attributes for the world to see, proving that he has the talent to be an offensive force from the jump. Additionally, he will benefit from  playing alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Combine Demidov’s elite offensive game with the elite talent around him, and it doesn’t feel far-fetched to expect thirty goals and seventy-five points out of the Russian in year one.

Senators Fall Short

Last season, the Senators’ young core took a crucial step, snapping their seven-year playoff drought. They have the pieces to continue, but the eastern conference as a whole will be better and healthier than the previous season, leaving the Senators as the odd team out. Their big guns should still shine despite missing out on the postseason, but the team as a whole will disappoint in 2025-2026. 

Boston Bruins Bottom Out

Although the B’s finished dead last in 2024-2025 as well, that was mainly due to a massive sell-off at the deadline. In their first full year without Brad Marchand, they will repeat as a last place team, looking significantly worse than the year prior. For the first time in over fifteen years, the once-great Bruins will be truly bad, mainly attributed to a shocking lack of depth. The Bruins are the only team in their division that didn’t improve over the offseason, and their form will suffer due that. 

Standings Predictions

1. Toronto Maple Leafs- 110 Points

The big storyline for the Leafs will be how they perform without superstar winger Mitch Marner, who signed with the Vegas Golden Knights after another disappointing postseason this past spring. For those who have been following along in this series, I predicted Marner’s new team to top the league-wide standings, but the Leafs will be very far behind. 

After an injury-riddled 2025, expect Auston Matthews to get back to his usual tallies of (at least) fifty goals this season. Young power forward Matthew Knies should continue to grow alongside him, and William Nylander can be expected to continue to hit forty goals and produce at point-per game pace. Toronto native John Tavares took a big pay cut in the offseason, and he aims to aid his younger co-stars as he enters his mid-thirties, coming off of a point-per-game season just last year.

Alongside the big guns, the Leafs brought in overlooked playmaker Matias Macceli to try and fill the void left by Marner, which he should be partially capable of. Given a large role for the first time in his career, the former disgruntled Utah Mammoth winger is an amazing passer, and the litany of elite scorers that Macceli is now teammates with will all benefit from his skillset. Beyond the elite forward talent, both the goaltending tandem and defense core is the best unit the Leafs have had in Auston Matthews entire career. While it’s impossible to believe in this team come playoff time, the Leafs look poised to repeat as Division winners.

2. Florida Panthers- 107 Points

Whether they finish as President’s Trophy winners or sneak into the playoffs, this Panthers unit have their goals set far beyond the regular season, as they look to be the first three-peat champions since the Islanders of the early 1980’s. Following a summer that saw them re-sign three key contributors (Marchand, Bennett, Ekblad), the Panthers are looking like a well-oiled machine. General Manager Bill Zito has been lauded all offseason retaining their Cup-winning core, and lengthening their contention window by several years due to his excellent team building. 

While Matthew Tkachuk will again miss multiple months due to a hard-fought postseason, the rest of the Panthers will be far healthier, and team chemistry simply couldn’t be higher. This will lead to a slight increase in regular season points between this year and last, as little as it may matter to this unit. Alex Barkov is a preseason favorite to win his fourth Selke Trophy, with his best competition coming from linemate Sam Reinhardt, who should contend for the Rocket Richard trophy. The Panthers will have every opportunity to try for a third straight Stanley Cup (and fourth straight finals appearance) after what should be a fantastic regular season.

3. Montreal Canadiens- 101 Points

This is where the list gets interesting. While there is a dropoff in team quality after the Leafs and Panthers, the young Canadiens will be the best of the rest in the Atlantic this season.Some division rivals have more depth on their roster, but none of them have the explosive upside that the Canadiens do. 

Last season, we saw Montreal shatter pre-season expectations, sneaking into a playoff spot. This summer, they acquired star defenseman Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders to add even more scoring punch to an already offensive-minded blueline. Additionally, the Canadiens rounded out their forward group by trading for Blues forward Zach Bolduc. The team still has weaknesses in the bottom six and on the defensive side of the game, but they seemed to have improved on both fronts with their offseason additions.

It’s clear that the Canadiens roster isn’t fine-tuned for deep playoff runs, but the overpaid depth will slowly filter out as their young stars blossom. Until then, expect Demidov, Hutson, Suzuki, Dobson & Caufield to run a high-powered offense that sees their team fly up the standings, landing them in third place in this season’s Atlantic.

