Part 4: The Future of the Western Conference
The final chapter of the four part series detailing the future of NHL franchises according to the players that they have signed.
Western Conference: (Bottom Half)
9. Phoenix: If the Coyotes don’t go bankrupt and fold, they do have a decent future, at least better than what their past has been. Pheonix has a wealth of young forwards (Mueller, Turris, Boedker, Hanzal, Tikhonov, Lisin, Porter) and, though not all are developing as the Coyotes would hope, their potential is still very high. All 7 of these forwards are 22 or under and therefore should be locked up for years through RFA status. Phoenix’s defence is definitely poorer than their forwards, Phoenix has adopted a policy of signing veteran defence every offseason, but most of these d-men are not high end talent or legitimate top 4 defenseman. Ed Jovanoski is the only quality d-men Phoenix has locked up and doesn’t have too much for prospects coming up to fill those gaps as well. Goaltending looks good as Ilya Bryzgalov is locked up for two more years, and seems to be developing into a number one goalie.
10. Minnesota: Drafting and developing top end talent is the biggest concern for Minnesota. The Wild have a lot of good looking young forwards but whether they can develop into first line players and stars in the NHL is a different question. Minnesota’s defence looks like their strongest asset with Johnsson, Schultz, and Burns a pretty solid top 3. If Kurtis Foster is able to recover for his horrific broken leg and is re-signed, then he also would add significantly to this group of d-men. Minnesota is hoping that there young forwards (Sheppard, Pouliot, Gillies) in the same way that Bouchard and Koivu have in the past few years. It appears that Gaborik will not be with this team after this year, then again with his injuries, it barely seems like he is a part of the team anyways. The Wild also have a decision to make in the off-season whether to re-sign Backstrom to a significant or to hand over the starting goaltending job to Harding. Injuries have hurt this team the most and some questionable drafting as well.
11. St. Louis: The Blues are trying hard to blend to re-build and to provide a competitive team through free agents, and I don’t think they are succeeding. They have attractive players at forward and defence but can’t seem to put together a good enough team at either end of the ice. St. Louis defence looks most promising with Johnson (injured), Pietrangelo (OHL), and current NHL’ers Jackman and Brewer making a good looking top 4 next season. At forward, it has been inconsistency and some injuries that are hurting the Blues; currently Kariya, McDonald, and Oshie have missed over 80 games between them. St. Louis’s forwards have decent talent, but may either need to develop more, become consistent, or simply play to their potential. Brad Boyes is the Blues only forward locked up for more than 2 seasons. In goal, St. Louis has Chris Mason locked up for next season but that’s it; whether Mason is a legitimate No. 1 goalie seems to be undecided.
12. Vancouver: The Canucks defence is one of the best in the league and have a nice mix of proven veterans and youngsters. Ohlund is the only top 6 d-men not locked up for next season, and Willie Mitchell is the other d-men not locked up beyond next season. In goal, a healthy Luongo is arguably the best goalie in the league but he needs to be locked up to a longer term, he’s only signed past next season. It’s Vancouver’s forwards that are the biggest question; the Canucks have only 1 player signed for two seasons and that player is Darcy Hordichuk. They only have 3 of their top 9 forwards signed for next season and their top three forwards, the Sedin’s and Sundin, aren’t signed beyond this year. Mike Gillis has done a fairly good job as a first year GM, but needs make some significant signings or trades to improve this team long term.
13. Colorado: The Avalanche are living on past glory. They have a decent number of players signed but they are expecting too much in both production and health from players like Joe Sakic, Darcy Tucker, Ryan Smyth, Tyler Arnason, Adam Foote, Scott Hannan, and Jordan Leopold. Colorado’s has signed or acquired many of these players to contracts based on their best seasons not based on their future seasons. Consequently, you get a lot of decent names playing for Colorado, while their talent drains away. Colorado has only two forwards signed beyond next season, Smyth and Stastny, both who are making more than 6 million. The Avalanche have 5 d-men signed for next season, but none signed beyond 3 seasons. Also those d-men are all making over 3 million each: Foote, Salei, Clark, Liles, and Hannan; try to convince me that they way those players are each worth 3 million or more. In goal, neither Budaj or Raycroft are signed beyond next year, though Budaj is a RFA. Then again maybe that’s a good thing because neither of those goalies are starters in NHL the way they are playing.
