The 2022-23 NHL season is almost upon us. Next month, we will see the return of hockey in all it’s glory. This past off-season has been one of the crazier ones in recent memory, so with the next season looming, it is a good time to recap and preview how each team will do this season. The preview will be split into four parts, each part previewing one division. For today, we’re going to be looking at the Atlantic Division. I will be discussing the teams in what place I predict they will finish for the season.

As a general preview of the entire division, to say this division has improved is a massive understatement. A few of the lowly teams saw some big improvements this off-season, and while the old guard up top will be hard to surpass, I expect this division to be more competitive than it has been in recent memory at the bottom. With all that in mind, let us get to the predictions.

This may be an unpopular prediction, or perhaps even a hot take, but for as much people like to talk down on Toronto, there is no denying they are one of the most talented teams in the NHL. It will be interesting to see how they do down the stretch now that they have ditched their goaltending duo from last year and started from scratch, signing Ilya Samsonov from the Captials and trading for Matt Murray. This may be a point for concern, as they are buying low on two recently maligned goalies, but we know what their upside is. Now, why do I choose Toronto over Florida or Tampa Bay? The Panthers last season were not necessarily a fluke, but I’ll be hard pressed to believe they are able to repeat that magic, and the Lightning have played a ton of extra hockey outside of the regular season. They’ll still be very good, but it catches up to teams sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, the Leafs have been consistently good (in the regular season that is) for the past several seasons, and they’ll be looking to play with fire. With this being said, however, the question of goaltending still remains strong, and it may very well hold back the team yet again come playoff time. Until then, I still see this team as a top tier team, and they are my pick to win the Atlantic.

The loss of McDonagh and Palat is huge, but the Lightning are still in good hands for the time being. Coming off their third straight Stanley Cup appearance, expectations will once again be high in Tampa Bay, but with all those games the team is logging in outside of the regular season, it is fair to question how they will do this upcoming season. They will still continue to be one of the best teams in the league, but they may end up flying under the radar most of the season. It is difficult to maintain such consistent success in this league, however, and that is due mainly to the salary cap. Tampa has done a fantastic job dancing around the cap over the past five seasons or so, and they did it again by extending Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli, and Mikhail Sergachev. Those are big signings, but they did come at the cost of McDonagh and Palat. They are aging players, but they will surely be missed. The price for all of their success will come for the Lightning soon enough, it may not be this season, but while I have them finishing second in the division, I would not be surprised to see them take a little bit of a dip this season. Not a massive one, but a slight one.

The Panthers have made a little bit of a gamble by trading both Huberdeau and Weegar for Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk is a very good player, who is younger than Huberdeau, but if I’m willing to bet, Tkachuk is coming off the best year production wise he’ll ever have. It’s hard to believe that Tkachuk could maintain such a scoring pace, but that is no knock on him. He’s still a very good, top line physical player who can reliably score, but I’m just not sure he can repeat that. Huberdeau, on the other hand, has shown to be that type of point producer over the past several seasons. I do not think the trade would be as questionable if not for letting go of Weegar, arguably their top defenseman alongside Ekblad. They’ll still be good, but like I said in Toronto’s prediction, I’m not convinced they can repeat the same level of magic we saw out of them last season. It’s honestly a toss up to me on whether Florida or Tampa finishes on top of one another, but I’m going with the more reliable Lightning over the Panthers. They still need to show they can consistently play at this level, because past history indicates otherwise. This trade with Calgary shows how desperate they are to overtake the Lightning, and that desperation can end up in one of two ways: in complete failure, or in raging success. There is no in between. In short, Florida will be very good, but better or on the level of last year? Remains to be seen.

This is likely the biggest hot take I will have in my predictions. The Red Wings have been making some steady improvements since Yzerman took over, and I believe this year is the year they take the next step forward and potentially make the playoffs. They didn’t add the hottest names in free agency, but they make the team deeper than they have been in recent memory. Copp had himself a nice tenure with the Rangers after being traded their at the deadline, and Perron is a nice piece to provide a little bit of scoring as well as being a veteran presence. Chiarot, admittedly, was their worst signing, but adding him and Maatta at least makes their blueline NHL caliber. The question remains if Husso and Nedeljkovic are the answers in net. Nedeljkovic had a tough time transitioning from Carolina, and Husso had a rough playoff with the Blues. If they provide adequate goaltending, do not be surprised to see this team overtake the Bruins and make it to the playoffs. If not this year, this will certainly at least will be a step up for their current rebuild, but the future is looking pretty good for the Wings.

