It's funny how long this discussion has been, all teams have been bad since like 2018 with the exception of a couple hot months by the Habs in the covid years when they were gifted playoff opportunities (great playoff run tho).
TBL, FLA, BOS and TOR have been playoff staples while these 4 teams continue to not figure it out.
Gonna use their Top 7 players (4F 3D and 1G) from those periods to compare to what these 4 teams will have over the next 5 or so years.
F1: Kucherov
F2: Point
F3: Stamkos
F4: Cirelli/Killorn/Palat
D1: Hedman
D2: McDonagh
D3: Sergachev
G: Vasilevskiy
F1: Barkov
F2: Tkachuk/Huberdeau
F3: Reinhart
F4: Verhaeghe
D1: Ekblad
D2: Weegar/Montour
D3: Forsling
G: Bobrovsky
F1: Bergeron
F2: Pastrnak
F3: Marchand
F4: Krejci
D1: McAvoy
D2: Chara
D3: Lindholm/Krug
G: Rask/Ullmark/Sway
F1: Matthews
F2: Marner
F3: Tavares
F4: Nylander
D1: Reilly
D2: Muzzin/Barrie
D3: Holl/Liljegren?
G: Andersen/Samsonov
Now for the Atlantic failures....
F1: Stützle
F2: Tkachuk
F3: Batherson
F4: Norris/Pinto/Greig
D1: Sanderson
D2: Chabot
D3: Zub/Yakemchuk
G: Ullmark
F1: Thompson
F2: Cozens
F3: Benson
F4: Quinn/Pererka
D1: Dahlin
D2: Power
D3: Byram/Samuelsson
G: Levi
F1: Larkin
F2: Raymond
F3: DeBrincat
F4: Danielson/Kasper
D1: Seider
D2: Edvinsson
D3: Pellikka?
G: Cossa
F1: Demidov
F2: Slavkovsky
F3: Caufield
F4: Suzuki
D1: Hutson
D2: Guhle
D3: Lindholm/Reinbacher
G: Primeau
Apologies if I missed some blatant ones. Capfriendly made this stuff a lot easier. Obviously these will loom very different even a year from now due to trades, signings, drafts and even value changes.
So based off of those groups, I would say that Buffalo and Ottawa have the biggest star power. Ottawa is by far the least deep, but I'd say Stützle/Tkachuk likely ends up as the best forward duo out of the group, if they're not already.
Best defence undoubtedly goes to Buffalo for now, but all 4 teams have multiple D men 21 and younger so that will change a lot.
I can't believe I'm saying these words but Ottawa undoubtedly has the best goalie right now. If Ullmark is only here one year, Ottawa has by far the worst goalies and I'd even go as far as saying overall group because of the weakness.
The biggest factor how successful these teams will be is coaching. I guess I'd give the edge to Lalonde right now but all of the coaching staffs leave a little to be desired, interested to see which one is best.
All this to say.... We all still suck but Go Sens Go