This summer has seen many of the teams who missed the playoffs last year improve quite a bit. The Dallas Stars are the easy choice for most improved, after adding Ben Bishop, Alexander Radulov, Martin Hanzal and Marc Methot to an already talented core. They will push for a playoff spot next season, but are in a tough division with teams like Nashville and Minnesota not ready to give up their recent success.
Carolina has locked up some of their key young players and brought in Justin Williams and Trevor van Riemsdyk for some championship pedigree. They think they’ve found a top goaltender in Scott Darling, and should see improvement from many of their players.
Buffalo will welcome Jack Eichel back for a hopefully healthy season, and have revamped their defense by letting Cody Franson and Dmitry Kulikov go. Nathan Beaulieu, Marco Scandella, Viktor Antipin and Brendan Guhle could make that group much improved, and they have plenty of talent up front.
Many other teams have improved, while some like Vancouver are willing to complete a slower rebuild. Which of the non-playoff teams are most likely to get there this season? Vegas is included in the poll in their first season, and you can vote for as many teams as you want.
[Mobile users click here to vote!]
I’d be very if Tampa didn’t bounce back.
Very surprised *
Dallas and Tampa
Carolina.
Canes and Coyotes both will be the 8 seeds
Stars are going to the top of the western conference. They won’t even need to worry about just getting in