Celebrini, Gauthier and Hutson are among the top rookies to watch for the 2024-25 season. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where the Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
JULIA LORELLI | STAFF REPORTER | jlorelli@butler.edu
As the weather turns colder, fans will pull on hockey sweaters as the 2024-25 NHL season has officially begun.
Stanley Cup contenders
While every team hopes to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup, some teams like the Panthers, Bruins, Predators and Lightning are a tier above the rest.
The 2024 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers are looking to defend their title by bringing up goalie Spencer Knight, who played in the AHL last season, and adding defensemen Nate Schmidt and Adam Boqvist.
While the Boston Bruins are a team that many hockey fans despise, there is no denying their talent as they have made the postseason for 29 straight years. The Bruins added three forwards Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov and Riley Tufte, as well as defenseman Max Jones. With the postseason record they have, it is no wonder these players jumped at the chance to play for an Original 6 team.
On top of landing centerman Steven Stamkos, the Nashville Predators acquired forward Jonathon Marchessault and defenseman Brady Skeji along with re-signing elite goaltender Juuse Saros.
Senior statistics major Hallie Nuccio believes adding these star players will make the Predators a Stanley Cup team.
“[General manager] Barry Trotz is a lifelong Preds fan, so he went spending this offseason,” Nuccio said. “We signed Jusse Sarros to a big contract and then picked up Stamkos, Marchessault and Brady Skeji; those three could be star players with any team. The fact that we have [them] and still have [left wing] Filip Forsberg and [defenseman]Roman Josi, I honestly think we’re [going to] go far.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning has always been a fast-paced team with great goaltending from Andrei Vasilevskiy, but there is one major change this year. For the first time in 10 years, the Bolts will be without their captain and centerman Steven Stamkos, who was traded this summer to the Predators. Stamkos was a big player for the Lightning with 81 points in 79 games last season. It will be interesting to see how the Bolts do without their captain of 10 years.
Playoff contenders
These upcoming teams have a strong shot at the playoffs and may even make a deep run. However, their past history signals that they tend to struggle in the playoffs and are not likely to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Ever since the Colorado Avalanche drafted centerman Nathan MacKinnon, they have been a force that no team wants to go up against. They continued to build their team with stars like left-wing Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Cale Makar. This team is not going away anytime soon, but they tend to struggle when they reach the conference semifinals.
The Edmonton Oilers were able to retain talent this offseason, allowing their core group to stay. They also have the dynamic duo of centermen Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who can score in the blink of an eye.
The Detroit Red Wings have not made the playoffs in eight years, but they were just one win away from reaching the playoffs last season. The Red Wings have an outstanding development program, knowing who they need to add during the draft and when they should bring players up to the big leagues.
Junior sports media major Tyler Bigford has high hopes for the Red Wings this year.
“I think [the city of] Detroit is motivating all the players,” Bigford said. “We’re a really young team, we’ve got veterans on the team and we’ve made trades. We’ve finally mended together as a team and we are going to make it to the next step of making the playoffs like we used to do for 25 [straight] years.”
This year they have added six-foot-six defensive giant Simon Edvisson from Sweden who will bring more power to the blue line. Additionally, they have brought in right wing Vladimir Tarasenko from the Panthers who matches the skill set of Hall of Famer Sergei Federov. In 2019, Steve Yzerman came back to Detroit as the general manager of the Wings. Although it has taken a while, the Wings are set up to be on the brink of a playoff spot.
Ever since the Toronto Maple Leafs added right wing Mitch Marner, centerman Auston Matthews and right wing William Nylander, they have been to the playoffs consistently. However, they have been bounced from the playoffs in the first round for eight years, except for 2023 when they lost in the second round.
Although the Las Vegas Golden Knights traded their points and goals leader, Marchessault, to the Predators, the Knights are a set team with solid goaltending from Adin Hill, an all-star defense and a powerful offense. The Knights have only missed the playoffs once in their eight seasons of existence.
The most notable change to the Dallas Stars this offseason was losing centerman Joe Pavelski to retirement. Besides that, the Stars’ offseason was quiet, keeping most of their key players such as left wing Jamie Benn and goaltender Jake Oettinger.
Although the Carolina Hurricanes lost Evgeny Kuznetsov to the KHL and centerman Eric Staal to retirement, they are a team that has made the playoffs consistently since 2018. The Canes still have a strong offense with centermen Jordan Staal and Tyson Jost, and a defense featuring Dmitry Orlov and long-time Shark Brent Burns.
Keeping their team intact during this offseason seemed to be the New York Rangers’ main goal. They have strong goaltending in Igor Shesterkin and as the Canadiens proved in the 2021 playoffs, outstanding goaltending can get a team deep into the playoffs.
During the offseason, the Washington Capitals were focused on fixing all the problems they had last year like their lack of physicality, weak goaltending and reliance on veteran players. They added seven new players, which fixes their issues.
Fringe playoff teams
16 teams make the NHL playoffs. This next group of teams has a chance of landing that last playoff spot by being at the top of the wildcard, but do not put your money on them to win it all. Most of these teams like the New York Islanders, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks and the Seattle Kraken signed reinforcements, but they did not make any big moves. The Minnesota Wild hired a new assistant coach, Jack Capuano, but that was the only off-season move of note.
The busiest team during the off-season was the New Jersey Devils as they signed and re-signed 13 players. While more work still needs to be done for them to be a playoff team, they fixed some of their problems. They added bigger, more physical guys who are not afraid to go after the body and finish their checks. They also brought in defensemen, solving their most prevalent issue. They have lots of talent on their current roster, but they need someone to fill that fourth-line centerman spot.
After missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year, the Pittsburgh Penguins were buzzing during the off-season, making trades and signing contracts left and right to increase their depth. The problem with Pittsburgh is their reliance on centermen Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby to do all the work. The new depth will bring them close to the playoffs but not close enough.
The previous Arizona Coyotes moved to Utah in hopes of finding success in the mountains instead of the desert, and are now called the Utah Hockey Club. The move seems to have worked as they have upgraded their defense, added a young core group that helped them go 5-2 in the preseason.
Missed the playoff mark
There are 32 NHL teams, meaning that 16 other teams who missed the playoffs get to hit the golf course early. Whether the weakness comes from inside the team like the Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Buffalo Sabres and the Ottawa Senators, or from playing in a difficult division like the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks, or missing their star players that carry the team like the Montreal Canadiens or the Calgary Flames, these teams will not be seen on a playoff bracket.
The St. Louis Blues struggled last season because only their top line could find the back of the net. They addressed this problem, but they also need a stronger defense that can block shots and score from the blue line.
Sophomore risk management major Jonah Miller thinks that the Blues will have another tough year and that defense is their biggest problem that they have hopefully solved with the draft.
“I think in two years they should be pretty okay,” Miller said. “We got a lot of young guys. The talent’s there, but there’s not a lot of experience to kind of make it all work together. Defense [is our biggest problem]. We have maybe three good defensemen and [you need] five or six to be any form of a contending team. We drafted mostly defensively, which I thought was good.”
Overall, this NHL season should be exciting with a new team in Utah, rookies finding their path and players trying to muster together to become a playoff team, all in the hope of winning the Stanley Cup.
