The 2023-24 NHL season had four Canadian teams representing the NHL in the 2023-24 playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets, and Vancouver Canucks. The Toronto Maple Leafs were heavily favored going into the season as a team, but especially out of the Canadian teams Toronto was a shoe-in for the playoffs.

Quick recap of last year’s playoffs. Winnipeg lost 4 games to 1 against Colorado. Winnipeg one and done. Vancouver beat Nashville 4-2 moving on to the second round to face Edmonton who dismantled the Kings 4-2. Toronto lost to Boston (insert crying face) Edmonton went on to beat Vancouver 4-3, Edmonton would take on a tough Dallas team, Edmonton winning another 7 games series 4-3. The Oilers now set to face Florida who beat the Boston Bruins and NY Rangers to set up a Stanley Cup showdown. Florida had a commanding 3-1 series lead, Edmonton powered back to tie the series 3-3 and make it a game 7 final. Sadly Florida won that game 2-1.

I am not gonna write about each Canadian team in the league just the ones I think have the best chance of bringing Lord Stanley back to the Great White North.

The Toronto Maple Leafs who I’d like to mention did let a lot of players go Tyler Bertuzzi, Noah Gregor, T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, Ilya Lyubushkin, Joel Edmunson, John Klingberg… and goalie Ilya Samsonov who was good but had some mental health issues and struggled with confidence at times.

The Leafs definitely added key pieces that they’ve been lacking for years. Toronto adds two more solid defenseman Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and a quality goaltender in former Panther goalie Anthony Stolarz who served as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup. Stolarz was great as a backup (16-7-2, 2.03 goals-against average, .925 save percentage) never managed to start more than 28 games, Tanev one of the better defensive D-men in the league will help provide support to either goalie and hopefully keep the puck neutralized and out of their own zone.

Two more key changes that make the Leafs favorites. Toronto switched Captains, John Tavares “relinquished his captaincy” over to Auston Matthews . Matthews becomes the 26th Captain in franchise history. Secondly the Leafs start the 2024-25 season with a new head coach, Craig Berube will be behind the bench, fresh leadership from on the ice and fresh leadership behind the bench. Vegas has the Toronto Maple Leafs as the 2nd Canadian team favored to win it all.

The 2022 Vancouver Canucks went from missing the playoffs and not even being in the hunt, to 2023 being a dominant force and winning the Pacific Division and being the 4th best team in the western Conference.

Vancouver is already on the right track they’ve just been in rebuild mode and playing the waiting game for some prospects to be ready like backup netminder Arthurs Silvos, who appeared in 4 regular season games and was 3-0-1 a 2.47 GAA and .881 SV%. He is expected to be the Canucks’ back up goaltender for the 2024-25 campaign. Silvos is backing up one of the better goalies in the NHL in Thatcher Demko, Demko played in 51 games last year to the tune of 35 wins and 14 losses, he had 2.79 GAA and a .912 SV%. Demko and Silvos make a deadly combination if both healthy all season, along with reigning Norris Trophy winner for best defenseman in the league Quinn Hughes, Hughes played his best season to date, he played in all 82 games scoring 17G and 75A for a total of 92 points.

The Canucks also have Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, JT Miller, Nils Hoglander and Connor Garland. Vegas has Vancouver rounding out the Canadian teams to make the playoffs and cup favorites 3rd on the list.

Obviously teams that have been to the finals the previous year should be heavily favored. I believe the Edmonton Oilers will be no exception to the rule, However I definitely am not putting all my eggs in one basket on this though.

The Edmonton Oilers obviously 1st of Vegas oddsmakers’ choices of all teams not just Canadian teams, this is refreshing news if that holds any value for Canadian hockey fans and Edmonton fans to be specific. The Oilers already have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid. They also have such stars as Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent Hopkins, rounding out the offensive threats there is Zach Hyman who had 54 goals last year. Edmonton also has added firepower in Jeff Skinner who is a 30G scorer and Viktor Arvidsson also a 30G scorer, and two top D-men in Darnell Nurse & Evan Bouchard who I believe is up there with Quinn Hughes and the Avalanche’s star Cale Makar who is arguably the best defensemen there is.

In net here are the question marks, up till last year starter Stuart Skinner has been a lifetime backup, even though he was pivotal in the deep deep playoff run, the other backup is just that a lifelong backup. Can Skinner carry on what he was doing in the playoffs to the 2024-25 campaign?

Putting all this into perspective, Vegas has the defending Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers as odds on favorite to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada. My favorite team is Toronto, I’ve tend to go against odds, so here it is me going with the 3rd ranked Canadian team. I am going to say I believe the Vancouver Canucks will be the next Canadian team to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada, I think Thatcher Demko is great and healthy can only means great things. Silvos is an up an comer so a goaltending duo of Thatcher Demko and Athur Silvos is gonna equal success, how much success only time will tell.

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