- Dallas Stars: They have it a young promising goaltender Jake Oettinger; a solid defensive core staring Miro Heiskanen. Forwards Jason Robertson (Scored 109 points last season), All-Rookie Team Wyatt Johnston, center Roope Hintz and finally possible HOF’er Joe Pavelski. The depth is there and the talent.
- New Jersey Devils: Now if the graphic shows the Bruins here that’s my bad… but to get back to the point; the Devils have Jack Hughes, who you might think is overrated and look he is lacking in some aspects but that doesn’t take away from the fact he scored 99 points during the regular season. Hughes isn’t the only good forward; there’s a whole list but I digress. Jonas Siegenthaler is a highly underrated defensemen, who helps generate plays. What may be the downfall of the Devils is goaltending with no veteran starter and a few goalies who can get streaky.
- Carolina Hurricanes: The Hurricanes won the Metropolitan division last season in a close race against the New Jersey Devils, beating them by one point (113). Andrei Svechnikov, who suffered an ACL injury last March, resumed skating and hopefully will join the squad in order to win the cup. Twenty year old Seth Jarvis had an amazing second season and his stats are only rising; and when you couple these players with Sebastian Aho and Martin Nečas on the top line; then put Brent Burns and Jacob Slavin together you have a real cup contender.
- Florida Panthers: They managed to make it to the Stanley Cup final, but injuries and the Vegas Golden Knights got the better of them in five games. The only big movement the team made during the summer was trading Anthony Duclair to the San Jose Sharks for Steven Lorentz and a draft pick. This is onto of the fact that the only real change besides the addition of Matthew Tkachuk from 2021-2022 team that led the league with 122 points.
- New York Rangers, Lets start off with the fact that I’m a biased Rangers fan but for one there’s Mike Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin both had ninety point seasons, Zibanejad also has a solid defensive game. Then of course Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, and Alexis Lafrenière who all have amazing potential. The team has a solid top four and you can’t forget to leave out Igor Shesterkin a Veznia winning goalie.
- Toronto Maple Leafs, They have a great set of forwards; Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Tyler Bertuzzi, and John Tavares, Max Domi; but those are all forwards; and there defense is solid, they also have a good situation between the pipes but I’m just not feeling it… they’re the Leafs.
- Boston Bruins, Why are they on here: David Pastrňák, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and of course Linus Ullmark. Why there not: Depth??? Centers??? No Bergeron???
- Tampa Bay Lightning, There a dynasty team who has made the playoffs six-years in a row and only three time since 2011 along with having veteran Steven Stamkos continuing to captain the team.
- Vegas Golden Knights, I get that they won the cup but for one reason there’s just the general odds of repeating a Stanley Cup win- and then there’s the fact that I just don’t think they’re there. The team made no real moves during the off season just some resigning of players such as Brett Howden and Ivan Barbashev.
- Ottawa Senators, This is my Wild Card team of sorts; the teams pretty much all there forward wise and defensively they have Thomas Chabot who has proven to be a solid player along with Jake Sanderson, Then there’s acquisition Jakob Chychrun who I have some hope in. Goaltender wise I feel like Joonas Korpisalo is going to benefit the team.
My top 10 Stanley Cup Contenders
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About the Contributor
Lily Stanton, Sports Editor
Hi, I'm Lily Stanton, a Brien McMahon High School Junior. I am a sports editor, write the Off the Boards column, and am team lead of the Drama Club Production department.
I am a big New York sports fan, and I love the New York Jets. Of course, my favorite is the New York Rangers. (I just had a HABS phase) Read Off the Boards, and feel free to reach out to me over gmail. You can find my sports photography profile below.