Pacific Division predictions - the "way too early" edition

1. Edmonton Oilers

Call me biased if you want, but I'm not the only one saying that the Oilers are the favorites to win the Cup this year. They came so close to winning the division last season as well, but ended up in second place to the Canucks - but that's fine in my books because the Oilers defeated the Canucks when it counted - in the playoffs. In my mind there is no better team in the Pacific than our Oilers - and I've always been the first one to say it in past prediction blogs if I felt the opposite way. During the decade of darkness, I frequently left the Oilers out of the playoffs because that's the team I felt they were at the time.

What are my reasons for bold optimism? Let's start with the top six forward group - IMO one of, if not the, best in the league. The Oilers have the greatest 1-2 punch at center there is, with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Then you have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, a natural center who's spent the last few seasons riding shotgun to one or the other of the McDrai duo at LW. Most teams would kill to have one of these players on the roster, let alone all three, because all three are capable of being a first line center on any team in the league. Backing up the big three is RW Zach Hyman, a winger who has done nothing but set new career highs from the minute he pulled on an Oilers sweater jumping ship from the Maple Laffs.

Rounding out the top six is the reason why I'm calling this list the best - newcomers Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner. Arvidsson has long been known as one of the best two way players in the game, putting up multiple seasons of 20 and 30 goals while also being on the right side of the +/- ledger more often than not, see for yourself. Skinner, meanwhile, is coming to the Oilers on a cheap short term contract after the Buffalo Sabres - not because he was performing badly but because they knew his $9,000,000 a year contract would be next to impossible to trade, and they knew he probably wanted to come and play for a contender. Skinner has played for such lousy teams in Buffalo and Carolina that he has yet to play a playoff game in over 1000 games and 14 seasons, something he is virtually a lock to experience here in Edmonton, which is why he signed here for cheap and only one year. Regardless of how he does, Skinner is hoping to win a cup here and then sign for big $$ elsewhere. Both the newcomers are slated to play with Leon Draisaitl, and as long as they can keep up with him are likely to clean up in the boxcars and give the opposition fits every night.

Meanwhile, the third line will feature Mattias Janmark-Adam Henrique-Connor Brown, a formidable third line that is capable of playing both offensively and defensively. It's a very experienced third line, having played almost 2000 games combined. It's worth noting that Henrique currently sits at 912 games, which means assuming he can stay relatively healthy, by the time Henrique's contract has expired after next season he'll have surpassed 1000 games played. I can't wait to see what Connor Brown can do now that he's starting the season healthy, unlike last season when he came in having played only four games for the Washington Capitals the season before with a lingering knee injury.

The fourth line is shaping up quite impressively as well. Derek Ryan retained his spot at fourth line C for now, having shaken off real competition in training camp from Noah Philp, Lane Pederson, and Drake Cagguila, all of whom have been sent down to Bakersfield in the interim. Ryan's wingers will be Corey Perry - at one time one of the NHL's premier power forwards, he's lost a step but still maintains cerebral play against weak competition and a physical nastiness. He's also played on the losing team in four of the last five Cup finals, a trend he's hoping to reverse this season with the Oilers, and I'm willing to bet he retires after this season if the Oilers win the cup so he can go out a winner, just like Lanny McDonald and Ray Bourque did before him. Throw Dave Andreychuk in there for good measure. Injecting youthful energy into the fourth line will be newcomer Vasily Podkolzin, ex of the Canucks and the only member of the line under the age of 37. Podkolzin is best described as a failed first round draft pick who, if training camp is any indication, will benefit from a reduced role and expectations on a better team coupled with a fresh start. That's a line that should do some damage against other depth lines in the NHL, and it's worth noting that Podkolzin is also taking the spot of Dylan Holloway at a much cheaper cap hit - and Podkolzin will be doing it at the price of only $1 million a season for the next two seasons, less than half of what Holloway was snatched from us by the offer sheet of the St. Louis Blues, who are taking a huge risk by playing Holloway in their top six forward group - and on the first line, no less.