14. Anaheim: The Ducks have officially become old, not Chris Chelios old, but still an old team where most of their players are in their 30’s and if not signed, are UFA’s. On offence, the Ducks have some good top end talent in Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, and Kunitz, but have only Selanne and Ryan Carter signed beyond this season. On defence, the Ducks only have control over 4 defenceman for the next season whether signed or through RFA status, and currently only Pronger and Francois Beauchemin are real top 6 defenseman. In goal, Anaheim has J.S. Giguere locked up for two more seasons, and their back-up Jonas Hiller is emerging as a solid goalie, and he’s signed for another season as well. As a whole, the players that Anaheim has signed are quite talented and are all signed for acceptable or affordable contracts; the biggest problem for Anaheim is that they simply have so few players signed to contracts.
15. Dallas: The Stars have a good number of players signed but have a lot of players either past their prime or called on to play roles that they simply aren’t talented enough to play. Dallas could almost ice a full team for next year with the players that they currently have signed but that team would probably compete for one of the worst spots in the league. Dallas has four major problems: injuries, aging players, young players not developing, and Sean Avery. Avery’s contract is almost 4 million and may have to be bought out. The Stars age includes many of their top players who simply aren’t signed beyond this season or may no longer be able to their contract value: see Zubov, Modano, Lehtinen, and Sydor. Their young players not developing describes Brunnstrom, Neal who were expected to be top 6 forwards, and Daley, Robidas, Niskanen, and Fistric were all expected to contribute more or develop into top 4 forwards. For injuries see Zubov, Morrow, Lehtinen, Lundqvist, Ott, and Brunnstrom. Dallas only real strength is in goal. Turco had a rough start but appears to be the top 5 goalie that he has been for the last few years and he is signed for two more years. The only other quality signings the Stars have is Ribeiro and Morrow both signed for 4 more years at just over 9 million between the two of them.
Western Conference: (Bottom Half)
9. Phoenix: If the Coyotes don’t go bankrupt and fold, they do have a decent future, at least better than what their past has been. Pheonix has a wealth of young forwards (Mueller, Turris, Boedker, Hanzal, Tikhonov, Lisin, Porter) and, though not all are developing as the Coyotes would hope, their potential is still very high. All 7 of these forwards are 22 or under and therefore should be locked up for years through RFA status. Phoenix’s defence is definitely poorer than their forwards, Phoenix has adopted a policy of signing veteran defence every offseason, but most of these d-men are not high end talent or legitimate top 4 defenseman. Ed Jovanoski is the only quality d-men Phoenix has locked up and doesn’t have too much for prospects coming up to fill those gaps as well. Goaltending looks good as Ilya Bryzgalov is locked up for two more years, and seems to be developing into a number one goalie.
10. Minnesota: Drafting and developing top end talent is the biggest concern for Minnesota. The Wild have a lot of good looking young forwards but whether they can develop into first line players and stars in the NHL is a different question. Minnesota’s defence looks like their strongest asset with Johnsson, Schultz, and Burns a pretty solid top 3. If Kurtis Foster is able to recover for his horrific broken leg and is re-signed, then he also would add significantly to this group of d-men. Minnesota is hoping that there young forwards (Sheppard, Pouliot, Gillies) in the same way that Bouchard and Koivu have in the past few years. It appears that Gaborik will not be with this team after this year, then again with his injuries, it barely seems like he is a part of the team anyways. The Wild also have a decision to make in the off-season whether to re-sign Backstrom to a significant or to hand over the starting goaltending job to Harding. Injuries have hurt this team the most and some questionable drafting as well.
