Ranking the new Pacific.

[#-3]

I was looking at how position players stack up in our new division. Here is the way I see things. I would be happy to defend my rankings, or see what others think of the new division.
LW
1. Tie Calgary (Cammaleri, Beartschi, Glencross, Galiardi)
& Edmonton (Hall, Perron, Smyth, Brown)
3. Vancouver (Burrows, Higgins, Booth, Sesito)
4. LA (Richard, King, Carcillo, Clifford)
5. Anaheim (Perry, Beleskey, Etem, Staubitz)
6. San Jose (Desjardins, Marleau, Torres, Hertl)
7. Phoenix (Korpikoski, Boedker, Klinkhammer, Bissonnette)


C
1. San Joe (Thornton, Couture, Pavelski, Burish)
2. LA (Kopitar, Carter, Stoll, Toffoli)
3. Vancouver (H Sedin, Kesler, Santorelli, Schroeder)
4. Edmonton (Nugent-Hopkins, Gagner, Gordon, Lander)
5. Phoenix (Vermette, Ribeiro, Hanzal, Chipchura)
6. Anaheim (Getzlaf, Cogliano, Bonino, Palmieri) Gets real thin after Getzlaf
7. Calgary (Backlund, Stajan, Monahan, Knight)

RW
1. LA (Williams, Brown, Lewis, Frattin)
2. Vancouver (D. Sedin, Hansen, Richardson, Kassian)
3. Edmonton (Eberle, Hemsky, Yakupov, Jones)
4. Calgary (D Jones, Stempniak, Hudler, Horak)
5. Phoenix (Vrbata, Doan, Moss, Yip)
6. San Jose (Burns, Kennedy, Havlat, Wingels)
7. Anaheim (Winnik, Koivu, Silfverberg, Smith-Pelly)

D
1. LA (Doughty, Mitchell, Voynov, Regher, Martinez, Greene)
2. Phoenix (OEL, Yandle, Michalek, Morris, Schlemko, Klesla)
3. San Jose (Boyle, Vlasic, Stuart, Demers, Hannan, Braun)
4. Anaheim (Beauchemin, Fowler, Sbisa, Souray, Allan, Vatanen)
5. Calgary (Wideman, Giordano, Brodie, O’Brien, Butler, Russell)
6. Vancouver (Bieksa, Edler, Hamhuis, Garrison, Tanev, Weber)
7. Edmonton (Schultz, Schultz, Smit, Ference, Petry, Potter)
G
1. LA (Quick, Scrivens)
2. Phoenix (Smith, Greiss)
3. San Jose (Niemi, Stalock)
4. Anaheim (Hiller, Fasth)
5. Vancouver (Luongo, Lack)
6. Edmonton (Dubnyk, Labarbera)
7. Calgary (Ramo, Berra)

Team
1. LA – Balanced Offense with a Great D and Goaltending

2. San Jose – Great Centers, but to many other guys playing out of position.

3. Vancouver – Allot of established Players but starting to fade

4. Phoenix – Good Defence and Goaltending will make up for a slower unskilled forward group.

5. Anaheim – Some young players stepping up could add the depth needed to be competative

6. Edmonton – To weak at D & G, and their Centers are not strong enough to put up the 5 GFA they would need to compete.

7. Calgary – An Elite Center, An Elite Goalie, and a Top4 Dman could put the Flames right in the SJ/Van range. Get to work Feaster.

[Tyler]

Going to have to wait at least 4-5 more years for our needs to come to fruition

[Parallex]

I think you're overly generous on RW and not generous enough on G (although G is really more of an unrankable question mark with regards to the Flames)

[Red_Baron]

When Selanne re-signs Anaheim's RW position jumps up the board significantly.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I think you're overly generous on RW and not generous enough on G (although G is really more of an unrankable question mark with regards to the Flames)

I Think d Jones adds allot to our RW,in terms a filling a role we did not have before.

Doan, Havalat, and Koivu are over the hill.
Burns has not shown he can be an NHL winger for a full season.
Moss and Vrbata are right there with there flames counter parts (certainly not better).
I don't really like Yip or Kenedys games.
And Silfverberg, Smith-Pelly, and Wiggles still need some seasoning before I rank them higher.

