Paul McCann: So... how's the rest of the Central looking?

Fist

Additions through subtractions my friend.
Thats where the Avs maybe being better revolve around.

Also Suck it Jero

St. Louis – Last season – 3rd in the division, 5th in the conference. Better? Worse? Same? – On paper, worse… but any team with the talent and firepower of a Vladimir Tarasenko will be competitive. They found their goaltending last season and still have a decent blueline, but the adds don’t seem to cover the losses. St. Louis will be solid… and competitive… I just don’t see them on an upswing. They are similar to the Blackhawks in this fashion, and a bargain basement acquisition may help.
Playoffs – Borderline, 50/50 chance depends on health and how good the rest of the division performs.



A decent blueline? I think it's a little better than decent

I'm also confused as to who is so important that they lost? Reaves?? Upshall? Yakupov?
Seriously? They get a healthy Fabbri back and switched out Lehtera for Schenn. If this somehow makes the Blues worse on paper it's news to me.

How did the Blues get worse? We traded Lehtera for Schenn (HUGE upgrade) traded Reaves for Sundqvist and Kostin (might not make the team until next year), We'll have a full season of Sobotka (who looked amazing in the playoffs), we are getting Fabbri back (we have him in the playoffs last year and I think we would have made the finals ) and we lost Perron who didn't show up in the Playoffs. We have tons of guys knocking on the door (Sandford, Barbashev, Dunn, Thompson, and Walman). If you think this team is worse you are vastly uniformed.

Also we have probably top 5 in the league d-core (Petro, Parayko, Edmundson, Bouwmeister) and Allen was lights out after the coaching change. See you in the playoffs next year.

plus a full season of sobotka.

Perron is so insignificant I completely forgot about him

St. Louis – Last season – 3rd in the division, 5th in the conference. Better? Worse? Same? – On paper, worse… but any team with the talent and firepower of a Vladimir Tarasenko will be competitive. They found their goaltending last season and still have a decent blueline, but the adds don’t seem to cover the losses. St. Louis will be solid… and competitive… I just don’t see them on an upswing. They are similar to the Blackhawks in this fashion, and a bargain basement acquisition may help.
Playoffs – Borderline, 50/50 chance depends on health and how good the rest of the division performs.



A decent blueline? I think it's a little better than decent

I'm also confused as to who is so important that they lost? Reaves?? Upshall? Yakupov?
Seriously? They get a healthy Fabbri back and switched out Lehtera for Schenn. If this somehow makes the Blues worse on paper it's news to me.
- bluenote31

I like this years blues roster over last years. Is Stastny going to be 1C or will Schenn get that role?

Wow... it was a decade ago that Hamilton almost landed the Preds. Not gonna lie... living a 20 minute drive from the proposed arena then I was really pumped to land them. Probably would have dropped the Habs to support them too.
Worked out well for NSH in the end though.

McCann underestimates the Blues every year and is wrong every year. Looking forward to seeing (barely) the Preds in our rear view mirror.

Hey Paul, what exactly are you smoking to think the Blues lost ANYONE of significance? If you want to talk about teams that lost important players you need to look in your own backyard! Reaves, Lehtera, Upshall. Give me a break, I think you're to busy cheerleading to know what's actually happening on the ice.

I still think the division is

Chicago
Nashville
St Louis
Minnesota

Dallas
Winnipeg






Colorado

Blues are not worse than last year if anything they are deeper and faster than any team they have iced in the last 10 years.

Should be a fun season

I still think the division is

Chicago
Nashville
St Louis
Minnesota

Dallas
Winnipeg






Colorado

Blues are not worse than last year if anything they are deeper and faster than any team they have iced in the last 10 years.

Should be a fun season
- sycsam

I think Chicago takes a step backward this year. A lot of tough subtractions.
I'm thinking:
-Nashville
-Chicago
-St Louis
-Dallas
-Minnesota
-Winnipeg
-Colorado

I can't see where the Blues are going to take any kind of step back. I think Nashville & St. Louis emerge from the offseason slightly deeper & maybe a bit better than last season, but for different reasons. Chicago has made some changes, but I don't know that it makes them weaker - depends on how those changes pan out. The Preds, Blues & Hawks, in whatever order, seem like the clear top 3 teams to me. Nashville has the best D, Chicago has the best offense, and the Blues are the most balanced with good goaltending (if Allen can keep up the form he showed in the late season & playoffs).

I think Dallas takes a step up, and Minnesota takes a step back in the upcoming season. Dallas will probably get a bump with Hitchcock behind the bench, but who knows how long it will last. I don't know that the Wild are far worse than they were, but I just wonder if the age of their team maybe catches up to them. Their top players (Suter, Koivu, Parise, Staal, & Dubnyk) are all over 30, taking up significant cap room, and several are signed to long term deals. That's going to make it harder for the Wild to deal people and get better (or younger).

I like this years blues roster over last years. Is Stastny going to be 1C or will Schenn get that role?
- DDM-Coga

Guessing it will be stastny with schenn actually on 2nd line wing.

