Nashville Predators Central Division Not as Strong
The Nashville Predators played in the toughest division in all of hockey last season. The Central may not be quite as tough this season.
The Nashville Predators were 13th in the entire NHL but only 4th in the Central. Three of the top five teams in the league by points were in the Central. The Preds lost to San Jose which lost in the finals of the Stanley Cup and St Louis fell to them in the Conference Finals.
That and the Chicago Blackhawks were the defending Stanley Cup Champs and have retained their core of players. All-in-all, there aren’t too many bad things you can say about the Central. Even the two teams who didn’t make the playoffs, Arizona and Winnipeg weren’t far out of the playoffs.
The Central Division may fall back just a bit this season though. There are some Salary Cap problems and aging players. Some of the teams may have played a bit over their heads last year. We are going to look at the entire division right now, before the Draft and Free Agency and see how it looks.
Next: Winnipeg Jets
Winnipeg Jets – Record 35-39-8, 78 points. Out of playoffs
The Jets are one team that may be on an upward trend in the Central. They have some really good young talent both on their team and in their farm system. They are ranked as one of the best prospect pools in the NHL.
That being said, they have a lot of work to do with contracts. They have six restricted free agents and two unrestricted free agents this offseason. And after next season, they have five more players who are RFAs and six more players to become UFAs.
They are currently $19 million below the cap but that could go away in a hurry with all of those contracts. D-Man Jacob Trouba is supposedly on the trading block as they are worried they will be able to sign the RFA.
They do have two #1 Draft Picks this year, the second overall and also #22 from the Blackhawks from the Andrew Ladd trade. They are only a year out of the playoffs and have Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little, and Dustin Byfuglien. If they can keep the youngsters playing together and keep improving they could be a force in a year or two.
Next: Colorado Avalanche
Colorado Avalanche – Record 39-39-4, 82points. Out of playoffs
The Avalanche only finished five points out of the playoffs and have the #10 overall pick in the first round. They have good talent with Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie and Semyon Varlamov. And yet management seems to want to blow up the team and start over.
There are continuing swirling rumors of the Avs moving Matt Duchene and Tyson Barrie. Duchene fell further out of favor when he celebrated his 30th goal in a blowout loss. He always seems to be on the trading block and several teams would be interested. They are looking to upgrade their blueline.
They are nearly $19 million under the cap but have nine Free Agents to sign including Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie. The management of Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy on this team seems totally lost with no idea where they are going. Last year they traded away Ryan O’Reilly because the coach didn’t like him. If you trade away all of your best players you will go nowhere fast.
Next: Minnesota Wild
Minnesota Wild – Record 38-33-11, 87 points. 5th Place and 2nd WildCard
The Wild were eliminated in the first round by the Dallas Stars. They made it into the last Wild Card spot late in the season.
They have a couple of problems. First, they have so much wrapped up in Ryan Suter and Zach Parise that they are always scrambling to pay enough other good players. Secondly, they counted on Devan Dubnyk to be the same goalie he was the year before. He wasn’t, and they can’t count on a real bounce back.
The Wild will be pretty much the same team on the ice as they were this season, but they will be different behind the bench with the addition of Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach. He brings a veteran coaching style to a very veteran team.
They will make minor roster moves on their team this offseason. They can’t bring in any big Free Agents as they have nine roster players to sign and the big one is young defenseman Matt Dumba who they are going to have a problem fitting under the Salary Cap. Boudreau is going to have to use a magic wand to make this team better.
Next: Nashville Predators
Nashville Predators – Record 41-27-14, 96 points. 4th Place and 1st WildCard
The Nashville Predators underachieved until after Christmas. The Ryan Johansen trade finally started to take hold and they played some of the best hockey in the league the second half.
The Predators then surprised the hard-charging Anaheim Ducks in the quarterfinals before falling to the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference semifinals in seven games. GM David Poile feels that they are still a player or two away.
