Which team will be the most hyped, biggest flop, actual best team and biggest surprise?

[GASabresIUFAN]

Early thread, but it would be interesting to see how people perceive the off-season so far.

Most Hyped:  Toronto. Taveres!  Still no D, thus 3rd in the Atlantic behind TB and Bos.

Biggest Flop:  Vegas.  Now dealing with expectations following career years by so many players leads me to believe they'll take a step back.  Next choices SJ and Stl.  

Best Team: TB.  I keep looking for a hole in their lineup and can’t find one.  

Biggest surprise: Us or Carolina.  I like what the Canes did this off-season and while I don’t think we are a playoff team, I think we have a huge surge in the 2nd half as the kids mature to around 84 pts.

Edited July 27, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[Eleven]

What a great idea for an offseason thread.

I agree with you on the first three.  I really like Saint Louis for biggest flop, too.

Biggest surprise:  Boston isn't going to make the playoffs.

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Eleven

[GASabresIUFAN]

13 minutes ago, Eleven said:

What a great idea for an offseason thread.

I agree with you on the first three.  I really like Saint Louis for biggest flop, too.

Biggest surprise:  Boston isn't going to make the playoffs.

 

Thank you and interesting surprise.  If Bos misses the playoffs, we’ll probably hear the crying in Buffalo.  However, wouldn’t that also make the Bruins the biggest flop?

[pi2000]

Most Hyped: Toronto.   A. Matthews begins his fall from grace after a lengthy contract dispute and losing minutes to Tavares.    Still no answers on defense.  Goaltending comes back down to earth.  

Biggest Flop:  Anaheim.    Team completely implodes and finishes near the basement with overage stars Getzlaf and Perry coming under scrutiny with 3 years left on their $8.5m/yr contracts.

Best Team: Winnipeg.   With their young core hitting their prime, they'll take it to another level earning their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in franchise history.

Biggest Surprise: Arizona.   With Vegas, Anaheim and LA all taking big steps backwars, Arizona will find it's way into the playoffs for the first time in 84 years.  

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Good and fun thread.

Most Hyped:  I think the vast majority will agree that it has to be The Great Satan.

Biggest Flop:  There is a reasonable good chance, IMO, that they finish DFL and the team overall from GM right on down is a mess ... pains me to say it ... Montreal.

Best Team:  Toss up between The Jets and Tampa.  One form the East and one from the West.

Biggest Surprise:  I`ll give you two ... regular season = Sabres.  Playoffs = Caps as the repeat.

Edited July 25, 2018 by N S
general laziness ...

[Eleven]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Thank you and interesting surprise.  If Bos misses the playoffs, we’ll probably hear the crying in Buffalo.  However, wouldn’t that also make the Bruins the biggest flop?

No; I think the Bruins are watching their window close and that the Knights are the actual flop.

1 hour ago, pi2000 said:

Most Hyped: Toronto.   A. Matthews begins his fall from grace after a lengthy contract dispute and losing minutes to Tavares.    Still no answers on defense.  Goaltending comes back down to earth.  

Biggest Flop:  Anaheim.    Team completely implodes and finishes near the basement with overage stars Getzlaf and Perry coming under scrutiny with 3 years left on their $8.5m/yr contracts.

Best Team: Winnipeg.   With their young core hitting their prime, they'll take it to another level earning their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in franchise history.

Biggest Surprise: Arizona.   With Vegas, Anaheim and LA all taking big steps backwars, Arizona will find it's way into the playoffs for the first time in 84 years.  

Winnipeg lost Stastny and plays in the toughest division in the league.  I could see them having trouble.

[Thorner]

30 minutes ago, Eleven said:

No; I think the Bruins are watching their window close and that the Knights are the actual flop.

Winnipeg lost Stastny and plays in the toughest division in the league.  I could see them having trouble.

Especially because the Jets aren't going to surprise anyone this year, they are firmly entrenched in win-now status, especially with Trouba's time in Winnipeg on-the-clock after a 1-year arbitration deal. They have more big contracts on the way, too (Laine, etc (good problem to have, obviously)) that'll have them in some cap difficulty in the near future. The Little and Hellebuyck contracts aren't going to help there (but they have a bargain with Scheifele's deal, and a good one in Ehlers; those should help a bit).

Still, with Wheeler (31) and Byfuglien (33) nearing their best-before dates, Cheveldayoff's true acumen as a GM will soon be tested. They are also weakest down the middle out of all positions, especially after losing Stastny. Unless Roslovic solidifies their #2 centre spot in the near future, they don't have much at C (compared to the other top teams) after Scheifele. That'll lead to tough playoff match-ups down the road. They are loaded at wing, of course. 

However, I don't think the Central is the best division in hockey anymore. I think the Atlantic has surpassed it, or at least very soon will. Minnesota is a regular season only team, Chicago doesn't scare anyone anymore, and Nashville isn't going anywhere if the Rinne from last year's playoffs makes regular appearances. Seriously, the Jets were nearly swept by Vegas, and Nashville was lucky to get to 7 games against Winnipeg with Rinne doing his best to sabotage his team at every turn, quite literally handing them Game 7 in the opening minutes. 

I think the Jets will be the class of that division for a while. There's a handful of better teams in the East, though. The East is just better than the West. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

NS, Love the idea on Montreal diving for the bottom.  ? (and I fell zero pain saying it). 