On defense we have one of the best top pairings in the league with Mattias Ekholm-Evan Bouchard. Ekholm took Bouchard under his wing and became the stay at home janitor for Bouchard, who really broke out in a big way last season with 18-64-82 and a whopping +34 playing tough minutes and playing a big role in the Oilers record setting PP last season. Below him we have Darnell Nurse, who despite the heavy criticism he takes from fans and playing injured for part of last season and into the playoffs, still managed to put up over 30 points and finish on the good side of the defensive ledger at +3. This was a step down from the season before when he finished +26 with 43 points, but the difference between 30 and 40 points for a blueliner isn't a whole heck of a lot in the grand scheme of things. Following the departure of Philip Broberg from the organization due to the risky offer sheet he signed with the Blues, the Oilers have traded for Ty Emberson, sending Cody Ceci and his fall from grace last season to the San Jose Sharks to get him. Emberson won the sweepstakes during training camp of getting to be Nurse's partner and being the stay at home guy that takes some of the defensive load off of Nurse so he can crash, bang, and score like we all know he can.

On the bottom pairing we have the overpaid veteranosity of Brett Kulak, who while a very good bottom pairing defender is being paid like he's playing in the top four, an error that will likely be corrected via trade before his contract is over as he will become a luxury the Oilers simply won't have the cap space to afford once Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid sign new contracts. For now, though, we welcome him back to the left side of the bottom pairing. On the right side will be Troy Stetcher, who was playing on the second pairing for the Arizona Coyotes last season when the Oilers traded for him at the deadline. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see nearly enough of him before he got injured and couldn't play the end of the regular season or any playoff games. At less than $800K for the next two seasons he'll be exactly what the Oilers need on the bottom pairing, unless a prospect unseats him and there are a few of those.

In between the pipes we have Stuart Skinner in tandem with Calvin Pickard, a tandem that while not exactly elite have shown an ability to get the job done. Skinner struggled to start the year but then rebounded and outside of a bad stretch against the Canucks in the second round played very well, outduelling Jake Oettinger in the process and almost outduelling Sergei Bobrovsky in the in the finals. Skinner has only 123 NHL games to his name, so we don't completely know what we have with him yet. If he can stay healthy over the next two seasons, he'll surpass that mark and then we'll have a much better idea of how high his ceiling is. In the meantime he'll have a lethal top six forward group making his job much easier. Pickard, on the other hand, experienced a career renaissance last season. Expected to be only insurance for this team as the third goalie in the organization, he switched roster spots with the struggling Jack Campbell and proved to be a breath of fresh air, getting 20 starts down the stretch and winning 12 of them. He also got two starts in the playoffs when Stuart Skinner needed a reset in the second round, and performed solidly in that short sample size. As a tandem they're only costing $3.6 million against the cap for the next two seasons, a silver lining in not having someone like Connor Hellebuyck on your roster.

And there's the million dollar question - what are the odds that the injuries we saw at the beginning of last season will be the catalyst of a slow start to the season again? Unlikely.

3. Los Angeles Kings

There are few things that are complete certainties in life, but one of them is the LA Kings will finish in third place in the division. Why do I say that? Well, it's simple, the Kings are really the last of the teams in the Pacific division that I can 100% call playoff contenders. There are two more teams in a tier below the Kings which may or may not make the playoffs as a wild card, but other than the Canucks and Oilers the Kings are really the only other team I can say with 100% certainty are making the playoffs. That being said, I don't consider the Kings to be Cup contenders or better than either the Canucks or Oilers.

The Kings' top six attack IMO is best described as solid if unspectacular - toothless if not without it's charm, if you will, the latter most definitely applies after you compare it to the lethal attacks of the Canucks and Oilers.

The Kings top line comprises two of it's top three scorers - Anze Kopitar, who somehow still manages to remain relevant at 37, put up 26 goals and 70 points for the Kings last season, buoyed by leading scorer Adrian Kempe, he of 28 goals and 75 points. Rounding out the first line is Alex Laferriere, who will be entering only his second season in the league and put up a mere 12-11-23 and a -14 in 81 games last season. They better hope he takes a step forward this season otherwise they're wasting a roster spot on a guy best played further down in the lineup.

The second line, ironically, follows much the same pattern. It's centered by Quinton Byfield, who is a former first round pick of the Kings and broke through with 20 goals last season. He'll crack the 200 game mark for the Kings this season so they'll know more of what they have in him as the season goes on. On one flank for Byfield will be dynamic scorer Kevin Fiala, who put up 29 goals and 73 points last season. Rounding out the second line is ex-Oiler Warren Foegele, who was signed by LA as cheap scoring help after Viktor Arvidsson departed for the Oilers. Foegele spent last season playing up and down the lineup, and cracked the 20 goal mark in the process. He seemed ready for an expanded role, but there will less insulation for him in LA so it's unclear exactly how he'll perform in an expanded role with more pressure. Only way to know that is to play the games.

