Todd Cordell
The Detroit Red Wings will be my choice for the second year in a row. They were an old, immobile, and offensively inept group this time last year and not much has changed.
Filip Hronek pushed his way onto their roster and showed a lot of promise as a rookie. He is the only guy I'd want anywhere near a top-4 pairing. The rest of the defense is an absolute wasteland. Mike Green ($5.375M), Danny DeKeyser ($5M), Jonathan Ericsson ($4.25) and Trevor Daley ($3.16M) are overpaid or overused, if not both. They also all carry at least modified no-trade clauses so the Wings will have a tougher time dumping them even if they can find suitors.
After that, the Wings have an OK depth piece in Patrik Nemeth, a reclamation project in Madison Bowey, and a hopeful in Dennis Cholowski, who was a mixed bag in 2018-19.
Headlined by Hronek, and 2019 1st rounder Moritz Seider, there is some hope for the future. Right now? Things are pretty bleak.
Jan Levine I considered several teams for this "honor." Anaheim has a good first pair and Josh Manson, but falls off after that listing. Ottawa does have Thomas Chabot and added Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev while losing Cody Ceci, so you would expect mild improvement. Detroit, covered by Todd, is ugly overall, but they are in growth mode and you would expect improvement in the future following struggles this season again.
My selection, with a major caveat, is the Rangers. Lots of ifs on this team and youth that could play a role. In addition, buyouts could see the departure of Brendan Smith, Kevin Shattenkirk and/or Marc Staal. The addition of Jacob Trouba helps and he should enable Brady Skjei to return to the form he showed as a rookie. This takes pressure off the second pairing, which should include Tony DeAngelo and maybe Staal. Plus, Libor Hajek, Adam Fox, Yegor Regev and Ryan Lindgren are waiting in the wings with K'Andre Miller and Nils Lundqvist part of the future. But this year could see more issues from the back end, as the defense is still handled by Lindy Ruff. Though, if some of the younger blueliners pan out, the defense could be much improved and surprise.
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