bustaheims said:
For all the doom & gloom I don't think it's crazy to project the Leafs as a top-5 team again next season. The teams below them in the top-10: Minnesota, Calgary, Tampa, St. Louis, and Boston, all had as big if not bigger losses than the Leafs did this offseason (Fiala, Gaudreau, McDonagh/Palat, Husso, Boston's injuries). The Rangers are probably mostly a wash swapping Strome for Trocheck, but they also lost all the depth pieces that they picked up at the deadline who really gave them a big boost late in the season.
Above them it'll be interesting to see if Florida can maintain their pace last season with a (probably) much worse head coach. They've also lost Marchment of course who really carried their bottom-6 play. If they for some reason trade Weegar away that'll be the bigger loss. Carolina I thought did well to maintain status quo, if not actually improve with the two big trades that they made. Colorado's losing one of the top goalies in the league last season, and possibly Kadri. Although as I said in the other thread there's probably an ok chance Kadri returns next season (maybe not the 100-point pace version of him). I think you'll probably see those 3 teams return to the top-5 again though next season.