In the past couple of years with the additions of Byfield, Laferriere, and Foegele to the top six that means inevitably some guys get bumped down the lineup. In the case of the Kings, that's three guys, which then brings us to their third line, or as I call it, the moneybags line. The reason I call it the moneybags line is two of three of these players are capable of playing in the top six forward group and all did at one time, but now are banished to the third line. This line consists of Tanner Jeannot-Phillip Danault-Trevor Moore. Why do I call this the moneybags line? Jeannot's cap hit is $2.665 million, Danault's is $5.5 million, while Trevor Moore's is $4.2 million. All except for Jeannot are signed for multiple seasons. Now don't get me wrong, all of these are solid players, but Jeannot is really the only one who is a true blue bottom six forward, and he's overpaid at over $2 million. For the record, the Kings are paying $15.365 million for this third line. FOR A THIRD LINE! WHAT IN THE BLEEP IS ROB BLAKE THINKING HERE? THIS IS A TERRIBLE USE OF CAP SPACE! It becomes even more apparent when you see that Trevor Moore scored 31 goals last season - how does a guy like that deserve to get buried on the third line? You're telling me the much more unproven Warren Foegele is a better candidate for that spot than a 31 goal scorer? Absolutely ridiculous.

The fourth line is where you can see that the Kings are saving cap space seeing as how none of them make over $1,000,000 a season. Raw prospects Akil Thomas and Alex Turcotte, second and fifth round picks respectively, will be full time NHLers for the first time in their careers. Meanwhile the veteran tasked with supporting and mentoring them will be Trevor Lewis, a member of the old core that helped the Kings win two cups in 2012 and 2014, who was reacquired and subsequently rescued from the Calgary Flames (more on that later) for a second tour of duty in LA. Now don't get me wrong, Lewis is a fine bottom six forward who puts up offense at slightly above the minimum for a fourth liner (16 points last season for the Kings) and fine defensively at a +7 last season, the problem is that Lewis is now 37, and there's a good chance he may have lost a step which may limit the effectiveness of the fourth line.

Which then brings us to the defence. The puck moving portion of LA's system tends to live and die with Drew Doughty, which will be a problem since Doughty is actually out with injury as he just underwent surgery to repair a fractured ankle and is listed as out "month to month" so that can't be a good sign. On the plus side, Doughty's cap hit is $11 million a season, so if he stays on LTIR long enough, the Kings will accumulate some pretty good LTIR cap space and might be able to snag a good veteran blueliner at the trade deadline.

Without Doughty, the King's defense looks rather wanting. Their new top pairing is Mikey Anderson, whose career best in 20 points, and Jordan Spence, a 23 year old with a mere 101 NHL games to his name who just broke open last season with 24 points. Their second pairing consists of Vladislav Gavrikov, who ever since moving from an inferior team in Columbus to the Kings has become one of the NHL's best defensive defencemen, second only perhaps to Mattias Ekholm. He has about as much puck moving ability, though, as everyone else on this list as he put up 23 points last season, so counting on him to replace Doughty's point singlehandedly would be a mistake. VG's partner will be righty Kyle Burroughs, a very vanilla player who played on a rebuilding Sharks team last year and put up a ghastly -42 from a defensive perspective, which may singlehandedly reduce the second pairing to swiss cheese unless Gavrikov can severely overcompensate for it. The third pairing consists of veteran Joel Edmondson, widely acknowledged as one of the better bottom pairing d-men in the league, and prospect Brandt Clarke making his way up to the NHL, on likely sooner than what the Kings were hoping but having no choice at least in the short term until Doughty is healed. Clarke, a former first round pick of the Kings from 2021, certainly has potential to be great as he put up 46 points in 50 for the Ontario Reign, the Kings farm team. Whether this roster spot was simply gifted to him in the wake of Doughty's injury or whether he legitimately earned it is unclear at this point in time.

