Very Early Western Conference Standing Predictions

[jg13]

Based on the recent moves and acquisitions in the past couple weeks I thought it would be fun to take a very early look at how the West could play out.

The Central division is once again looking very strong.

Pacific

1. Anaheim
2. Calgary
3. LA

San Jose
Edmonton
Vancouver
Arizona

Central

1. St Louis
2. Minnesota
3. Chicago

(WC1) Nashville
(WC2) Winnipeg
Dallas
Colorado

[Cheerio]

PACIFIC
1. LA
2. ANA
3. CGY
4. SJ
5. VAN
6. EDM
7. ARI

CENTRAL

1. Dallas
2. St. Louis
3. Winnipeg
4. Chicago *WC*
5. Nashville *WC*
6. Minnesota
7. Colorado

[GranteedEV]

Pacific
1) Calgary
2) Anaheim
3) LA

Central
1) Minnesota
2) Nashville
3) St. Louis

Wild Card
1) San Jose
2) Chicago

Winnipeg*
Colorado
Dallas
Vancouver
Edmonton
Arizona


*Unless they panic and call up Hellybuyck. Then then swap them with Chicago.

[Badgers Nose]

Calgary will make the playoffs with 103 points. Rest of the conference can piss off.

[White Out 403]

Pacific
1. Anaheim
2. Los Angeles
3. CGY
4. Vancouver
5. San Jose
6. Edmonton
7. Arizona

Central

1. St Louis
2. Chicago
3. Winnipeg
4. Minnesota *wild card
5. Nashville *wild card
6. Dallas
7. Colorado

[The Fonz]

Pacific
Anaheim
LA
Calgary

Central
Minnesota
St. Louis
Chicago

Wildcard
Colorado
Winnipeg

[getbak]

PACIFIC:

1. Calgary
2. Anaheim
3. Los Angeles
   --- HUGE GAP ---
4. San Jose
5. Edmonton
6. Vancouver
7. Arizona

CENTRAL:

1. Nashville
2. St. Louis
3. Chicago
4. Minnesota
5. Dallas
6. Winnipeg
7. Colorado

Flames defeat Minnesota, Anaheim, and Nashville on the way to the Finals.

[The Swedish Flame]

As long as we make the playoffs, the rest can take a hike.

Looks like people are putting Nashville all over the map.

[thefoss1957]

as Chicago and LA have shown lately, and the President Trophy failures, is that WHERE you are in the standings doesn't matter as much as: a. Making the playoffs and b. Being able to win on the road against good teams.

I see the Western Conference Playoff teams as, Chicago, Anaheim, LA, Nashville, Calgary, St. Loo, Minnesota and Dallas ( I think Winnipeg's goaltending is too unpredictable to have confidence in)

[JohnnySkittles]

Pacific Division

1. Anaheim

Lost: Beleskey, Fleischmann, Beauchemin, Etem.
Gained: Hagelin, Bieksa, Khudobin, Horcoff.

Losing Beauchemin and adding Bieksa will hurt the most. But they solidified the goaltending, got a big upgrade on Etem to Hagelin, and along with their young players continuing to get better I expect them to again win the Pacific.

2. LA

Lost: Williams, Richards, Sekera, Regehr, Martin, Stoll.
Gained: Lucic, Enroth.

Losing Richards and Stoll is addition by subtraction, Williams might hurt a bit, but I'm expecting a big bounce back year from Lucic and their forward group in general. As of now their defense is pretty thin, but as long is Doughty is Doughty then I think they'll be okay. Expecting a big rebound year for the Kings.

3. Calgary

Lost: Nobody
Gained: Hamilton, Frolik

Hamilton will bolster the already deep defense and Frolik will add a very solid 2 way game who's capable for ~40 points. As long as the young guys continue to grow and get better we should be in a good spot for the future. However could also see next season being an up and down one considering how many young key pieces we have, 50/50 for playoffs.

4. Vancouver- Like SJ and 2010 Calgary, needs to rebuild. Benning is taking this team towards an ugly future.
5. Edmonton - improved both on and off the ice for sure, not a playoff team yet.
6. San Jose - The 2010 version of Calgary, needs to rebuild/big retool.
7. Arizona - Matthews Sweepstakes.


Central Division

1. St. Louis

Lost: Oshie, Michalek, Goc, Butler, Jackman.
Gained: Benoit, Brouwer, Brodziak

Central this year will be really hard to predict, by far the best division but a lot of teams have made big moves. All their moves thus far offset themselves pretty well, with Oshie potentially being a loss, but he was a bit of a playoff dud. Really expecting their young stars to really take over this season, Tarasenko, Schwartz, Jaskin, Pietro, Shattenkirk is a fantastic core. Will need Stastny to rebound.

2. Winnipeg

Lost: Frolik, Stempniak, Tlusty, Slater
Gained: Burmistrov

Such a big, solid young team. Losing Frolik will definitely hurt but getting Burmistrov back could turn out to be a fantastic replacement, lots of potential still with him. Similar to Calgary in that they have lots of youth they will be depending on, arguably the best prospect pool in hockey. having a full season of Myers will also be huge. Dark horse to win the Central.

