The Canadian Division

Who will win the Canadian Division?


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Pierce Hawthorne

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Hm, so adding Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli up front, another year of development for Suzuki and KK, adding Edmundson and Romanov on D, and adding a starter-quality backup in Josh Allen... and losing only Max Domi... none of that counts as significant improvement? They literally addressed every possible weakness they could have without adding a superstar up front.

No, none of that is significant improvement. Domi/Anderson is a wash at best for Montreal. Edmundson is an awful Defender on an even worse contract. Definitely not an upgrade.

Romanov is an unknown, he could fly out of the gates and it wouldn't surprise me as I like his game, but he could also struggle quite a bit. It is certainly not uncommon for Defenders joining the NHL from the KHL to have issues adapting to the speed of the NHL game.


The only way Montreal is a playoff team, is if the young kids actually take big steps forward in development. Otherwise, they're a very meh team on paper with no star firepower up front.


Let's also not forget the two best players on that team are 33 and 35 years old... They certainly aren't getting any better either.


Quite frankly if Price isn't elite, Montreal will be a bottom 5 team this year.
 

MarkT

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No, none of that is significant improvement. Domi/Anderson is a wash at best for Montreal. Edmundson is an awful Defender on an even worse contract. Definitely not an upgrade.

Romanov is an unknown, he could fly out of the gates and it wouldn't surprise me as I like his game, but he could also struggle quite a bit. It is certainly not uncommon for Defenders joining the NHL from the KHL to have issues adapting to the speed of the NHL game.


The only way Montreal is a playoff team, is if the young kids actually take big steps forward in development. Otherwise, they're a very meh team on paper with no star firepower up front.


Let's also not forget the two best players on that team are 33 and 35 years old... They certainly aren't getting any better either.


Quite frankly if Price isn't elite, Montreal will be a bottom 5 team this year.

Domi/Anderson is not a wash because Anderson provides a style of play otherwise completely absent from the team. Domi didn't even have a role on the roster by the end. Toffoli I guess just... doesn't count?
Edmundson I agree is on a bad contract, but I don't see how that's relevant at all to whether they'll be good this year. And he's probably not going to be anything but a bottom 6 PK guy anyways. They needed size on their bottom pair and now they have it.
Romanov indeed might struggle, but again, he doesn't need to be amazing right away.
Allen also doesn't count I guess...

And yeah, no star firepower up front, but they could have upwards of 8 forwards score at a 20+ goal pace. That combined with good defensive play should provide them with enough overall firepower to win more games than they lose. The disadvantage of relying on star firepower is if the other team manages to shut them down or they have an off night, it becomes very difficult to win.

I think a lot of things would have to go very wrong for Montreal to finish bottom 5.
 

Balthazar

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Montreal is still a really bad team. It kind of amazes me how many Habs fans actually think they significantly improved this off season.
I know the TSN panel of experts isn't as knowledgeable as you but I wouldn't call them "Habs fans".

mjClgTX.png
 
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The Abusement Park

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The Habs are a very solid team. They lack high end talent for me, but they should be able to compete with most teams every night. Plus if Price turns back the clock that’s a huge boost for them. But I think they’ll finish in like 3rd.
 

Balthazar

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Ouch, you really hurt my feelings on that one.


Serious question, why do you continue to post on the Avs board when its clear you're far more of a Montreal fan? It doesn't make sense. You get so offended when people harp on Montreal.

24,000 posts about the Avs, fewer than 100 about the Habs and I'm an Habs fan.
 

Balthazar

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The Canadian division really sucks balls. Tell Canadians.
IMO it's going to be an entertaining division because outside of the Sens all the teams are on the same level or so.

You just made numbers up. Well done.


Anyway, fun talk.


I actually think Montreal wins tonight. They tend to play Toronto really well on opening nights. That should be a really fun game to watch if nothing else.

Truth is my 2nd favorite team is probably the Sens (still far, far behind the Avs). I talk about Montreal because I live in Habs land and I get bombarded with informations every day. If I lived in Winnipeg I'd know more about the Jets than most other Avs fans.

I think the Leafs win tonight. We'll see.
 
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Pierce Hawthorne

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IMO it's going to be an entertaining division because outside of the Sens all the teams are on the same level or so.



Truth is my 2nd favorite team is probably the Sens (still far, far behind the Avs). I talk about Montreal because I live in Habs land and I get bombarded with informations every day. If I lived in Winnipeg I'd know more about the Jets than most other Avs fans.

I think the Leafs win tonight. We'll see.