Which then brings us to the Kings goaltenders. The Kings reacquired Darcy Kuemper to tend the nets for them, but they seem to have failed to realize that Kuemper, while he is abundantly talented, is essentially made of glass. In 13 years in the NHL, Kuemper has only cracked the 50 game mark three times. That's it. He's spent more time on the shelf than a Christmas fruitcake. Now that being said, when the guy is healthy he's a fantastic goalie - heck, he backstopped the Avs to the Cup in 2022 after putting up a .921 sv% and a 2.54 GAA. The problem is, you never know from one season to the next whether or not Kuemper will stay healthy. This is a huge role of the dice to the tune of over $15 million for three seasons. It's also worth noting that Kuemper is 34 now, do you think his injury issues will get worse or better as he ages? I'll save you the suspense - it's 99% sure to be the former. Backing up Kuemper will be what for the most part has been a career backup in David Rittich, aside from two seasons with the Flames over four years ago. in 24 games for the Kings last season, Rittich put up a .921 sv% and a 2.15 GAA. That being said, he also spent 16 games playing for the Reign last season, so that doesn't really inspire confidence.

I'm basing my rank here on the best case scenario for the Kings - that Doughty is back in the lineup sooner rather than later and Kuemper stays healthy all season, because when healthy I still believe that the Kings are better than the next two teams on the list. But, I will be the first to admit that if all the dominoes don't fall the Kings' way that my prediction will be wrong and the Kings will fall down the standings. The Kings also have some work to do as the coaching staff has made a bizarre move to play Warren Foegele higher in the lineup than Trevor Moore, and that GM Rob Blake has screwed up the team's cap space by a) not trading at least one of Danault or Moore for a great haul in trade and b) signing a goalie known for a long injury history.

Tell you what, if the Kings win the Cup this year and everything I've predicted is out to lunch, I'll eat my hat. How about that? :)

4. Las Vegas Golden Knights

If there's a team that can move back into the top three teams in the Pacific, it's the Golden Knights. At one point an unstoppable train in the Pacific, a number of things have swung the pendulum of success away from the Knights in terms of team success. Having to pay the piper when it came time to let some guys go because they didn't have the cap space for them, part of the reason for that is their pursuit of, and oftentimes success at obtaining, top free agents or trade targets. They've been able to either sign or trade for Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanifin, and Tomas Hertl. However, over time this has depleted the prospect and draft pools of the Knights so they have less bullets in the chamber to replenish the players they inevitably lose. Also, in order to bring in these guys, they've had to say goodbye to useful players like Reilly Smith, Marc Andre-Fleury, Nate Schmidt, Max Pacioretty, and the most devastating loss of all - Jonathan Marchessault. The guy scored 42 goals from them last year and they didn't even offer him a contract.

It is largely due to Marchessault's loss that I have predicted the Knights to be outside of the top three in the Pacific this season. How do you replace a 40 goal scorer? It's pretty tough individually, and with the Knights hugging the cap almost since they have been in the league, it's even tough to do by committee. Until they can draft a player on par with Marchessault and get some cheap years out of him, I predict the GKs will be a middling team the way they are now. Good luck doing that though seeing as how the GKs don't have a first round pick until 2027. Losing Chandler Stephenson as well doesn't help either, although they can compensate for that with a full season of Tomas Hertl, who they rescued from the doldrums of San Jose. The closest thing on the roster we have for Marchessault, however, is Ivan Barbashev, and while Barbashev is a solid enough player, having won two Cups - one with St. Louis and one with Vegas - he's only cracked the 20 goal mark once in his previous nine seasons. Worth noting that he got close last year with 19.

The one bright spot for the GKs? William Karlsson, one of the original misfits received in the expansion draft, appears to have rediscovered his scoring touch again. In the GKs first two seasons he had scoring totals of 42 then 23 goals, then he fell off the map completely until last season when he put up 30. Other than those aforementioned players, the GKs top six is rounded out by Pavel Dorofeyev, who scored an anemic 13 goals last season, but in his defense he's only 23 and just because a full time NHLer last season, and even then he only played a modest 47 games. If he can get somewhere close to 82 could he hit 20 goals? Maybe. Finishing up the top six if Victor Olofsson, plucked from the bargain bin after putting up less than 10 goals with Buffalo last season. However, in six seasons on a lousy Sabres team he did have three seasons of 20 goals. If he's playing on an upgraded Vegas team, he just might get back that scoring touch - at the very least a player worth rolling the dice on.