4. Tampa Bay Lightning- 96 Points

To put it simply, this prediction is the riskiest of the entire series. The Lightning have the most star-studded top six in the league, and the majority of their cup-winning core is still performing at an elite level. However, this will be the first year that the aging Lightning shows signs of slowing during the regular season. The high-end talent in the Lightning’s Kucherov-led offense will continue to fire on all cylinders, but they may begin to show signs of mortality this year. As phenomenal as Victor Hedman (34) and Ryan McDonagh (36) have been during their 15+ year careers, their slight regression due to father time will significantly hurt the team on the defensive end.This defensive downturn will hurt goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy the most. The future Hall of Fame netminder is only 31, but his numbers could easily dip back to 2023-2024 form (.900 SV%) with a weaker team in front of him. The Lightning are still a playoff team, but younger groups in their own division will begin to smell blood in the water sooner rather than later.

5. Ottawa Senators- 93 Points

Many look at Montreal as a team who made the playoffs last year and will miss out this coming season, but there is a candidate far more likely to drop out of the big dance in Canada’s capital city. The forward core of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson should have no trouble continuing to produce, but the remainder of the forward group is untrustworthy at best. David Perron and Claude Giroux are too old to be relied upon at this stage, and no young forward is prepared to adequately take their spot, unless Stutzle & Tkachuk carry whoever joins them on what will be a productive top line.  

Beyond the forward core, the depth is a strong suit. Their top d-pairing of Jake Sanderson and Artyom Zub should be elite, and the d-unit as a whole will go as far as Sanderson (23) will take them. The second pair of Thomas Chabot and Nick Jensen exceeded expectations last season, showing up on both sides of the ice. Even the bottom pair, which is slightly held back by Tyler Kleven, is bolstered with the acquisition of Jordan Spence, a young offensive defenseman held back by a lack of opportunities on the LA Kings. The defense is rounded out with a goaltending tandem of Linus Ullmark and Leevi Merilainen. Ullmark will continue to perform well with the help of his defense, and Merilainen showed he is ready to step up in Ullmark’s absence last season. 

This Senators team is a true wild card. They have all the makings of a playoff team, and the only thing holding them back will be lack of scoring from their forward depth. This year may be a setback, but expect the Senators to continue to trend upwards in the coming seasons.

6. Detroit Red Wings- 86 Points

Detroit have had their share of problems under GM Steve Yzerman’s rebuild, but offseason acquisition of goalie John Gibson seems to have plugged their biggest hole. While having a good goalie will make life much easier in motor city, the team still lacks in every other area of the ice. Dylan Larkin is extremely consistent, and linemate Lucas Raymond seems to have surpassed Larkin’s star status right before our eyes. While Alex Debrincat, youngster Marco Kasper and aging Patrick Kane are decent depth, there is absolutely nothing worth relying on beyond them. On defense, Mo Seider is fantastic, but overplayed and over-relied on.With the help of fellow Swedes Simon Edvinsson and superstar prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka, this Detroit defense will look the best it has the entire rebuild. Regardless, this Red Wings team is too flawed, and an awful bottom six will continue to hold this team back. 

7. Buffalo Sabers- 81 Points

This franchise continues to be miserable, adding J.J. Peterka to the ever-growing list of former Sabers stars traded away. Losing Peterka is a huge blow, but there is still hope for the future in Buffalo. Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin are certified superstars, and they have decent talent around them. Adding Michael Kesselring to a d-core already stocked with 2 first overall picks makes this team more interesting, but they still have far less going for them than the six teams finishing above them. A breakout season from Zach Benson could make things interesting on the front end, as could sustained play from any of Josh Norris, Jack Quinn or Jiri Kulich. The Sabers seem to have direction, but other teams in the Atlantic have blown by them in recent seasons.

8. Boston Bruins- 65 Points

Rounding out the division, we have the Boston Bruins. Superstar David Pastrnak will keep this team a must-watch, but the forward core is completely desolate beyond him. While Elias Lindholm should put up decent numbers as long as he’s playing with Pastrnak, the already bad forward unit took steps back this offseason, buying low on Tanner Jeannot and Viktor Arvidsson. The defence has a lot more going for it, but the top pairing of Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy will have to do a lot of heavy lifting if this team wants to win games. In net, Jeremy Swayman was awful last year (.892 SV%, 3.11 GAA), fresh off signing his 8-year deal that will pay him $8.25 million per season. Though I expect a sizable bounceback from Swayman, it’s clear he needs a backup who can fill in for around 25 games a season, a task which Joonas Korpisalo is underqualified for. The Bruins are a bounceback candidate throughout NHL media, but that is entirely due to the team culture they have built over the last two decades, which appears to be entirely absent from this current Bruins team. 

Wrap Up- Final Thoughts

This Atlantic division reminds me of the Central Division, which is some good company to be in. There are six teams that could realistically end the season in the playoffs, and competition for wild card spots should be fierce. However, where Atlantic teams differ from their Central adversaries is the team depth. While I expect very entertaining regular season hockey from all eight teams just ranked, two things will keep playoff-hopefuls in the Atlantic from a deep playoff run; lack of depth and the Florida Panthers, the formidable outlier of the division.