Fair enough. I give you shit about it all the time which is probably uncalled for.


I dont think the Habs are that good. Did they improve? Probably. But they were also like 24th in the league last year as well.


In a normal year I definitely don't think they would be a playoff team. But the Canadian division is really quite weak IMO with not one team that stands out as being an actual contender or being significantly better than anybody else in Canada. So it is definitely a possibility that Montreal makes the playoffs.


If nothing else, I think getting to watch MTL/TOR and EDM/CGY 10 times each this year should be a lot of fun.


Can't forget that WPG/TOR rivalry either. Those two teams really did not like each other a couple years ago, despite only playing each other twice.
 
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Pierce Hawthorne

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Canadian division is a hell of a lot better than the West division.

I think they're both weak in different ways.


The West has 2 very clear top tier teams in Vegas and Colorado, and 3rd team on that bubble in St. Louis.

Canada doesn't have a single team in that top tier of contenders IMO. Toronto is maybe the closest but they continue to disappoint relative to expectations so I'm not about to put them into the top tier until they show something more than they have yet.


But, the West also has 4 or 5 really bad teams as well. Where as in Canada, only Ottawa projects to be a bottom feeder and I even think they have some interesting pieces that could surprise teams the same way we did back in 2017.


Overall the West may be weaker, but I think if I was a bubble team, I'd rather be in the Canadian division then the West.
 

Pierce Hawthorne

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It's just a lot of kind of good teams. I wouldn't be :eek::eek::eek::eek:ing my pants if I were Canadian.

e: Oh yeah, I forgot it does that for that.

Exactly.


Like, let's say you're a fan of someone like Nashville, a bubble team in the US. I would much rather be placed in the Canadian division than the West division.

In Canada, its probably a little tougher to actually get into the playoffs, but once you're in... You gotta feel good about your chances of getting through to the final 4.


In the West.... You might have an easy path to the 4th seed, but once you're in you're facing either Colorado or Vegas round one. That is terrifying.
 

TheDangerBowen

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I tried to draft as many North division players in fantasy as I could.. because the defense all over the division is hilarious
 

Belhammer16

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You just highlight their positives. There are negatives to each of them.

Ottawa is too inexperienced and lacks any real gamebreaker currently.
Calgary's forwards are past overrated at this point - they're exposed.
Winnipeg has a goalie, but not much else with an aging forward core.
Edmonton has absolutely no D.
Toronto doesn't gel much, they lack depth throughout the lineup, and they just added Brodie.
Montreal lacks a gamebreaking forward.
Vancouver, to me, has the clear best shot. They have a solid defense and Hughes back there, a forward star, some other forwards, they added Schmidt, and they gave Vegas a good run for its money.
Winnipeg Jets aging forward core? Their avg age must be around 25...
 

Thepoolmaster

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Dec 3, 2011
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I've got

Leafs
Flames
Canucks
Habs
Oilers
Winnipeg
Ottawa

Leafs are the best team imo. They have the best top 6. Have improved their defense and I think made some solid depth acquisitions.

Flames will get a huge boost from markstrom. Team is still good. Forwards, while overrated, are still good enough to take them far.

Canucks. I think they have a lot of upside. Got saved by markstrom a lot last year but Holtby / Demko is solid.

Habs. This was tough to put them over the Oilers but Price makes up for their deficiencies and I think they have decent depth. Defense is ok but not good.

Oilers. McDrai obviously. Defense is atrocious. Goaltending sucks. Bottom six depth non existent. In a season where you play the same teams over and over again teams will be more ready for mcdrai and will be able to gameplan to take advantage of all their weaknesses

Winnipeg. No mcdrai and same level defense. If I'm not mistaken they're the only team that isn't allowed to play at home and I think that will be tough (but it's Winnipeg so maybe it'll help lol). The raps are a good case study in how this has hurt them early along with other things.

Ottawa. Nothing really needs to be said here but I like their future potential.
 

Pierce Hawthorne

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This aged like milk. ;)

Meh. They won 24 out of 56 games in the regular season. They were the 16th ranked team to make the playoffs.


They're proving to be one hell of a resilient team bit I also think this is clearly a one hit wonder for them.


Carey Price is essentially the #1 reason they are where they are and he gave zero indication of having this in him after the regular season.


That said, I'm glad they beat Vegas and it would be something to see them win the cup. It would give a lot of teams confidence they can win it all after seeing such a mediocre Habs team go on a run.


Edit: Including this playoff run, Montreal has still lost more games then they have won this year. 36 wins to 37 losses :laugh:
 
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