1 Breakout Candidate For Each Team: Eastern Conference Edition

A player from each team in the East that I believe is primed for a big 2023-24 season.

Boston Bruins: Jake Neighbours

NHL Team: St. Louis Blues

Last Season: 6-4–10 in 43 NHL Games, 9-7–16 in 23 AHL Games

I kind of wanted to go with a bit of a dark horse pick with Boston. I think McTavish is an obvious choice for a breakout and almost certainly a better choice, and Boldy already had something of a breakout season last year scoring 60+ points in a top 6 role so I didn’t choose him. Jake Neighbours was sheltered pretty heavily the last 2 short stints he had in the NHL, averaging 9 minutes a game in his first stint, and 12 minutes a game this past season. With a role on the 3rd line alongside Vrana and Kevin Hayes, he should be in a position to succeed, although that is also reliant on Vrana having a return to form, but if he can, having a goal scorer of that caliber will help Neighbours greatly. 

Buffalo Sabres: Mattias Ekholm

NHL Team: Edmonton Oilers

Last Season: 9-23–32 in 78 Games

With Nashville last season, Ekholm scored 5 goals and 13 assists for 18 points in 57 games. Then, in just 21 games with Edmonton, he proceeded to score 4 goals and 10 assists. That’s 4 less points in 36 less games. That should be all the explanation necessary to understand how Ekholm is primed for a career best year.

Carolina Hurricanes: Noah Cates

NHL Team: Philadelphia Flyers

Last Season: 13-25–38 in 82 Games

Cates had a bit of a sleeper year last year ranking 7th in goals, 5th in assists, 8th in points for the Flyers. And the year before that, he scored 9 points in 16 games. Right now, he’s projected to play on the 3rd line with Cam Atkinson and Wade Allison while also centering the 2nd powerplay unit. That said, Cates has practically forced his way higher up the lineup in the last few years and I believe he’ll do the same, and on a Philadelphia team that’s in full rebuild mode, they’ll very likely be willing to switch things up, so if Cates can heat up again, I have no doubts he’ll end up higher in the lineup. 

Columbus Blue Jackets: Alex Newhook

NHL Team: Montreal Canadiens

Last Season: 14-16–30 in 82 Games

Newhook, through his career so far, has “unfortunately” had to play for the Avalanche. It’s in quotation marks because he won a cup with the team, but the reason I say it’s unfortunate is because the Avalanche have been quite stacked for a few years now, and so getting any ice time over the players currently on their roster was always going to be difficult, It’s the same for the Lightning, and was a lot of the reason I avoid drafting from teams like that. Newhook is now a member of the Montreal Canadiens, and it is about as different of a team as you could have. With Montreal, he will have every opportunity possible afforded to him and will get plenty more ice time this coming season. Though it might be difficult to play his way onto the top line, he’ll likely have a top 6 role that he was not given in Colorado unless they had a bunch of injuries. 

Detroit Red Wings: Quinton Byfield

NHL Team: Los Angeles Kings

Last Season: 3-19–22 in 53 NHL Games, 9-6–15 in 16 AHL Games

In his first NHL Season, Byfield scored 10 points. The next season, he scored 22. That was in a bottom 6 role, where he wasn’t played in a good position. Then, the PLD trade happened, which sent 3 of the players he was competing with for a spot out and brought only 1 in. Thus, 2 spots in the Kings’ top 6 have opened up. He is currently projected to play on a line with Kopitar and Kempe, so if there ever was a time for Byfield to play up to the potential we all knew he had, it would be now. 

Florida Panthers: Akira Schmid

NHL Team: New Jersey Devils

Last Season: 9-5-2, 0.922%, 2.13 GAA in 18 NHL Games, 11-7-4, 0.905%, 2.62 GAA in 23 AHL Games

HM to Pinto, but I couldn’t just throw away the chance to include the first Goalie on the list! I’ve been relatively vocal regarding Vanacek and how I think he is a mediocre goalie that plays for an amazing team. Of course his numbers looked good! Schmid has some question marks, but by all means seems to be a very talented goalie, and at only 23, he has so much room to grow upon the already immense amount of skill that he possesses. In the playoffs, we saw the Devils actually start Schmid in 9 games, whereas Vanacek started in 7, so if that is anything to go off of, it looks like the Devils will be running with a 1A-1B combination, and I don’t think it’s long before Schmid becomes the 1A, if he isn’t already. 

