What team got better??

[Burke Salad]

It's the summer month's so everyone knows the Oilers have improved significantly until October rolls around.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Absolutely not the favourites any more.

Who's worse?

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Table 5

If they are the worst, then signing average players implies that they would get better, no?

They also got rid of a lot of players throughout last season and this off-season. All they did was replaced them with other similar players.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Absolutely not the favourites any more.

If the Sabres improve by 25 points over last year they would still be a bottom 3 team. And did they really do enough to improve by 25 points?

[thefoss1957]

I'm not sure that Brad Richards is the answer for the 'Hawks ongoing black hole at #2C, he seemed old, slow, and demotivated in NYC...IMO, only a marginal upgrade over old and slow Handzus, and still not a great fit with a speed line that probably will have Saad and Kane as the wingers...

Most Chi fans see Richards simply as a place holder for TT to get one more year on NA ice at the Rock. At one year $2M, though, definitely a reasonable risk off the bargain rack.

Now, still against the cap, Chi fans expect 2 or 3 more salary dump moves...Versteeg and one of Oduya/Leddy, (with an eye to Clendening moving up, Dahlbeck too, if both D-men are moved)...or possibly all three to move.

I would think return for Leddy would be high...a good skating, veteran 23yo D man, who is still learning the defensive side of the game...I really would hate to see the 'Hawks give up on him, but, the cap is a problem.

Hated to see Bollig go...he took a lot of grief from some 'Hawk fans, but, I guess that they were expecting top 6 performance from the 'Hawks 12th forward. Bollig/Kruger/Smith, as a line, were very good at dominating O-zone possession on the cycle, much of the year, with only Smith, really, being any good at finishing. Bollig is more an agitator than a fighter...don't look for him to take a straight goon role...he had been working on improving his skating, with some results, last season.

[Read Only]

Originally Posted by Fire

Who's worse?

On paper I would say right now bottom 3 in my mind are Buffalo, Calgary and Ottawa. NJ, Carolina and Edmonton not much ahead. I think the bottom 3 comes out of those 6 teams and those are likely the bottom 6 in the league.

Calgary, Buffalo and Ottawa all have question marks in goal so any of those teams getting better or worse than expected goaltending will likely be the seperator in who is last.

That said as we saw last year and even in the shortened season finishing last is "tough" to do and often relies on things that are hard to predict so always a chance that a team could come out of nowhere.

I guess it doesn't really answer your question outright so I would say that Calgary and Ottawa, in my view are potentially worse.