Welcome to the FanIQ NHL Season Previews. We'll be doing these division previews all week. Yesterday was the Central Division, up today is the Northwest Division.
Welcome to the most competitive division in hockey. If you want a comparison, it’s just like the NFC East. Last season, just 10 points separated all five teams top to bottom and three points separated the top three. The Wild claimed the top spot followed by Colorado and Calgary all of which made the postseason. If three teams from this division end up making the playoffs again next year, they are going to have to do a lot of overachieving with all the other competition in the West. It’s going to be a toss up on who wins the division yet again and there are a lot of questions for each team; none of which will be answered until the puck drops. How does Jarome Iginla play with the loss of some major wingers? How much does the departure of Brian Rolston affect the Wild? Can the young and surging Oilers finally push through and make the playoffs? However this division finishes, it’s going to be close.
5th Place: Vancouver Canucks
How can a team with Roberto Luongo finish last place in their division? Well, I’m not sure. But it happened last season and it will happen again. GM Mike Gillis said he was going to make big changes this offseason but has failed miserably. The addition of Pavol Demitra and Steve Bernier is hardly a splash especially when they lost captain Markus Naslund, veteran Brendan Morrison and Trevor Linden.
This team looks like it could completely fall apart soon as the Sedin Twins and Luongo both have expiring contracts after the 2008-09 season. Luongo is obviously starting in net, but would they actually trade him away come season’s end? Cory Schneider is next in line but the Canucks will have to decide whether they think he could be a number one goalie.
In front of Luongo is a decent defense led by Mattias Ohlund. Willie Mitchell, Kevin Bieksa, veteran Sami Salo, Alex Elder and Lukas Krajicek round out the starting six. The main concern is that there isn’t a ton of depth behind them. The Canucks posted the 7th best defense last year and it is going to have to improve to make a playoff run based on their offense.
If secondary scoring is an important thing in the NHL, the Canucks need to change their arena to that name just remind them how much they need it. Beyond Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra, Steve Bernier and Ryan Kesler, Vancouver pretty much has no one. Young players and rookies are going to have to step in and fill scoring voids or else this team will have to become the greatest defensive team in the league’s history. I don’t see that happening, but I do see a finish around 84 points which keeps them out of the playoffs again.
4th Place: Colorado Avalanche
The first change that the Avalanche made was a coaching change. Joel Quenville is out and former Aves head coach and current assistant coach Tony Granato is the head coach once again. I, for one, question the hire. I don’t care if the guy gained experience in three years as an assistant, but Colorado already made it clear that he wasn’t able to do the job. Whatever, they still have Joe Sakic I guess.Even though Sakic is back, he won’t be the main center. Paul Stastny is now the number one center because of his excellent play last season when Sakic was injured. Joining the Avalanche in the offseason was Darcy Tucker and Daniel Tjarnqvist. The Aves need a great deal of production out of the veterans like Ryan Smyth, Tucker, and Milan Hejduk after the loss of Andrew Brunette. While Wojtek Wolski plans for a bounce back season, it’s the Colorado defense that must get better.
That task is one that doesn’t look like it will happen with the loss of Kurt Sauer and Jeff Finger. Now all that’s left is John-Michael Liles, a few aging veterans, and a few injury-ridden players. Ouch. They need some prospects to step up, and do it quickly, but that’s always a hard task for rookies to do.
The main change in net was the signing of Andrew Raycroft (above right). Jose Theodore made his way to Washington and there is obviously not enough confidence in Peter Budaj. Although both Raycroft and Budaj were number one goalies a few years ago, one of them is eventually going to be the backup as the two battle for the number one spot. Colorado won’t end up making the playoffs this season and will finish a few points ahead of Vancouver.
3rd Place: Calgary Flames
The Calgary Flames point totals over the past three seasons have slowly declined each year. If it drops below the 94 points from last year, they’re not going to make the playoffs. Jarome Iginla is going to need to have another 50 goal and 100 point season for the Flames to reach the postseason, but that will be harder than in years past.
