The last of my division previews focuses on the Central Division, some old friends have left, some new rivals have arrived and but the basics of this division remain… This division features four playoff teams from last season. Let’s get to the teams in alphabetical order…
Chicago Blackhawks
Last Season –36-7-5 – 77 points – 1st in Central, 1st in West – Won Stanley Cup
Additions - Nikolai Khabibulin
Subtractions - Dave Bolland, Ray Ememry, Michael Frolik, Viktor Stalberg
Outlook - Defending Cup champs return almost all of the key pieces from a team that tore through the NHL like a hot knife through butter. Scoring… check. Defense… check. Goaltending… check. Coaching… check. This team is loaded, continues to be loaded and cannot be stopped… they are like the Borg and you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. But seriously… this is the class of the division and will contend for another President’s Trophy.
Colorado Avalanche
Last Season –16-25-7 – 39 points – 5th in Northwest, 15th in West – Missed playoffs
Additions - Alex Tanguay, Cory Sarich
Subtractions - Greg Zanon, Milan Hejduk, Chuck Kobasew, David Jones
Outlook - I feel like a broken record, but a team with so little on the blueline passed on Seth Jones at the draft. Yup… that sums up the Avalanche. Lots of young talent up front, a new front office and a new coach plus the same defensive problems, added to questionable goaltending equals another year on the bottom of their division… at least they will be on the bottom of a different division, there is that. The goaltending hopes lie on the shoulders of Senyon Varlamov and JS Giguerre. The blueline is… well… the blueline is undermanned, you can flatly state that there really isn’t a legitimate top two d-man on the roster and you can argue that there isn’t a top four defenseman. It will be the Av’s undoing. They may score a lot of goals, heck they SHOULD score a lot of goals, but, barring a late camp defensive add, this team will have to win games 7-6.
Dallas Stars
Last Season – 22-22-4 – 48 points – 5th in Pacific, 11th in West – Missed playoffs
Additions - Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverly, Dan Ellis, Shawn Horcoff, Sergei Gonchar
Subtractions - Loui Eriksson, Eric Nystrom, Philip Larsen
Outlook - I have some serious questions about the makeup of this team, but Dallas made the most important move they could by hiring Lindsey Ruff as their new bench boss. I am not really enamored with the personnel moves this team made, Horcoff hasn’t produced in years, Seguin gets more love for his Twitter account than his development as a player and Gonchar is 39 and many question what he has left in the tank. Losing a glue guy like Nystrom won’t help and losing a scorer like Eriksson won’t either. They have potentially great goaltending in Kari Lehtonen but only a middle-of-the-road blueline. The coach makes the difference in Dallas this year however and the Stars make the playoffs.
Minnesota Wild
Last Season – 26-19-3 – 55 points – 2nd in Northwest, 8th in West – Lost in 1st round to Chicago
Additions - Matt Cooke, Keith Ballard, Jon Blum
Subtractions - Matt Cullen, Devon Setoguchi, Tom Gilbert, Cal Clutterbuck, Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Outlook - Some turnover in the St. Paul, some decent role players went out the door, some decent ones came to the team, but I just don’t think the Wild have made themselves markedly better. Zach Parise will have to be excellent, Dany Heatley will need to recapture his scoring touch and Matt Cooke will have to continue to not break stupid on the ice. This is a team that seems to have the core of a winner, I do question if they have the complimentary players. I can’t think of a good reason why this team doesn’t make the playoffs.
Nashville Predators
Last Season – 16-23-9 – 41 points – 5th in Central, 14th in West – Missed playoffs
Additions - Viktor Stalberg, Matt Cullen, Eric Nystrom, Mett Hendricks, Carter Hutton
Subtractions - Sergei Kostitsyn, Chris Mason, Bobby Butler, Brandon Yip, Matt Halischuk
Outlook - Detailed preview to come, but this team will be back in the playoffs this season.
St. Louis Blues
Last Season – 29-17-2 – 60 points – 2nd in Central, 4th in West – Lost in 1st round to LA
Additions -Derek Roy, Maxim Lapierre, Magnus Pajaarvi
Subtractions - David Perron, Kris Russel, Andy McDonald
Outlook - Believe it or not, this is Ken Hitchcock’s first full training camp with the Blues, in his third season with the club. Season three always seems to be the one where the players begin to tune this coach out… and there were some not-so-positive signs coming out of the Blues room during last season’s playoffs. They have a potentially great defense, unless they can’t get Pietrangelo signed, Alex is still a holdout as of this writing. Jay Bouwmeester could definitely make an impact on the blueline as well. Offensively, this team has only been OK and due to injury, the goaltending took a step back last season after being almost impenetrable in 2011-12. St. Louis should be a playoff team and I do predict they make it, but I can’t say I would be shocked if they don’t.
Winnipeg Jets
Last Season – 24-21-3 – 51 points – 2nd in Southeast, 9th in East – Missed playoffs
Additions - Devin Setoguchi, Michael Frolik
Subtractions - Kyle Wellwood, Ron Hainsey, Alex Burmistrov, Nik Antropov
Outlook - Welcome to the Western Conference and welcome to the Central Division, this ain’t the SouthLeast. Most concerning about this team is consecutive seasons where they have crumbled down the stretch. The Jets have been in playoff position late in the last two seasons and couldn’t seal the deal. That is the puzzling part of this team. They have talent up front, they are deep at defense and they have serviceable goaltending. Evander Kane will post 65+ points, Andrew Ladd will break 60, Blake Wheeler may break 60. Matt Halischuk will be a great third line add for the Jets and could make an impact, like he did in Nashville, but other than him, I don’t see the kind of role players that help take a talented team to the next level. The move west will be painful for the Jets.
Predicted Order of Finish * denotes playoffs
1. Chicago*
2. St. Louis*
3. Nashville*
4. Minnesota*
5. Dallas*
6. Winnipeg
7. Colorado
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Random Notes
- Ice issues at Centennial Sportsplex caused today’s training camp sessions to be moved to Bridgestone Arena
- A rather large amount of snark in the local coverage of yesterday’s “Skate of the Union” event at Bridgestone Arena.
- Biggest news may be Preds Chairman Tom Cigarran saying that he believes that Nashville will be hosting an NHL All-Star gave within three years. Now that the Music City Center is open and fully operational, convention space wouldn’t be an issue… and with more hotels opening, lodging won’t either.
- Pekka Rinne is officially medically cleared, but Josh Cooper is reporting that he will be held out of the first two preseason games in Florida.
- Carolina’s blueline just went from not good, to horrid with the news breaking that Joni Pitkanen will miss the entire season.
- The Dan Cleary to Philly situation is strange. He has not reported to Philly and wired-in Red Wings reporter Helene St. James is reporting that Cleary is probably heading back to Detroit, even tweeting out that Cleary is headed to Traverse City to join Detroit.
- Penguins coach Dan Bylsma is quoted as saying that Pittsburgh has the “best tandem in the league” referring to Marc-Andre Fluery and Tomas Vokoun… maybe in the regular season…
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