The Red Wings made major news last night when they signed Raymond to a new contract, but for the Wings, Sabres, Sens, and Habs it feels like every season just starts with this questions and ends with a hundred more...This division appears to be owned by Florida, Tampa and Toronto. Will any of these four make the playoffs this year?
The four teams have taken very different approaches, but all in the end it is always the same outcome...
The Red Wings have been almost redefining the "Slow and Steady" Yzerman path of building a contender not just a quick fix in the playoffs and right back out again...but they have been doing this for a loooong time now. It worked in Tampa for Stevie Y, but he also had some way better goalies and Steven Stamkos....
The Sabres tried rebuilding on the run at first, made some Skinner-ish signings, many, many coaches, and could never break back in..They appeared to be building the right way under Granato, build an A+ Top 6 D, but goalies and scoring are still in the C- realm/
The Senators also did a slower rebuild, but made some questionable decisions along the way, especially in goal and on D, But last year actually went all in only to fall short...They have a great top 3 lines, but have struggled to find many D to get the puck to them...And goalies...
The Canadiens are in a hard market to sell a rebuild, got a little lucky a few times, which was exciting, but perhaps made them feel a little too confident and de-railed two or three "re-toolings" along the way, until finally they went to Marty St Louis, a new coach in every sense of the word, who had some success, committed to the youth the re-build..until they traded for Patrik Laine...another gamble, and time will tell\
So who among these four have the best shot at getting back in the playoffs?
I am adding many more players to the new early season rumor chart that shows players who could be on the move....
THE RUMOR CHART IS LIVE! 
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