A lot can change in a decade. That's obvious when you look back at the NHL's 2008-09 season, which not only has things called the "Southeast" and "Northwest" divisions, but only seven 100-point teams, including the Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks.
Last season, the NHL saw 11 teams cross the 100-point mark, including one team (the Vegas Golden Knights) that didn't exist before that season. The Red Wings and Canucks? They picked sixth and seventh overall, respectively, in the NHL draft, having finished a significant distance away from the playoffs, let alone 100 points.
Which teams might have a shot at crossing the century mark in 2018-19? Here's a look at the pathway to that accomplishment for every team -- along with the chances they get there.
Note: You can read through all 31 teams in alphabetical order, or skip ahead by clicking your favorite team's logo here:
Anaheim Ducks
Last season's points total: 101
Three-season points average: 103.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: John Gibson gives them another 60 starts of .926 save-percentage goaltending, Ryan Getzlaf plays 70 games, and the supporting cast makes up for the expected manpower loss of Ryan Kesler and continuing firepower loss of former scoring leader Corey Perry. And by that we mean another 30-goal season from Rickard Rakell, please and thank you.
Will they hit 100 points this season? The averages lead one to believe that the Ducks can hit the century mark again in the Pacific Division, which produced three such teams last season. But with last season's middling teams trending back up (in theory), it's not going to be easy. I'll say they miss the mark.
Arizona Coyotes
Last season's points total: 70
Three-season points average: 72.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: They can locate a consistent offense that produced roughly 30 more goals than last season's paltry 208, second worst in the NHL. (Anaheim was the lowest scoring 100-point team, with 235.) Which is why Alex Galchenyuk and Michael Grabner are now Coyotes. Plus, a healthy Antti Raanta and new addition Darcy Kuemper combine to raise their team save percentage well above the .905 they posted last season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Going back to 1979 when the Winnipeg Jets entered the NHL, the Coyotes franchise has hit 100 points only once, in 2009-10, although the team hovered around the total in a few other seasons. "Hovering" would mean a near 30-point improvement for the Coyotes, so breaking 100 points is really asking too much.
Boston Bruins
Last season's points total: 112
Three-season points average: 100.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: The Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand partnership produces another season of top-line domination, with or without David Pastrnak on their wing, while the Bruins find a solution for second-line winger. Meanwhile, their power play (fourth) and penalty kill (third) continue to give the B's perhaps the best special-teams combination in the NHL.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Yes. The Bruins that we saw roll off 11-2 and 8-2 runs in February and March last season are the Bruins we expect to see in 2018-19. Heck, even the goaltending is stronger now, with Jaroslav Halak as the backup.
Buffalo Sabres
Last season's points total: 62
Three-season points average: 73.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: Rasmus Dahlin can somehow account for 38 more points in the standings and roughly 40 more goals on the ice for the team. And while he's an offensive defenseman ... we have our doubts.
Will they hit 100 points this season? No. The Sabres last hit 100 points in 2009-10, the year Ryan Miller won the Vezina. Even if Linus Ullmark is readier than we anticipate to take over the Sabres' crease -- or Carter Hutton somehow keeps the magic from 2017-18 going -- it would take that level of goaltending performance to offset the rest of the team's various failings to even contend for the playoffs this season, let alone crack 100 points.
Calgary Flames
Last season's points total: 84
Three-season points average: 85.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: Their horrendous shooting percentage takes a massive leap in production. In the previous two seasons, the Flames averaged a team shooting percentage of 9.4. Last season, they shot at a 7.8 percent clip, which put them ahead of only the Canadiens and Sabres. Their offense needs to bounce back, because their goaltending might not be much better than the .905 team save percentage it produced last season, given how Carolina's goaltending looked under new Calgary coach Bill Peters.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Since 1991, the Flames have hit 100 points only once. Peters has never cracked 90 points as a coach. If the offense normalizes, this could be a playoff team but not at a 100-point clip.