As far as the bottom six? Alex Holtz is a worthy addition from the Devils, putting up 16 goals and 28 points last season, albeit with a -16, but only 22 years old. Nicholas Roy is the other winger on the third line, putting up 13-28-41 and a +8 in 70 games. They were originally supposed to be centered by Hertl, but William Karlsson's injury may put a kibosh on that. The fourth line consists of Brett Howden at center and Keegan Kolesar on the left side, both capable of 18-20 points which is decent for fourth liners. The remaining winger is Zack Aston-Reese, a castoff from multiple teams who.......is there. That's about as insightful as I can get on that guy.

On D we have a pretty good top pairing of Theodore-Pietrangelo, who put up a combined 70+ points last season, perhaps second only to Hughes-Hronek in Vancouver. After the trade from Calgary Hanifin put up 12 points in 19 games, a good omen for a full season in a Knight's uniform. His partner is Nicholas Hague, a 15-20 point producer who's usually good for some good defensive play with perhaps an aberration of last season when he finished at -5. Brayden McNabb rounds out an impressive left D for the third pairing with 26 points last season, partnered with Zach Whitecloud, who, like Hague, is good for 15-20 points and is usually good defensively but finished last season -3. Hague and Whitecloud will have to clean up their defensive play if Vegas is to have any success.

In goal is where the Knights have experienced another big loss, which leads me to believe the Knights may be one and done as far as Cup wins for a franchise. Anyway, while Adin HIll is still there as a fine first option between the pipes, his solid tandem partner from last season, Logan Thompson, departed for Washington and signed there for less than $800K. To replace Thompson the GKs took a step down by signing the failed Ilya Samsonov for over $1,000,000 more than what Thompson signed for in Washington. Samsonov was a disaster for the Leafs last season. They would've been better off leaving Samsonov for another team and re-upping Thompson. Now they're paying more for an inferior goaltender - talk about a terrible use of cap space.

The downgrade in goal and the huge loss of Marchessault are the main reasons why I'm picking Vegas for nothing more than the fringes of the playoff picture. They were beaten in the first round by Dallas in the last playoffs, and I would wager that will become the new normal in Vegas rather than a one time thing.

5. Seattle Kraken

Two seasons ago has so far been the high water mark for a Seattle franchise in the infancy of it's existence. It only started play in 2021, and thus it's lack of success in the early going suggests that they are building for the future, and if the projections are right they may be at the midway point of their building blocks for success. The Kraken have some good pieces in place, but as you'd expect with the franchise so far they have a ways to go.

Their first line is their first ever draft pick, Matty Beniers, flanked by Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann. McCann was actually their leading scorer last season with 29 goals and 62 points. Eberle is 34 years old now, and while he missed the mark last year he's discovered a scoring touch that disappeared after the Oilers traded him the New York Islanders. He only had 17 goals last year but has been a 20 goal scorer two of three years in Seattle. As for Beniers, GM Ron Francis surely raised a few eyebrows after he backed the Brinks truck up to Beniers once his ELC was over, despite the fact that he regressed both offensively and defensively. Why you would give a 21 year old over $7,000,000 a year unless he had turned into a superstar fast is beyond me. I mean, I get he's important to the future of the franchise, but......his play regressed. Why didn't you give him a bridge contract? Even at that same price point, a bridge contract would've made a lot more sense. Now all Francis can do is hope that he lives up to it otherwise he'll have a boat anchor contract on his hands sooner rather than later.

Chandler Stephenson was a solid add to up the level of depth on the roster for second line center. He played first line center in Vegas prior to Jack Eichel coming on the scene so he knows what he's doing. Flanking him is Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz, two solid veteran players for the line. Burakovsky disappointed last season but he is a two time 20 goal scorer. Schwartz regressed last season but scored 21 goals the prior season, so to quote Spaceballs - "never underestimate the power of the schwartz."

