Focus On Guentzel, Lindholm As 2024-25 NHL Season Gets Underway

The New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres have gotten the jump on the rest of the NHL by playing a pair of games Prague, the Devils swept the two games played in the Czech Republic.

The 2024-25 season will get underway in earnest on Tuesday night with a nationally televised triple header that will feature the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers hosting the Boston Bruins as well as the St. Louis Blues facing the Seattle Kraken and the Chicago Blackhawks facing the Utah Hockey Club (yes, that is the name of the team was last seen as the Arizona Coyotes.)

There have been multiple personnel changes throughout the league, but the focus in this piece will be on four Eastern Conference players who are either in new places or have gained status with their teams after recent transactions.

LW Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay Lightning

There’s pressure on any player that signs a free-agent contract and moves on to a new team, but it may be more intense for Guentzel than any other player who has changed teams. Guentzel signed a seven-year, $63 million contract to play left win on Tampa Bay’s top line that includes right wing Nikita Kucherov and center Brayden Point.

Based on his numbers throughout his eight-year career – including seven-plus seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins before moving on to the Carolina Hurricanes at last year’s trade deadline – there’s no reason to think that Guentzel won’t reach or exceed the 40-goal mark. Guentzel has reached that level twice in his career, and his opportunities should increase playing with the explosive Kucherov and the lightning quick Point.

The scrutiny will be intense because the Lightning parted company with Steven Stamkos, the team’s former captain and the most popular player in franchise history. Stamkos, 34, may be an aging veteran while Guentzel, 29, should be heading for his prime.

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But few players have ever meant more to their team than Stamkos did to Tampa Bay. He scored 40 goals in his 16^th year with the Lightning. If he has a big season with the Nashville Predators and Guentzel goes through any lull, Tampa Bay fans may let him know that they are not pleased.

C Elias Lindholm, Boston Bruins

Just before the start of the 2023-24 season, Bruins star centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci announced their retirement. Instead of having a sensational and proven 1-2 punch at center, the Bruins ended up going with Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle.

Both players had good seasons, but the Bruins lacked the fire power and the all-around game they had demonstrated with Bergeron and Krejci. It was clear they needed a new No. 1 center and they signed 11-year veteran Elias Lindholm.

The Bruins will employ Lindholm between superstar David Pastrnak and Zacha, and they are expecting Lindholm to have something close to an All-Star season.

However, Lindholm did not have a brilliant season with the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks last year. He had 15 goals and 29 assists for 44 points – a figure that is significantly below what the Bruins and their fans expect from a No. 1 center.

Lindholm is happy to be in Boston, and the Bruins would be thrilled if he could match the 42 goals and 40 assists he had in 2021-22 with the Calgary Flames.

However, if he struggles to score points and ends up with 55 or less, the Lindholm acquisition will not be considered a success.

D Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals

Sandin was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Swedish native was traded to the Capitals in the 2022-23 season. Sandin was set to become a free agent at the end of last season, but the Capitals clearly were not going to let that happen. They signed Sandin to a five-year, $23 million contract last March, and he is going to man a key role on the Washington blue line for the near future.

Sandin has played regularly in the NHL since the 2021-22 season and while the 2023-24 season was not his best, the Caps clearly believe in him or they would not have given him the extension.

Head coach Spencer Carbery and Sandin had a key meeting at the end of the season after the Caps were swept in a first-round series by the New York Rangers. Both men identified the areas that Sandin needed to improve.

The 5-11, 182-pound Sandin has worked on his game throughout the summer and the Caps believe that the addition of Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy will help improve their overall defense and will give Sandin an opportunity to raise his level of play.

D Nate Schmidt, Florida Panthers

The 33-year-old Schmidt has played with the Capitals, Golden Knights, Canucks and Jets. He signed a one-year contract with the Panthers, and he is a reclamation project.

That's exactly the kind of player that Florida general manager Bill Zito likes to find for his team. Schmidt has a past history with Panthers coach Paul Maurice, and he played some of his best hockey when Maurice was coaching the Jets. However, after Maurice left, the defenseman struggled.

Schmidt had his best seasons with the Golden Knights in 2017-18 and the following year. He finished those two seasons with 36 and 30 points, respectively.

The Panthers are hoping that Schmidt can come close to that form, and if he can, it will go a long way towards helping the Stanley Cup champions remain in the league’s elite tier.