The West just a lot tougher

[Demetric]

Boy did the western conference just get a lot tougher. Seems that most of the big names came to the west.

Ducks added:
Kesler

Dallas added:
Spezza
Hemsky

AVs added:
Briere
Iginla
Stuart

Wild added:
Vanek

Edmonton Added:
Fayne
Pouilot
Nikitin

Chicago Added:
Richards

Blues added:
Statsny

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Demetric

Boy did the western conference just get a lot tougher. Seems that most of the big names came to the west.

Ducks added:
Kesler

Dallas added:
Spezza
Hemsky

AVs added:
Briere
Iginla
Stuart

Wild added:
Vanek

Edmonton Added:
Fayne
Pouilot
Nikitin

Chicago Added:
Richards

Blues added:
Statsny

Three of these things are not like the others, three of these things just don't belong...

[Flamenspiel]

Avs got weaker

[driveway]

Vancouver added:

Miller
Sbisa
Vey
Bonino

[saillias]

Posters here have spent the past 2~ years bleating endlessly that you have to draft your top 6 centres. Jim Nill disagrees.

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by saillias

Posters here have spent the past 2~ years bleating endlessly that you have to draft your top 6 centres. Jim Nill disagrees.

You do have to draft your top 6 centres.*

*: Unless you have the benefit of an attractive city, warm weather, or a great team.

Better?

[CaramonLS]

Top 8 teams in the west pretty much just shored up playoff appearances for the next 3 years. I don't see anyone falling off (maybe Dallas after this year if they lose Spezza). Colorado got a bit worse, but I don't see them falling out of the playoffs.

Flames have a very long way to go before they are considered to even be equal to a Dallas or Minnesota.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Every sport except baseball right now has huge conference divides in terms of the number of quality teams. Western Conference in basketball and hockey, NFC in football. I hope this kind of lopsided balance leads to the elimination of playoff seeding by conference and just take the 16 best teams (or 12 for the NFL). It's how it should be done. But such a divide with the current format inevitably leads to more deserving teams not making the playoffs solely because of conference.

[Erick Estrada]

Good timing for these teams to blow their loads as the Flames won't be in contention for a few years now. By the time the Flames are good at least half of those teams will be on the decline.

Lets say the Oilers actually have improved somewhat with these signings. We are talking about a team that finished 10 points behind the Flames. They didn't get better but maybe just got a little less bad.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

You do have to draft your top 6 centres.*

*: Unless you have the benefit of an attractive city, warm weather, or a great team.

Better?

I think it just takes a GM on the ball with the right assets. What Nill has pulled off there is pretty impressive. You think he has Seguin and Spezza because Texas weather and Dallas is so pretty? Not likely.

[19Yzerman19]

Originally Posted by Demetric

Dallas added:
Spezza
Hemsky

AVs added:
Briere
Iginla
Stuart

Wild added:
Vanek

Edmonton Added:
Fayne
Pouilot
Nikitin

Chicago Added:
Richards

Vancouver Added:
Miller

These are the only ones that really matter in so far as the West getting tougher, because they came from the East... everyone else was just shuffling around rosters. And I haven't checked to see who the East poached from the West other than Willie Mitchell.

[Ne7en]

Wouldn't it make more sense to list who was added to a west team and who was shipped out rather than including players who are already in the west and remain in the west?

[Vinny01]

Hard to see any playoff team falling off after what has happened this summer

LA- core is still in their prime with young players starting to make an impact
Chicago- core still in their prime and shored up a hole with a good vet
Anaheim- tons of young prospects and just filled a huge hole with a top centre
Wild- got much better adding another star, they also have several young players that are ready for bigger roles
Avs- key young players that should get better
Blues- filled their biggest hole and still have all their key players in their prime age
Stars- filled a big hole, young team that should be getting better
Sharks- potential to fall out if they make some major changes.

So it maybe the sharks fall outside who is ready to step in? Calgary is still very far away. Edmonton will need a huge year from their kids which includes full team buy in to take the massive step required to get in. Vancouver did not get better by adding a couple younger players in return for Kesler. Arizona has not improved, Winnipeg to no ones surprise has done nothing again so far. Nashville added a scorer but still did not improve much.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Originally Posted by saillias

I think it just takes a GM on the ball with the right assets. What Nill has pulled off there is pretty impressive. You think he has Seguin and Spezza because Texas weather and Dallas is so pretty? Not likely.

Nill is awesome. While everyone else in his shoes embraces the oiler tank he's busy building a team the old fashioned way - by actually building it.

[driveway]

Originally Posted by saillias

I think it just takes a GM on the ball with the right assets. What Nill has pulled off there is pretty impressive. You think he has Seguin and Spezza because Texas weather and Dallas is so pretty? Not likely.

Low Texas taxes have to be hugely attractive to players making millions of dollars. The actual take-home difference between a 15 million dollar contract in Dallas and a 15 million dollar contract in, say Ottawa, is literally millions of dollars.

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by driveway

Low Texas taxes have to be hugely attractive to players making millions of dollars. The actual take-home difference between a 15 million dollar contract in Dallas and a 15 million dollar contract in, say Ottawa, is literally millions of dollars.

I can see what you mean by this but the best places to play to keep your money in the NHL are the two Alberta teams. I don't know how to post links but there was an article in October 2013 in Canadian Business about this exact thing.

I think a bigger part about Texas, along with the tax thing, is the ability to just be a normal guy away from the rink. We all adore our hockey idols in Canada but I think being in the spotlight so much drives a lot of people away.

[_Q_]

The West is better and has been for a while now.

But a lot of the players on this list have either already been in the West before free agency or aren't that great to begin with.

[Imported_Aussie]

Against this, the Flames have made moves to address the culture of the organization and set up an environment to allow youngsters to come in and fight for their places (Raymond, Engelland, Bollig) and have covered where they needed depth (Hiller, Engelland). Basically making no attempt to keep up but making the team tougher to play against and on a path to growing young talent over time (the only way this team will ever contend)

I think the $$ were too high for Engelland, but when it is clear that this team will not compete for around 3 years, especially looking at those other lineups, then the only downside to that move is that one overpayment gives agents ammunition to squeeze Treliving next time.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by driveway

Vancouver added:

Miller
Sbisa
Vey
Bonino

lol

(forgot the minus Kesler and Garrison part)

I will go out on a limb here and say that there probably isn't a whole bunch of fear being generated in the other western towns with respect to the awesome new Nucks lineup!

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Demetric

Boy did the western conference just get a lot tougher. Seems that most of the big names came to the west.

Ducks added:
Kesler

Dallas added:
Spezza
Hemsky

AVs added:
Briere
Iginla
Stuart

Wild added:
Vanek

Edmonton Added:
Fayne
Pouilot
Nikitin

Chicago Added:
Richards

Blues added:
Statsny

Ducks lost their 3rd and 4th leading scorers Bononio and Perrault and their #1 goal tender. Their go to war goalie is Jason Laberra and a guy with 28 NHL games under his belt who had a .899 save % in the playoffs.



Colorado replaced Stastsny with Briere... added Iginla which looks at getting stronger but is relying on 36 year old Jan Hejda on their top pairing


Blues lost Polak... their defense is now Jackman and five or 6 other guys who who prefer to avoid contact. Statsny is an upgrade on Roy but they are back to Elliott in goal .... who they thought was their weak link at last years trade deadline.

In Chicago is Brad Richards an upgrade on Handzuz? Handzuz provided some shelter for Toews having to play against the Wests larger Centres... Richards definitely wont.


The cap world evens things out a whole lot.