Eastern Edge: Improvements in Boston and Washington; Questions in Carolina and Ottawa

Flip Livingstone

2024-07-10

It's been a couple weeks since our last Eastern Edge entry but considering how busy the NHL has been since then, there is no shortage of fantasy hockey fallout to assess. With such a vast array of potential angles to cover, we're serving up four Eastern Conference teams that warrant fantasy attention – the first two for the right reasons and the next for the not-so-good ones – following their maneuvers during the free agency period.

Washington Capitals

This is a Capitals club in dire need of fresh blood and offensive weapons around Alexander Ovechkin in order to stay above water in the ever-improving East. Say what you will about Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane, but they are upgrades that will take some of the pressure off Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael, and even John Carlsson to produce offensively.  These moves will ideally allow this team to play a much more complete 60 minutes while throwing a bit of a different offensive wrinkle at opponents. All of those things are good news for Ovi's goal chase and his fantasy value next season – even more enticing, the improvements to the Caps' back-end.

The blue line adds of Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy and the steadying presence of Logan Thompson behind Charlie Lindgren make this Caps team an all-around better club that, all of a sudden, has a number of attractive fantasy hockey options that should be explored. In terms of potential breakouts or a sleeper to target, the aforementioned McMichael would fit the bill as a young piece with all of the tools, and now linemates, to put up some proper numbers. This might be a bit of a deeper cut, but the former first-round draft pick just completed his first-full season in the NHL by putting up 18 goals in just over 15 minutes of ice time per night. McMichael showed flashes last campaign of having the offensive chops and skating ability to be a solid second-line option with upside, one who is likely to see an increase in minutes and production.

Boston Bruins

If we're just looking at the past two regular seasons of Bruins hockey, this Boston club should likely have a couple banners hanging in the TD Garden rafters – that's how good they've been between the months of October and April. However, it's the Celtics as the only BeanTown squad with a recent ring as the Bs' last two postseason runs have ended in the second round or earlier, leaving questions to be answered by Boston's front office. More were created with the departure of Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators and even though Jeremy Swayman's contract extension is looming, upgrades were needed to balance out the Bruins' roster – mainly up the middle. Enter unrestricted free-agent addition Elias Lindholm, who joins bruising blue-liner Nikita Zadorov as Boston's prized offseason moves. Lindholm's presence at centre is obviously critical to the Bruins' offensive attack and forward depth, but Zadorov joins a blue line of big boys that now forms one of the nastier defensive cores in the game alongside fellow six-footers in Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, Brandon Carlo, and Andrew Peeke.

If we had to peg a good bounce-back option in the Eastern Conference, Lindholm (15 goals, 29 assists) would be the guy at the top of the list as he should fit seamlessly into the Bruins' system.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes have yet to play a single game since losing Jake Guentzel, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, and others, but this fall from grace already feels very real for a club that had legit Cup aspirations not long ago. The book is still out on what the additions of Sean Walker and Shayne Gostisbehere will mean in terms of their deployment and fantasy value, but things are shaping up to be a bit of a rough ride for a Carolina club that was already lacking offensive firepower. Guentzel is only one man, but given the fact that restricted free-agent forward Martin Necas is also likely out the door, the Hurricanes could be out gunned on a nightly basis and therefore, left on the outside looking in next season.

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Ottawa Senators

Linus Ullmark was clearly a huge get for the Sens who now have a proper number one option after years of running out number twos and third-string options between the pipes. However, we're focusing on the moves since July 1 which include a downgrade with the acquisition of Nick Jensen in the Jakob Chychrun swap and overpaying a slipping David Perron at four million AAV for two years. General manager Steve Staois is still clearly learning the ropes as an NHL executive but his addition of middle-six forward Michael Amadio, and re-signing of Shane Pinto, along with the Ullmark move point to better things to come for a Senators team that has far too much talent to again be as bad as they were last year. So much to love about Ottawa's top forward's fantasy value in Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson, and others, but after those names and Ullmark's, be wary of this Sens squad before we see them in game action.

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