Schwartz Stastny Tarasenko

Fabbri Steen Schenn

I like this years blues roster over last years. Is Stastny going to be 1C or will Schenn get that role?
- DDM-Coga

That is the question. I think Stats will be 1C again based on his Defensive play. Schenn and Tarasenko would be scary good, but I worry about their play in the D zone.

The Hawks are worse short term. Trading Hjalmarsson for Murphy is a downgrade, unless Murphy eventually lives up to his pedigree. Panarin for Saad, I'm okay with that one. The one guy who can't be replaced is Hossa. And they don't have a proven backup goalie anymore, either. It remains to be seen if any of the kids in the system will step up, and if they will have two legit D pairs on the roster.


Regardless of what anybody thinks of the trades made, Hjalmarsson and Panarin each had two years left on their deals, and there was a good chance they would walk after, because there would be no way the Hawks could afford to give them the raises they would command. Saad has four more years, and Murphy has five more years.

While the Hawks did have the #1 seed, they didn't look anything like any of the Cup winning teams from before. Toews played hurt most of the season. The 4D situation was unresolved. They had only one legitimate scoring line. The Hawks relied on stellar goaltending last year, and that masked a lot of their flaws.

So I'm not expecting much this upcoming season. I can only hope to be pleasantly surprised.

I still think the division is

Chicago
Nashville
St Louis
Minnesota

Dallas
Winnipeg






Colorado

Blues are not worse than last year if anything they are deeper and faster than any team they have iced in the last 10 years.

Should be a fun season
- sycsam

Avs make the playoffs bc Varly is back and puts upa .933 sv%

The Fatmarsh Tanner crazy prediction of the year

i love that everyone is sleeping on the jets, they will take the division!!! book it

The Blues were 15-5 coming down the stretch in their last 20 games to solidify their spot in the playoffs. That in itself should bode well for the coming season. However, when you look at it, 14 of those games were against non-playoff teams and 7 were against the woeful Avs and Coyotes.

They still have a lot to prove between the pipes. Is Jake Allen the one from the playoffs or the one that was left home during that road trip? Stasny will be 32 and had only 40 pts last season with talent around him. Is he a #1 center.

I'm not sure that they won't regress a little this season.

The Blues were 15-5 coming down the stretch in their last 20 games to solidify their spot in the playoffs. That in itself should bode well for the coming season. However, when you look at it, 14 of those games were against non-playoff teams and 7 were against the woeful Avs and Coyotes.

They still have a lot to prove between the pipes. Is Jake Allen the one from the playoffs or the one that was left home during that road trip? Stasny will be 32 and had only 40 pts last season with talent around him. Is he a #1 center.

I'm not sure that they won't regress a little this season.
- DougPaz

Without Fabbri and Sobotka

The additionas of Fabbri Sobotka and Schenn make the blues better than last year

Not to mention they odnt have Hitchcock messing with the lines because guys don't play a defensive game first.

Yeo let the young guys play and make mistakes without sitting them in the pressbox the rest of the season.

Blues will be fine

i love that everyone is sleeping on the jets, they will take the division!!! book it
- Ross77

steven mason is trash

steven mason is trash
- DDM-Coga

but you love Varly?

last five years;

Mason: 154gp, .922 sv%, .935 5v5 sv%
Varmalov: 163gp, .922 sv%, .927 5v5 sv%

bottom line is Mason is a 100% improvement on Hutchinson and the Jets are still waiting to see if it will be Helly or Comrie that will ultimately be the long term answer for them. I am looking forward to it. I got my Jets goggles on early this summer, cant wait for the season to start!!! love this team and think they will finally be the team that everyones been waiting on. Cup Contenders, not just playoffs

but you love Varly?

last five years;

Mason: 154gp, .922 sv%, .935 5v5 sv%
Varmalov: 163gp, .922 sv%, .927 5v5 sv%

bottom line is Mason is a 100% improvement on Hutchinson and the Jets are still waiting to see if it will be Helly or Comrie that will ultimately be the long term answer for them. I am looking forward to it. I got my Jets goggles on early this summer, cant wait for the season to start!!! love this team and think they will finally be the team that everyones been waiting on. Cup Contenders, not just playoffs
- Ross77

I dont love Varly, pay attention. It was a hot take

Also not sure what math you are doing, but last 5 years would be 2012-13 season



Dont disagree, Hutch sucked big time, but unless Helly is the 1G and takes over the net...I dont see Mason being the guy that gets them over the hump

I dont love Varly, pay attention. It was a hot take

Also not sure what math you are doing, but last 5 years would be 2012-13 season



Dont disagree, Hutch sucked big time, but unless Helly is the 1G and takes over the net...I dont see Mason being the guy that gets them over the hump
- DDM-Coga

Jets won't need a goalie to carry them, they just need more consistency form their goalies. They will not struggle to score. Maurice is on a tight leash, he needs to improve special teams and over all team discipline. If he can do that, this team will be fun to watch.