A look at the Atlantic Division; did the Leafs do enough this summer to challenge for the top spot?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have 1 division crown since the 2000-01 season and that was the realigned "North Division" during the COVID-shortened season of 2020-21. They have finished in 2nd place in consecutive seasons but 2023-24 might finally be their year to take the crown and face off against a Wild Card team in the first round.
The Boston Bruins had a historic season that saw them win 65 games with 135 points. Toronto came in 2nd with 111 points, Tampa Bay finished with 98, Florida had 92, Buffalo had 91, Ottawa had 86, and Detroit and Montreal rounded out the bottom with 80 and 68 respectively.
One can make the argument that both the Bruins and Lightning have digressed after the first few weeks of the off-season with several key losses to their lineup.
Boston lost Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov to unrestricted free agency, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci are on the fence with retiring, and Taylor Hall was moved out in a cap dump to Chicago. In their stead the Bruins signed James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, Patrick Brown, and Kevin Shattenkirk.
Tampa Bay lost key members in Alex Killorn, Ross Colton, Corey Perry, and Ian Cole, they have replaced them with Conor Sheary, Luke Glendening, and Calvin de Haan. They still possess the usual cast and crew in Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point, and Victor Hedman but they lost some juice heading into the post-season last year and they don't look any better now - at least on paper.
Florida could be the bigger test compared to the aforementioned Bruins and Lightning as they were the Eastern Conference finalists. They have added Evan Rodrigues, Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Mike Reilly to cover the absences left by Anthony Duclair, Radko Gudas, and Marc Staal.
Ottawa, Buffalo, and Detroit will pose as threats but are more so seen as dark-horse candidates this year and would be vying for a Wild Card spot or perhaps, at best, the third spot in the Atlantic Division in case one of the behemoths slip.
The Maple Leafs lost Noel Acciari, Ryan O'Reilly, Luke Schenn, Justin Holl, and Alex Kerfoot and replaced them with Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, and John Klingberg. While they sit close to $9 million over the cap, that can be solved relatively quickly with the departure of Matt Murray, Jake Muzzin being placed on the LTIR, and a couple more minor moves to become cap compliant. They are also hopeful that both Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson can have productive full seasons, which could provide a significant boost. It's also worth mentioning that the summer is not yet done and Brad Treliving may still have a couple of moves up his sleeve before the season begins.
They seem to be the only one of the previous big-3 that has remained either the same or gotten better with Boston looking a little worse for wear compared to Tampa Bay. However, as we have learned from the past, we can never count out either team as they still possess all-round talent, leadership, and experience.
At the very least, Toronto has been a prominent regular season team over the last 6+ years and this would finally be their best chance at claiming the Atlantic Division crown. The question is; can they do it?
| POLL | ||
15 JUILLET | 260 ANSWERS A look at the Atlantic Division; did the Leafs do enough this summer to challenge for the top spot? Will the Leafs win the Atlantic Division this season? | ||
| Yes | 148 | 56.9 % |
| No | 112 | 43.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
