The Cup Pretenders: (They themselves or others think they have a legit shot at the cup)
Dallas Stars: Gagne, Cole, Satan, Pominville, Zubov... but with only 76 ov tandem of Legace and Joseph to back them up. This team will beat up its division, get awesome playoff position and get bumped in the playoffs, much like the Habs of last season in this league. Unless the team gets a bonafide number one starter in net.
Carolina Hurricanes: Spezza, Straka, Knuble, Fisher but with a blueline which only sports a trio of defensive defensemen in Phillips, Allen, Commodore and 76 ov Ward backing them up. This team is a starting goalie and two defensemen away from competing for the cup.
Edmonton Oilers: Savard, Kovalchuk, Afinogenov, Blake, Holmstrom. This team can shoot the lights out but defense is average at best with Salei, Clark, Beauchemin and 75 ov Biron is only good enough to make the playoffs, not win 16 postseason contests.
Montreal Canadiens: Iginla, Elias, Khabibulin. The ultimate pretender has upgraded its goaltending but is still about the top two forwards performing night in and out. Pettinger and Roy can help sometimes and Redden and Campbell aren't chumps but the pro team is shallow in combat-ready talent.
The Playoff Bound: (Geared to ice a competitive team to earn a postseason spot, period.)
Colorado Avalanche: Malkin, St. Louis, Richards, Kolzig. Some secondary scoring from Perreault and V. Kozlov. The defense has no stars and no passing but decent puck control from Rivet, Van Ryn and Mara.
Detroit Red Wings: Pronger, Fleury, Cammalleri, Getzlaf, Vanek. Secondary scoring from Sykora and Rucinsky. The blueline would be woeful except that Chris patrols it.
Ottawa Senators: Alfredsson and Emery. With support from Kovalev, S. Kozolv, Hartnell, Pyatt and on the blueline Salo, Bieksa. Good enough to get to the big dance.
Phoenix Coyotes: Shanahan, McDonald, Sillinger, Guerin, Belfour. With a solid B-rate defensive core. This team looked dead in the summer but the new g.m. has breathed life back into the franchise.
Florida Panthers: Lundqvist, Roloson, Comrie, Taffe, Tyutin, Coburn. Hard to tell if this team will ever commit its resources to the short term or long term or just continue along the middle path.
San Jose Sharks: Ovechkin, Lidstrom, Staal, Stumpel, Williams, Michalek, Parise, Wolski, Horton, Roberts, Stuart, Brewer, Meszaros, Seabrook. A young team that added veterans on one year contracts to get to the playoffs now, buying a spot in UFA basically. This team can trade away some vets before the trading deadline to bolster its upcoming dynasty potential. or sacrifice a bit of future to be a cup contender now.
The Also-Rans: (in the hunt for a playoff spot for most of the season at least)
L. A. Kings: Huet, Timonen, Boucher, Arnott, Ryder, Erat. From rebuilder last season toward competitiveness this season. Good luck! There's a chance to make the playoffs now.
St. Louis Blues: Nabokov, Recchi, Koivu, Frolov with Foote, Antropov. The new g.m. is heading in the right direction but doesn't have the horses yet to handle the long stretch.
New Jersey Devils: Kiprusoff and Doan. With Forsberg and Reinprecht in supprt and Ohlund on defense. This team was quiet in the offseason and hasn't shown an indication of which direction the club is headed, short term or longer term or just stalling.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Giguere and Nash. That's the show in T.O. The team seems to want to rebuild in having Clowe, Prucha, Ballard but picking up Fedorov suggests at least a stab at competitiveness.
Columbus BlueJackets: Vokoun. With help from Gionta, Christiansen and Weight. A weak defense. The new g.m. has his work cut out for him, whatever he ends up deciding to do about this season as it moves along toward the trading deadline.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Demitra, McCabe, Fernandez. With help from Nieuwendyk, Svatos and Aucoin. No other help whatsoever on the pro club. This team flirted with deals to become competitive for a playoff spot but has expressed some thought of going in the other direction, rebuilding.
Nashville Predators: Nylander, Naslund, Bertuzzi with Toskala barely a starter. O'Donnell is the best defenseman on the team. The whole needs to be greater than the sum of its parts to make any noise this season.
New York Rangers: M. Koivu, Michalek, Pavelski, Backes. Looks like a rebuilding orientation. But also Norrena, Jovanovski, Morrison, Yelle, Prospal, Hamrlik. This team is coming or going and if continues as it is will finish out of the playoffs, or just in, depending if the odd trading pattern continues.