Carolina Hurricanes
Last season's points total: 83
Three-season points average: 85.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: You can tell me what these numbers have in common: .893, .901, .902? These are the team save percentages for the Hurricanes in the past three seasons. These are abjectly terrible. There are some things to really dig about Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes this season: rookie Andrei Svechnikov joins an offense that's one top-six center away from being really solid, and they have the deepest defensive corps in the division. But none of it matters if they can't stop the puck.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Their goalies for 2018-19 are Scott Darling and Petr Mrazek.
Chicago Blackhawks
Last season's points total: 76
Three-season points average: 96.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: Last season was a series of unfortunate events rather than the Blackhawks' hasty descent into oblivion as a regular-season contender. It was the first time they missed the playoffs since 2008, and the first time in six seasons they were on less than a 100-point pace. If they get 58 games of Corey Crawford at a .924 save percentage, Brandon Saad shooting at the 12.4 percent clip he had over two seasons in Columbus and a defense that miraculously plays way above its quality on paper, perhaps they return to prominence.
Will they hit 100 points this season? The NHL was frankly a much more interesting place with the Blackhawks as a 100-point, quasi-dynastic Stanley Cup contender annually. I'm going to really miss those years now that they're over.
Colorado Avalanche
Last season's points total: 95
Three-season points average: 75.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: They defy the natural course correction one assumes they'll have with a 101.3 PDO buoyed by a shooting percentage (10.5) that was over three percentage points better than it was in the previous season (7.2, worst in the NHL). This would naturally mean that more than one line was invited to the goal-scoring party, which would also be an essential thing to crack 100. But above all else: a team save percentage that was already pretty darn good at .914 gets even better as Philipp Grubauer proves his past two seasons as a Washington understudy were just a taste of what he's capable of in the crease.
Will they hit 100 points this season? It took a Nathan MacKinnon season for the ages to get them to 95 points, so 100 is probably out of the question. How far they regress will obviously determine their contender status.
Columbus Blue Jackets
Last season's points total: 97
Three-season points average: 93.6
They can hit 100 points this season if: Their numbers match those of their previous 100-point season under John Tortorella. That's when the Blue Jackets were sixth in scoring and second in goals against, giving up 195 in 2016-17. Their shooting percentage that season was 9.7, and it dropped to 8.5 last season, the lowest for any team that qualified for the playoffs. Also, they need to turn around their penalty killing, having gone from ninth (82.5 percent) to 26th (76.17) season to season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Tortorella hasn't hit 100 points twice with the same franchise. Whether that trend is bucked is very much tied to the uncertain future of Artemi Panarin on the top line, because point-per-game players are rather valuable when trying to crack 100 points. If he's there for the full season, the Jackets have a real shot.
Dallas Stars
Last season's points total: 92
Three-season points average: 93.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: You know, before we get to this part, let's talk about Ken Hitchcock, whose failure to get Dallas back to the playoffs might be one of the most underreported stories in the past year. Here's a legendary coach who brought the Stanley Cup to the Stars in 1999, had three straight 100-point seasons in St. Louis before his firing there and generally was thought to be able to fix the Stars' problems defensively simply by existing. And Dallas goes from a 3.17 goals-against average to a 2.71, and their goals-per-game average takes an unexpected jump too -- and they still miss the playoffs. And then Hitch hangs' em up and college coach Jim Montgomery takes over. So weird.
OK, where were we? Oh, right, what they need to do this season: find another line that can score and maybe, in the process, figure out how Jason Spezza ended up with a lower points-per-game average (0.33) than Mark Jankowski last season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? We're talking an eight-point improvement for a team that'll hopefully have a healthy Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin as his understudy, for a new voice behind the bench? Gaaahh ... close, but no century mark.
Detroit Red Wings
Last season's points total: 73
Three-season points average: 81.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: They add more veterans, and thus want to continue in a perpetual cycle of mediocrity, absent the franchise course-correcting talent one only finds at the top of the draft board, where the Red Wings haven't cracked the top five since they selected Keith Primeau third overall in 1990. Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen are a very nice start. Now, imagine there's a Jack Hughes to really tie the room together ...
