For the first year in a while, there is a lot of legitimate hope and excitement surrounding the Buffalo Sabres to start the hockey season. While this has been said a few times in this decade-long rebuild, this time truly feels different. There was a culture shift halfway through last season, and we now enter the 2022-23 season with a group of young, talented players who are excited to be Buffalo Sabres and eager to improve and compete together.
Playoffs may not be on the table just yet, but the Sabres will at least look to take some steps forward and be in the playoff picture for more than half the season, and play those fabled “meaningful games in March” that Jason Botterill alluded to an eternity ago. However, while the Sabres largely stuck with the same group of players, the rest of the Atlantic Division loaded up for an intra-division arms race. Some teams are on the rise and looking to prove they belong with the big boys, while some are desperately trying to stay on top of the mountain by whatever means necessary. Let’s take a dive into their off-seasons and what may lie ahead for the Sabres’ most common enemies this year.
Boston Bruins
Top Players: Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy
Key Additions: David Krejci, Pavel Zacha
Key Subtractions: Erik Haula, Curtis Lazar
X-Factor: Jeremy Swayman
The world has been waiting for the Bruins to decline for the past decade, but this team just refuses to die. When it appeared they were in trouble early in the offseason, they once again found a way to retool and do whatever they can to stay in the playoff picture. Many were wondering if it was finally the end after All-Stars Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy (along with others) got surgeries that will hold them out well into the season, and Patrice Bergeron was left without a contract for quite some time. But then Bergeron decides to resign and David Krejci comes back from Czechia to run it back, and suddenly the Bruins appear to be back in business. It will be key for young goalie Jeremy Swayman to build upon his solid rookie season and hold down the fort while the Bruins’ stars recover from their injuries if they want to make some noise this year.
Detroit Red Wings
Top Players: Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond
Key Additions: Andrew Copp, David Perron, Ben Chiarot, Dominik Kubalik
Key Subtractions: None
X-Factor: Filip Zadina
The Red Wings are in a similar spot to the Sabres where they have a solid young core in place, but they decided to take a more aggressive approach this offseason. With Dylan Larkin leading the way and Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider having stellar rookie seasons, Stevie Y decided to shore up the team’s depth both on offense and defense. Andrew Copp and David Perron will likely both be on the second line, and Ben Chiarot will hopefully be able to regain his form as a solid defensive defenseman. With Ville Husso coming in to form a solid goalie tandem with Alex Nedeljkovic and another stalwart rookie defenseman on the way in Simon Edvinsson, the Wings certainly have the reinforcements to start making moves up the standings this year. We’ve been waiting for a Filip Zadina breakout season for a couple of years now, so this being the year would be huge for Detroit’s playoff chances. The Wings will be one of the more interesting teams to watch this year.
Florida Panthers
Top Players: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad, Carter Verhaeghe
Key Additions: Tkachuk, Rudolfs Balcers, Chris Tierney
Key Subtractions: Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Mason Marchment, Claude Giroux, Ben Chiarot
X-Factor: Anton Lundell
After bursting onto the scene as the President’s Trophy winners last season, the Florida Panthers had one of the most chaotic off-seasons in the league this summer. Florida had the deepest forward group in hockey and decided to bolster the roster with pricey rentals such as Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot for what they hoped would be a lengthy playoff run. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough for them to beat the Lightning, and with the salary cap staying flat for another year, the free agency market picked the Panthers clean of their newfound depth and deadline rentals. With star players Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar having raises coming in free agency next year, the Panthers decided to use them in a trade to get young star winger Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary. It was the type of blockbuster you rarely see in hockey, and time will tell which team will end up on the favorable end of its history. Florida is now left scrambling to find new depth options throughout the lineup, and it will take breakout seasons from youngsters like Anton Lundell or Spencer Knight to keep the Panthers afloat-or they’ll sink just as quickly as they rose.
