Three NHL teams that could surprise this season

The 2023-24 NHL season begins on Tuesday night, and every year there are always a handful of teams that exceed expectations and surprise the league. Here are three teams that could fit into that category this season.  

Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres have not made the playoffs in 12 years, and after getting so painfully close a year ago (missing by one point), they look poised to make the jump back to the postseason this year. 

They have an outstanding young core of talent led by emerging superstar forward Tage Thompson and made some solid veteran additions to their blue line by signing Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton to help a young, dynamic back end led by recent No. 1 overall picks Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power. The big question is going to be whether or not they can get enough goaltending to bring everything together.

That was the one big flaw on last year's team, and while the Sabres did not really address the position in the offseason, they do have one of the league's best goalie prospects in Devon Levi ready to make a name for himself in the NHL. If Levi gets a chance and plays as expected, that could be the push Buffalo needs to get back in the playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season. 

Ottawa Senators. It has taken a few years in their rebuild, but the Senators finally look to be at a a point where they are interesting again. They have assembled an outstanding core of young forwards led by Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk and have been very aggressive in trying to build around them and keep their core players in place on long-term deals.

One of the biggest moves they made was last year's trade-deadline acquisition of defenseman Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes. Chychrun, Thomas Chabot and Jake Sanderson give them an outstanding trio on defense to build around that should be a great complement to their forward group. They also made a big investment in goaltending this offseason by signing veteran free agent Joonas Korpisalo to a long-term deal. Korpisalo is a bit of a risk since he does not have a ton of experience as a full-time starter, but if he can repeat his 2022-23 performance (split between Columbus and Los Angeles), that will put the Senators in serious playoff contention. 

Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes have been a punchline for years due to their arena situation, ownership issues, low attendance and lack of success on the ice. Things are rapidly getting better for them, and even though they might not be ready to make a jump to the playoffs this season, they should be a significantly improved team that can hang around in the playoff race for a decent part of the season.

The Coyotes have a top-line scorer in forward Clayton Keller; made some solid offseason pickups with veterans Jason Zucker, Matt Dumba and Sean Durzi; and most encouraging of all is the arrival of prized rookie Logan Cooley. 

Cooley was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and might be one of the most anticipated prospects to ever come through the Coyotes organization. He has All-Star potential, and even though he still has some work to do defensively, he should be able to make a big impact offensively.