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Tampa Bay Lightning {13^th overall} Eastern Conference, Atlantic Division

Tampa Bay is one of three teams that finished their 41 home games with less than 10 losses and unfortunately, they were matched against one of the other three in the opening round of the 2023 NHL playoffs.

The Bolts added veteran winger Conor Sheary a proven playoff scorer, faceoff specialist, and shutdown checking forward Luke Glendenning, and in the draft Tampa Bay selected 37^th overall in the second round Ethan Gauthier a six-foot winger.

In 10 seasons as the bench boss HC Jon Cooper has won two Stanley Cups and missed the playoffs just once [5 years ago] with no reason to suspect they will not return to these upcoming 2024 NHL playoffs with plans to progress past the first round.

Winnipeg Jets {14^th overall} Western Conference, Central Division

The eighth seed from the Western Conference opened the playoffs with a 5-1 convincing win over the eventual Cup winner last season and this year the Jets have made some interesting moves in net and on offense.

Bringing goaltender Laurent Brossoit back into the fold and trading for LW Alex Iafallo will aid head coach Rick Bowness [who coached 28 games in the 1988-89 season for Winnipeg] in his second season in getting the Jets past the first round.

Winnipeg selected Colby Barlow in the first round 18^th overall who is Captain of his OHL team the Owen Sound Attack where he scored 79 points in 59 games last season his second on the team.

The Jets were only a few regular season wins from being in the 100-point club with one of the fewest goals against last year and this coming season should be more of the same and if they can score a few more goals could progress even further.

New York Islanders {15^th overall} Eastern Conference, Metropolitan Division

The Islanders had won 42 games for 93 points and the first wild card seeding in the Eastern Conference compiled 25 wins to 13 losses at home and earned a plus-21 goal differential which placed them in the first round versus the second-best team in 2023.

The Islanders goaltender IIya Sorokin has been locked in for eight seasons and his back-up Semyon Varlamov to four-year contract which is great news for a team that finished 5^th out of 32 teams in goals against last year.

New York was one overtime win from game seven last year and going into his second year as Head Coach for the Islanders Lane Lambert (1 Stanley Cup as a coach, 1 Calder, and Turner Cup as a player) will no doubt have his team returning to the playoffs.

Calgary Flames {16^th overall} Western Conference, Pacific Division

The Flames did not qualify for the playoffs last season after winning 11 more games than they lost and had a league-leading 17 OT losses adding as many points to their overall total of 93 which was two points shy of a wild card seeding.

Calgary fired their head coach and promoted their assistant head coach for the last four seasons Ryan Huska who brought in three assistant coaches for their first season coaching the Flames, Marc Savard, Dan Lambert, and Cail MacLean.

In the first round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft Calgary selected Slovakian native Samuel Honzek at 6’ 4”, 200 lbs., this 18-year-old scored 56 points in 43 games in the WHL last season and is a promising prospect for the Flames’ future.

Although Calgary had a positive goal differential [+8] last season it is tied to their low goals against highlighting the team’s need to score more goals and win some of those overtime losses that they could accomplish with their new coaching staff.

Florida Panthers {17^th overall} Eastern Conference, Atlantic Division

Wild Card seeded Florida had one of the most exciting playoff runs in recent history, to watch the Panthers go down 3-1 in the opening round versus the greatest NHL regular season team ever and to come back and win the series then march to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Defense will be different for Florida as key injuries and three well-known free agents, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola, and Dmitry Kulikov will create a new look, and in net, the Panthers still have one of the best goaltenders in the league with Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida fought hard in the Eastern Conference last season to earn the last wild card seeding that was literally between three teams as HC Maurice begins his second season at the helm and he can expect another close battle to the end of the regular season.