As for the bottom six, the third line is centered by Shane Wright, the high pick from 2022. He's been marinating the last couple of years and appears ready for full time NHL work. If they live up to their potential, Beniers and Wright will eventually form a great 1-2 punch at center. His wingers are veterans Andre Burakovsky and Olivier Bjorkstrand. Bjorkstrand was the only other player other than McCann to score 20 goals last season, and just like with Trevor Moore in LA there may be a mismatch in terms of where he plays. It'll be a great battle with Bjorkstrand and Schwartz for playing time, which hopefully should help keep the Kraken fans entertained despite the fact their team is not a competitive one just yet. On the fourth line Yanni Gourde is solid, putting up 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games, albeit with a -11 - he needs to improve on that mark for sure. His wingers are 23 year old Tye Kartye, just entering his second NHL season but had a pretty solid debut putting up 11-9-20 with a -1 in 77 games last season, and 473 game veteran Brandon Tanev, who might be most known for the funniest mugshot of a player I've ever seen, like the grim reaper is behind the camera or something.

On D, the top pairing is a great one. Vince Dunn put up 46 points in 59 games last season, so he's a great piece to build the defense around. His partner on the right side is ex-Oiler Adam Larsson, who as we all know is a stay at home guy with a great physical presence and always willing to block shots. Larsson regressed in points from 33 two seasons ago to 18 last season but I doubt anyone in the organization is worried about that. Any points he puts up are just gravy.

The second pairing was supposed to have Jaime Oleksiak as it's centerpiece but Oleksiak regressed last season from 25 to 15 points season over season. Seeing a need for more offence on this pairing, GM Ron Francis went and signed a pretty good partner for Oleksiak in ex-Florida Panther Brandon Montour. Montour had also regressed by about 40 points season over season from 73 to 33 points, but Francis still saw fit to sign him to a risky contract of $7.142857 a season for the max seven years, with a full NTC to boot for the next three years until it changes to a modified NTC. Francis better hope this signing works out otherwise this'll be a huge problem for the Kraken down the road. The bottom pairing is nice and solid, veteran Will Borgen who at 27 just set a new career high in points with 25, while his partner Ryker Evans played 36 games for the Kraken last season putting up 1-8-9 in those games. Evans is a second round draft pick of the Kraken from 2021, so he's bound to be key to their future success.

The way I see it, there are two things that may hold the Kraken back from future success - and one of them is their goaltending. The cap space is completely backwards as the guy banking on taking the lion's share of the starts is Phillip Grubauer, who underachieved last season and got paid almost $6 million a season to do it. He's signed for two more seasons with a modified NTC in there, but if Grubauer doesn't improve it'll be very tough to trade that contract to begin with, and to get anything of significance back for it for another. His partner is Joey Daccord, who fortunately picked up the ball and ran with it with a .916 sv% and a 2.46 GAA. However, this was Daccord's breakout season, so we need to know if he can do it again or if that was merely a fluke, especially at the age of 28. If he does do it again, the Kraken face the unappealing prospect of having to pay between $7-10 million for their goalie tandem when the guy making most of the $$ is underachieving.

The other thing that will hold the Kraken back is GM Ron Francis's penchant for giving out special clauses like candy to players. The Calgary Flames did this for years and it never translated to success on the ice, and made it much harder to dismantle an underperforming team. Francis is taking the Kraken in the same direction, a scary thought for the NHL's newest franchise. Seriously, there are more players with NT or NM clauses than players without on the Kraken. Take a look - this is not a good thing. I hope Kraken ownership has come down on Francis for this.

6. Calgary Flames

Who knew that when the Oilers beat the Flames in 2022 that would spell the death knell for the core of that team? The Flames have since seen an exodus out of town that constitute the vast majority of their core for a long time - Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Noah Hanifin, Oliver Kylington, Chris Tanev, Andrew Mangiapane, Elias Lindholm, and Jakob Markstrom, just to name the ones off the top of my head.

At the time ownership wasn't in favor of a rebuild, but now they've been forced into one with all the contracts that have departed the organization. They also have a bevy of draft picks waiting for them. They have two first rounders for the next two drafts, they have two second rounders in 2025, and they have two third rounders in 2026. The only pick they're missing is their own fourth rounder in 2025. So lots of opportunity for young players - and that's not even getting into the pieces they've acquired in trade or drafted. Andrei Kuzmenko and Yegor Sherangovich will both play key roles in the top six forward group going forward, while blueliner Rasmus Andersson gets more responsibility. Connor Zary is a key future piece who will play a top six role for them next season. In goal Dustin Wolf, touted as the best goalie in the AHL at one point, is graduating to the NHL this season with Jakob Markstrom now gone.

