Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 945
Likes: 247
it will be tougher next year than in some years with the division improving, NJ(who the pens had trouble with anyway) and NYR are both much much better. Carolina is still up and coming, The caps will still be good, the Islanders shocked everyone last year and could be decent/good again this year. Flyers should be a bit better than last year. Only one that will be much worse on paper is the Blue jackets. You got legitimately 6 teams competing for likely 4 or MAYBE 5 spots.
Meanwhile they have themselves gotten slightly worse(downgrade trading away Kessel and Maatta)
I think Pens still finish above the rangers, devils, flyers, and blue jackets. Which means they should get in(one of the top four teams), but not as easily as usual.