Jacob Stoller and Patrick Williams discuss potential September Sweethearts who have an outside chance of cracking an NHL roster. Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby celebrate a goal as Marcus Foligno looks on during an April 6 matchup. [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAwNjU2OTcwNjI4MjExOTE2/usatsi_20410283.jpg] Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby celebrate a goal as Marcus Foligno looks on during an April 6 matchup. With NHL training camps right around the corner, teams will begin finalizing their rosters to prepare for the upcoming 2023-24 season. Some teams – such as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes – are set to contend for the Stanley Cup. Several others – including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames – are hoping to make the playoffs after missing last season. And then there are other teams – hello Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets – that will continue to rebuild for the future. Here’s a division-by-division look at teams that we expect to be overachievers, underachievers and X-factors this season. ATLANTIC DIVISION Overachiever: Toronto Maple Leafs Superstar Auston Matthews is signed long-term, William Nylander and John Tavares both have two years left on their deals, and GM Brad Treliving immediately got to work adding grit to the roster by bringing in Ryan Reaves and Dylan Gambrell. He also added quality forwards such as Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to take some of the offensive pressure off the Leafs’ stars while simultaneously strengthening the defense corps by bringing in John Klingberg and Simon Benoit on cap-friendly deals. A 50-win team last season, they’ll contend for the division and ride the momentum of their first playoff series win in 19 years. Underachiever: Boston Bruins They finished 65-12-5 last season, the best regular-season record in NHL history, only to lose in seven games in the first round to the Florida Panthers, who barely scraped into the playoffs. With all their departures in the off-season – including franchise heartbeat Patrice Bergeron and longtime B’s veteran David Krejci to retirement, Taylor Hall to trade and Bertuzzi to free agency – there will definitely be some regression. Even by adding Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Shattenkirk, who will combine to provide scoring, physicality and special-teams minutes, the Bruins have a lot of work to do if they want to find themselves in the top half of the Atlantic. X-Factor: Ottawa Senators With new owners and relatively the same young talented core – except for replacing Alex DeBrincat with Vladimir Tarasenko on a one-year, $5-million deal – Ottawa has the potential and talent to make the playoffs. If new No. 1 goalie Joonas Korpisalo brings consistency between the pipes, the likelihood of being a post-season team increases. It’s all up to D.J. Smith and the coaching staff to put it all together, which didn’t quite happen last season. METROPOLITAN DIVISION Overachiever: Pittsburgh Penguins The Penguins missed the playoffs last season for the first time in 16 years due to a lack of secondary scoring and a below-average defense. But they made a huge splash this summer, trading for three-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson, an excellent offensive defenseman who’s coming off a 25-goal, 101-point season. Pittsburgh’s top six forwards accounted for two-thirds of the team’s goals last year. Signing UFA forwards Reilly Smith, Lars Eller, Noel Acciari and Matt Nieto, as well as two-way defenseman Ryan Graves, will boost the secondary scoring while adding physicality and grit on the forecheck. Playoffs are certain. Underachiever: New York Islanders At the top of the Metro are the Hurricanes, Rangers and Devils, all of whom made key additions in the off-season. Meanwhile, the Islanders’ biggest acquisition was right winger Julien Gauthier, who’s never been more than a bottom-six guy to this point in his career. There’s talent down the middle in Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal, and Ilya Sorokin is one of the best goalies in the league, but GM Lou Lamoriello’s team doesn’t have a lot of depth that can make a difference in a playoff hunt. A wild-card team last season, the Isles may not have the juice to make the dance this time around. X-Factor: Washington Capitals The Capitals were the fourth-worst team in the East last year and enter the 2023-24 campaign as one of the oldest teams in the NHL. Still, the Caps can make some noise, especially with Hall of Fame lock and goal-scoring great Alex Ovechkin, plus wily vets