We did it, hockey heads. The most exciting time on the North American sports calendar has arrived. The NFL is in full swing, October baseball is looming, the NBA is only a few weeks away from tipping off and most importantly, the NHL is set to drop the puck on the 2024-25 campaign with the Global Series going down in Prague between the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils. It also means that it's go-time for fantasy GMs, with many of us already having at least one or two drafts done and dusted.

With that said, it's been a few months since we last threw down a top-10 list of the most dangerous teams in the league set to make noise this season and with the boys ready to hit the ice in only a few days, we're breaking down the 10 squads with the best shot at Lord Stanley this year.

10) Toronto Maple Leafs

We can feel the keyboard warriors getting fired up about this one, but the fact remains: Toronto has more offensive talent and potent scoring punch than almost every team in the league, flaunting a deadly three-headed monster of Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Auston Matthews. Offense alone doesn't win Cups and the Buds will have to overcome a number of postseason demons to shake the perennial underachieving that's plagued this franchise, but they deserve the 10-spot on this list as a team loaded with valuable fantasy assets.

That's already been discussed at length, but the truth is Toronto has question marks in goal and a completely new coaching staff which has fans in Leaf Land feeling uneasy heading into 2024-25. However, this is the best blue-line corps of the Brendan Shanahan era and the Leafs are going to be a much tougher group to play against with Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson eating major minutes and Craig Berube calling the shots behind the bench. If Joseph Woll can stay healthy there really is no reason why Toronto shouldn't be looked at as a group that could make some noise come May.

9) Boston Bruins

It might seem weird to have three Atlantic Division clubs stacked up on this list, counterintuitive even, but that's how good this division has become over the last handful of seasons. The Bruins made two very sound additions in Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm in the offseason but they are still a shallow team up the middle, heading into the year without their number one netminder Jeremy Swayman on the ice. That's obviously a concern but it becomes compounded when we know how heavily the Bruins will have to rely on their backend to succeed this campaign. Boston runs out one of the biggest and toughest blue lines in the league but without its star netminder in tow, this team just cannot be higher on the list. The combination of the aforementioned pass-first piece in Lindholm and the trigger-happy snipeshow that is David Pastrnak is a fantasy angle to closely monitor, especially if Pavel Zacha can catch a bit of that offense production on the top line. If the Swayman saga drags on deep into the fall, Boston is going to be in trouble.

8) Tampa Bay Lightning

Do not sleep on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Period. A fully healthy Andrei Vasilevskiy, a new top-line stud in Jake Guentzel to play with 90-plus-point man Brayden Point, and one of the most sought-after fantasy forwards in the NHL in Nikita Kucherov, make the Bolts a team with Cup run written all over it. If Tampa can rekindle the chemistry it had on the man advantage last season that saw Jon Cooper's club lead the league in power-play proficiency at 28.6%, do not be surprised when this is a team in the mix when all is said and done.

7) Nashville Predators

From Steven Stamkos' former team to current, the Nashville Predators are no longer one of those sneaky, under-the-radar-type organizations that often gets overlooked. Absolutely loaded with intriguing fantasy options at every position, expectations in the Music City are hitting a high note. Apologies for the weak pun but it's true. The Preds have all the parts needed to build a winner: an elite-level goaltender in Juuse Saros, a Norris-worthy blue-liner in Roman Josi, and a balanced top-six forward group that clearly receives a major influx of talent with Stammer and recent 40-goal man Jonathan Marchessault now in the mix. A lot of eyes will be zeroed in behind the bench on third-year head coach Andrew Brunette to see if he can push the right buttons and mold all these new pieces into a product on the ice able to get through such Western Conference juggernauts as the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and of course, Edmonton Oilers.

6) New Jersey Devils

On paper, few teams in the league today have as complete a roster as the Devils do. Thanks in large part to the masterclass put on by front-office savant Tom Fitzgerald, this New Jersey squad has to be considered as a legitimate Cup threat built for playoff hockey. Jack Hughes has been one of the harder fantasy assets to manage over the past few seasons due to his extremely high offensive ceiling and production that comes along with an equally scary injury risk. If he can stay healthy and return to his triple-digit-point form, there is no reason why the Devils can't challenge the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers for Metro Division supremacy.

5) Colorado Avalanche

Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, and, arguably, the top fantasy hockey target in the game in Nathan MacKinnon immediately put the Avalanche in the conversation as a club that no one will want to deal with in the first round. Can Alexandar Georgiev take a team to the promised land? Will under-the-radar netminder Justus Annunen steal minutes and fantasy value away from the wily veteran? Does Colorado have enough firepower to get through the Oilers? Time will surely tell.

4) New York Rangers

When it comes to hanging banners in rafters, special teams have to be on point for any hockey club. Springtime hockey precipitates the need for squads to have their power-play and penalty-kill units at a spot to punish the opposition and the New York Rangers check both those boxes as a squad with the third-best PP and PK in the NHL last season. Poised to run the table in the east once again this season with a loaded roster of studs, keep an eye on Alexis Lafreniere as a potential breakout fantasy candidate and K'Andre Miller fitting the bill as the prototypical sleeper who could serve up a ton of value in banger leagues.

3) Florida Panthers

Not many fantasy hockey articles touch on the impact of coaches as one of the keys to success for an NHL franchise but if there's one that needs to be highlighted it's Paul Maurice and what he means for the Panthers. Florida is one of the hardest teams to play against on a nightly basis, rarely losing puck battles while rocking a relentless forecheck that gives the opposition fits. Given the back-to-back runs to the Cup Final, there is no way a list of this nature is compiled without the Cats' inclusion. Matthew Tkachuk, Carter Verhaeghe, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aleksander Barkov, and even more underrated targets like Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, and Gustav Forsling make Florida a fantasy goldmine of intriguing names that is sure to contend once again.

2) Dallas Stars

The Stars are stacked. Fantasy hockey beast Miro Heiskanen anchors an unheralded blue line, backstopped by one of the best in the business in Jake Oettinger that should make Dallas a defensive dynamo. Add in a top-line trio that's set to take the league by storm with Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, and Wyatt Johnston and Dallas is as good as they come. In terms of unheralded targets, Thomas Harley should be a name fantasy GMs take note of. This kid is special and should get a good look to run the second power-play unit while bringing solid peripheral categorical coverage.

1) Edmonton Oilers

When Connor McDavid gets the kind of look in his eye that he had all postseason long last year, the rest of the league better take note. Expecting nothing less than that kind of performance for this upcoming campaign, McDavid and the Oilers have to be entering 2024-25 as Stanley Cup favourites. If Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson pan out as most expect and gel in the top-six, there isn't another team in the entire NHL that can roll three forward lines as potent and balanced as Edmonton. An emerging superstar on the blue line in Evan Bouchard and another year of being the clearcut number one for rising fantasy asset Stuart Skinner cement the Oilers as the best team and top Cup threat.