Edited July 25, 2018 by GASabresIUFAN

[MattPie]

Most Hyped:  Toronto is the shoe-in

Biggest Flop:  PSE Entertainment Twitter Team

Best Team: Wendy's Twitter Team

Biggest surprise: Sabre's AHL Call-ups actually become NHL players

[GASabresIUFAN]

Apparently CBS and ESPN were on a similar wave length with me today.  Just finished dinner and went to check on my fantasy baseball teams and found these two articles.

http://insider.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/24189603/nhl-rebuild-rankings-which-teams-closest-returning-stanley-cup-contention

https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/these-eight-nhl-teams-are-poised-to-either-surprise-or-disappoint-next-season/

[Huckleberry]

Most hyped: Hard time choosing between Toronto and Vegas.

Biggest flop: Canucks , but they might just be tanking.   So Kings/Blackhawks for me.

Best team: Tampa 

Biggest surprise: Flyers, I think they'll be really good.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Huckleberry

[MODO Hockey]

Most hyped: Obviously Toronto

Biggest flop: NYR

Best team: Tampa bay, they dont really have a contender with that rooster 

Biggest surprise: Rooting for Sabres here, Ullmark suprises everyone and wins game after game

[GASabresIUFAN]

I agree on the NYR.  They might be in full rebuild mode after the season.  I hope Vesey is happy with his choice.

[Eleven]

If Price gets back to form, and I think he will, Montreal will not finish DFL or close to it.

[Hoss]

Some of these “flops” are team that are already expected to compete for dead last (Montreal, Vancouver and the Rangers).

Most hyped is pretty definitively Toronto.

Biggest flop: Vegas or Winnipeg. Vegas will miss the playoffs. Winnipeg had a lot of guys take huge steps forward, so it’s TBD if they can duplicate that. Helly in net is on a big contract now so he’s got to live up.

Best team: Nashville. I think they were the best regular season team last year and I think they’ll continue growing from there. Might be the last shot with Rinne in net.

Buggest surprise: Panthers. They’ve been on the edge of the playoffs but this year they’ll finish third in the Atlantic and beat Toronto in round one.

[thewookie1]

Most Hyped: Toronto for sure, though they will likely do only a tad better due to their D being largely the same and their goalie was riding a high last year. 

Biggest Flop: One of the California teams, all three are old and could easily slip and fall and break their hip. LAK would be the most egregious though based on their signings this summer.

Best Team:

Tampa in the East

Winnipeg in the West

 

Biggest Surprise: Buffalo and Dallas, Dallas roars back into contention on the backs of Benn and Seguin like they did a couple years back. The Sabres squeeze into the 2nd Wildcard spot thanks to a recently recalled Pominville scoring late in the 3rd of game 82.

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by thewookie1

[jsb]

Hyped: It will be the Maple Leafs

Biggest Flop: LA Kings, they have made the playoffs and missed the playoffs off and on for several years running, this is an off year coming up and they have an awful lot of guys in the 30's right now.

Best team: On paper the Lightning and if they pull off a Karlsson trade, they'll be tough to beat

Biggest surprise: this is a tough one because who the heck would have picked the Avs this past year?? Panther's improvement shouldn't be a surprise so I'll pick the Flyers, JVR improves their offense enough to get above the Penguins in the standings this year.

[Mustache of God]

The biggest flop will be Ottawa and it's not even close. They're going to finish dead furking last and hand Colorado a juicy lottery pick. Sure, a lot of the flop teams listed above are all going to be bad as well, at least they'll have the cushion of a high-pick when iall is said and done. Can you imagine going through a tank season without the hope of a franchise altering draft-pick?

Agree on Toronto/Tampa for the hype/best.

Biggest surprise? Our very own Buffalo Sabres, because we're due for one and we have Dahlin and Eichel, which will blossom into the greatest bromance since Eichel/Reinhart.

[GASabresIUFAN]

I’ve added a pollto this thread.  I combined Hyped/Best into one question and you can vote for both a hyped and best.  The Flop and Surprise have their own questions.  

[Sabel79]

2 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

I’ve added a pollto this thread.  I combined Hyped/Best into one question and you can vote for both a hyped and best.  The Flop and Surprise have their own questions.  

Nice, we voted exactly alike.  Great minds.

Vegas is going to drop off a cliff, I can feel it... No, I have no justifiable argument for this.

[Eleven]

29 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

The biggest flop will be Ottawa and it's not even close. They're going to finish dead furking last and hand Colorado a juicy lottery pick. Sure, a lot of the flop teams listed above are all going to be bad as well, at least they'll have the cushion of a high-pick when iall is said and done. Can you imagine going through a tank season without the hope of a franchise altering draft-pick?

Agree on Toronto/Tampa for the hype/best.

Biggest surprise? Our very own Buffalo Sabres, because we're due for one and we have Dahlin and Eichel, which will blossom into the greatest bromance since Eichel/Reinhart.

I can't see Ottawa as a "flop." They were the second-worst team last year and no one expects anything of them this year.  A flop is a team that's supposed to be good but turns out to be bad.

Edited July 27, 2018 by Eleven

[Mustache of God]

The flop is them losing their lottery pick.

[Eleven]

32 minutes ago, Mustache of God said:

The flop is them losing their lottery pick.

No question, that was a silly trade.

[French Collection]

I chose Vegas for a flop but I see it more as just missing the playoffs.

I guess some would call that a flop after their inaugural season.

[Thorner]

9 hours ago, Eleven said:

No question, that was a silly trade.

Even sillier was deferring the 1st to next season and taking Tkachuk, rather than just giving it up.

Edited July 28, 2018 by Thorny