Montreal Canadiens: J.J. Moser

NHL Team: Arizona Coyotes

Last Season: 7-24–31 in 82 NHL Games

Unlike Maccelli, I actually was familiar with Moser, though I did not expect him to so quickly become the number 1 D in Arizona. Though he was only the top D after the Gostisbehere trade, he will very likely be their top D, if not their top offensive D this year. The acquisition of Durzi may prevent that as I mentioned in the last edition of this series, but as of now, it appears that his top spot is safe. On a top pairing with the recently acquired Matt Dumba and on the top powerplay, if he can keep this spot all season, he could very well put up 40 points, maybe even 50 points if the team as a whole can greatly improve upon their performance last year.

New Jersey Devils: Pavel Zacha

NHL Team: Boston Bruins

Last Season: 21-36–57 in 82 Games

Now, granted, this team had a historic performance the likes of which we will probably never see be re-produced, but Zacha put up by far the best numbers of his career spending most of his time on the 2nd line alongside Pastrnak and Krejci. Now, with Krejci and Bergeron both out of the picture, on top of an extremely limited cap space, Zacha now becomes the uncontested 1C in Boston and will almost certainly spend his time playing with Pastrnak and Marchand, and I’d bet that he improves on last year assuming Boston doesn’t acquire or trade a better C. 

New York Islanders: Dominik Kubalik

NHL Team: Ottawa Senators

Last Season: 20-25–45 in 81 Games

Truthfully, the Islanders sort of lacked any true breakout candidates. The team is mostly comprised of players who have already broken out, or players that have likely already peaked and won’t get any better than they are now. Kubalik is an interesting one though. He has been a very streaky player in his career, and some might say he’s already peaked. Considering he’s a 7th round pick, he’s already achieved far more than most 7th round picks. However, having watched a ton of his game, if he can just become a more consistent player, then he could easily be a lock for 30 goals a year. Ottawa is a really nice place for him to end up, because at forward, they are a very deep team. This means that no matter where in the lineup he ends up, as long as it isn’t the 4th line, he’ll have very good linemates. Even on Ottawa’s 3rd line, he’d be playing with Pinto and Greig, and Pinto especially is a player who will allow Kubalik to play his style of game and if they can build chemistry, I could see Kubalik having a big year.

New York Rangers: Lukas Reichel

NHL Team: Chicago Blackhawks

Last Season: 7-8–15 in 23 NHL Games, 20-31–51 in 55 AHL Games

Since being drafted by the Hawks in 2020, the team has been hampered by issues brought on by its former GM, who probably was only fired due to one of the most egregious, disgusting scandals in the league’s history. I won’t get too much into that, but this firing brought in Kyle from Chicago, who clearly has a working brain and sees what direction the team needs to go in. Davidson has already fixed many of the issues and brought the team into the rebuild phase it so desperately has needed for multiple years now. This has created an opening for Reichel, but not only has it opened up a spot, it has given him the perfect opportunity for a breakout season. Reichel will be on the top line alongside hockey sensation Connor Bedard and former hockey sensation Taylor Hall, who together could be one of the most fun lines in the entire league to watch. This is by far the most important year of Reichel’s young hockey career, because if Reichel can develop chemistry with Bedard, that could be a pairing for the Blackhawks for a long time to come. 

Ottawa Senators: John Jason Peterka

NHL Team: Buffalo Sabres

Last Season: 12-20–32 in 77 Games

Despite my comments on Ottawa being a team “on the cusp of greatness” somehow annoying at least 1 very salty GM, a year or 2 later, those comments seem to be aging well with how many breakout candidates the team has. Cole Perfetti, Jacob Pelletier, Tobias Bjornfot, Juraj Slafkovsky, plenty of breakout candidates on this team not even including players on the prospects list or the player I’ve actually chosen, J.J. Peterka. Peterka had a pretty solid season, though that may be a little disappointing considering his most common linemate was Dylan Cozens, who put up 68 points. Regardless, Peterka is projected to once again be on a line with Cozens, and with more experience under his belt, he should easily be able to improve upon that as well as build further chemistry with Cozens. I sense a big season for Peterka this year provided he’s given more opportunities this year.

