The NHL regular season is now officially underway as the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres kicked off the season in Prague yesterday as part of a two game set before heading back to the states.
The Carolina Hurricanes will officially open their 2024-2025 campaign next Friday, as they welcome in the Tampa Bay Lightning as they usher in a new era without longtime captain Steven Stamkos, who signed with the Nashville Predators this summer.
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The Hurricanes despite the losses of some key players in Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, Stefan Noesen and Brady Skjei, still figure to be in position to finish in a top three spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The Metropolitan Division should be more interesting however this season, as the New Jersey Devils figure to be much improved after an off-season where they acquired a legitimate #1 goaltender in Jacob Markstrom, and luring two former Canes’ in Brett Pesce and Stefan Noesen to the Garden State. The Hurricanes 1st round playoff opponent in the last two years, The New York Islanders, are also expected to be in contention to grab a top spot again. Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello added skilled winger Anthony Duclair to round out the teams top line alongside Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal and might have found the hidden gem out of the KHL in Maxim Tysplakov, who has had anmpressive pre-season.
Then of course, you have the reigning NHL Presidents’ trophy winners in the New York Rangers, who are the favorites to once again win the Metropolitan division behind star goaltender Igor Shesterkin and fellow Russian forward Artemi Panarin.
With that said, here is our Metropolitan divison predictions. Keep in mind, there is strong chance of course that it’s all wrong.
1. New York Rangers– While the Rangers didn’t make a whole lot of changes this summer, the team is still expected to repeat as Metro division champs. Netminder Igor Shesterkin looks to be heading into the start of the season without a new contract, which could cause some distraction, but the 28-year old Shesterkin is the backbone of team and should once again be in the conversation to win the Vezina trophy. With a supporting elite cast of Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox and the former 2020 1st overall pick Alexis Lafreniere looking like he is on the verge of breaking out, the Rangers should once again be the class of the division.
2. Carolina Hurricanes– As referenced above, much is made of the losses the Hurricanes suffered in the off-season. While there is no doubt the team will feel the losses left by Guentzel and company, the Hurricanes are still led by one of the best centers in the game in Sebastian Aho. He will be complimented by the young Seth Jarvis, coming off a record-setting contract extension this summer, and still have one of the best top four defensive groups in the league in Jaccob Slavin, Brent Burns, Dmitry Orlov and Sean Walker. Of course, you have Rod Brind’Amour behind the bench, which will still have his team play that aggressive, uptempo style of hockey that makes the Hurricanes one of the hardest teams to play against in the NHL.
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3. New York Islanders– If the top three of the division does indeed stack up this way, that would lead to a Hurricanes-Islanders 1st round matchup for the 3rd consecutive season. The Islanders have largely the same group returning this season but added the speedy and skilled Anthony Duclair to give the team a more well-rounded top line and added the highly sought after KHL free agent in Maxim Tsyplakov, that had interest from 12 other NHL teams before choosing Long Island. Tsyplakov added to a 2nd line that already features proven 30+ goal scorers in Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri round out a solid top-six group. If the 2022-2023 Vezina runner-up in Ilya Sorokin rebounds to form after a down year last season, the Patrick Roy led Islanders could surprise a lot of people.
4. New Jersey Devils– After a busy off-season by Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald in which he landed the likes of Jacob Markstrom, Brett Pesce, and Brenden Dillon to go along with the core of superstar Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton, much of the NHL media have predicted the Devils to finish atop the Metropolitan division. While that can certainly happen, the Devils have run into injury problems the last couple of seasons; specificially their best player Jack Hughes. During the 2021-2022 season Hughes was limited to just 49 games and last season he missed 20 games due to injury. If Hughes and top defensemen Dougie Hamilton, who missed the majority of the season last year, can stay healthy the Devils could once again contend for the division crown.
5. Washington Capitals– The story line heading into this season in the nations capital is Alex Ovechkin is just 42 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzkys’ all-time goals record. After a slow start last year, Ovechkin managed to still finish the year with 31 goals. The Capitals brought in forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane this summer as well as top 4 defenseman Jacob Chychrun and goaltender Logan Thompson. Despite the additions and a surprise playoff appearance in 23-24, the Caps figure to be a team that will be on the outside looking in come playoff time.
6. Pittsburgh Penguins– While you can never count out a team led by Sidney Crosby, the Penguins appear to be heading towards a 3rd consecutive year of missing out on the playoffs. Crosby, who signed a 2-year extension last month, is hoping to not let that happen. However, as one of the older teams in the NHL, it doesn’t appear the Pens added enough support around him to move the needle. GM Kyle Dubas brought in veteran Kevin Hayes, but the 32-year old is coming off the worst year of his career last season, only scoring 29 points in 79 games with the Blues. The Penguins did trade for promising forward Rutger McGroarty from the Winnipeg Jets. If McGroarty exceeds expectations there is a chance the Penguins could surprise people, but otherwise it could be a long year in Pittsburgh.
7. Philadelphia Flyers– The Flyers surprised people last season as the team was holding down 3rd place in the Metropolitan last season before falling apart late in the year. GM Daniel Briere wasn’t very active this summer, but he was able get the teams 7th overall pick in the 2023 draft in Matvei Michkov over from Russia. Michkov looks to be the real deal and will likely contend for the Calder trophy. Combined with young players in Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Jett Luchanko and star forward Travis Konecny, the future is bright in Philadelphia. For this season however, there could be some growing pains with the young players on the team which could lead to a step back.
8. Columbus Blue Jackets– Unspeakable tragedy rocked the Blue Jackets and the entire hockey world when Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, were struck and killed while riding their bikes by a drunk driver near their home in Salem, NJ this past August. While they were both great hockey players, they were even better individuals off the ice, and they will both be missed greatly.
Despite the loss of Johnny Gaudreau, the Blue Jackets and their teammates are tasked with the very difficult job of moving forward and turning the page to play hockey. Captain Boone Jenner and new Blue Jacket Sean Monahan will lead the team offensively with promising young players Adam Fantili, Cole Sillinger and Kirill Marchenko, but this season figures to be a tough one in Columbus.
