2022-23 NHL odds: Opening point totals

The puck drops on the 2022-23 season in just a month. That means we'll be spending a lot of time in the coming weeks looking at NHL futures, such as team point totals.

Let's comb through the opening lines and highlight some of the notables for the campaign ahead.

Fresh off a Stanley Cup victory, the Avalanche have the highest points total. While they might remain the best side in the league, the point total feels a little high. Colorado cleared it by only 7.5 points last season, and that was with Nazem Kadri (87 points), Andre Burakovsky (61 points), and Darcy Kuemper (.921 save percentage) in the mix. The Avs have some young players capable of taking on bigger roles, but it feels like you'd be buying high here.

Next up is the Maple Leafs at 107.5. There are questions surrounding their goaltending duo going into this campaign. However, Toronto essentially played with one NHL netminder on the roster in 2021-22 and ranked 27th in five-on-five save percentage. But that didn't stop it from piling up 54 wins and 115 points.

I doubt the new tandem of Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov will struggle to match last season's team save percentage, so the Leafs should continue to win games in bulk, at least in the regular season.

Hot on their heels are a pair of division rivals in the Panthers and Lightning. Florida made a ton of changes to last season's rendition, which won the Presidents' Trophy. The club moved on from Jack Adams finalist Andrew Brunette, shipped Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk, and walked away from Claude Giroux and Ben Chiarot in free agency.

The Panthers still have real firepower. However, their depth has thinned out up front, and they now lack a true No. 2, or even No. 3, behind Aaron Ekblad on defense. They seem poised for a step back in the regular season.

Tampa Bay should flirt with its point total, but it'll be difficult to match last year's output of 110. Ondrej Palat and Ryan McDonagh played important minutes for the Lightning and were forced out of the mix this offseason due to an air-tight cap situation. Tampa remains a contender, and nobody will want to see them come playoff time. Still, we could see a slight decrease in regular season wins.

The Oilers, Flames, Hurricanes, Wild, and Penguins round out the 100-point club, with Edmonton holding the highest total of the bunch.

The Oilers hope a full season of Evander Kane, a goaltending upgrade in Jack Campbell, and the continued development of youngsters like Evan Bouchard can help them clear their total and claim a division title.

Their Alberta rivals will have plenty to say about that. Although Huberdeau and Kadri bring less value than Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, adding Weegar to an already stout defense should help compensate. Calgary should be very good again and can clear its total.

The Kings and Islanders are a couple of teams whose totals stand out for different reasons.

I think Los Angeles' is too low. It picked up 99 points last season while getting only 39 games out of star defenseman Drew Doughty. Getting him back and healthy is huge. Adding star winger Kevin Fiala is also big for the club. The Kings are very good at generating chances but not necessarily efficient at converting them into goals. Fiala, who amassed 33 goals and 85 points in 2021-22, should certainly help with that. This team should be able to at least match what they did a year ago.

On the flip side, the Islanders appear to be overvalued. They moved on from Barry Trotz, one of the league's best coaches, and their most notable addition is depth defenseman Alexander Romanov. They'd have to pick up 12 more points than they did a year ago to best their total. In an improving Metro Division, that seems like a tall order.

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.

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