Last year, I looked at the Atlantic division about this time of the year, and I tried to measure where the teams were in relationship to each other, not just their own pasts. I did not, of course, correctly foresee the Florida malaise and the Tampa injury bug. But I did have Boston on the bubble, and I said Ottawa was an enigma wrapped in a mystery.
Making this even more complex this year is two things: The end of tanking and the rise of mediocrity.
Because Buffalo didn't bounce very high from their depths of despair, even with two second-overall picks in hand, GMs will now question the worth of tanking for a top pick.