[ForeverFlameFan]

Sorry for the long post in advance.

What are your thoughts on the Pacific Division? How do you think the season is going to play out with everything taken into account?

There's no need to be a homer about what our team has done this offseason, we made some big moves that are more likely to help us than to hurt us. Our forward depth was always the problem, and Treliving addressed that greatly with the acquisitions that we made.

Anaheim Ducks - The only big thing (if you call it big) was the re-signing of Adam Henrique, 7/16/18 to a deal 500k over, 1 year under than Backlund. Was he worth it? Kesler could possibly be on the LTIR for the 18/19 season, and Perry and Getzlaf aren't getting any younger. They didn't make very many moves this offseason. Will the young group of Rakell, Gibson, and Lindholm be able to push the Ducks towards another playoff berth? I think Murray is in the process of evaluating his team this season to really see what moves he needs to make in the 2019 offseason.

Player to look at: Gibson. Their season depends on him.

Arizona Coyotes - This team pushed hard for a UFA forward. They pushed for JVR and Maroon but just got Grabner. They have a young forward core that is still working on gaining experience. OEL and Hjalmarsson have extended their stay in AZ, Kuemper joins Raanta as the backup goaltender, and D. Strome looks to be a full time NHLer next season. The biggest move they made was trading Domi for Galchenyuk, which I believe will turn out to be one of the best moves in the offseason. Galchenyuk was able to put up good points in Montreal with little ice time. He'll get more in AZ. The trade with Chicago in taking Hossa's cap space is still a bit weird to me, but I guess Chayka is always looking for ways to get assets. Will the young and upcoming team at least be able to make some noise next season? Or will they continue to be a bottom 5 team?

Players to look at: Galchenyuk/Raanta. If Galchenyuk pans out to be a top 6 center/left wing and/or Raanta plays lights out like he did towards the ending of the season for the Coyotes, the Coyotes have a good chance of pushing for a wild card spot.

Calgary Flames - Don't think I need to explain very much what the Flames did since we all know. Stajan/Versteeg/Ferland/Hamilton/Fox out, Hanifin/Lindholm/Neal/Ryan/Czarnik in. Yeah, we're going to do just fine. Ferland is definitely going to be missed, but his loss will be made up with how deep the forward group is now. The defense didn't necessarily take a huge blow, because I think Brodie and Hanifin are going to be able to get a little more offensive opportunity without Hamilton around. Will the Flames be able to bounce back from their March/April struggles? We were one of the worst teams towards the end of the season due to lack of line changes, but mainly injuries. Our question mark towards the 18/19 season will be goaltending. I say goaltending because not only do we need Smith to play above average like he did last season, but we also need a backup who we know can play well when Smith is either injured or just simply needs rest.

Players to look out at: Smith/Neal/Linholm: There are many players that we have to look at next season but these are the three key ones that I figured would make the difference. Will Smith be capable of playing 60 games still? Or will we need to cut it down to around 50-55 and have the backup take 27-32 games? Will Rittich or Gillies be able to provide that? Neal and Lindholm are the next players to look at. Will they be able to be highly touted RW's that we have been searching for since Iginla was traded?

Edmonton Oilers - Surprisingly, they didn't make any moves in the offseason. They decided not to make any moves in the 2017 offseason because of the stellar season that they had, but then fell back down to earth in the 17-18 season. They continued the trend of not doing anything and will basically depend on McDavid for everything. It doesn't help that they pretty much don't have very much cap space for anyone with Lucic, Russell, and Sekera hogging the cap. Are they going to continue slotting RNH next to McDavid? If so, that means they lose a center in the top 9 because RNH only scores at pretty much a PPG with McDavid centering the line.

Players to look at: Nurse/Talbot: Nurse is trending upward, will he continue to do so with the dire need of a #1D in Edmonton? Talbot is the biggest wildcard in the Pacific Division, are we going to see 16/17 Talbot or 17/18 Talbot?

