Around the League: Atlantic Division Adjustments

With the playoffs now over, it’s time to look ahead to next season! Today we’ll take a look at the Atlantic Division teams of the Eastern Conference in “Around the League”, a four article series on the alterations each team in the NHL should or most likely will make before puck drop on the first night of the 2015-2016 NHL season.

Montreal Canadiens

Montreal is the most successful Canadian team in the league at the moment and they’re looking to stay in that elite company. After clinching the division along with a playoff spot in this year’s playoffs they were a fan favorite; however, the Canadiens couldn’t stop Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson with their Tampa Bay Lightning in the Conference Finals.

The main reason for their success last year was starting goaltender Carey Price whom is a shoe-in for the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL. His play along with continued production and physicality from notable defender PK Subban make them a force to be reckoned with.

This off-season Montreal will be focused on agreeing on terms with left winger Alex Galchenyuk, while simultaneously deciding on the future of older players like ex-Dallas Star Sergei Gonchar and thirty-seven-year-old defender Mike Weaver.

Next season’s goal should be just to play the same way as last year, but hopefully have a better outcome in the playoffs to make a return to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning made a return to those Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in more than ten years this season and have a lot to be proud of, even though they couldn’t come out on top.

Tampa Bay will decide on whether or not to re-sign former Dallas Stars Captain Brenden Morrow this off-season, as well as coming to terms with a handful of restricted free agents.

Looking ahead, the Lightning will aim to do just what they did this season and make it to the cup finals; however, they would obviously hope for a better outcome. They can really only improve on this year’s regular season if they were to win the division next year.

Detroit Red Wings

Detroit has already made a rather major move this off-season, although it wasn’t entirely their choice. Head Coach Mike Babcock chose to leave the team he had coached for ten seasons and sign a rather hefty contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs instead. That move left Detroit to promote their AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins head coach Jeff Blashill.

Other than the coaching change, the Red Wings will look for stability in net as once starting goaltender Jimmy Howard has faltered and Petr Mrazek has somewhat taken over in the crease. If they choose not to use Howard as their starter it would be in their best interest to trade him as to avoid wasting the almost $5.3 million in cap space.

The Wings will look to adjust to the new coaching staff, while figuring out their goaltending situation this off-season and into next season as well.

Ottawa Senators

The Senators fought tooth and nail down the stretch to prevent themselves from missing the playoffs and that’s exactly what they did. Ottawa completed their rather surprising season with a playoff appearance and even though they lost to the Canadiens in the first round, they took a huge step towards their future.

Contract extensions for their restricted free agents, such as former Dallas Star Alex Chiasson, will be a main focus of the Sens. However, they’ll also look to find more consistency in their game.

Their hard work paid off from the season as they reached their goal, however, the standard has been raised for next year.

Boston Bruins

The Bruins missed the playoffs because of the Senators incredible end of season run and their lack of it. Elite players on the team need to up their game as offense was surprisingly the biggest issue of the team toward the tail end of last year.

Rumors have been going around that Boston is looking to shop former Dallas Stars forward Loui Eriksson in hopes of shedding some cap space, but nothing has come of it yet. If they do trade him, the team will find itself in a sticky situation as Eriksson played on a multitude of lines throughout the year and provided rather consistent offense.

The future of head coach Claude Julien is also unknown for the B’s. New general manager Don Sweeney announced Julien will be the head coach to start the new season; however, that doesn’t mean he’ll be behind the bench to finish it.

If the Bruins don’t come out of the gate with guns blazing a decent number of wins in their first twenty or so games, expect to see them welcome the 29th coach in franchise history.

Florida Panthers

Florida surprised many with the deals general manager Dan Tallon made last off-season. Unfortunately, though, they didn’t pan out exactly as planned seeing that they didn’t qualify for the playoffs for the third year in a row and thirteenth out of fourteen seasons.

That will be the goal of the Panthers next season: a return to the post-season. To get there they will be focused on harnessing their talent into offense and responsibility in their own zone. Florida will also depend on starting goaltender Roberto Luongo to defend the crease and make the necessary saves.

Toronto Maple Leafs

For the most expensive seats in the NHL the Leafs surely don’t perform up to par. They’ve been absent from the playoffs in all but one of the last ten seasons, the only time being in 2011 when the Bruins eliminated them in seven games.

There have been talks of trading star forward Phil Kessel, but his eight-year $64 million contract (meaning $8 million in cap space) makes that a rather difficult task. Captain Dion Phaneuf’s future as a member of the Leafs is also in question as his game has fallen rather significantly.

This off-season Toronto has to focus on the draft in order to complete their rebuild as quickly as possible. As for the regular season, they have to find consistency as well as a ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Buffalo Sabres

Last but not least is the Buffalo Sabres, a team in a serious rebuild. After dealing away almost every notable player on their roster over the last year or so the Sabres are obviously in a rebuild situation.

At the moment they’re more of a hodgepodge team than anything and they’re desperately searching for a team identity. As far as personnel goes the Sabres have talented forwards like Evander Kane, but Buffalo also has some rather large holes to fill in regards to their roster.

They’ve got to find a way to put a team on the ice that can compete will the other groups in the NHL because if they continue to play how they did at the tail end of last season, they’ll have an embarrassing start to their 2015-2016 campaign.

There you have it! Those are the current situations and future changes the teams of the Atlantic Division should be focused on. Catch up on the “Around the League” series on the Central Division here. Up next is the Pacific Division of the Western Conference!

Missed the first post about the Central Division? Read it here.

Thanks for reading! Leave any thoughts on the Atlantic Division teams in the comments.

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