The Hockey News' Yearbook is out, and it's full of predictions and projections, making for an interesting read. Here's my take on its Atlantic Division ranking prediction.
The Montreal Canadiens finished last season in third place in the Atlantic Division (even if it was because of a tie-breaker), earning themselves a first-round date with the Tampa Bay Lightning. As the new season approaches, the THN Yearbook predicts the Canadiens will finish even higher this season, in second place in their division behind the Florida Panthers.
Should that be the case, the Habs would at least have home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, which would certainly be an advantage. The prediction is not all that surprising; the Panthers are set to bounce back in a big way after missing both Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk for most of last season and acquiring Brady Tkachuk in the offseason.
The rest of the predicted Atlantic Division standings show the Lightning in third, the Toronto Maple Leafs in fourth, the Buffalo Sabres in fifth, the Ottawa Senators in sixth, the Boston Bruins in seventh, and the Detroit Red Wings in last place.
It would be surprising if the Bolts fell any lower than third place; they did lose Darren Raddysh, but they replaced him with John Carlsson, and to be frank, Jon Cooper always finds a way. The Leafs in fourth place seem a bit ambitious to me; yes, they’ve made plenty of changes, but most of those were throwing a lot of money to older free agents, a bit like the Nashville Predators did with disastrous results not so long ago. Seeing the Sabres regress would make sense given that they’ve lost Alex Tuch and have moved on from Bowen Byram, but I’m not convinced they’ll fall that low.
The Senators tried as hard as they could to make up for the loss of their captain, but William Eklund doesn’t bring the same type of energy as the youngest Tkachuk does. As for the Bruins, they could very well miss the playoffs for the second time in three years. JJ Peterka was a good add, but little else has moved the needle. As for the Wings, whether they end up moving Dylan Larkin or not, they’ll be in a weird situation. Trading your captain after he asked to move and gave a very limited, acceptable list of trade destinations rarely leads to a good return, and if they manage to convince him to stay in the wake of Steve Yzerman’s departure, he’ll still be the guy who wanted out- not a great example and hardly good for morale in the room.
As for the Canadiens, for the prediction to be true, organic growth will have to play a role again, as Kent Hughes hasn't been able to bring in any outside reinforcements despite trying his best.
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