The NHL's Atlantic Division offers it all, from rising stars, to Cup contenders, to veteran squads looking to make one final push. Here are three key players who will have a big impact in the Atlantic this season:
Carey Price
The Montreal Canadiens learned the hard way what a season looks like without the league's best goaltender, Carey Price.
Finishing 2014-15 with 110 points and a division banner, the team ran to the second round of the playoffs before falling to Tampa Bay. The performance earned Price a host of accolades, including the Hart Trophy, recognizing the league's MVP, and the Vezina Trophy, honoring the NHL's top goalie.
The start of the next campaign didn't miss a beat, with the Habs kicking off the year with nine straight wins and a 18-4-3 record by the end of November. Disaster then struck when an injured knee forced Price to miss the remainder of the season. The Canadiens went 28-36-2 in his absence, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
Price is now healthy and ready, as evidenced by his performance at the World Cup, in which he won all five games and allowed just seven goals during the best-on-best tournament. Price remains the Canadiens' most important piece in returning the team to the postseason.
Steven Stamkos
With his health issues and contract extension behind him, Steven Stamkos can focus on the path ahead. And it's a bright one, with Stanley Cup aspirations in Tampa Bay. The Lightning have advanced to the third round or better in the last two seasons, so expectations are once again high this year.
Missing all but one game of last year's postseason, Stamkos has returned to the ice with a clean bill of health. Averaging 40 goals over the past two seasons, and now healthy, there is no reason Stamkos cannot return to his former 50-plus goal production. Not to mention the talent that surrounds him in Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, and Jonathan Drouin, who will certainly help pile up the points.
Keith Yandle
The Florida Panthers reached new heights last season, finishing atop the Atlantic with a franchise-best 103-point season, as the team qualified for the postseason for just the second time since 2000. More is expected this year, given further development of the team's young talent, particularly forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, plus star defenseman Aaron Ekblad.
Still, the Panthers were not perfect last season, most notably on the man advantage, as they finished 23rd in the league with a pedestrian 16.9 percent success rate. That number fell to 13.3 in the playoffs, fifth worst of any playoff competitor. The Panthers, led by new general manager Tom Rowe, keenly recognized this deficiency and made a point to bring in Keith Yandle. The Panthers acquired Yandle's rights and signed him to a seven-year deal prior to free agency.
A power play specialist, Yandle is a left-handed shot who will likely partner with Ekblad on the man advantage. The 30-year-old spent the past season with the New York Rangers, finishing with 47 points, 22 of which came on the power play.
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