11. St. Louis: The Blues are trying hard to blend to re-build and to provide a competitive team through free agents, and I don’t think they are succeeding. They have attractive players at forward and defence but can’t seem to put together a good enough team at either end of the ice. St. Louis defence looks most promising with Johnson (injured), Pietrangelo (OHL), and current NHL’ers Jackman and Brewer making a good looking top 4 next season. At forward, it has been inconsistency and some injuries that are hurting the Blues; currently Kariya, McDonald, and Oshie have missed over 80 games between them. St. Louis’s forwards have decent talent, but may either need to develop more, become consistent, or simply play to their potential. Brad Boyes is the Blues only forward locked up for more than 2 seasons. In goal, St. Louis has Chris Mason locked up for next season but that’s it; whether Mason is a legitimate No. 1 goalie seems to be undecided.
12. Vancouver: The Canucks defence is one of the best in the league and have a nice mix of proven veterans and youngsters. Ohlund is the only top 6 d-men not locked up for next season, and Willie Mitchell is the other d-men not locked up beyond next season. In goal, a healthy Luongo is arguably the best goalie in the league but he needs to be locked up to a longer term, he’s only signed past next season. It’s Vancouver’s forwards that are the biggest question; the Canucks have only 1 player signed for two seasons and that player is Darcy Hordichuk. They only have 3 of their top 9 forwards signed for next season and their top three forwards, the Sedin’s and Sundin, aren’t signed beyond this year. Mike Gillis has done a fairly good job as a first year GM, but needs make some significant signings or trades to improve this team long term.
13. Colorado: The Avalanche are living on past glory. They have a decent number of players signed but they are expecting too much in both production and health from players like Joe Sakic, Darcy Tucker, Ryan Smyth, Tyler Arnason, Adam Foote, Scott Hannan, and Jordan Leopold. Colorado’s has signed or acquired many of these players to contracts based on their best seasons not based on their future seasons. Consequently, you get a lot of decent names playing for Colorado, while their talent drains away. Colorado has only two forwards signed beyond next season, Smyth and Stastny, both who are making more than 6 million. The Avalanche have 5 d-men signed for next season, but none signed beyond 3 seasons. Also those d-men are all making over 3 million each: Foote, Salei, Clark, Liles, and Hannan; try to convince me that they way those players are each worth 3 million or more. In goal, neither Budaj or Raycroft are signed beyond next year, though Budaj is a RFA. Then again maybe that’s a good thing because neither of those goalies are starters in NHL the way they are playing.
14. Anaheim: The Ducks have officially become old, not Chris Chelios old, but still an old team where most of their players are in their 30’s and if not signed, are UFA’s. On offence, the Ducks have some good top end talent in Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, and Kunitz, but have only Selanne and Ryan Carter signed beyond this season. On defence, the Ducks only have control over 4 defenceman for the next season whether signed or through RFA status, and currently only Pronger and Francois Beauchemin are real top 6 defenseman. In goal, Anaheim has J.S. Giguere locked up for two more seasons, and their back-up Jonas Hiller is emerging as a solid goalie, and he’s signed for another season as well. As a whole, the players that Anaheim has signed are quite talented and are all signed for acceptable or affordable contracts; the biggest problem for Anaheim is that they simply have so few players signed to contracts.
15. Dallas: The Stars have a good number of players signed but have a lot of players either past their prime or called on to play roles that they simply aren’t talented enough to play. Dallas could almost ice a full team for next year with the players that they currently have signed but that team would probably compete for one of the worst spots in the league. Dallas has four major problems: injuries, aging players, young players not developing, and Sean Avery. Avery’s contract is almost 4 million and may have to be bought out. The Stars age includes many of their top players who simply aren’t signed beyond this season or may no longer be able to their contract value: see Zubov, Modano, Lehtinen, and Sydor. Their young players not developing describes Brunnstrom, Neal who were expected to be top 6 forwards, and Daley, Robidas, Niskanen, and Fistric were all expected to contribute more or develop into top 4 forwards. For injuries see Zubov, Morrow, Lehtinen, Lundqvist, Ott, and Brunnstrom. Dallas only real strength is in goal. Turco had a rough start but appears to be the top 5 goalie that he has been for the last few years and he is signed for two more years. The only other quality signings the Stars have is Ribeiro and Morrow both signed for 4 more years at just over 9 million between the two of them.
posted by Aidan Tiefenbach at
2:23 PM
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