Let's look at the teams in the division, as they are today:
Anaheim - They'll continue to be a good team for a while. Youth in net and on the blue line will keep them strong.
Vancouver - A slight regression. Their best forwards are far too old to keep their level of play and, as good as he is, Horvat won't replace them all. Defence and goaltending could hold steady but that's still a net loss in overall ability on the team with three key parts of the top 6 approaching 35.
LA - Will bounce back a bit. They'll also probably develop a better plan for the defence next year than running Doughty for so many minutes. I can't see this team being this mediocre on the road again.
San Jose - In for the long haul rebuild. Thornton and Marleau are almost done and there's very little in the way of prospects to save them.
Edmonton - They're starting to at least turn the corner. Chiarelli will have his hands full for a little while developing a team which has reasonable goaltending and defence. I suspect Eberle or Hall will be out the door for some assistance in that department. He might bring them to the playoffs in a little while but I don't think it will be an instant turnaround.
Arizona - I can't see them improving to a playoff team right away...but there are a lot of question marks on them.
I think the Flames will stand as an option for the playoffs again, competing against the Canucks or fighting for a wild card position...but I honestly wouldn't expect anything. A lot went right this year and there was a strong dependency on the hotter goaltender between Ramo and Hiller at times. There are lots of questions regarding the continued success of the rookie players and I would suspect there will be a few slumps due to the large learning curve for the team as a whole.
Somewhere between 10-14th in the draft next year would label the season a success. Playoffs would just be an added benefit.
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