Gut feel for the Leafs is that they miss the playoffs and its not even close; but given all thats happened with the team, I have no idea whether they're going to battle for 30th, or put up a nicely mediocre season that torpedoes any chance of a high draft pick. There's still talent on the team, and the upgrade from Carlyle/Horachek to Babcock is immense, so its hard to see them playing 82 games at the level that they played the last 3 months of the last season. I'm cautiously optimistic about their FA signings - all good value, low-cost pieces who've demonstrated an ability to drive possession in the past.
That said, they still don't have any real top-pairing D on the roster (Dion sure as shit aint it, and while Gardiner/Reilly are fun to watch they aint there yet), and quality at centre is so, so, so bad that I'm likely in the mix for 4C. Some of the kids they have in the minors are pretty special (Nylander/Marner and I suppose Kapanen now), but they're all really, really young and Shanahan has bluntly stated that they're not rushing anyone these days so I expect them to spent the whole season in AHL.
Cap issues aside, I think the Hawks are going to be fine up-front. Teravainen gets a full year to grow, and they got two highly regarded guys coming over from the KHL (Panarin/Tikhonov). I have no fucking clue what their plan on D is, other than "hope to shit that TvR is good/not-injured and that Keith can play 40 minutes a game". They are majorly fucked cap-wise tho, to the point where its not inconceivable that they lose useful pieces as sweetener to unload salary. Its not so much the Sharp deal, its the Crawford and Bickle ones that are killing them. Bickell has a NTC! Bryan Bickell! And 4mm AAV!
All due respect to Pira, but the Cleveland LeBrons can go die in a fire. As I saw someone say on Twitter: LeBron is simultaneously the best player in the league, and the worst coach/GM.
Raps big signing is DeMarre Carroll for like. 60 million. I know virtually nothing about him - which isn't surprising, since he played in Atlanta. I hear he's like.. actually competent on D, which seems to be a theme of the offseason so far. Its almost like Masai knows what the problem with the damn team was.