T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Adding left winger Max Pacioretty and physical D-man Joel Edmundson will help, but with an aging roster, a brand-new coach and an offense where only three players had more than 38 points last year, it’s a big question mark in DC. CENTRAL DIVISION Overachiever: Colorado Avalanche The Avalanche had the seventh-best record in the NHL last season but faltered in seven games against the Seattle Kraken in that franchise’s first-ever playoff series. With Gabriel Landeskog sitting out the entire 2023-24 season due to injury, GM Chris MacFarland spent up to the cap ceiling to retool his squad that oozes Stanley Cup-winning potential. Acquiring Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Johansen, Miles Wood and Ross Colton will add creativity, playmaking, skill and goal-scoring to their top and bottom six. Their goaltending tandem of Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz is quietly underrated and could become one of the NHL's best, which would surely be a formula for success. Underachiever: Minnesota Wild The Wild finished with a 46-25-11 record but lost in six games to the Dallas Stars in Round 1. Minnesota lost a couple of depth forwards in the off-season in Gustav Nyquist and Ryan Reaves, who provided secondary scoring and physicality on the forecheck, respectively. (Not to mention, nobody messes with your skill players when you’ve got feared enforcer Reaves for protection.) They also lost offensive defenseman John Klingberg, a huge factor on the power play with his excellent playmaking abilities, as well as longtime Wild D-man Matt Dumba. The Wild are going younger, led by star forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek. But they lack bottom-six depth, they’re tight against the cap ceiling, and with their continued goal-scoring struggles, they’ll be fighting for a wild-card spot. Finally, can Marc-Andre Fleury, at age 38, remain a consistent No. 1 option? Filip Gustavsson has never started more than 40 games. X-Factor: Arizona Coyotes Matt Dumba, Jason Zucker, Alex Kerfoot, Nick Bjugstad, Troy Stecher and Travis Dermott are quality veterans the Coyotes brought in to help develop their young talents such as Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Dmitriy Simashev, among many others. With tons of cap room and draft capital at his disposal, GM Bill Armstrong has a lot to work with. If he plays his cards right, Arizona might just find itself in a playoff race. PACIFIC DIVISION Overachiever: Vancouver Canucks The Canucks had a winning record under coach Rick Tocchet, despite enduring a tumultuous campaign involving controversy regarding how the organization handled coach Bruce Boudreau’s dismissal. The main issue last season was the lack of a consistent defense corps, particularly in transition. GM Patrik Allvin addressed that by signing Carson Soucy to a three-year, $9.75-million deal. He’ll log top-four minutes at 5-on-5 and see time on the special teams. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, he adds some size, he defends the forecheck well and is great defensively in transition. Add veteran defenseman Ian Cole to round out the depth ‘D’ pairings and factor in Thatcher Demko, who was stellar in 2021-22, and the Canucks can slide in as a wild-card team. Underachiever: Calgary Flames The Flames missed the playoffs by two points in 2022-23, but it feels like they had an incomplete off-season. They lost Tyler Toffoli – a critical part of their offense who recorded career highs in virtually every offensive stat last year – as well as Milan Lucic and Troy Stecher, a gritty bottom-six forward and a smart, creative offensive defenseman, respectively. First-time NHL head coach Ryan Huska is the new bench boss, replacing Darryl Sutter, so a new regime will be implemented, which takes time. There will be some adjusting to do, and the Flames might stay where they are or fall down the table a bit. X-Factor: Seattle Kraken The Pacific Division is a three-team race between the Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings, but the Kraken are right behind. Don’t be surprised if Seattle contends for its first division title. They’ll ride the momentum of their first-ever playoff series win. With new additions like defenseman Brian Dumoulin, winger Kailer Yamamoto and forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to bolster their depth without breaking the bank, the Kraken may reach 50 wins if their goaltending stays strong. Yamamoto is coming off an injury-plagued year, but if he can match his 20-goal, 40-point pace in 2021-22, they won’t have a problem replacing Daniel Sprong’s production.
