The leafs might make it to playoff beleive me or no Toskala is a better goalie than Raycroft and was in compitition for No1 job for over 2 yrs with one of the best goalie of the league Nabakov in S.J. Also when you add a 30 goals per season player,Blake make huge difference as well i predict leafs might finish at 8th place .but all that depend on their main guys( Kaberle, Sundin, Tucker and Mcabe avoid the injury) .
I guess the team to watch this year are Rangers in east , they have a very solid goalie, 2 top league centre( gomez and drury) add jagar , shanahan, Prucha ,avery etc , this time can make supris this year, the only problem might be their defense but over all last yr they didnt do bad in defense consider they dont have any big name in their defensive beridge.
Ottawa also should be able to finish in top 3 positions
I say buffalo even they lost, their 2 top centre ( drury and briere ) should still make it and finish in comfortable position as well , Atlanta should finish on top of their divisions, Tampa and Carolina as well the should make it, big question mark in case of Devils, they lost rafalski and Gomez and this team already depened alot to marty brodeur .
Pens are another team to watch , they got sykora and sydor in off season add to these two defenders whitny, centre malkin and crosby , armstrong, christeinsen, staal, venetarns, roberts and ricchi, WOW , they might not finish in top but second in their groupe and accoridng to the roles 4
i dont think phili with all their big new signing might be able to make it this year , many are positive not me!
My team , habs is in transition year. i will be happy if we finish at 8th and make it to play-off we have numbers of young and draft pick players who are coming in yr or two , they are simply not ready yet for the big league
my predictions
1)NYR
2) Ottawa
3) Atlanta
4)Pittsburgh
5)Buffalo
6) Tampa
7)Carolina
8) Toronto or Montreal
In west Ducks title maybe depends to selanee and neidermayer retirement decisons. still with or without them they should be able to finish in top 3 .S.j is the team to watch and a role model for many NHL team , they did what buffalo did, bulding the team with their draft pick , detriot got berttuzi , rafalksi and they should still finish on top, colorado they should maket it to play off with addition of smith and hanen . Vancouver wasnt active . they might not finish as top 3 but when you have luongo everything is possible .
Minosota also are improved team and they will make it this year again to play-off.
Nashville is the team that lost many players off season because of their financial sitatution, forsburg, timmonen ,vokon etc ..
west predictions
1)Detroit
2)San jose
3)Minosota
4)Anaheim
5)Vancouver
6)Colorado
7)calgery
8)Dallas/Saint-Louis