In Goaltending, I hold lack of NHL expereiance against guys. Its just really hard to know what guys are until you see how they handle rebounds on NHL quality shots. (I would call Neimi the 2nd best goalie in the div. But I ranked them 3rd, because we know Smith has a good proven backup).

[SuperMatt18]

Badly underrating Vancouvers D. I would take Edler and Hamhuis over anybody on the Flames D.

They are top 3 at worst.

[saillias]

haha @ Vancouver's defense being one rank below ours.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

For the most part I agree with you, although I would challenge you two things:

1.) On Defense, I'd put Vancouver in the three spot and move everyone down from there. I think Bieksa (as arrogant as he is), is pretty darn good. Edler took a step up last season, Tanev is almost like their Brodie. Hamhuis got an invite to Team Canada and has been rock solid since he joined VAN.

2.) Goaltending. This is still very much a wait-and-see situation, but I'm confident that after 30 games, one of Ramo, Berra or MacDonald will be superior to Dubnyk. So we can't be the worst. But I do get why you put the Flames at the bottom.

[nik-]

LA has Richards as a center too ... some teams are so spoiled

[ricardodw]

How does Vancouver end up with worse defense than Calgary?


Do you consider Wideman and Gio >>> Bieksa and Elder?

Brodie = Hamhuis?

O'Brien >> Garrison?

Butler and Russell better than any one?


In my opinion Vancouver D compares favourably to San Jose's .

Boyle is 37 and Hannan 34 (who was too slow for the Flames 2 years ago) and Stuart 33 are all in decline and all in the SJ top-4.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

How does Vancouver end up with worse defense than Calgary?


Do you consider Wideman and Gio >>> Bieksa and Elder?

Brodie = Hamhuis?

O'Brien >> Garrison?

Butler and Russell better than any one?


In my opinion Vancouver D compares favourably to San Jose's .

Boyle is 37 and Hannan 34 (who was too slow for the Flames 2 years ago) and Stuart 33 are all in decline and all in the SJ top-4.

Honestly I think the Flames D in general is underrated, Wideman has been an Allstar, an Gio/Brodie have no quit in them. And the Canucks D in general is overratted. And I would probably put them pretty much dead even from top to bottom in there line ups. So I gave the Flames the age bias, in sports when your even yonger is better.

There are a few older guys like Boyle and Smyth, that I think will have better seasons with a full training camp. And I think Vlasic and Demers can be over looked, they are solid players. SJ will have a strong D in the upcoming season, even if they are not all long for this league.

[Vulcan]

As far as I know D. Sedin plays LW.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by nik-

LA has Richards as a center too ... some teams are so spoiled

Someones gotta go to wing. So I moved him.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by #-3

Honestly I think the Flames D in general is underrated, Wideman has been an Allstar, an Gio/Brodie have no quit in them. And the Canucks D in general is overratted. And I would probably put them pretty much dead even from top to bottom in there line ups. So I gave the Flames the age bias, in sports when your even yonger is better.

Honestly, if I was ranking the Canucks' and Flames defensemen in an ordered list based on current abilities, I'd probably get down to #5 (maybe #4) before a Flames defenseman appeared on it.

Long term Brodie could be excellent, but he's still young and will probably have a transition period where he learns how to play more difficult minutes. Wideman has his strengths, but he's pretty useless in his own end. Giordano when at the top of his game is excellent, but he hasn't really been there in over 2 years. And the other 3 guys are basically dime a dozen filler. Without hesitation I'd take each of Hamhuis, Edler, and Garrison, and I think an argument could be made for Bieksa as well, though he too has suffered from inconsistent play over the last couple of years like Giordano has.

[Bertuzzied]

It would take a miracle for the Oilers not to finish last in our division. These guys are epic bad!

[PlayfulGenius]

D. Sedin plays LW...VAN is ahead of CGY there... Burrows plays RW with the Sedins.

[PlayfulGenius]

Corey Perry plays RW for ANA...there's too many errors for these rankings to be analyzed.

[PlayfulGenius]

Carter plays RW in LA. Richards is his C

[PlayfulGenius]

In LA, Williams and Brown both play with Kopitar, so they play opposite wings...I'm fairly certain Williams is LA and Brown is RW.

[PlayfulGenius]

In ANA, Koivu plays C, Selanna is on his RW...though that may change for this upcoming season.