Looking at the West after free agency

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Corral

Hard to see Chicago drop that much so quickly. Last time I looked they still have Toews, Kane, Seabrook and Keith - all of whom are better than anything the teams in front of them put on the ice.

The Flames are not going to go from bubble playoff team to second in the West with the signing of Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith. Lets get real.

The division winner had ONE more win than Calgary last season. 2nd in the west had 4 more wins. Defence is far superior with Stone for an entire season plus Hamonic. Add the poor start that many attribute to learning new systems, poor goal tending, top offensive stars missing camp ect. And they still made the playoffs by 7 points in the end.

One would think they are looking for at least 50 wins which puts them right in that conversation. I think most prognosticators will have them in a division playoff spot...second in the west is certainly possible, there really isn't a huge gap anymore.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by Corral

Hard to see Chicago drop that much so quickly. Last time I looked they still have Toews, Kane, Seabrook and Keith - all of whom are better than anything the teams in front of them put on the ice.

Seabrook looks to be regressing and the loss of Hjalmarsson will hurt them. Can Saad and Sharp make up for the loss of Panarin?

Originally Posted by Corral

The Flames are not going to go from bubble playoff team to second in the West with the signing of Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith. Lets get real.

Flip the 5-10 start the other way around and they'd be right there with 50 wins

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Seabrook looks to be regressing and the loss of Hjalmarsson will hurt them. Can Saad and Sharp make up for the loss of Panarin?

Saad + Sharp << Panarin + Hossa.
Hjalmarsson >> cap-compliant scrub D.

I suspect a considerable amount of air is about to leak out of the Blackhawks' tires.

[dino7c]

Barring major injury ect. If the Flames are a bubble team next season they should probably just blow it up. To spend those picks and show no improvement would be a Major problem.

[Love]

1) Nashville (Benefit of the doubt)

2) Calgary (Top 5 team in the league statistically speaking post that disasterous start, Smith > Elliott. Hamonic >>> Wideman. Stone >>>>> Engelland. This team is poised to do some damage.)

3) Anaheim (Benefit of the doubt. Solid all around team, no weaknesses)

4) St. Louis (Solid team. Great d-core. Healthy Fabbri + bringing in Schenn for Reaves. I like what they have going on.)

5) Minnesota (Weird team that always does well in the regular season)

6) Chicago (Interchangeable with Minny. Can't count out a team with Toews, Kane, Saad, Keith and Crawford. Panarin and Hossa losses will be felt though.)

7) San Jose (On the decline. Wouldn't be surprised if they missed the PO's. Lost nearly 30 goals with Marleau departure and Thornton and co. are another year older.)

8) Dallas (Like the moves they've made. Radulov >> Hemsky and Bishop will do them wonders. D-core is still a mess though.)

9) Winnipeg (Forsee lot's of 6-5 scores in this teams future. Not sold on Mason or that D. Laine and co. will be fun to watch though.)

10) LA (Declining.)

11) Arizona (Love Chayka's moves. My darkhorse team to grab a wildcard spot.)

12) Edmonton (Weak d-core gets even weaker with Sekera out till 2018. This is a two man team and one of those two men (Talbot) will fall back to earth this season.)

13) Vancouver (Bad team is slightly better than other bad teams)

14) Colorado (They're killing MacKinnon. Already killed Duchene and Landeskog)

15) Vegas (Self-explanatory)

[drewtastic]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Bang,bang.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I am, the Warrior.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Corral

...The Flames are not going to go from bubble playoff team to second in the West with the signing of Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith...

Yes, they are.

[Young_Guns]

I think it will look something like this in the West.

Pacific:

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

Central:

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

Western Conference:

1) Dallas
2) Anaheim
3) Edmonton
4) Chicago
5) St. Louis
6) Calgary
7) Nashville
8) San Jose
9) Winnipeg
10) Los Angeles
11) Vancouver
12) Minnesota
13) Arizona
14) Vegas
15) Colorado

[N26]

Originally Posted by Brodieyouevenlift

1) Calgary
2) don't care
3) don't care
4) don't care
5) don't care
6) don't care
7) don't care
8) don't care
9) don't care
10) don't care
11) don't care
12) don't care
13) don't care
14) Vancouver
15) Edmonton

This is brilliant. But I did make a slight improvement to it.

[N26]

Originally Posted by Resurrection

one of two things will happen for the Jets this season that will make me happy. Either they will make the playoffs and Chevys moves (finally buying out stuart and getting LHD help and getting goaltending help) will pay off. or he will get fired. Ill take either at this point.

Every team works hard/overpays to ensure they find adequate RHD due to the much greater abundance of LHD.

How does Winnipeg manage to struggle to find LHD for so long?

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Seabrook looks to be regressing and the loss of Hjalmarsson will hurt them. Can Saad and Sharp make up for the loss of Panarin?

Saad is a better all around player than Panarin.

He has 50 ES points last year to Panarin's 56.

Someone will inherit the coveted spot beside Kane.