Alex Tanguay, Kristian Huselius, and Owen Nolan are no longer there. Huselius and Tanguay were key to playing on a line with Iginla, but he will have to make do with new teammates like Mike Cammalleri, Rene Borque, and Curtis Glencross. Cammalleri saw a 23-point drop from two seasons ago and is expected to score 30+ plus goals this year. Along side Iginla, that shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone’s favorite guy Todd Bertuzzi (yea right) was another signing for Calgary. But since the Steve Moore sucker punch, he hasn’t performed in Florida, Detroit, or Anaheim. He’s going to be useless here too.
One thing that wasn’t messed with was the defense. The Flames are hoping now that Adrian Aucoin, Anders Eriksson, and Cory Sarich are all healthy and have a year playing together under their belt that they will be much improved. Dion Phaneuf still patrols the Saddledome ice too and will be running for the Norris Trophy again. Robin Regehr is another tough defenseman that Calgary is looking for support from.
Miikka Kiprsoff returns in net and is in the first year of a six-year contract. Kipper remains of the best goaltenders in the league and needs a better year than last if Calgary is going to improve its 15th best defense. For a tough, physical team that doesn’t score a ton of goals, defense is going to be a number one key. However, the Flames are going to decrease in points again, finishing around 90 and missing the playoffs.
2nd Place: Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton was one of those teams making some big deals during the offseason and they’ll be rewarded for it. After just missing out on the Jaromir Jagr and Marian Hossa sweepstakes, the Oilers traded for power forward Erik Cole (right). Matt Greene and Jarrett Stole were then shipped to Los Angeles for defenseman Lumbomir Visnovsky.The Oilers set an NHL record last season with their 15 shootout wins. Edmonton was 19-6 when going to overtime or the shootout thanks to the young guys like Andrew Cogliano and Sam Ganger. They’ll be expected to produce just as well this year, but look for Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky to improve their numbers, down from two seasons ago too. Gilbert Brule, an Edmonton Native who has not lived up to expectations in Columbus, is another new acquisition that could have a big year. A change in scenery along with some competition for a spot should force this 2005 sixth overall draft pick to produce more.
Although the Oilers have the offensive skill, the 5th worst defense from last year needs major improvement. Luckily for the Oilers, they go it. Sheldon Souray, signed last year, was forced out by a shoulder injury for most of the year. But the league leader in power play goals from two years ago is back and healthy, ready to give it another go around. Visnovsky is a very good, underrated defenseman gives the Oilers a very solid and puck moving player on the blue line. Throwing in Steve Staios and Jason Strudwick leads me to believe this defense will improve big time.
The only question the Oilers have is in net. Mathieu Garon posted a 10-0 record in shootouts last year and had a career high 26 wins. But if he falters, there’s no one with experience behind him. However, don’t be surprised at all if the Edmonton dishes out a large amount of money for a good goalie or forward throughout the season. By trying to sign Hossa and Jagr, Edmonton showed that they are here to try and win again and are willing to spend money. It’s going to be an exciting year for them, and they’ll finish with about 95 points and in the playoffs.
1st Place: Minnesota Wild
The Wild are looking to repeat as division champions but the task will not be easy. The team parted with three top forwards during the offseason but did manage to sign a few to fill the void. Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, and Mark Parrish are gone. Andrew Brunette is back while Owen Nolan and Antti Miettinen signed as free agents.
While the offense has never been terrific, the Wild record is much better just when Marian Gaborik plays. There’s no way Owen Nolan has a huge impact on the team but Brunette has a chance to be the second leading scorer. Younger guys like Miettinen, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, and Mikko Koivu will need to step up their game. Every forward has to be a bit tougher this season too because of the loss of Aaron Voros, Chris Simon, and Todd Fedoruk. Someone will have to step up to be the protector of the stars on the team.
Still leading the defense is Brett Burns with Kim Johnsson and Nick Schultz being two great puck handlers. The Wild added Marek Zidlicky and Marc-Andre Bergeron to replace two holes left by Carney and Hill. With the addition of these two, the Wild will more than likely better their 9th best defense of last season.
Expect great things out of Niklas Backstrom this season. He’ll be taking over as number one in net again after a franchise record with 33 wins last season. Backstrom is also in the last year of his contract and will be playing to impress the free agent market. The Wild look to have another good year and repeat as division champions and finish with around 100 points.
Minnesota (8)
Calgary (5)
Colorado (3)
Vancouver (2)
Edmonton (2)
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