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Offseason Changes in the Central Divsion, Creates Tough Competition

July 25, 2017, 1:57 PM ET [45 Comments]
Dan Wallace
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Central Division had long been the toughest division in the NHL but last season that changed as the Metropolitan Division led by Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh, along with Washington, Columbus, and the Rangers all topping the 100 point plateau. The Central was still very tough, with Chicago leading the way and the Wild finishing 2nd with their franchise best performance of 106 points, while Nashville road their strong second half performance all the way to the Cup final.

The early playoff exits in Chicago and Minnesota, caused both teams to make some significant changes, while another traditionally tough Central foe, may have made the biggest off season changes, the Dallas Stars.

Dallas has long been a strong team, that lacked consistent goaltending. That was the first thing Stars GM Jim Nill addressed dealing for Ben Bishop from LA. He has since added former Wild center, Martin Hanzal, defenseman, Marc Methot, and possibly the biggest addition of all right wing, Alex Radulov.

Chicago brought back Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp, while adding Connor Murphy from Arizona and Tommy Wingels from San Jose. The Blackhawks have been the model franchise for working the salary cap, moving players after each of their three Stanley Cup's while still maintaining their elite level of performance in the regular season. The last two seasons saw them lose in the first round of the playoffs and the changes have become more dramatic.

St. Louis also made a significant upgrade acquiring Brayden Schenn from Philadelphia, to complement an already talented team, that should only get better with the return of Robbi Fabbri, who missed the second half of last season and the playoffs with a knee injury.

The least talked about team in the Central may very well be the best of all very soon, and that of course is the Winnipeg Jets with their core of Mark Scheifele, Patrik Laine, Blake Wheeler, Nicolaj Ehlers, Dustin Byfuglien, etc, and now the addition of Steve Mason in net.

Nashville of course is coming off their tremendous playoff run, falling just short in the Cup final, but absolutely a force to be reckoned with moving forward.

The Central Division is poised to regain it's place as the toughest division in the league once again. So which team will miss the playoffs in 2018 from the Central? Six tough teams on paper only a max of five can get in.
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