The Panthers, on paper, seem to possess the best defense in the Southeast. The acquisitions of Nick Boynton, Keith Ballard, and Bryan McCabe will help make a decent defense much better and stronger. These defensemen will help lessen the offensive load on Panthers' defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. Veterans Bryan Allen and Karlis Skrastins will also provide the Panthers with more experience and physicality.
Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson will provide Florida with the best goaltending in the Southeast division. Goaltending will keep the Panthers in games, and allow them to steal wins in games they shouldn't.
The Carolina Hurricanes will have another disappointing season. They made few moves to change their team, and will be very average this season.
The Hurricanes offense will remain strong, even with the loss of Erik Cole. Players like Eric Stall, Ray Whitney, and Sergei Samsonov will keep the offense strong. Rod Brind'Amour coming back from injury will also help the Hurricanes' offense.
The Hurricanes will have a very average defense. They acquired defenseman Joni Pitkanen from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Erik Cole. Joe Corvo will also help add offensive production to the Hurricane blue line.
It seems goaltending will be decent, as Cam Ward has looked great at moments and horrible at others. Back-up goaltender Michael Leighton will give Carolina a solid one-two punch in between the pipes.
The Atlanta Thrashers will actually be worse than they were last year. It is gonna take a few years before Atlanta rights this ship.
Ilya Kovalchuck, Colby Armstrong, and Jason Williams will give the Thrashers solid offense. Vyacheslav Kozlov and Todd White will be solid support players for the Thrashers on the offensive end of the ice.
The drafting of defenseman Zach Bogosian will help the Thrashers in the future, but in the present the Thrashers' defense is suspect at best. Tobias Enstrom became Atlanta's best puck-moving defenseman last season. Garnet Exelby and Ron Hainsey will also bring physicality and experience to the Thrashers' blue-line.
The Thrashers will be solid between the pipes. Goaltender Kari Lehtonen has been good but inconsistent, and will need to improve for the Thrashers to be competitive. Johan Hedberg is a solid backup, and will continue to provide quality starts in net for Atlanta.
The Southeast Division will be very unpredictable, but I see the Capitals and Lightning making the playoffs, but both Carolina and Florida will be in the hunt until the very end. It should be an interesting race.
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