Metropolitan Division: Each team’s breakout candidate for 2019-20.

The Metropolitan division is home to some of the NHL’s most elite players, with five of the eight teams making the playoffs. With such a star-studded division, who will become a breakout candidate for the 2019-20 NHL Season?. 

The Metropolitan Division has been by far the most competitive division within the last few seasons. With three of the last four Stanley Cup Championships coming out of the division, it’s hard not to notice the abundance of talented players from each roster.

With names like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Braden Holtby, Claude Giroux, Mathew Barzal, and Taylor Hall, it comes as no surprise why this division is regarded as the most competitive in the NHL.

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While I could list all the top players in the division just to show how stacked it truly is, we will be talking about the player’s that get over-looked because of all the star players already present. Any player has a chance to break out, more so in this division than the rest. For instance, look at Jake Guentzel who just scored 40 goals playing alongside Crosby.

When defining a breakout candidate, I primarily look for the player’s that have the chance to become a household name based on the role they will play for their team. Another deciding factor is who they will be playing with, and what line.

For example, if a player goes from the third line to lining up alongside a star on the first line, they have a chance to breakout because of the talent they are playing with, and first line minutes.

Much like the Atlantic Division article I wrote earlier, this list doesn’t have to contain strictly younger players. The process used to select a breakout candidate is simply based off of who has potential to reach new heights, or a player is looking to regain their form, age does not impact the players chosen. With that in mind, let’s look at the eight Metropolitan Divison teams’ breakout candidates for the 2019-20 NHL season!