Major league baseball is now in the playoffs which means that the NHL season is around the corner. Many teams added to their rosters in the off-season in order to try and reach the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup. Other teams like the Senators traded away players to start a rebuild. With the NHL season starting tonight, here are some predictions for the upcoming season.

Leafs don't win the cup

So much hype is surrounding the Leafs especially that they signed hometown boy John Tavares in the off-season. They're being hyped up so much that some people are predicting them to win it all for the first time since 1967.

The Leafs have a stacked offense and they probably have the best offense in the league. They have a fantastic starting goaltender in Frederik Andersen who has been handling the pipe in a fantastic way for the Leafs the past two seasons. Their defense is a different story. Their defense lacks the star power that they have on offense and their best defenseman, Morgan Rielly, is more of an offensive defenseman than a defensive defenseman. Rielly is a good player but behind him on defense, there's almost nothing. The Leafs will probably make a trade during the season for a defenseman and they'll probably make it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2004 but they aren't winning the cup.

Ekman-Larsson has a career year

Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been one of the better defensemen around the league for a while but what has hampered him from putting up good numbers is that he's played on a bad Coyotes team for several seasons. The Coyotes have been pretty bad in the past few seasons which even got people thinking that the Coyotes should trade Ekman-Larsson and continue their rebuild.

But those considerations were put to rest when he verbally agreed to sign an eight-year, $66 million at the conclusion of this season.

In the past few years, the Coyotes have slowly added better players to their roster and this summer, they had their busiest off-season yet. They added Grabner on a three-year deal and they swapped Domi for a better player in Alex Galchenyuk.

The Coyotes have a goal scorer on all lines and Ekman-Larsson is sure to contribute to lots of those goals, no matter who's on the ice while he's on. Ekman-Larsson posted a career-high 55 points in 2015-16 and will have a decent chance to pass that number.

Sharks top line combines for most points of all line pairings

The Sharks may not be the greatest team in the NHL but their top line might be the best top line in the league. They have Pavelski and Evander Kane manning two of the forward spots and they have the best defensive pairing we've seen in a long time with Burns and Erik Karlsson. No matter who takes the third forward spot, whoever does, would see a huge boost in points and production.

Those four combined for 235 points last season and that was with Kane spending close to three-quarters of the season with the Saber,s and Karlsson spending the season with the Senators which are both non-contending teams. Now that Kane and Karlsson will be spending the whole season on a contending team, they could all combine for more than 300 points.

Parise has a bounce-back season

Ever since Zach Parise joined the Wild in 2012, he has been quite a disappointment as he produced nowhere near the level he did while he played for the Devils. Making things even worse for the Wild and their fans, he signed a 13-year, $98 million contract back in 2012 and he's still going to be with the team for another seven seasons.

A big reason why Parise hasn't been able to live up to his previous form is because of back injuries which have forced him to miss so many games. Following back surgery last year, Parise is now fully healthy, which could allow him to go back to his previous form where he was a star on the Devils.

Craig Anderson doesn't finish the season as a Senator

The Senators are probably the worst team in the NHL right now after trading away their best players in Hoffman and Karlsson. Not only are they a bad team, but they are also a huge mess with low attendance numbers. Fans have been wanting the owner to sell the team and for a while and there's been ongoing rumors that they're going to relocate. The Senators don't have too many trade chips left but they do have Craig Anderson who has been their starting goaltender for a while.

In order to keep building for the future, the Senators would be wise to trade Anderson to a contending team that's in need of a goalie or to a team that is in need of a goalie because their starting goaltender got injured.

Oilers return to the playoffs

After not making the playoffs last year, the Oilers will make it this season. Darnell Nurse is expected by many to take strides forward in his development and be a contributor to the Oilers all season long. Ty Rattie is a breakout candidate who's expected to have a good season which playing alongside McDavid only helps him. They will also get Yamamoto and Puljujarvi at the NHL level who are both budding young stars that could help the Oilers get to the playoffs.

The Oilers will also hope for bounce-back seasons from Klefbom and Larsson which will allow Talbot to produce better. If everything goes as planned, the Oilers will find their way into the playoffs.

Blackhawks miss out on the playoffs for the second year in a row

Last season was the first season that the Blackhawks missed the playoffs in a while. The whole team regressed which brought the whole team down. Crawford couldn't stay healthy and they even had to bring in an accountant to play goalie for them once (yup you read that right). Keith and Seabrook both regressed and they're also both getting old. Toews also regressed pretty bad as he posted his lowest point total since the 2012-13 season.

Crawford won't be ready to start the season and it looks like Toews, Seabrook and Keith are all getting worse. Last season the Blackhawks went 33-39-10 and got 76 points. The Blackhawks will win fewer games this year and will get fewer points which will lead to another depressing season in Chicago.

Vegas doesn't return to the finals

Despite being given the lowest odds to win the cup, Vegas surprised everyone last year by going all the way to the finals in their first ever season. In free agency, they lost both Neal and Perron as they both signed with different teams. They then replaced them by signing Paul Stastny who provides veteran experience on a relatively young team but he is not the goal scorer they lost in Neal.

Following the departure of Neal and Perron, I didn't expect Vegas to make the playoffs but acquiring Pacioretty put them back into playoff contention. They may make it to the second round but I don't see them getting back to the finals. Another reason why they won't get back to the finals is because of the unlikelihood that William Karlsson replicates the success he had last season where he got 78 points by scoring 42 goals and 35 assists. Before last year, Karlsson never got more than 25 points in a year.

Predators and Lightning reach the finals

Since Vegas will not be going back to the finals, according to NHL News, it's going to be the Predators replacing them in the Western Conference and they'll be facing the Lightning.

The Lightning has a lethal offense that features Stamkos and Kucherov who both have the capability to surpass the century mark in points and they've got Hedman on the blue line who is a top defenseman in the league. The Lightning also got Gourde who tallied 64 points last season as well as other offensive contributors in Tyler Johnson, J.T. Miller, Palat, Point and others. On the blue line, they have a rising star in Sergachev who could breakout this season and they also have McDonagh who they recently signed to a contract extension after acquiring him from the Rangers during the trade deadline last year. They also have Vasilevskiy in net who tied for the league lead in shutouts and also had the second most saves of all goaltenders last season.

The Predators have the best defensive corps in the NHL that features Subban, Josi, Ellis, and others. Their offense is also pretty good with Johansen, Forsberg, Arvidsson, and Turris. They're best suited at the goalie position as they have reigning Vezina trophy-winning goaltender Pekka Rinne who is a perennial contender for the award. If he were to go down with an injury, they'd be fine as they have Saros as their backup goalie who has shown that he can be a strong goalie at the highest level. The Predators will probably need to add to their offense to help them get to the finals but it will be their goalies and defensemen that push them through. A Stanley Cup final between the Predators and Lightning would be a good one.
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