Vancouver Canucks: Hasek, Jagr, Sakic, Sullivan. Adding UFA cost nothing for this future oriented club which will decide at some point whether add some depth for immediate competitiveness or else build around Semin, Stafford, Barker, Vlasic.
The Rebuilders: (not invested in gettings wins this season, looking beyond)
Washington Capitals: Stastny, Yashin. With help from Stempniak, Williams, Steen, Ribiero, Perry, Hainsey. By far the worst goaltending in the league with 68 ov Labarbera higher rated than Cloutier. The new g.m. is a true rebuilder, not thinking about wins this season, building the strength of the franchise long term, adding prospects Backstrom, Soderberg, Yandle, Bergenheim among others.
Anaheim Ducks: Chelios and Bryzgalov. Not many draft picks but in the house is Filppula, Stajan, Sjostrom, Novotny, Boyes, Krajicek, Meyer, Colaiacovo and prospects Bernier, Thelen, etcetera. A team only two or three seasons away from making noise.
New York Islanders: Lang. With Simon, Holik, D. Markov and Theodore occasionally helping out. This is mostly the minor league Bridgeport Tigers imported to the pro team as the g.m. focuses on improving the prospect base and building through the draft. It's the sort of orientation an expansion team would take, slow and geared to years down the road.
Hate to overrate myself, but I consider myself to be a cup contender
Offense led by superstar AO....and supported by younguns Staal, Horton, Williams, Michalek, Parise etc... In my opinion not many teams can match that
Defense led by superstar Lindstrom and supported by guys like Brewer, Stuart, Meszaros Leopold and Seabrook....I think I have a very deep group of Defensemen...my Dcorps might be top 3 in the league (IMO)
Goaltending is an issue and probably the reason why im beeing overlooked...YEs Raycrofts NHL value is pretty bad...but regardless...he is still a 77ov..should be able to provide me with OK goaltending for this season.....
Overall I like my team...and it will only get better in time...i have one of the youngest teams in the league and the 2nd biggest (height/weight)...
That being said, I give myself an "F" for depth and back-up goalie.....but i guess all teams have a weakness...
SHould be a great season......good luck to everyone!!
Cammalleri, Vanek, Getzlaf, Pronger thru Friday in the NHL: 5 goals, 2 assists, 7 points
And NO, this is not an invatation to start making bad trade offers on the four.
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"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
Hate to overrate myself, but I consider myself to be a cup contender
Goaltending is an issue and probably the reason why im beeing overlooked...YEs Raycrofts NHL value is pretty bad...but regardless...he is still a 77ov..should be able to provide me with OK goaltending for this season.....
That being said, I give myself an "F" for depth and back-up goalie.....but i guess all teams have a weakness...
San Jose is misplaced, on 'The Playoff Bound' list. It should be on 'The Cup Pretenders' list. I stand corrected.
Funny, I actually think I was overrated here. No way should my team make the playoffs, although I will be thrilled if they do.
Florida is on 'The Playoff Bound' list because of superstar goaltending (Lundqvist) but on second glance your top line of Comrie, Taffe, Kostitsyn isn't enough to reliably score night in and night out. The Panthers would be 'Also Rans' except for the fact that the 8th playoff spot in the East doesn't look like it'll have much competition and I wasn't sure if Ottawa or Florida would take it, and Florida gets to beat up on Washington eight times this season, so I thought had even odds to be playoff bound. Alternatively, Lundqvist could be trade bait for the franchise if it goes into rebuilding mode as there are some cup pretenders who would probably extremely overpay to get a star gioalie at under a million salary.
I think playoff bound San Jose Sharks have been upgraded to Cup Pretenders... having your starter go from Raycroft to Kipper (and still have raycroft as a backup).... awesome deal for the Sharks, lose some depth up front, but that hasn't been their problem...
I think playoff bound San Jose Sharks have been upgraded to Cup Contenders... having your starter go from Raycroft to Kipper (and still have raycroft as a backup).... awesome deal for the Sharks, lose some depth up front, but that hasn't been their problem...
Up to 'Cup Pretenders': endurance concerns among secondary scorers, lacking a couple of penalty killers, only having one passer on the blueline, woeful backliners... this team is not built to go all the way now, though it might get lucky. Some glaring moves need to be made to position themselves for 'contender' status.
I stand corrected.
