At long last, the NHL season has fully arrived.

After a bit of a tease with the New Jersey Devils knocking off the Buffalo Sabres twice in Prague, the rest of the league has joined the fun, and all of those hopes, dreams and expectations can be fulfilled gloriously or blown to smithereens ignominiously.

When it comes to contenders and pretenders, the NHL has big handfuls of both.

But which of those contenders are the real deal and which are merely playing the role in hopes of fooling everyone else? That's what we're here to sort out. We'll select the teams we view to be genuine contenders to win the Stanley Cup and the teams that aren't so much.

We know you'll have opinions, so be sure to let us know in the comments.

Contenders: Winnipeg Jets

You could argue it's easy to be a contending team when you've got an elite goaltender, and in the Winnipeg Jets' case, that seems to be true with Connor Hellebuyck.

However, they also have a bunch of guys who are filling the net at the other end, particularly Mark Scheifele who already has four goals in three games.

When you factor in Kyle Connor and defenseman Josh Morrissey, who are also off to good starts, and lump in Adam Lowry and Mason Appleton, the Jets' 3-0-0 start seems unsurprising.

But it's the fact that the Jets have outscored opponents 10-2 in those three games that has us thinking back to how surprisingly good they were last season and now they're getting off to a fine start.

The Jets were meant to be contenders in the West because of Hellebuyck, but getting off to this start before the rest of their offense finds its footing is a healthy reminder that they're supposed to be good and are playing solid hockey right off the start.

Pretenders: Colorado Avalanche

Two seasons ago, Alexandar Georgiev was sneakily one of the best goalies in the NHL. Last year, he came back to earth a bit, but Colorado still had a great campaign despite coming up short in the postseason.

This season, however, has been a nightmare start.

Georgiev has allowed 13 goals in three starts, was pulled in two of them and only took the loss in two of those starts because backup Justus Annunen fared just as poorly in relief in the third game.

Georgiev has a .787 save percentage and a robust 6.58 goals-against average. Annunen has played just as poorly in mop-up duty, which means the Avalanche are staring at a goaltending problem right away.

Colorado is 0-3-0 to start the season and has been outscored 20-10. The 20 goals allowed are most in the NHL, and even teams that have played four or five games already haven't given up as many.

It's not time to hit the panic button, though, and Georgiev and Annunen surely won't be this bad for too long, but when it comes to the prospects for making a run at the Stanley Cup, confidence cannot be too high right now with this tandem.

It's a situation that bears watching, but right now, this is a big mess for Colorado.

Contenders: Dallas Stars

We didn't intend for this to be a tour through the Central Division, but a few of the teams there have made it hard to ignore them.

The Dallas Stars were always going to be a chic pick to win the Western Conference or the Stanley Cup and watching how they've performed to start the year, it's nice to be reminded of why they're so good.

The Stars' schedule to start the season hasn't been intimidating, but they've been stone-cold nasty in how they've put teams down.

They overwhelmed Nashville early on before they clawed their way back to make it close in the season opener with a 4-3 win. They then shut out both the New York Islanders and Seattle Kraken and sweated out a game against San Jose before winning in a shootout.

Jake Oettinger has been lights-out, and new backup Casey DeSmith pitched a shutout in his lone start. Meanwhile, all of their superb offensive players have shown out at the start and their depth up front stands out among them with Mason Marchment and rookie Logan Stankoven leading the way.

The Stars are going to be nasty all year, and they're doing it well despite their advanced stats looking not-so great right now. Fortunately, it's a small sample size.

Pretenders: Detroit Red Wings

We entered this season really nervous about what was going to happen with the Detroit Red Wings, and their first few games have only emboldened us to believe their playoff dreams might be more of a pipe dream than a sweet one.

Both Ville Husso (since waived and now in the AHL) and Alex Lyon struggled in their first starts of the season, and the Red Wings were truly saved by Cam Talbot when he stopped 42 Nashville Predators shots in a 3-0 shutout win.

Even more distressing than the goaltending is the offense. Detroit has seven goals in three games which is not great, but it's even less great when goalies are fighting the puck and allowing three or more goals per game.

