NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 13: Commissioner Gary Bettman of the National Hockey League speaks to the media at Crowne Plaza Times Square on September 13, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The NHL season is back and it is time to examine potential breakout candidates and predicting the 2020-21 regular-season standings.
With the season starting today, I assessed every NHL team by examining all significant acquisitions, trades, and free-agent signings that occurred this offseason. I then used Evolving-Hockey’s wins-above replacement (WAR) metric by calculating each team’s wins above replacement change after the offseason transactions.