Quoting: AM19
Definitely finishing behind Tampa, Florida, Toronto, Carolina. Probably also NYR and Pittsburgh. If they take someone's spot this year it will be either Boston's or Washington's imo.
im still confused to why everyone is underrating boston so much?
debrusk was very good on that 1st line and was on a 42 goal pace with bergy and marchy per 82 gp
pasta and hall were elite once paired together and now they have krech who is a very good playmaker/passer.
swayman and ullmark are a top 6 tandem in the league
lindholm will be here for a full year
carlo and grzelcyk had down years and highly doubt it replicates again.
yes marchand and mcavoy are hurt for the first 15-20 games but no one is talking about how
florida is missing duclair almost all year, huberdeau is no longer there to carry the 2nd line and make bennett look relevant, their defence got significantly worse when they moved weegar, florida also needs to move a player still to become cap complaint
toronto still hasn't signed sandin and will most likely need to move kerfoot and holl to fit the cap so they will loose out on depth, their goalie situation got worse.
tampa lost mcdonaugh and palat that is their 5th best forward and their 2nd best dman/ also their best dman defensively
so yes boston may have some injuries to start the year but once they are healthy they are much better then they were last year, while the other 3 all got quite a bit worse over the off-season