NHL Pick: Toronto Maple Leafs Atlantic Division Winners (+200) at Heritage Sports (visit our Heritage Sports Review)
There are legitimately five or six teams who could make the playoffs in this season’s Atlantic Division, while the likes of Boston seem to be on a downward trend, Buffalo and Ottawa could make some strides this season.
Let’s not forget about the 3 time Stanley Cup champions in recent years, the Tampa Bay Lightning; last season’s NHL runners-up, the Florida Panthers; and the small matter of Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto Maple Leafs (+200)
After almost 10 years at the Toronto Maple Leafs, former general manager Kyle Dubas left for the Pittsburgh Penguins when his contract wasn’t renewed, so this will be a new era for Maple Leaf fans under new GM Brad Treliving (formerly GM of the Calgary Flames).
The Maple Leafs finished a solid 2nd in the Atlantic Division last season, and finally won a playoff series, but evidently were outed by the Stanley Cup runners up the Florida Panthers in the next round.
The Maple Leafs disposed of some dead wood during the off-season and brought in some fresh faces such as Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Simon Benoit, just to name a few. It should be enough to help this team take the reins of the top spot in the division this season, as last year’s winners the Boston Bruins are significantly weakened this time around.
Toronto has Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly, and Ilya Samsonov, plus one of the best depth charts in the league. There is a Sega playing out with William Nylander on whether he will re-sign or be traded away before he turns a free agent. Either way, we are backing the Toronto Maple Leafs to top the Atlantic Division at +200 betting odds with Heritage Sports, one of the top online betting sites.
Do we believe this team has what it takes to lift the Stanley Cup? Unfortunately not, but their depth chart and experience in navigating a successful 82-game season is one of their strengths.
2022/23 Points Total: 111
2023/24 Points Prediction: 110
Buffalo Sabres (+850)
Our surprise pick among the bunch here is likely going to be this one, as we believe the Buffalo Sabres can see over 100 points in the regular season and finish second in the Atlantic Division.
Their team has remained relatively unchanged from last season, having thus far departed with only three players, whilst only bringing in three players. This should help the team build from last season, as the chemistry is already there.
Last season they made the playoffs for the first time in over 10 years, and we believe they should be capable of doing so again this season.
The Sabres have a stacked top line in Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner, as well as one of the best defensive two-way players in the league right now in Rasmus Dahlin. For us, this is one of the more exciting teams to watch in the division. Don’t be surprised if they give the Maple Leafs a run for the top spot.
Their offensive strength in depth is scary and their only real downfall is the goaltending situation, but their defense and offense should be strong enough to see them through along with the possibility of Devon Levi turning into a solid number one goaltender.
Although they had defensive issues last season, we believe they will be resolved with the signing of veteran defencemen Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton. Tage Thompson had a career-high 94 points last season and we believe he can hit over 100 this season if he stays consistent, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on placing player prop bets.
2022/23 Points Total: 91
2023/24 Points Prediction: 105
Tampa Bay Lightning (+475)
We don’t believe there will be much between the two Florida teams this season, the Tampa Bay Lightning had made it to three straight Stanley Cup finals but were eventually outed in the first round last season, and we expect a similar scenario this time around.
The Lightning lost a lot of strength in depth, most notably players such as Alex Killorn, Corey Perry, and Ross Colton. That said, their core team remains one of the most consistent in the NHL with the likes of Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Unless a lot of players get unexpectedly injured at the same time, or there’s a major drop in performance, the Tampa Bay Lightning should find themselves back in the postseason. They haven’t quite the depth to match the Panthers or the Leafs, which is why we believe they will rank 3rd or 4th in the division come the end of the year.
2022/23 Points Total: 98
2023/24 Points Prediction: 98
Florida Panthers (+500)
Last season, the Florida Panthers surprised everyone by making it to the Stanley Cup finals having barely made it into the post-season. This time around, we believe they should comfortably make the playoffs.
Although we are predicting the Panthers to finish 4th in the division, we do only have them and their Florida rivals, Tampa Bay, separated by just a single point for 3rd and 4th position, so don’t be surprised if they end up in 3rd come the end of the regular season.
The Panthers have one of the best goaltenders in the league in Sergei Bobrovsky, although he underperformed last season, and they do start the season without key defensive pair Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad. It might be a shaky start to the year, but the Panthers have added some strong depth to their roster and we expect to see them in the post-season.
2022/23 Points Total: 92
2023/24 Points Prediction: 97
Boston Bruins (+375)
The Boston Bruins ran away with the plaudits last season in the Atlantic Division with an eye-watering 135 total points come the end of the season, which turned out to be the most points in any regular season.
Unfortunately for Boston, their cap space caught up with them, which resulted in the loss of some big-name players such as Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Nick Foligno to name a few, along with some retirees in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.
The Bruins do have two of the top goaltenders in the NHL, but their dept strength is poor and outside of their top 5/6 players, they are nowhere near the level of last season, bringing in players such as James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic and Kevin Shattenkirk to name a few.
It’s a drop in quality, and with teams all around them improving, it seems the Bruins are due a fall from grace. It’s hard to oppose a winning team such as the Bruins, and who knows what magic they might conjure up but we don’t believe this team has what it takes to make the top 4 in the division this year.
2022/23 Points Total: 135
2023/24 Points Prediction: 91
Ottawa Senators (+1000)
The Ottawa Senators are under new ownership and they have added some interesting players this off-season, although we predict Ottawa and Boston will fight it out between them for 5th and 6th this season, we are siding with the Bruins’ experience to take 5th place, making the Senators our sixth place pick.
Additions include Vladimir Tarasenko, Dominik Kubalik and Joonas Korpisalo, and their offensive and defensive lines are strong enough to compete with the best of them. We expect veteran goaltender Korpisalo to have a solid season, and ultimately, we are only predicting the Senators to finish only 9 points behind our third-placed prediction Tampa Bay.
Who knows, maybe they can push on and make the playoffs, at the very least they should be in a fight for a wild card spot come the end of the season.
2022/23 Points Total: 86
2023/24 Points Prediction: 89
Detroit Red Wings (+1500)
The Detroit Red Wings should improve on their season from last year, and we are predicting they will end with four more points than last season. The Red Wings have seen 9 imported players and 9 departed players during this off-season although none of the imports are exciting enough to believe they can change their fortunes around.
This team should see an improvement this season, but will they improve enough to be better than the teams we have ranked above them? We think not.
Yes, their forward line is strong but they lack a key element to success in any sport and that’s consistency. We have not seen that from this team or organization for a long time now and we can’t see it starting this following season either.
The Red Wings should do enough to challenge 5th and 6th but might ultimately fall away come the end of the season.
2022/23 Points Total: 80
2023/24 Points Prediction: 84
Montreal Canadiens (+7500)
The Montreal Canadiens are in total rebuild mode right now. They have a strong young core setup, but it’s likely going to be another two or three seasons before we see the fruits of their labor.
Seven players have departed this off-season, with just two new additions in left winger Alex Newhook and goaltender Casey DeSmith.
Montreal are the only team in this division we are almost certain won’t make the post-season and their odds strongly represent that claim.
Yes, they are doing things correctly in building through the draft picks and not trying to buy in sub-par players for an inflated cap hit, but it may take a while. The Canadiens got one more win than last season and hit the 70-point mark.
2022/23 Points Total: 68
2023/24 Points Prediction: 70
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
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