Philadelphia Flyers: Luke Hughes

Current Team: New Jersey Devils

Last Season: 1-1–2 in 2 NHL Games, 10-38–48 in 39 BIG-10 Games

Hughes shouldn’t be on this list for the Flyers, and I will forever be mad that he not only got traded back into my division, but it was for so little at that, but that’s a discussion for a different article. Either way, Luke Hughes is now a Flyer and is a lock for the Devils’ lineup in the NHL. During his 2 game stint in the NHL, he already showed so much promise and skill, and I honestly have 0 doubts that he will have a massive season, and he probably has the best non-Bedard odds at winning the Calder trophy this year. Expect big things from Hughes, and also remember to not trade your incredibly talented prospects for washed up goaltenders or washed up forwards. 

Pittsburgh Penguins: Joel Farabee

NHL Team: Philadelphia Flyers

Last Season: 15-24–39 in 82 NHL Games

Pittsburgh was another team that doesn’t really have any true breakout candidates. Their team is mostly comprised of established NHLers, or very talented young players who won’t have any big opportunities yet. So Farabee was the most likely I could find. Farabee is now a top line player for the Flyers, and they also have Tortorella, who is a coach that usually manages to get the best out of his players regardless of how shit their lineup may be. And so, Farabee will have plenty of opportunities to have a big year. It’s really just a matter of if the Flyers are good enough to facilitate that type of breakout performance. 

Tampa Bay Lightning: Kent Johnson

NHL Team: Columbus Blue Jackets

Last Season: 16-24–40 in 79 Games

Yeah yeah, Bedard, whatever, I don’t care. He has been talked about more than enough and I want to talk about someone else. Columbus had a rough year, and Johnson had a really solid year despite that. Especially considering that he was shuffled around the lineup so often. If the projected lineups are to be believed, the line that Johnson is projected to play on will be alongside Adam Fantilli and Kirill Marchenko, which may very well be my favourite line in the entire league. If things can click between these 3, all 3 could be in for absolutely massive seasons. Coincidentally, the other 2 are on the following 2 teams, but I won’t be talking about them to avoid this article being repetitive. That aside, Tampa has easily the most insanely stacked prospect pool in the DCHL and should be an absolute force in a short matter of time, and Johnson looks to be a big part of that core. 

Toronto Maple Leafs: Matt Coronato

NHL Team: Calgary Flames

Last Season: 0-0–0 in 1 NHL Game, 20-16-36 in 34 ECAC Games

Much like the Senators, the Leafs have plenty of breakout candidates to choose from. Paul Cotter, Adam Fantilli, and Brandt Clarke, just to name a few. However, Matt Coronato seems poised to take a big step this year and will likely have a spot in the top 6 alongside Nazem Kadri. Of course, if he doesn’t immediately perform, he may be sent down to the AHL, however, I don’t think that happens. I think big things are on the horizon for Coronato, and I think he will assert himself as a top offensive threat for the Flames, which will be a much needed addition after a really rough season. Like I mentioned in the Western Conference article, the Flames will be a hungry team looking to prove that last year was a fluke, and I think Coronato will be a big part of that. 

Washington Capitals: Anthony Cirelli

NHL Team: Tampa Bay Lightning

Last Season: 11-18–29 Games

This is probably just wishful thinking on my part, because I know Cirelli has it in him. He is an incredible player who has shown just how good he is. He is undoubtedly one of the best defensive forwards in the league, but injuries have really hampered his ability for an offensive breakout. Again, wishful thinking, but I’m going to be bold for my own team and predict that Cirelli stays healthy for the full season and posts 60 points for the first year of his career, and that alongside his insane defensive ability, people will finally see just how insane of a player Cirelli really is.