Los Angeles Kings - They've extended Doughty to an 8 year extension after his last year at 7m. He'll be a top 10 defenseman for the majority of those years, so that is the only bad news for us. More Doughty vs. Tkachuk drama. They also signed Kovalchuk to a 3 year deal. Pretty decent signing, but the only issue to this team is the same as the Anaheim Ducks; their core is getting rather old. Are they going to be able to make the playoffs still on solely defense and goaltending? Will they get help on the offensive end more with the addition of Kovalchuk?

Player to watch: Kovalchuk: Played well in the NHL before running off to the KHL, but played really well in the KHL too. I know the KHL is a lesser league, but impressive to say the least. Will he be able to be a player LA can rely on for scoring rather than just Jeff Carter?

San Jose Sharks - Made a huge push for Tavares but in the end didn't get him. Thank goodness, because is was rumored that Thornton was going to re-sign with the Sharks at a cheap deal if the Sharks were able to sign Tavares. Tavares/Couture/Thornton down the middle would have been tough to compete for. They re-signed Thornton at 5m for a year since they lost out on Tavares, as well re-signing Evander Kane to a 7m x 7 and Hertl to 5.625m x 4. This is a team that doesn't have very many holes and just simply gets the job done. They don't have a franchise player, but lots of good players. This is the team that I feel Calgary is going to being competing with for the division.

Players to watch: Kane/Jones: Going to be interesting whether or not Kane can put up tons of points with Sharks. He looks to be a great power-forward kind of player that can be relied on to shoot the puck as long as he is not the one that has to carry the line. The Sharks have a few players that can take care of that. I also put down Jones because if he goes down, don't think the Sharks become as good of a team without him.

Vancouver Canucks - There isn't much to talk about this team since they are currently rebuilding. They'll be last in the Pacific Division. The Sedins are gone, things are going to be a lot different there. Signing Beagle is not going to get them a playoff spot, but I'm curious to see how Boeser and possibly Pettersson play. Will Pettersson make the team? Will they put him in the SHL for another year?

Players to watch: Boeser/Horvat/**Pettersson** - Can Boeser be that consistent 30g that Vancouver has needed for ages? Bo Horvat needs to take another step to continue trending upward for Vancouver to have a 1C unless they win Hughes in 2019. Pettersson is in asterisks because we don't know if he'll make it. If he does, he's going to be greatly use by an offensive hungry Vancouver squad.

Las Vegas Golden Knights - They just had the best year any sports franchise could ask for. However, they were the 2018 outlier. They had 4 forwards that produced a .9 PPG or higher. Fleury played out of his mind. Schmidt and Miller proved themselves as top 4 defenseman. They will still be a good team next season, but I think a lot of things went right for them last season. Perron and Neal have left the teams for other teams. They did sign Stastny to have some stability down the middle with Karlsson. I think they fall back to earth a little, but not an Edmonton Oiler (16/17-17/18) kind of drop off.

Players to watch: Smith/Karlsson/Marchessault: Are these three going to be able to drive Vegas' offense and continue to be one of the best lines in the league? If this line doesn't play well, it might be a problem for Vegas to rely on the other lines to produce points.

The Pacific Division is currently the weakest division in the NHL because we don't really know who is going to come out on top of it. Taking everything into account (and much information from each team that I missed), who do you think is going to be crowned the division champ? What two teams take the #2 and #3 seed?

My guess is:

1) San Jose
2) Calgary
3) Vegas
LA
Edmonton
Anaheim
Arizona
Vancouver

San Jose/Calgary/Vegas are interchangeable. But, I still think its those 3 that make it. The Central Division will take the 2 WC spots.

Thoughts on the Pacific Division? How will in pan out? I think the biggest thing to take into account after all is said and done is goaltending on every single team (except for Vancouver). Goaltending might be the biggest factor of making or breaking the playoffs.