Will they hit 100 points this season? There's probably some scenario in which the last days of Henrik Zetterberg's career are spent watching veterans and young players mesh together in an unexpected manner, resulting in a resurgence of the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2016. It would also be the last thing this franchise needs right now.
Edmonton Oilers
Last season's points total: 78
Three-season points average: 83.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: They get Cam Talbot circa 2016-17. Look, this isn't rocket surgery: two seasons ago, Talbot played 73 games, won 42 of them, faced a league-high 2,117 shots and escaped with a .919 save percentage while plastering over the gaping holes in the Edmonton defense. Last season, he played 67 games, faced 2,036 shots and ended up surrendering 17 more goals than he did in the previous season with a .908 save percentage. His goals saved above replacement was minus-9.30. The penalty kill fell from 17th to 25th. The team's fortunes plummeted even further.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Yes. That's right, yes. The Edmonton Oilers are going to cycle back to the playoffs with two goalies -- Talbot and Mikko Koskinen -- both in contract years. Oh, and some guy named Connor McDavid who is going to rip through this league like a xenomorph through John Hurt's chest in "Alien." A movie that was released 18 years before McDavid was born. (Be right back, going to see if I'm eligible for the senior discount at Denny's yet...)
Florida Panthers
Last season's points total: 96
Three-season points average: 93.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: They pretty much do what they did last season, and hope that Mike Hoffman's additional offense is good for two more wins. Seriously, was that 96-point effort from the Panthers one of the most unheralded seasons in the NHL recently or what? Out of sight, out of mind after they missed the last wild card by a point, but something repeatable. Yes, even that .914 team save percentage
Will they hit 100 points this season? It's a yes from me, provided they remain healthy and Roberto Luongo has at least one more season of .929 save-percentage goaltending over 35 games in him.
Los Angeles Kings
Last season's points total: 98
Three-season points average: 95.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: The renaissance of Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick isn't short-lived. Whether Kopitar can post another 1.12 points-per-game average, by far his career best, and Quick is good for another .921 save percentage season are intriguing questions; but they might pale in comparison to whether Ilya Kovalchuk provides an offensive jolt to a team that finished 17th in goals scored (thanks, mostly, to Jeff Carter's absence). There's a real boom-or-bust quality to the Kings, which is usually the case when a team will have 11 players over 30 by Jan. 1, 2019.
Will they hit 100 points this season? I can't see it. Even at the height of their powers, the Kings were never a dominant regular-season team. At best, Kopitar regresses but a healthy Carter and a still-potent Kovalchuk pick up the offensive slack for another playoff berth.
Minnesota Wild
Last season's points total: 101
Three-season points average: 98.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: Bruce Boudreau is still the coach, and that appears to be the case, even after general manager Chuck Fletcher paid for the Wild's three straight first-round playoff exits with his job. Look, say what you will about Boudreau's lack of postseason success, inability to win a Game 7 and the rest of his foibles: If he's your coach, you're going to be on a 100-point pace with a points share of .616 or higher and you're making the playoffs. Unless it's a season in which you're firing him, as the 2011-12 campaign was the only outlier.
Will they hit 100 points this season? In Bruce we trust. Although we don't necessarily trust that new GM Paul Fenton doesn't want his own guy in there by midseason.
Montreal Canadiens
Last season's points total: 71
Three-season points average: 85.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: Two trends reverse, and the loss of Shea Weber isn't completely devastating. While 2016-17 was several Marvel movies ago, please recall that the Canadiens had 103 points, a 9.1 team shooting percentage and a .918 team save percentage thanks to 62 games of a healthy Carey Price, who was third in the Vezina voting. Michel Therrien was fired, Claude Julien was hired. Life was good!
Last season, not so much: They went from 15th to 29th in goals, with a 7.7 team shooting percentage (the NHL average was 9.2). Price played 49 games, missing most of November and March because of injuries, and putting up the worst numbers of his career. Price regaining his form is more likely than the Habs turning up the offense, especially with Max Pacioretty seemingly having one skate out the door. Oh, and Weber's out until December after two surgeries in four months, after having played only 26 games last season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Honestly, with a healthy Weber and Price playing to a save percentage north of .920 ... they still can't score, so no.