Montreal Canadiens
Top Players: Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki
Key Additions: Mike Matheson, Kirby Dach, Juraj Slafkovsky
Key Subtractions: Jeff Petry, Ryan Poehling, Alexander Romanov, Carey Price (injury)
X-Factor: Slafkovsky
The riches-to-rags tale that the Canadiens endured the past season caused a lot of upheaval in the organization, and the team is now barely recognizable compared to the team that made the Stanley Cup Final just two years ago. The new GM/coach regime of Kent Hughes and Martin St. Louis has shipped out the vets and embraced the youth movement at the start of what they hope will be a quick rebuild. Carey Price’s injuries will likely keep him out for the year, so youngsters Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield now lead the charge. The biggest thing for the Canadiens in the long term will be whether they made the right choice with the first overall pick in the draft this year. It’s easy to see the upside Juraj Slafkovsky has, but he is still a very raw prospect that needs tons of refinement and they passed up on bona fide prospects such as Shane Wright to do it. One way or another, it will likely be the defining move of their rebuild for better or worse. Time will tell if they made the right move, but for now, it’s time for Habs fans to sit back and embrace the rebuild.
Ottawa Senators
Top Players: Alex DeBrincat, Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, Claude Giroux
Key Additions: DeBrincat, Giroux, Cam Talbot
Key Subtractions: Matt Murray
X-Factor: Tim Stutzle
Pierre Dorion’s infamous “the rebuild is over” quote last off-season inevitably failed to be true, causing the hockey world to laugh at the Ottawa Senators a lot over the past year. However, the organization seemed to be motivated to not make the same mistake this year, as they acquired legit talent through trade in free agency. After managing to free themselves of Matt Murray’s cap hit, the Sens made the biggest trade of draft night when they acquired Alex DeBrincat from the Blackhawks (for a pretty cheap price considering his talent). They continued to stack their forward group by convincing Claude Giroux to come home, and suddenly Ottawa looks dangerous up front. Tim Stutzle seems ready to break out, and surrounding him with those sorts of talents is going to make life easier for him. While the forwards are much improved, the rest of their roster still doesn’t seem complete. The defense doesn’t have much behind Thomas Chabot, and while Cam Talbot and Anton Forsberg have each shown flashes of solid goaltending, I wouldn’t call either of them a sure bet in net. Look for Ottawa to be in the wild card dogfight along with the Wings and Sabres this year.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Top Players: Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Andrei Vasilevskiy
Key Additions: Vladislav Namestnikov, Ian Cole, Haydn Fleury
Key Subtractions: Ondrej Palat, Jan Rutta
X-Factor: Ross Colton
The Tampa Bay Lightning may not have won the cup this year, but nobody has stopped taking them seriously for good reason. The core that has made them back-to-back champs (and back-to-back-to-back finalists) is all still there and on top of their game. As has been routine the past few years, some mid-lineup players have priced themselves out of town, but the Lightning always have a solution waiting in the wings. For every Ondrej Palat that has to leave, there’s a formerly obscure prospect like Ross Colton waiting to step in and replace his top six production seamlessly. Fill in the rest of the lineup with revived veterans on cheap deals, and you have a clear recipe for a consistent year-to-year contender. Although it would be boring at this point, nobody would be surprised to see Tampa playing deep into spring this season.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Top Players: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly
Key Additions: Matt Murray, Ilya Samsonov, Calle Jarnkrok, Nicholas Aube-Kubel
Key Subtractions: Jack Campbell, Colin Blackwell, Ilya Mikheyev, Ilya Lybushkin, Jason Spezza
X-Factors: Michael Bunting
Another year, another first-round exit for the Leafs, another year the rest of the hockey world rejoices in Toronto’s pain. Not even a Hart Trophy-winning season of the ages from Auston Matthews could save them this year. Why should we expect it to go any differently this year? In the Leafs’ defense, they didn’t choke the series away like usual this past postseason-they were simply outplayed by the defending champs in a hard-fought series. A core of great young talent, a new goalie tandem with something to prove, and some new depth pieces. Regardless of how high the Leafs finish in the regular season standings, no one is going to take them seriously until they can win a playoff series. They have the talent to go deep in the playoffs, but one can only wonder if the franchise is just cursed at this point and how many more years of disappointment can repeat themselves until a blowup is inevitable. Us rival fans (along with the rest of the hockey world) will be smiling ear-to-ear when that day comes, but for now, we’re just waiting to see when that day is, or if the Leafs can finally catch that series win that has kept eluding their grasp.
There’s plenty of talent in the Atlantic Division this year, and it will be a joy to watch these teams dogfight each other as the playoff picture unfolds. We can only hope that this new Sabres core is up for the challenge.
Thanks for reading, and as always, Go Sabres.
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