1. Boston Bruins

Their stellar defense has them positioned to repeat

2. Buffalo Sabres

With a new owner in place the future looks bright

3. Montreal Canadiens

They’re on the cusp of breaking into elite status

4. Toronto Maple Leafs

Too many question marks for a team that must win now

5. Ottawa Senators

A lot of young talent is waiting to make an impact

Bruins: D Joe Corvo

Sabres: D Christian Ehrhoff, F Ville Leino, D Robyn Regehr

Canadiens: F Erik Cole

Maple Leafs: F Tim Connolly, D John-Michael Liles

Senators: F Nikita Filatov 

If you want to repeat let alone make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals you’re going to have to get a repeat performance from your goaltender.  It’s hard to imagine Tim Thomas doing just that after the tremendous regular season and playoffs he had.  With defenseman Zdeno Chara and his 6-9 frame protecting Thomas it might not be that far fetched to think the Bruins can repeat.  New defenseman Joe Corvo is being counted on to do what Tomas Kaberle couldn’t do last year and that’s be another scoring threat from the blue-line.  Health will be an issue for the Bruins forwards. Milan Lucic was the only 30 goal scorer for the Bruins last year. They will need Nathan Horton and/or Patric Bergeron to do the same.  Brad Marchand will be expected to capitalize on his playoff success with a stellar regular season.  With the Bruins now having some open spots on the top two lines it will be interesting to see what Tyler Seguin does with more opportunities to showcase his talent.

They were the busiest team during free agency.  Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff had a magnificent season in Vancouver, but it remains to be seen if he can do that for another 10 years.  Which is the length of the contract he signed in Buffalo.  Also acquired was Robyn Regehr who waived his no-trade clause to come to Buffalo from Calgary.  He’s a gritty defenseman who will help keep big bodied forwards away from goalie Ryan Miller.  The scary thing is that Tyler Myers and Jordan Leopold didn’t have great seasons last year.  With Ehrhoff and Regehr aboard the Sabres will have a devastating defense.  Goalie Ryan Miller did everything he could to get the Sabres deep into the playoffs, but they were without a consistent scoring threat.  They hope to have solved that problem with Ville Leino being signed.  The same Ville Leino who’s overtime goal in Game 6 of the quarterfinals helped the Flyers beat the Sabres.  He is a deceptive skater.  Pairing him with Thomas Vanek will make both players even better.  The breakout player last year was Drew Stafford and his 31 goals.  If he comes close to that Buffalo will be riding high.

The Canadiens kept playing the ‘what if’ game all offseason.  It does them no good at this point, but they certainly could have competed with the rest of the league for the Cup.  Goalie Carey Price was fantastic in net for Montreal.  The pressure seemed to have vanished over thin ice as the season progressed.  The key once again for Montreal is the health of defenseman Andrei Markov.  He is their best point man on the blue-line and without him they seemed lost on the point.  P.K. Subban filled in nicely, but Markov must be around for Montreal to stay in the hunt. Michael Cammalleri is on a downward trend the last two seasons. He and Brian Gionta are the top two scorers on the team. Cammalleri has to bounce back so that newly acquired Erik Cole doesn’t have so much pressure to perform right away.  If Max Pacioretty can recover from a devastating hit by Zdeno Chara at the end of last season then he will be on his way to a 30 goal season.

The big question in Toronto this offseason is did GM Brian Burke do enough?  Did he do enough to try to lure Brad Richards in free agency?  Did he do enough in putting the right pieces in place to get the Maple Leafs back to the playoffs?  Toronto has some talented pieces in place all over the ice, but is it enough? Goaltender James Reimer did well to earn the starting job going into this season and get a three year contract extension.  Captain Dion Phaneuf received some help on the blue-line when Toronto traded for defenseman John-Michael Liles from Colorado.  Both are excellent puck passers and point men on the power play.  It remains to be seen if there will be other defenseman to help lighten the load.  Tim Connolly isn’t exactly Brad Richards, but he is a good playmaker when healthy.  That has been the only problem his entire career.  He has to stay healthy to play up to his standards. If that happens Phil Kessel will continue to be a top goal scorer. And if Joffrey Lupul can stay healthy as well that will take pressure off Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin to duplicate their 50+ point seasons.