Nashville Predators
Last season's points total: 117
Three-season points average: 102.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: The goaltending is as ridiculously good as it was last season. Heck, it can even be a few notches down from the incredible .926 team save percentage it was last season -- the NHL average was .912 -- and the Predators could still break the century mark. Can Pekka Rinne give them another 59 games of .678 percent quality starts? If not, is 23-year-old Juuse Saros ready for prime time?
Will they hit 100 points this season? Yes. One assumes that another 117-point campaign probably isn't happening, but a team this good and deep is primed to defend its division championship.
New Jersey Devils
Last season's points total: 97
Three-season points average: 83.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: Taylor Hall plays at a Hart Trophy pace again and the Devils get above league average goaltending, which is something they did not last season. It's still remarkable to think that the Devils made the Stanley Cup playoffs with Cory Schneider playing 40 underwhelming games (.907 save percentage) and ceding the crease to Keith Kinkaid in the stretch run of the season. Of particular concern is Schneider, who has had back-to-back sub-par seasons. Other than that, if the younger players improve and the veterans hit their marks again, the Devils could make the playoffs.
Will they hit 100 points this season? We can't trust the goaltending enough to say that definitively, despite the additional presence of Eddie Lack on the roster. Because we love Eddie Lack. And who doesn't?
New York Islanders
Last season's points total: 80
Three-season points average: 91.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: John Tavares has a change of heart, rips up his new contract and reveals that his Maple Leafs' bed sheets were actually under a New York Islanders comforter the entire time! But failing that, there's still the notion that new head coach Barry Trotz has hit the 100-point mark eight times, including the past four seasons in Washington; and that the roster he takes over, while it has a Tavares-sized hole, isn't exactly a black hole of talent, what with Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle back for more.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Highly unlikely, given they were in a four-year points slide even before Tavares left for Toronto.
New York Rangers
Last season's points total: 77
Three-season points average: 93.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: Henrik Lundqvist has another .925 save percentage season in him, the Rangers' collection of young players are about two years ahead of schedule in their development and coach David Quinn wins the Jack Adams in his first year, like Patrick Roy did, only maybe with a bit more imperturbability.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Now, that wouldn't be something you'd expect from a team wholeheartedly committed to their rebuild, would it?
Ottawa Senators
Last season's points total: 67
Three-season points average: 83.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: They're allowed to play a 164-game season. And even then, nothing is assured.
Will they hit 100 points this season? No. But seriously ... no.
Philadelphia Flyers
Last season's points total: 98
Three-season points average: 94.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: If James van Riemsdyk and a strong sophomore season from Nolan Patrick provide the offensive support for another MVP-level season from Claude Giroux and the team gets league average (.912) goaltending from Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Yes. They came within two points with an atrocious penalty kill (29th), a middling power play (15th) and a .904 team save percentage. Let's assume one of those trends up.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Last season's points total: 100
Three-season points average: 105.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: They remain the Penguins. Since 2007, Pittsburgh hasn't played to less than a .604 points percentage save for 2014-15 -- when it had 98 points.
Will they hit 100 points this season? The supporting cast is generally the same, and as long as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are healthy, 100 points is the expectation.
San Jose Sharks
Last season's points total: 100
Three-season points average: 99.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: They can patch up some defensive leaks and return to 5-on-5 success. The Sharks were a minus-8 in goal differential at 5-on-5 after being a plus-17 in 2016-17. And they still got 100 points last season, which portends good things for this season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? The gang's all back (although a year older), and Evander Kane is along for a full season's ride. Could we label it as a surprise if they didn't?
