1. Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks are absolutely built to hoist the cup next June. After taking the eventual cup champions to an eventual Game 7 loss in the WCF last playoffs, the Ducks made the necessary moves to elevate themselves above their competitors. It started with the acquisition of speedy LW Carl Hagelin, who fill the hole left by free-agent Matt Beleskey. Kevin Bieksa was brought in to bolster the blue line and replace Francois Beauchemin. Mike Santorelli, Chris Stewart, Shawn Horcoff, and Anton Khudobin were all key depth acquisitions that make the Ducks all that much stronger. Lead by the eliteness of captain Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Ryan Kesler, Anaheim is brimming with maximized potential. Frederick Andersen has proved himself as a solid goaltender and will be even stronger with a deep playoff run under his belt. Young defensive prodigy Hampus Lindholm has the potential to be an elite d-man, and he’s already the best defenseman in Anaheim. Scoring touch, physicality, size, speed, you name it…they have it. The Ducks have extremely high expectations heading in to the new season, and there is no doubt in a lot of minds that they will reach the Stanley Cup Final.
2. Los Angeles Kings
After having a disappointing year and surprisingly missing the playoffs in 2015, the Kings will bounce back in the new year and be in the playoff race once again. The team just did not perform to their potential last season, and they suffered the consequences of it. Justin Williams was lost to free-agency, which left a veteran hole in the Kings line-up. Los Angeles brought in bruising winger Milan Lucic from Boston to add to their size and strength. Players like Lucic are needed in the Western Conference, which is much more physical than the East. Drew Doughty will lead his defensive unit once again on a team that has had success with their defense-first mentality. With the retirement of Robyn Regher, Christian Ehrhoff was brought in to fill the vacated blueline role. Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik will remain mainstays on the top line, while the line of Tanner Pearson-Jeff Carter-Tyler Toffoli, dubbed “That 70’s line”, will look to repeat their success from their cup-winning year in 2014. Goaltender Jonathan Quick is one of the top 3 goalies in the NHL, and is always a force in net and extremely difficult to crack. The Kings may not go on another deep run, but look for them to get into the playoffs in 2016.
3. Calgary Flames
The young Flames put on quite a show last year. They made an unbelievable push late in the season, eliminated Los Angeles from playoff contention, and made it to the second round of the playoffs. All of it seemed to come out of nowhere. Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan lead Calgary’s youth movement. Both will be top notch players in a few years. the Flames got stronger on the backend, when they pulled off an unbelievable trade with Boston to bring in big Dougie Hamilton. Instantly the Flames got stronger in the defensive aspect. Michael Frolik was signed to add more offense to a team that is already teeming with offensive potential. Captain and 2015 All-Star Mark Giordano was sidelined last playoffs with an injury, so it’s interesting the think how much better Calgary could have been with their leader. Jonas Hiller will need to be solid in net in a division that has a lot of offensive fire-power. Look for Calgary to make the playoffs in 2016 and be a stronger version of last year’s team.
4. San Jose Sharks
It was a bit of circus last year in San Jose. Joe Thornton was stripped of his captaincy and the Sharks went through the rest of their below-mediocre season without a captain and almost no clear-cut leadership. With newly announced captain Joe Pavelski leading the team, the Sharks can look to bounce back possibly be battling Calgary for the final spot in the Pacific. The Pacific will only have three playoffs teams in this author’s eyes. The Central is just too good and will take both wild card spots. That leaves only the top 3 spots i the Pacific open. The Sharks could find momentum and bump Calgary out of that third spot. Key additions include a change in net as the Sharks brought in Martin Jones from Boston only hours after being traded to the Bruins from Los Angeles. Antti Niemi is gone, so it will be interesting to see if Jones is ready for a starting role. The offense will be led again by Pavelski and Thornton, with young Czech Tomas Hertl getting better each year. Big and burly Brent Burns is one of the few players we see rotating from a forward role to a defensive role, and he is extremely good at doing that. Led by Marc-Edouard Vlasic and newly-acquired veteran Paul Martin, the Sharks defense is already a little better than last year. The Sharks will either sink or swim at the end of 2016.
5. Edmonton Oilers
While they are not a playoff team quite yet, Edmonton will be far more improved in the looming season. They were the recipients of the coveted number one overall pick at the 2015 draft, which resulted in them being able to draft Connor McDavid, who is the most coveted prospect since Sidney Crosby. McDavid will be thrown into the fire as the number 2 or maybe even the number 1 center on a young oilers team. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle have been the offensive leaders for a past struggling Oilers club and will get a bit more help from McDavid. The Oil brought in goalie Cam Talbot, who made a name for himself last year when he had to spare Henrik Lundqvist in New York for a long stretch of games after going down with an injury. Talbot will take over the starting role in Oil Country. Additions of Andre Sejkera and Marc Letestu are both necessary veteran acquisitions that will add some experience to this lineup. Edmonton is extremely close to becoming the team they’ve been working on since drafting Hall in 2010, and while they can expect to probably not reach the playoffs in 2016, they will show signs of growth and will be vastly improved of the course of the upcoming season.
6. Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver has taken many steps back since last year, and those steps seemed to start with their performance in the playoffs. After getting tossed around by Calgary in the first round, Vancouver exited with almost no idea of where to go. They traded away a leader in defenseman Kevin Bieksa and did almost nothing to improve their team in the offseason. It was a lot of trades with virtually no return or letting players walk to free agency. The Canucks are just not a good team right now. The play and production of the Sedin twins is declining every year as they head into their late 30’s, and now Henrik and Daniel are left to lead a team with almost no depth. The front office received heaps upon heaps of criticism from fans for their offseason decisions. It seems everyone in Vancouver is in the hot seat. U.S. olympian Ryan Miller needs to have a bounce-back year in net, and Bo Horvat needs to fulfill his potential as a scoring threat in his sophomore year. Radim Vrbata had a career year in 2015 and will look to keep up his pace in his second year with the Canucks. A weakened team at best, Vancouver needs major changes fast.
7. Arizona Coyotes
Arizona is a team that hasn’t really taken any steps back in the last 2 or 3 seasons, but has however stayed buoyant as one would say. They haven’t really gonna anywhere but the bottom of the league, which is an effect of the rebuilding process for the Yotes being slow. They were handed the third-overall pick at the draft in 2015 and selected forward Dylan Strome. Strome played alongside Connor McDavid for the Erie Otters and is a playmaker that has incredible hockey sense. Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the defensive unit for Arizona, and the Swedish olympian will be tasked with holding down the defensive fort for another season with not much help. Shane Doan is the longest-tenured captain in the league, and unfortunately will be leading another weak team. The Coyotes are almost there. Tobias Rieder shows signs of being a solid point-producer. Mike Smith has always been fairly solid, and there is no reason to expect anything else from him. The Coyotes have just never had a lot to bring to the table, but they are slowly but surely on their way up.
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