Detroit made few moves in the offseason to bring in extra help to try to get the team over the hump and into the playoffs.

While the Red Wings took care of internal business extending Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, re-signing Patrick Kane and adding Talbot in goal was the extent of their major action in free agency.

Walking a tightrope like this in a brutally competitive division doesn't leave much room for error, and we've already seen a few examples of why concern is warranted.

Contender: New York Rangers

We're not sure anyone really doubted the New York Rangers as contenders headed into the season apart from fans based in New Jersey and Long Island, but the way they've played to start the year reminds us that last season's Presidents' Trophy winners are still very good.

Goalie Igor Shesterkin has looked outstanding. Chris Kreider is playing like someone driven to get back to the Cup Final as well as ensuring a spot on Team USA in the Four Nations Face-Off. Artemi Panarin is aiming to win the Hart Trophy instead of just being in the running for it, and Alexis Lafrenière is picking right up where he left off a year ago.

Apart from a frantic overtime loss at home to Utah in which they overcame a two-goal deficit to send it to the extra period, dominating wins over Pittsburgh and Detroit showed us what makes the Rangers such a dangerous team.

They're loaded and strong and have one of the best goalies in the league. They're contenders no matter what.

Pretender: Nashville Predators

Sometimes, the trouble with adding a lot of new players to a team is that it can take a while for them to jell together.

Apparently, this also applies when the new players added to a playoff team are former Stanley Cup winners (Steven Stamkos) including a Conn Smythe Trophy winner (Jonathan Marchessault), as well as a top defenseman (Brady Skjei).

Who knew adding great players to an already very good team would create such a messy start to the season?

Six goals in three games is not going to get it done, especially when Nashville was shut out in one of those games by the Detroit Red Wings. But a 4-3 loss to Dallas and a 5-3 loss to Seattle are distressing.

Both Juuse Saros and Scott Wedgewood have struggled in goal as well, which makes everything weigh a bit heavier on the mind.

Sure, there will be a course correction at some point, but a slow start in the Central Division is the kind of thing that can lead a team into facing an overly difficult opponent in the first round of the playoffs or missing out entirely.

Contender: The Calgary Flames?

Wait, did we screw this slide up? Who put the Calgary Flames down as a contender?

It's easy enough to find ways to pooh-pooh their 4-0-0 start to the season, and you could do that if you want to...or we could lean into this by examining how they've done it.

Calgary's four wins to open the season came at Vancouver and Edmonton and home against Philadelphia and Chicago. They won a wild 6-5 game in overtime against the Canucks, 6-3 against the Flyers, beat the Oilers in the Battle of Alberta 4-1 rather handily and kept Connor Bedard quiet in a 3-1 win against Chicago.

Jonathan Huberdeau has looked great in leading the team in scoring. Connor Zary picked up where he left off last season in his rookie year. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson is flexing his offensive abilities with five points in four games, and they're getting points from loads of contributors throughout the lineup.

When you factor in how well rookie goalie Dustin Wolf has played in his two starts, it's enough spooky magic to make you wonder if the Flames could be the surprise team out of nowhere that has a great season.

Sometimes, it's the one you least suspect, and Calgary more than qualifies as that.

Pretending to Be a Pretender: Edmonton Oilers

After everything we saw the Edmonton Oilers go through last season, were we buying that their 0-3-0 start to the season was the real them? Absolutely not.

And sure enough, the Oilers found inspiration against the Flyers on Tuesday night with a 4-3 overtime win, with Leon Draisaitl scoring the game-winner from Connor McDavid. Now did they look great through most of that game? Absolutely not.

But this is an Oilers team that stunk up the NHL for two months before they woke up and tore the league apart in the second half of the season all the way through to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last year.

They have the best scoring duo in the NHL, a defenseman in Evan Bouchard who helps add to that attack, and his defense partner, Mattias Ekholm, is a lock-it-down defender who can also help on offense.

Even despite having McDavid and most of the same players from last year, a distressing part to their first few games is they've looked a little slower. That's not a regular-season worry, per se, but it's something to keep an eye on if it persists.

But while the losses make them seem like pretenders, we're not buying it.