3. Minnesota

Lost: Stewart, Bergenheim, Brodziak.
Gained: Reilly, Fedotenko.

Solid all around team lead by Parise and Suter, Koivu seems to be losing a step but they have the forward depth that it isn't a huge issue yet. Won the Reilly sweepstakes, didn't really lose anything important this offseason, managed to get a very fair long term deal for Dubynk. Lots of solid young talent.


Wildcard

1. Chicago

Lost: Sharp, Saad, Richards, Vermette, Rozisval, Timmonen, Carcillo, Regin, *Oduya
Gained: *Daley, Garbutt, Anisomov, Tikhonov, Dano, Panarin

Huge turnover in Chicago, losing Saad is a big loss, Sharp was on the decline but the return they got for him was very underwhelming, especially including solid prospect Johns. Anisomov is that long term #2 that they've been needing for awhile. Dano, Panarin, Tikhonov have good potential to offset their losses. Garbutt and Daley are good top 9/ okay top 4 players. Pokka could be the key to potentially losing Oduya.

*Beside Oduya and Daley because Oduya may be back, and there is speculation that they'll flip Daley and then re-sign Oduya.

2. Colorado

Lost: O'Reilly, Briere, Hejda, Wilson
Gained: Beauchemin, Comeau, Soderberg, Zadorov, Grigorenko, Compher

Revamped their defense to respectability with Beachemin and Zadorov, who has tons of potential. They'll miss ROR but replaced him with a cheaper option in Soderberg and have more depth then they did before. With a full year of Johnson , a bounce-back Duchene season, and continued progress of MacKinnon, Barrie, Everberg, Zadorov and their young players I expect them to be a playoff team. Having the ROR distraction gone will also help imo.


6. Nashville - Rinne stood on his head, Riberio your #1C, I see a Colorado like regression
7. Dallas - Unreal top 6, arguably the worst defence in the league. Chance of Playoffs if Lehtonen has a bounce back season and stands on his head, has the potential to.

[The Fonz]

How's the Voynov situation playing out? Will he suit up for LA this year?

[Trailer Fire]

Originally Posted by JohnnySkittles

Snipped to prevent WoT[/I]

Has Vancouver been relegated to the AHL?

[JoelOtto29]

poll?

[Mathgod]

PACIFIC:

1. Anaheim
2. Calgary
3. Los Angeles
4. Edmonton
5. San Jose
6. Vancouver
7. Arizona

CENTRAL:

1. Chicago
2. St. Louis
3. Minnesota
4. Nashville
5. Dallas
6. Winnipeg
7. Colorado

[FireGilbert]

It's not that early, there has already been the draft and almost 2 weeks of free agency.

Pacific:
1. Anaheim
2. Calgary
3. LA
4. Vancouver
5. San Jose
6. Edmonton
7. Arizona

Central:
1. Minnesota
2. St. Louis
3. Chicago
4. Nashville*
5. Winnipeg*
6. Dallas
7. Colorado

The Pacific looks weak while the Central is obviously incredibly tough. I wouldn't be surprised if the 6th place team in the Central is very close in points to 3rd in the Pacific.

Also, my toughest rankings were Nashville and Winnipeg with the Preds scoring issues and the Jets goalie issues. Either team could be easily in the top 3 or out of the playoffs so wildcards seemed like a good fit.

[tko]

Pacific
1) Anahiem
2) Calgary
3) LA
4) Vancouver
5) San Jose
6) Edmonton
7) Arizona

Central
1) St Louis
2) Chicago
3) Minnesota
4) Winnipeg
5) Dallas
6) Nashville
7) Colorado

Wild Card
1) Winnipeg
2) Dallas


I think the pacific will be those 3 but the central is wide open save Chicago St. Louis. The rest of that division will be very tight and likely battle for 3 spots. Van edm SJ and Arizona aren't playoff teams IMO.

[Jason14h]

All I know is god this conference is staked.

I am going to guess spots 4-10 are seperated by less then 8 pts this year.

[jessnuts]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

I am going to guess spots 4-10 are seperated by less then 8 pts this year.

Who are your top three? Anaheim seems to be consensus, but which other 2 do you see as a lock? Not arguing you, just wondering. It's a hard conference to nail down this year.

Actually, so is the east. I feel it's weaker overall, but still very open when it comes to predicting standings.

My guess:
Anaheim
Calgary
La

Edmonton
Vancouver
San Jose
Arizona

Minnesota
St. Louis
Winnipeg
Chicago*
Colorado*

Nashville
Dallas

[Drake]

Anaheim
LA
Calgary

St . Louis
Chicago
Minnesota

Dallas
Winnipeg

[LanceUppercut]

I'm going to put my homer glasses on:

Pacific:
Calgary
Anaheim
LA

San Jose
Edmonton
Vancouver
Arizona

Central:
St. Louis
Minnesota
Chicago
Nasvhille (WC)
Dallas (WC)

Winnipeg
Colorado