It was tempting to put the Senators above the Bruins in the standings, but I’m taking the safe pick and saying Boston still finishes close, if not in, to a playoff position. Nothing major was lost other than Haula, and Rask retiring amidst last season. Krejci coming back from Europe is a good thing for the center depth, but what the Bruins will really miss is Marchand and McAvoy at the beginning of the season. They will will have to play at least two months without them due to lingering injuries from the offseason. Even though they did not lose anything major, the Bruins start to lose out here due to teams around them getting better and the team overall aging just a year older. They were lucky Bergeron stayed put, but he is 37, and while Krejci is a nice welcome back, he is now 36. They will have nice youth, but sooner than later, the wheels will be falling off this team. The departure of Bruce Cassidy does not seem to indicate anything good, especially with general manager Don Sweeney still at the helm. He’s done a decent job masking the fact he is a bad (at best below average) GM due to the team’s performance as of late, but the cracks are showing. They’ll have to manage through the first couple months without a couple key players if they want to hold afloat in the increasingly competitive Atlantic. This team has to show they still have gas in the tank and they need secondary scoring, something they have been lacking for a little while now. The saving grace just may be the defense, which was one of the league’s best thanks to a solid blue line and and Jeremy Swayman having a great year. I’m skeptical Swayman can repeat it, but if he can hold it for the first couple months of the season, this team can still very much make the playoffs. I could be underestimating them here, but I predict that the beginning of the end starts this season.

The Senators are easily the most improved team of the offseason, not only trading for Alex DeBrincat, but signing Claude Giroux as well. They recently have given eight year extensions to some key contributors like Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle, so they certainly believe in the core as is. Hopefully some of their young prospects are able to debut and develop further. Once that point is reached, this team is playoff ready. While it is possible they could make it this year, I still think they are a step behind, mainly due to the competitive nature of the division they are in, and goaltending remains a question mark. They ditched Gustavsson and Murray, and they bring in Cam Talbot, who is a capable goalie, but I’m not so sure he’s the guy for Ottawa. There is no denying however that the “Summer of Dorion” has improved this team massively and are ready to take a step in the rebuild. But as I said, I still think they are not quite ready to overtake the Bruins, maybe not even the Red Wings (but who knows). Still, this offseason is huge, and it shows the Senators are finally willing to make the moves to push them into playoff contention, and hopefully that is not to be interfered with.

The Sabres had a quiet offseason, but they did not really have to do that much. Last season was a revelation with Tage Thompson’s breakout season and the re-emergence of Jeff Skinner as a quality winger. I do not think they will be as good as last season, for the sole reason that everyone around them got significantly better than them. Things could be a lot worse for Buffalo, and it has, but for the meantime it seems like they are slowly moving in the right direction if last season’s performance provides any indication. All they can hope for is that the prospects continue to develop. This season they’ll finish lower in the standings, but come time, I believe they can finally turn the corner.

Montreal has had an interesting offseason to say the least. After shocking the NHL world by selecting Juraj Slafkovsky first overall over Shane Wright, they traded Romanov to the Isles, and in exchange used their pick to trade for Kirby Dach from the Blackhawks. They also acquired Monahan and Dadonov in cap dumps, so they got some decent players to play around with. Alas, the bad news for them comes from the fact that Carey Price is done for the year, and his career is in likely jeopardy. Without Price, this team is still going to be in the bottom of the barrel, but they at least made some decent moves to shore up their future. They still have Caufield and Suzuki, fortunately, so they’ll have a good future with them. In the meantime, they’ll still finish last in the division. I do not think they will be as bad as last year, and they could still at least overtake Buffalo for seventh, but they still have work to do before they can make any sort of serious push out of the basement.