The loss of Hjalmarsson will hurt, but Murphy is a decent option who is likely improving. He led Arizona in d-men Corsi notwithstanding that he had the most defensive zone starts.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Corral

Hard to see Chicago drop that much so quickly. Last time I looked they still have Toews, Kane, Seabrook and Keith - all of whom are better than anything the teams in front of them put on the ice.

The Flames are not going to go from bubble playoff team to second in the West with the signing of Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith. Lets get real.

Let's get real. You are completely discounting internal improvement and only focusing on the upgrade in net and massive upgrade on the blueline.

Gaudreau had a career worst points total last year but was ppg over the final 30 games. No contract dispute or new system to learn it is not crazy to think he is going to put up an additional 20pts next year. Monahan might be a 55-65pt centre is whole career or maybe at 22 he still has room to grow? Bennett is looking to rebound from an awful 26pt season. Perhaps he doubles that total? Will Tkachuk have a sophomore slump like Bennett or will he have a monster second year like Monahan and Gaudreau did? Hamilton is 24 and just getting better. Brodie should be better with a top end D partner.

The Flames were a top 10 team from Nov 15th onward. Let's not discount that fact either.

If you want to get real peel back a layer or two before looking at a couple additions and last years standinngs before making that comment

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by dino7c

The division winner had ONE more win than Calgary last season. 2nd in the west had 4 more wins. Defence is far superior with Stone for an entire season plus Hamonic. Add the poor start that many attribute to learning new systems, poor goal tending, top offensive stars missing camp ect. And they still made the playoffs by 7 points in the end.



One would think they are looking for at least 50 wins which puts them right in that conversation. I think most prognosticators will have them in a division playoff spot...second in the west is certainly possible, there really isn't a huge gap anymore.

On the flip side, the Flames had relatively few injuries and had a ridiculous 3v3 record.

[N26]

I am generally quite optimistic about the Flames chances next year but I am not yet convinced the Smith-Lack > Elliott-Johnson. That is a key.

A lot of the arguments in Smith's favour sound very familiar to last year's arrival of Elliott. And Lack does not have recent good stats unlike Johnson did.

The fantastic defense, expected improvements from Gaudreau, Monahan & Bennett offensively and a better fourth line make me think we should get 2nd in the division (Anaheim will take first I think) but the goaltending looks like most likely weak link.

I'm not negative about the goalies. I will remain unconvinced until the season starts and they prove they aren't an issue.

[kukkudo]

I am still iffy with the Flames. High expectations going into next season equals barely making the playoffs or totally missing out. It's the story of the flames for the past 10 or so years.

People need to stop counting out the Kings and Sharks they can easily surprise.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by edslunch

On the flip side, the Flames had relatively few injuries and had a ridiculous 3v3 record.

But the Flames have had a ridiculous 3 v 3 record in each of the past two seasons since the new OT format was introduced. Why should anyone expect it to be different this year?

[Roof-Daddy]

On paper this team should contend for the division title, but I've been a fan of the Flames for too long to be overly confident about a good team on paper translating to the ice.

Expectations are going to be sky high now, how will the team (especially the young core) handle that?

How is Smith going to handle the spotlight of being on a Canadian market team with high expectations?

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by N26

I am generally quite optimistic about the Flames chances next year but I am not yet convinced the Smith-Lack > Elliott-Johnson. That is a key.

A lot of the arguments in Smith's favour sound very familiar to last year's arrival of Elliott. And Lack does not have recent good stats unlike Johnson did...

That is odd, because it seems to me that the arguments forwarded to suggest that Smith will do well are actually the opposite of those that were made for Elliott last year.

There was huge optimism about Elliott's arrival because he had incredible numbers for a three year span with the Blues, and was coming off of a great playoff run. But there were legitimate concerns about the fact that he had never started more than 50 games in a season, and that he had the benefit of playing behind Ken Hitchcock's airtight defence, which seemed like it could inflate his numbers.

Posters are optimistic about Smith's arrival because his MD and HD SP is better than the NHL average, and he had a solid season behind the worst defensive team in the league. Smith has also proved that he can be a consistent starter who regularly plays +55 games. There are legitimate concerns about his age and durability, and he hasn't played a playoff game in five years.

So yes, there are similar levels of optimism and concern about Smith as there were with Elliott last year, but the reasons to think Smith might succeed or fail are really quite different. For my money, I remain concerned about Smith's durability, but can't really argue with the numbers he has produced, which appear a fair bit more relatable than what Elliott brought with him to Calgary.

[Sylvanfan]

Anaheim has a few key guys out to start the season. I think they will have a slow start and come on in the second half. Wouldn't surprise me to see them a bit lower in the regular season this year. I think the difference between the top team and the second wild card could be tighter than previous years.

I don't have the same optimism for the Flames as others. I think they will be in the wild card/3rd Division spot. But I don't think there's enough scoring to be in the top half of the playoff bracket.

[Corral]

I see improvement and the Flames are definitely moving up, just not rocketing to the top of the West next year. Teams I still place ahead of the Flames are Chicago, Nashville, St Louis and Anaheim.