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Todd Cordell
John Gibson will be a Vezina finalist.
He is rarely mentioned when discussing the NHL's upper tier of goalies -- perhaps due to some injuries he's had to deal with -- but his numbers over the last couple seasons have been comparable to those that are (he posted a .924 save percentage last season and a .920 the year prior).
If he has another strong season and is able to hold down the fort while Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm are out, I think it'll earn him some well-deserved recognition.
Adam French
The Arizona Coyotes make the playoffs at the expense of the San Jose Sharks.
After a whirlwind off-season that saw Tippett expelled, large roster turnover and the end of the Shane Doan Era; the Coyotes have a very new look. Aside from Vegas due to the every nature of its creation. Arizona is basically the most changed team going from last season.
They will get an extreme infusion of talented youth with Strome and Keller.
Stepan has (sadly) become the best centre the Coyotes have iced since Olli Jokinen's brief and awkward stint in the desert.
Arguably their best scoring forward in Max Domi should be healthy and Dvorak a year older.
Their defense has improved with the additions of Hjalmarsson and Demers.
Plus their goaltending should remain relatively the same if not slightly better with a younger Raanta with one year left on a small deal looking for his payday.
This prediction can easily blow up in my face, but I feel that the Coyotes have the feel of a real darkhorse this season. Much like the Leafs last season.
The difference being the Coyotes don't have as dynamic the forward core, but their defense is miles better. Seriously though Ekman-Larsson-Hjalmarsson? Barring absolute terrible chemistry, that has the makings of being the best pairing in the conference. And this conference has a scary amount of great pairings.
Jared Crozier
Picture it...Alberta, 1990. It was a 21 team league, and the division names still had character, not just awkwardly inappropriate geographical identifiers. Yes, in an era I am sure before many of you were born, there was a time when the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames were arguably the two best teams in the league over a six or seven year period, and the only team that stood between them and the Stanley Cup seemed to be each other. The battle of Alberta was a thing to behold, even if Calgary had to take a back seat in the rivalry all too often, because there was no answer to 99 over the long term.
But I digress, because finally the Battle of Alberta is relevant again. For the first time since 1990, the Oilers and Flames will finish 1-2 in their division. It is a great match-up on paper as well, with perhaps the best blue line in the league going against perhaps what will be one of the highest scoring teams in the league (I will let you figure out which is which). They will probably meet each other in the post-season for the first time since 1991 and it will be an epic series.
I won't predict that a drought will end and the Stanley Cup will be Canada bound because there are still questions on each side to be answered, but I will go so far as that hockey will be played in the Province of Alberta come mid-June 2018.
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