Their roster probably won’t undergo much change for next season, Paul Gaustad, Eric Nystrom and Carter Hutton won’t be back. Filip Forsberg and Calle Jarnkrok need new deals and the Preds will be well under the Cap if they want to bring in a Free Agent or two. They also have a couple more prospects who are on the cusp of contributing.
The Predators biggest problem is that they have three core players who nearing the end of their careers. Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne, and Mike Fisher don’t have much time left and if the Preds are going into win now mode they need to make a few changes in a hurry. It remains to be seen what that would cost them.
Next: Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks- Record 47-26-9, 103 points. 3rd Place
The Chicago Blackhawks finished the season by not playing their best hockey at the end. Then they were eliminated by St. Louis in the quarterfinal round. They still have one of the best core groups in the NHL with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith. But they are costing a fortune.
The Blackhawks are under another a salary cap crunch with many defensive holes to fill. They are trying to fill holes cheaply with the likes of Michal Kempny of the KHL. They just dumped salary by trading Brian Bickell and very promising young forward Teuvo Teravainen to Carolina for 2nd and 3rd round picks. They shed $4 million in cap space but lost a good player.
This team couldl also lose a lot of their depth. The Blackhawks more than likely will lose Andrew Ladd, Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise. They will let go of Brandon Mashinter and Christian Ehrhoff. They may be able to sign one or more of these but also have to extend Artemi Panarin.
They also have seven players with No Movement Contracts including three defenseman meaning they have to protect those players in the Expansion draft. That leaves at least one good defenseman and possibly more available for Las Vegas. It could be a couple of tough years for this team.
Next: St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues- Record 49-24-9, 107 points. 2nd Place
The Blues played solid all year and fought for the division championship right to the end. They defeated Chicago in the First Round of the playoffs and then beat Dallas in the Second Round. The Blues advanced to the Western Conference finals but fell to the San Jose Sharks.
The Blues have 16 players that will Free Agents of some sort in the next two years. They have nearly $15 million wrapped up in Vladimir Tarasenko and Paul Stasny. They have two very big Free Agent decisions on David Backes and Troy Brouwer. Backes is a two-way forward and top-line center for the Blues, while Brouwer is a power forward who excelled in the playoffs.
Both players will be heavily recruited and are expected to be overpaid by other teams. That leaves a big hole in the Blues lineup and no money to fill it. Paul Stastny will probably replace Backes on the top line but who replaces him on the second line?
They have two very good goaltenders in Jake Allen and Brian Elliot. Both will need new contracts next year and they will probably only be able to keep one of them. They will also replace head coach Ken Hitchcock with Mike Yeo after this season. That is a little strange and we will see how it plays out
This team has a lot of questions and not a lot of answers right now.
Next: Dallas Stars
Dallas Stars- Record 50-23-9, 109 points. 1st Place
At the beginning of last season, in our preview on Dallas, we said that having two slightly better than average goaltenders and a poor defense would be their undoing. We were kind of wrong during the regular season. Antti Niemi had a .905 save percentage and Kari Lehtonen had a .906 save percentage during the regular season.
That led to a division championship for the Stars, beating out the Blues in the final few days. They played the depleted Minnesota Wild in the playoffs and moved on although the defense was starting to struggle.
The Stars advanced the Western Conference semifinals against the Blues. The Stars’ downfall was their below-average goaltending. Those plus .900 save percentages in the regular season didn’t translate well. In the playoffs, the duo was very bad. Lehtonen had a .899 save percentage during the playoffs, and Niemi had a save percentage of .865.
So now the Stars have all of their money wrapped up in their offense. They have nine contracts to settle this season and nine next season. Defenseman Kris Russel is one they really need to keep but it’s going to be tough to squeeze him in as they already are against the Cap. They already traded the rights to D-man Alex Goligoski to Arizona for a fifth round pick because they couldn’t afford him.
The Dallas Stars desperately need to upgrade their goaltending next season, but it will be near impossible. Niemi is due $4.5 million a year for the next two years and Lehtonen is due $5.9 million for each of the next two seasons.
Next: The Predators Best First Round Picks
It will be interesting to see what happens with Free Agency and the Salary Cap with several of these teams.