Not much more to say about this team - the focus going forward should be securing high drafts picks and the subsequent talent that comes with it. Wins are secondary for the Flames at this point.

7. Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks are in the middle of a rebuild so naturally expectations are low once again. Like the Flames, infuse more talent in the organization and that's about it.

They have some good pieces in place but need to keep building. Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras will be the pillars at forward for the franchise for the foreseeable future. Alex Killorn is great support and he looks like he'll finish his career in Anaheim. Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, and Mason Mctavish are all great pieces for the future. Ryan Strome, Robby Fabri, and Frank Vatrano are all great veteran support.

On D Cam Fowler is still here from the old guard, and he will still be here through next season. Radko Gudas and Brian Dumoulin are good veteran support. In goal, John Gibson is still in Anaheim for this season plus two more, but is injured right now with appendix issues. That gives Lukas Dostal and Calle Clang the chance to duke it out to take over. The Ducks are missing their own second round pick in 2025 but have two each in rounds three through five. I hope their scouting staff is up to the task.

8. San Jose Sharks

Now we get to the basement of the division. The Sharks were not just the worst team in the division but the worst team in the league and I don't expect that to change this upcoming season.

The upside is they got to draft Macklin Celebrini, a player that's being touted as just short of a generational player. Will Smith, who was drafted the year prior, is also going to be key to the Sharks future. I hope they do at least some damage this season as I have both of them on my fantasy hockey team. :) That'll be a great 1-2 punch at center once they're both developed. William Eklund has also made his way up to the top, as has Fabian Zetterlund. They convinced Tyler Toffoli to sign there, which is a great veteran coup. Klim Kostin-Alex Wennberg-Luke Kunin is a pretty good third line albeit an expensive one as it's going to cost $10 million a season.

No defender is signed past the 2025-26 season, at least for the moment. Marc-Edourd Vlasic's contract is up mercifully after next season, while Cody Ceci will likely be a decent trade chip for them at the deadline. Matt Benning has been playing in the top four for awhile now, and Jan Rutta is veteran support for the bottom pairing. Mario Ferraro, Henry Thrun, and Jake Walman are all key to the future of the D for the Sharks.

The goaltending duo is slated to be two outcasts in Vitek Vanacek and Mackenzie Blackwood. Honestly, these two have underperformed for years so it's probably best for both of them to be in an NHL outpost where there's no pressure to win and no expectations. If one of them can resurrect their careers on this team, they'll be able to write their own ticket in terms of where they go next.

Keep rebuilding. Not much more to say.

Bonus material

Former draft pick Skyler Brind'amour re-ups with Carolina

I always suspected that former Oilers draft pick Skyler Brind'amour would end up in the Carolina organization where his dad coaches, and now it's happened again. His stats were not really impressive last season for Charlotte so I don't know where this is really coming from. Well, whatevs, good luck to him.

Jack Campbell enters player assistance program

A sad story out of Detroit where Jack Campbell signed this past offseason after the Oilers bought him out. Campbell has entered the NHLPA's player assistance program. We'll never know the real reason but Campbell has been plagued with confidence issues throughout his career, so if I had to guess I'd say something stress, anxiety, or confidence related. Even from a bought out player, you never want to see this kind of thing. A good reminder that NHL players are people too.

The last of the training camp cuts

The last cuts of training camp were announced, and some surprising names were on the list. Noah Philp and Drake Cagguila were both in play for fourth line center behind Derek Ryan, but now it looks like Ryan has fought his competition off. Raphael Lavoie was also generating some buzz to get a spot too, but his defensive play was spotty as well, so that explains him. Josh Brown was slated to be the sixth or seventh man on D, but it looks like Emberson and Troy Stetcher will get the regular spots, and I suspect we'll get an announcement anyday now that PTO signee Travis Dermott will be signed to a full fledged contract. He was generating buzz in camp and it looks like he may have beat out Brown for a spot. The only name on the list that wasn't really surprising was goalie Olivier Rodrigue. He needs more seasoning in the minors and was never really a threat to take the spot of Skinner or Pickard, although being one of the last cuts is a bit of a feather in his cap. Nonetheless, I think we all now know who the first callups are going to be if injury or underperformance strikes.