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 Last
season, the Flames started slowly, played much better in the middle of the
season and then played ok at the end and into the playoffs. The result was a
first round exit. The Flames new offensive style of play did not translate
into better results for the hockey club. New coach Mike Keenan, inherits an
excellent nucleus of players in Kiprusoff, Iginla, Tanguay, Phaneuf and
Regher. The challenge is that they seem to be a team searching for an
identity. They’ve overhauled the back half of their defence with the
additions of Aucoin, Eriksson and Sarich. Coupled with Mark Giordano and
Ritchie Regher pressing for playing time, rumors have the Flames looking to
move Rhett Warrener for more help up-front. Amonte, Friesen and McCarty are
gone and their rosters spots have been filled with Owen Nolan and…. The real
test for this team will be how it adopts to the fiery and unpredictable
coach Keenan. Anticipate that there will be at least one player, if not two,
that Keenan will make a constant example for the rest of the team, as well
as one guy that he will favor among all others. Early odds are it will be
Daymond Langkow and Kristian Huselius finding lots of dog-house time and
Lombardi and Iginla being the “teacher’s pets”. If nothing, it will be quite
a circus around the Flames training camp this season.
 It’s
been a relatively quiet off-season for the Avalanche. After paying a lot for
Ryan Smyth, the team has quietly gone about its business. Rumors have them
patiently waiting to see if Peter Forsberg will come back to play where his
career started. Gone are Pierre Turgeon, Patrice Brisbois, Ossi Vaananen,
Anti Laaksonen and Ken Klee. New faces include Smyth, Scott Hannan and Jeff
Jillson on defence. This year it really looks as though the Avs are banking
on one more years’ development from their core of very good young players:
Paul Stastny, Wojtek Wolski and Marek Svatos. Hannan and Liles will anchor a
young and still relatively unproven defence, while this camp Jordan Leopold
needs to show he can be an impact blueliner. The team’s biggest question
still remains who is going to be No. 1 between the pipes. Last year, Peter
Budaj outplayed Jose Theodore at every turn. Can Budaj be a legitimate No.
1? Having $6M tied-up in the league’s most expensive back-up goalie
(Theodore), while already at about $44M in salary with their current
complement of players will likely hamstring Avs management from making any
impact moves between now and next off-season.
 No
team tried as hard and with as much trial and tribulation this off-season as
the Oilers. From a failed UFA signing (at least in email form) for Michael
Nylander, to a failed attempt to sign restricted FA Thomas Vanek to
overpaying for Sheldon Souray, signing Dick Tarnstrom, trading Joffrey Lupul
and Jason Smith for Joni Pitkanen and Geoff Sanderson and then overpaying
for still un-proven Dustin Penner…. At least you can’t say that the Oilers
have not tried. They still need more offense up-front, as they also lost
Petr Sykora, but the addition of puck-moving Souray, Tarnstrom, Pitkanen and
Denis Grebeshkov should help to limit their offensive chances against. Watch
for Jarrett Stoll to take over the captaincy from departed Jason Smith.
Hemsky remains a great talent to watch, but the guy that needs to lead the
forwards is Shawn Horcoff; who was just average last year. Rumors persist
that the Oilers would like to make one more acquisition via the trade route.
Atlanta is still interested in parting with Ilya Kovulchuk in order to lower
their salary cap, while Patrick Marleau’s name keeps coming up in trade
rumors though these have quelled some since he re-upped with the Sharks. The
Oilers do have a plethora of young talent though, particularly on defence,
which could help to make such a move a reality.
 On
paper ,the Wild appear to have it all. They have excellent offense up front
with Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brian Rolston and
Mikko Koivu. With apologies to George Laraques, they have the league’s
heavyweight champion in Derek Boogaard. Their defence is an excellent blend
of veteran toughness and offensive minded talent and stands eight deep,
highlighted by the ever-developing Nick Schultz and Kevin Foster. Their
goaltending, while relatively unproven with the departure of Manny
Fernandez, is very solid with the emergence of Niklas Backstrom and Josh
Harding. The biggest question to be answered is can Coach Jacques Lemaire
finally loosen the defensive strings enough to allow his team to win more on
the road. At home last year, the Wild were almost unbeatable. Away from
home, their style of play led them to be unable to respond if they were down
a goal or two. They drew a very short straw come playoff time by facing the
eventual Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks and were eliminated in the first
round. The time is NOW for the Wild. The only other thing to remember is
that much depends on the health on Marian Gaborik’s groin. Gaborik is bona
fide NHL sniper and game-changer IF he can ever remain healthy. They are at
about $44M in terms of cap commitment and will likely stay that way as they
head into training camp allowing themselves some acquisition room come trade
deadline time.
 Headed
into the off-season, GM Dave Nonis was in a tough spot. Relatively tight
against the cap, everyone knew that the Canucks were looking for an impact
“top six” forward, if not two of them. So, he decided to re-sign
under-rated, and now over-paid, Kevin Bieksa, brought in Aaron Miller, and
looks poised to make a move to trade a top 4 defenceman (likely Salo or
Ohlund) for that offensive help. Hot goaltending prospect Cory Schneider
could also be moved if the right deal came along. The latest has the Canucks
using Markus Naslund to try and convince UFA Peter Forsberg to come to the
west coast. Other key moves are the jettisoning of Rory Fitzpatrick, Jan
Bulis, Marc Chouinard and, most likely, Brent Sopel (although it’s possible
Brent will return if Salo or Ohlund are traded). The team has brought back
Trevor Linden for one last year, but his fantasy value remains almost nil –
unless he spends extended time with the Sedins . They have added Ryan
Shannon, Byron Ritchie and Brad Isbister – but none of those players will
have much of a fantasy impact. Picking up the often-injured Aaron Miller
provides some toughness along the blue line, but he won’t play more than 60
games. Curtis Sanford is an upgrade as a back-up in net, in the catastrophic
event that Roberto Luongo gets injured. Prospects Mason Raymond, Michael
Grabner, Luc Bourdon and Alex Edler will be given every opportunity to make
the team coming out of came – expect at least two of them on the opening day
roster. Jannik Hansen turned heads in the playoffs with his energy, and
should make the team out of camp, though his fantasy impact will likely be
low.If
there ever was a time that poolies could imagine that the New Jersey Devils
might not make the playoffs, this might be the season. Gone are Scott Gomez
and Brian Rafalski. Added are forward Dainius Zubrus, defencemen Karel
Rachunek and Vitali Vishnevski, and goaltender Kevin Weekes gets the
pleasure of playing maybe 10 games this year. In all, it’s not a good
substitute for the lost offense on a team that is seriously challenged to
score goals in the first place. Granted, the Devils will still go as Martin
Brodeur does, but last season seemed to signal a chink in the NHL’s premier
goaltender’s armor. Brodeur was at times just average, and when that
happened, the Devils were terrible. Bright spots appear to be the health of
#1 forward, Patrik Elias, as well as the continued development of Travis
Zajac and Zach Parise. That said, it’s just too much pressure to place on
two very good but very young NHL stars. Expect an even larger focus on
defence and the neutral zone trap for the Devils. But even with that, the
Devils are probably only an injury or two away from possibly missing the
playoffs. An intangible is the presence of new Coach Brent Sutter. How will
his disciplinarian approach work with the pampered pros at the NHL level?
Only time will tell if he can turn them on, or they tune him out.
...up next: The Central |