St. Louis Blues
Last season's points total: 94
Three-season points average: 100.0
They can hit 100 points this season if: Once more, with feeling: The Blues stay healthy. An unfortunate franchise hallmark at this point, the Blues took a tumble when rising star Jaden Schwartz saw his season derailed by an injury that limited him to seven games in December and January. St. Louis went 9-10-1 without him in the lineup and were 35-22-5 with him. Such are the Blues. Beyond that, obviously they need goaltender Jake Allen to return to form; that form being one in which he's not a minus-10.34 goals above replacement the way he was last season.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Can't see it, given the division (and the conference for that matter), but the depth at center after adding Ryan O'Reilly and Tyler Bozak will make it close.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Last season's points total: 113
Three-season points average: 101.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: What do you mean "if?" This 113-point team returns nearly everyone, with veteran stars (Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov) and young stars (Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev), a goalie who was a Vezina finalist in his first year as a starter (Andrei Vasilevskiy) and a coach in Jon Cooper who has broken the century mark in three of his six seasons.
Will they hit 100 points this season? One shudders to think what happened if they didn't.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Last season's points total: 105
Three-season points average: 89.7
They can hit 100 points this season if: Frederik Andersen is Frederik Andersen for a third straight season, or perhaps even better. They are absolutely loaded up front, with three quality lines bolstered by the addition of John Tavares, who signed a seven-year free-agent contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which still sounds like fan-fic but actually happened.
While the back end remains a work in progress, Andersen has been a more than suitable last line of defense, with .561 percent of his 66 starts qualifying as quality starts and a goals-above replacement of plus-12.06. They get that again, they get 100 points.
Will they hit 100 points this season? While the utter squirminess of the Leafs signing Tavares and then finishing with a worse record than they did without him would be absolutely decadent, one assumes the Leafs break 100 again.
Vancouver Canucks
Last season's points total: 73
Three-season points average: 72.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: Trevor Linden lost the war of competing organizational philosophies because it turns out a young team with a good coach can actually be years ahead of schedule and challenge not only for the postseason but a division title as part of an expedited rebuild.
Will they hit 100 points this season? History probably will be kind to Linden and the patient, long-game direction he wanted for this rebuild.
Vegas Golden Knights
Last season's points total: 109
Three-season points average: N/A
They can hit 100 points this season if: Their inaugural season wasn't just a perfect storm of different motivations and exemplary performances, and that the Golden Knights are just a darn good hockey team with designs on the Stanley Cup again. But, more to the point: If Paul Stastny can establish a second scoring option behind the Jonathan Marchessault line, what with James Neal and David Perron having moved on.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Conservative estimates of the Golden Knights' potential made a lot of people look myopic last season, but one has to assume there's going to be a natural regression now that the bloom's off the desert rose a bit. Or maybe William Karlsson hits 50 goals. It's Vegas. Ironically, all bets are off.
Washington Capitals
Last season's points total: 105
Three-season points average: 114.3
They can hit 100 points this season if: They continue to be the regular-season juggernaut they've been for most of Alex Ovechkin's career. Since 2009, the Capitals have had less than a .561 points share only once, which was in their 2013-14 non-playoff season. Unless there's a massive hangover, Washington is going to cross the century mark again with new coach Todd Reirden. OK, without a massive hangover on the ice. Obviously there have been some massive hangovers since the Stanley Cup win, given the available visual evidence.
Will they hit 100 points this season? The typical regression for a Stanley Cup winner in the past 10 seasons (minus the lockout year) was less than three points. They might not repeat as champions, but this team knows from regular-season success.
Winnipeg Jets
Last season's points total: 114
Three-season points average: 93
They can hit 100 points this season if: Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck is exactly what they're paying him to be. Some scoffed at a player with one year as a starter to his credit getting a $6,166,666 average annual value six-year deal, but there's no understating how much he meant to the Jets last season, helping them to a .919 team save percentage after they were at .904 last season. They gave up 20 fewer goals at 5-on-5 than they had in 2016-17, for a plus-30 goal differential. Keep the shooting percentage north of 10 percent and let Hellebuyck do the rest.
Will they hit 100 points this season? Yes. Despite a few quibbles with their lineup, the Jets are among the NHL's elite.