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Around the League 2019-2024 Edition




I think I can envision how this season’s going to go already. This guy’s going to bumblefuck his way through a sub-.900 season as Boston’s starting goalie, and Boston will barely squeak into the final playoff seed in the East, drawing the Leafs in the first round.

Then Korpisalo will immediately transform back into a Dominik Hasek-esque impenetrable wall like he was during the Leafs/Columbus series, and will beat the Leafs in seven games.
 
Detroit's rebuild is going significantly better than both in almost every possible way.

What's the argument on the Sens even going to be? Watch out new goalie? Where could i have possibly heard that before?

I look at the rosters every fall and I still don't understand what they're looking at. The Sens forward group is good but only just good imo. Stutzle-Tkachuk-Batherson-Giroux-Perron is fine, especially if Norris isn't broken this year. But it's only just fine unless Stutzle becomes a top 10 type offensively player without being empty calories at 5 on 5. The rest of their forward group, as is tradition now, fucking terrible for the most part. I don't see the argument for it being better than Detroit. Same as? Sure. But so much of the prognosticating in Ottawa has been focused on how good the forward group was going to be. Nope. Blueline looks potentially tasty depending on how good Sanderson is. Sanderson-Zub-Chabot is a nice top 3, but then it falls off of a cliff again (unless Jensen turns back the clock a few years). Yeah, any improvement is going to come in net but as much as I've always pumped Ullmark's tires and think he's good, he's a 1A pure and simple. He's a guy who you give 40-45 games a year to and know he's going to be pretty good. I have a feeling Ottawa is going to throw 60 games at him this year for the first time at 31 yrs old and either injuries or play below his standard from fatigue are going to creep in.

Buffalo might actually start to show the bones of what Jack told us they were last year if the kids keep developing and replace Mittelstadt and Skinner's production. I don't know if I see star power here other than Dahlin though. Maybe Jack Quinn if I squint a bit. There's some depth of skill in through the top 9 though, they'll be fun to watch. If UPL was actually a breakout and not a random Samsonov, they're probably fighting for the Wild Card.
 
I'm shutting up about Buffalo, but virtually all of their core took a step back last year. they will score more goals.
Tage joins the 50 goal club

Player: 20-21 ---> 21-22 ---> 22-23 ---> 23-24

Tage (27): 0.90 --> 2.36 --> 2.81 --> 1.70
Tuch (28): 1.62 --> 1.96 --> 2.63 --> 2.14

Skins (32): 1.01 --> 2.51 --> 2.80 --> 1.83 --> bought out
Mitts (26): 1.11 --> 1.03 --> 1.99 --> 1.88 --> traded

Cozens (23): 1.38 --> 1.20 --> 2.31 --> 1.45
Quinn (23): N/A --> 1.27 --> 1.83 --> 2.57
Peterka (22): N/A -> 0.00 --> 1.59 --> 1.90
Benson (19): N/A --> N/A --> N/A --> 1.56


Dahlin (24): 0.62 --> 0.91 --> 1.10 --> 0.93
Power (22): N/A --> 1.26 --> 0.67 --> 0.78
Byram (23): 0.29 --> 1.25 --> 0.92 --> 0.94


That top line went hog wild for a bit there but that was probably just a hot streak, and came while not bothering to play any defense at all. And now they've ditched two of their top scorers from those big years and are hoping more kids fill the gap.

IMO that offensive explosion in 22-23 was probably more of an outlier than last year was.



An interesting thing for the Sabres to consider this year if they stay out of the playoffs picture is to trade Thompson and Tuch for some more high level youngsters and really give themselves a super young talented roster.
 
Boston kinda scares me tbh.

Debrusk for Lindholm is sort of an even swap except that Lindholm is a good two-way C which is a big upgrade and moves Zacha back where he belongs on the wing.

And then on D if Lohrei is anything close to what he looked like in the playoffs than that's a big upgrade over Grzelcyk and Zadorov is a big upgrade over Forbort.

It should be a much more solid roster this year unless Marchand really falls off.


I hope Swayman holds out not even because i'm convinced it would kill them, but more because just as a hockey fan it would be a fascinating test case to see how much boston goalies are actually a product of the system. Hopefully they aren't.
 
There isn't a whole lot of room for them to get better but Raymond-Larkin-Debrincat-Seider is definitely in the conversation with the top of Buffalo or Ottawa's core.

Detroit's roster is better than either of the other two, and Talbot is probably a pretty bit upgrade in net. I'd take their veteran guys (Kane, Tarasenko, Compher, Copp) over the support groups of either as well.

I'm not really impressed with any of the 3 now, or going forward tbh. Buffalo has a chance to be the best of the 3, but we're probably talking about them peaking as a ~100 point team.
 
I dunno - BUF and OTT at least have talent that has shown legit elite offensive upside, whereas Detroit's top forwards seem to be maybe PPG guys at best and i'm not sure any of their young D have shown any elite upside either.
 
Screenshot 2024-10-01 143728.png

Norris being toasty really really hurts Ottawa's upside. He looked like an impact C prior to his injuries. Even then though it's hard not to like Ottawa's upside significantly more than detroit's imo.

Buffalo's numbers look wowza here for sure, but there's a lotta boost from that offensive explosion in 22-23 that may or may not be real.
 
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