Todd Cordell
1. St. Louis - The Blues are extremely well rounded. They have a nice mix of star power and depth up front to go along with a very strong defense core that just improved with the addition of Justin Faulk (though, he is overrated). If Jordan Binnington is for real, they have a real good shot at winning the division.
2. Nashville - Even without P.K. Subban, the Predators’ defense figures to be really good. Matt Duchene will help jump start the offense, and they can almost certainly bank on more from other key players such as Mikael Granlund.
3. Colorado - The additions of Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, Andre Burakovsky and, to a lesser extent, Valeri Nichushkin have given the Avalanche real quality depth behind their stars. The defense is a little top-heavy but there’s certainly reason to expect more from the Avs this year.
4. Dallas - Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, and a full season of Roope Hintz should go a long way towards addressing their lack of secondary scoring. Their defense should be solid, as should the Ben Bishop/Anton Khudobin goaltending tandem.
5. Minnesota - The Wild are always strong defensively. With a likely bounce-back year from Jason Zucker incoming, the signing of Mats Zuccarello, and a healthy Matt Dumba back in the mix, I think their offense will be much more competent. I like their chances of squeezing back into a Wild Card spot.
6. Winnipeg - I’m really down on the Jets. I think they overachieved last year based on their underlying performance and this off-season has gone about as poorly as possible. They lost Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers and (likely) Dustin Byfuglien for essentially nothing that will help them this season (sorry, Neal Pionk). Their defense is a disaster. Up front Brandon Tanev and Kevin Hayes walked in free agency, and star RFAs Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor remain unsigned. There's not a lot of reason to be optimistic this season.
7. Chicago - They should have no problem scoring goals but, even after their off-season moves, I think the defense will still be quite poor. They do have a strong goaltending tandem, though, so they could be somewhat competitive if Corey Crawford stays healthy and Robin Lehner can be remotely close to what he was a year ago.
Sean Maloughney 1.) Colorado Avalanche
Assuming the Rantanen deal gets done sooner than later, the Avs are going to be a dominant team for the season. Last year the team pushed their way into the playoffs mainly on their top line but this off-season the additions of Kadri and Burakovsky has given the team strong secondary scoring options. Makar for Calder.
2.) Dallas Stars
Bounce back seasons for Seguin and Benn, combined with a potent backend with weapons like Heiskanen and Klingberg are going to propel the Stars higher up in the standings once more.
3.) Nashville Predators
Adding Duchene was a great pickup but I am left wanting more out of the Preds group. Losing PK Subban is going to hurt this team more than some expect I believe and this could be the year that Rinne starts looking less superhuman. A playoff team for sure but now as "wow" as some might think.
4.) St Louis Blues
The best team in hockey after January first and the Stanley Cup Champions of last season will be in tough to replicate that kind of success again this season but are still a great team. The Blues have the strongest right side D in the league with the addition of Faulk as a third pair option and Binnington could be a Vezina finalist this year.... the Central is going to be a tough division this year.
5.) Winnipeg Jets
Likely starting the season without Laine or Connor or Byfuglien, with the last name potentially not playing at all this season. The Jets are in a state of turmoil right now and as of now it's highly unlikely they make the post season.
6.) Chicago Blackhawks
There are some exciting players in the future for Chicago but right now they lack the support to be a real playoff contender. Strome and Gustafsson both need to build off of their success from last season to keep this team in the hunt.
7.) Minnesota Wild
Some real suspect trades by their last GM have weakened this team overall. There is little to be excited about this roster.
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