[Cali Panthers Fan]

1) Colorado...AINEC.



2) Arizona. Yes, they are really that bad, but at least they have some youth coming. Can't score. Terrible defensively. Mediocre to bad goaltending. Tippett's style of coaching. Chayka losing trades on the regular. Not a recipe for success.
3) Detroit. How the mighty have fallen. Hanging on to the last years of Zetterberg. Poor defense group. Mediocre goaltending. A couple of intriguing forwards, but no game breakers...and then a LOT of filler. They're going to have it rough for a few years.
4) Vancouver. See above with hanging onto the Sedins last years. Low talent levels throughout the lineup. Miller has kept them in a lot of games they had no business being in, and he's going to be UFA this year. I don't see Markstrom stealing that many points for them. Little to no talent coming down the pipe. It's going to be a while for Vancouver as well.
5) New Jersey. Traded for scoring and STILL can't score to save their life. However, they have one of the best goalies in the game and play a strong defensive system. They will have $19 million in cap space to work with next year to acquire some scoring. If they get even league average offensive production, they'll likely be around the playoff picture next year. Pretty awful prospect base at the moment though.

Honorable mention: Dallas. A bit of a surprise? Sure. They have all that talent on paper, and they score their fair share of goals with it. However, they're the worst defensive team in the league, even worse than Colorado who has a shell of a team out there. Just a horrible defensive group, with forwards who have no idea where their own zone is, along with two below average goaltenders in Lehtonen and Niemi.