NFL
By: Greg Rector
The 2021-2022 NHL season will soon be upon us. The league finally has 32 teams (Welcome the Seattle Kraken) and four equal 8 team divisions. Last season the alignments were thrown out thanks to the pandemic. The Tampa Bay Lightning were able to secure their second straight Stanley Cup defeating the Montreal Canadiens in a pretty anti-climatic final series. Montreal had valiantly overcome the odds to reach the final, only to be out-classed by the defending champions. What will the new season hold for hockey fans? Today I am going to preview the Pacific Division and will move west to east from here. I will move from the bottom to the top of the division as I see it shaking out.
San Jose Sharks
What was once a powerhouse team just a few years ago has fallen hard. There’s simply not much to cheer about for Sharks fans. Saddled with $28 million in dead cap space, and their best player Logan Couture is now 32 years old with a sharp drop off in his numbers. The days of Brent Burns, and Marc- Edward Vlasic anchoring a very good defense corps are over. Look for the Sharks to be a leader for the NHL draft lottery. They will struggle to score and prevent goals, an awful combination. Timo Meier along with Kevin Labanc, while both solid players are not guys that can carry a roster. The system’s cupboard is bare as well.
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks unlike their counterparts in Northern California, do have reasons for optimism going forward. The Ducks have amassed a nice group of young, high-end talent which could easily become the new core of this franchise. Trevor Zegras, Isac Lundestrom, Sam Steel, Troy Terry, and Jamie Drysdale are all under the age of 24 with Zegras and Drysdale, in particular, having the potential to become all-star caliber players in the future. Still, this group needs to grow into a contender and this season will be heavily focused on improvement. Goaltender John Gibson has been plagued by a weak group in front of him however, his numbers will be better with improved play in front of him. Zegras should grow at the center and that will help immensely.
Calgary Flames
This roster is simply overfilled with guys who play a hard physical brand of hockey in the mold of their throwback coach Darryl Sutter. Sutter is in his second stint with the Flames and for now, the organization seems content with his no-nonsense style. With today’s players, this has conflict written all over it sooner or later. Simply put this group will not score enough goals to scare anyone. The throwback mentality of this organization is somewhat baffling, to say the least. Jacob Markstrom can’t repeat his up and down goaltending from last year. The biggest loss was former captain Mark Giordano who now calls Seattle home. The defensemen will all need to step up their minutes and effectiveness. I just don’t see that happening. Look for a Sutter firing sometime during the season.
Seattle Kraken
Yes, the league’s newest franchise will be better than a few teams, but they will not repeat the Las Vegas Thunder’s incredible debut season (Stanley Cup Final) the Kraken put together a solid group in goal, defense, and on the wings. The hardest slot though center appears to be rather weak. Seattle’s top four blueliners Oleksiak, Giordano, Larsson, and Dunn will be the key in front of Phillip Grubauer who gives the Kraken a solid netminder. Minus much strength up the middle the cast forwards acquired in the expansion draft while fairly solid won’t be enough to help the Kraken into a playoff position. Going forward the Kraken will need to draft, trade, or sign the more impactful players before they can be considered a true contender.
Vancouver Canucks
The biggest victims of the pandemic and injuries last season were the Canucks. They had too many games postponed and were forced into a heavy compressed schedule to end the season. These two factors saw this fairly young team struggled mightily in the second half of the season. Elias Pettersson’s injury was the one that impacted this team the most. A return to health will be huge for this group. The big question mark though is on the blueline, the arrival of Oliver Ekman-Larsson to help young Quinn Hughes on the back-end will be good. The trouble is after the top two the Canucks appear rather thin. Conor Garland is one the best young 5 on 5 players, along with sophomore Nils Hoglander and rookie Vasili Podkolzin should all help the Canucks challenge for the playoffs. They may fall short thanks to the lack of depth along the blueline.
Los Angeles Kings
The division is more wide open than in recent seasons and the Kings’ aging roster with an injection of youth along with the solid goaltending of Cal Petersen who had a solid .911 save percentage on a pretty bad team last year, should make a playoff push. The Kings have been underperformers the last few seasons. With the roster changes, the key will be Drew Doughty returning to being a Norris trophy type of defenseman once again. Doughty is only 31 and if he is energized can certainly return to being a feared blueline presence. Quinton Byfield the 2nd overall draft pick is the big strong center teams covet. He will make an impact up front. Viktor Arvidsson acquired in a trade with Nashville will get plenty of ice-time, the Kings hope to see a return to Arvidsson’s scoring from a couple of seasons ago.
Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers have the game’s most dangerous duo in Conor McDavid and Leon Draisatl. However, that’s led to plenty of frustration for Oilers fans the last few seasons. While the firepower has been there the defense has never come close to being able to take this team far in the playoffs. Yes as your Dallas Cowboys writer knows all too well, plenty of offense and a lack of defense is very frustrating as a fan. With the defense as a major issue, the Oilers decided on getting veteran Duncan Keith who for years anchored the Chicago Blackhawks defense. Keith though is now 38 years old and the last few seasons with a so-so Blackhawks team is well past being a Norris Trophy threat. Darnell Nurse is a solid number one defenseman, unless a couple of others step up this will be the bane of the Oilers yet again. Speaking of elderly goaltender Mike Smith is 41 years old and while he was pretty good last year, 33-year-old Mikko Koskinen will also be needed between the pipes. The drop-off from the top six and bottom six forwards needs to be better as well.
Las Vegas Golden Knights
After being turfed from the playoffs by an upstart Montreal Canadiens team, changes were bound to happen. Exit goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, and now Robin Lehner will be the unquestioned starting goaltender. The pieces in Las Vegas are still there for the Golden Knights to challenge, however, the roster is getting older pretty quickly. With that in mind, the Knights acquired Nolan Patrick who never has lived up to his 2nd overall selection in 2017 with Philadelphia. They are hoping a change of scenery will change that. Like so many other teams though the Knights’ weakness is up the middle especially with the 3rd and 4th line center positions. The goaltending depth is also a concern as after Lehner the system doesn’t have much promise.
Overall this division will be home to a more wide-open style of play as per usual. This is more my style of hockey where skill is valued over physicality (Flames being the exception
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