Last year?s conference placement and regular season record in italics Chicago Blackhawks 2009-10: 2nd, 52-22-8, 112 points Last year?s division and Stanley Cup Champions had a ton of roster turnover this offseason; unfortunately they were forced to break up the winning roster because of severe salary cap issues. 2010-11 marks the first season of the big extensions signed by Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Dave Bolland, putting them millions above the salary cap maximum and necessitating the exodus of players you see below. Three of those casualties are capable of being top-6 forwards on contending teams, but the biggest domino to fall was Cup winning goalie Antii Niemi. They tried to replace him with an older, cheaper model in Marty Turco; and it may very well work because he has yet to win in the playoffs and will have a chip on his shoulder. To fill their vacant forward spots, they will look to internal improvements from players like Bolland and Troy Brouwer. On top of that, they will also look to the influx of low-salaried youngsters yet to make an impact in the NHL, a hope that I fear will not come to fruitition and thus the drop from tops in the division to second place. There is no doubt this is still a very talented hockey team, but they are not nearly as deep as they were up front last season, and over the course of an 82-game season that will make a big difference. Their defense remains their strength, and they could surely ride it into at least the second round of the playoffs. Prediction: 2nd in the Central, 4th in the Western Conference Additions: Marty Turco, Viktor Stalberg, Fernando Pisani, Jeremy Morin, Chris Didomenico, Ivan Vishnevskiy. Losses: Antii Niemi, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Brent Sopel, Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager, John Madden, Colin Fraser. Unsigned: Kim Johnsson. Columbus Blue Jackets 2009-10: 14th, 32-35-15, 79 points If you are a Blue Jackets fan, you may want to just close this window right now, because you surely won?t be happy with what you are about to read. When a team finishes next to last in your conference, and with the fourth-lowest point total in the entire league, one would expect big changes to take place in order to turn those fortunes around, especially when they made the playoffs the year before. Instead, they added one veteran who played on the only Western Conference team worse than Columbus last season. Clearly they are looking for a huge bounce-back year from goalie Steve Mason, who endured a brutal sophomore slump last season, and he is more than capable of doing so. They also didn?t get a full season out of Rick Nash, and are hoping to see him regain his 40+ goal touch. Antoine Vermette, acquired the year before from Ottawa, was a very pleasant surprise and gives some reason for hope going forward, but they will clearly need more out of players like Derick Brassard and Nikita Filatov. The one positive thing the organization did do this offseason was hire rookie head coach Scott Arniel; he was heavily courted this offseason and brings some hope through his teaching abilities shown in the AHL. Prediction: 5th the in Central, 13th in the Western Conference Additions: Ethan Moreau. Losses: Nathan Paetsch. Unsigned: None. Detroit Red Wings 2009-10: 5th, 44-24-14, 102 points Predicting Detroit to finish on top of the division will surely get me some ?homer? e-mails, but hear me out. Last year, Detroit was decimated by injuries to key players, moreso than most teams in the league (Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Tomas Holmstrom, Dan Cleary, Jonathan Ericsson and Kirk Maltby all missed at least eight games, most of them many more). A healthy season, plus the addition of Mike Modano and re-addition of Jiri Hudler will provide better depth to withstand possible injuries. Their presence should also alleviate the pressure to Zetterberg and Datsyuk to carry the load offensively; both had sub par years last year. Detroit can and should also take advantage of the depleted Hawks lineup to regain division supremecy. The hope would be that goalie Jimmy Howard doesn?t suffer the same sophomore slump that Steve Mason did above, but he is quite a bit older and has played more ?professional? games (AHL) than Mason did going into year two. Detroit doesn?t have many more kicks at the can with captain Nicklas Lidstrom manning the blueline, so look for them to be motivated, their great coaching staff will ensure they will be. Prediction: 1st in the Central, 3rd in the Western Conference Additions: Mike Modano, Jiri Hudler, Ruslan Salei. Losses: Brett Lebda, Jason Williams. Unsigned: Andres Lilja. Nashville Predators 2009-10: 7th, 47-29-6, 100 points Nashville is the team that no one ever talks about going into a season, but after game number 82 is played, they always seem to be in the playoff picture, making it to the second season five of the last six years. A large part of their success is the tandem of GM David Poile and coach Barry Trotz, both of whom have been in their respective positions since Nashville?s very first season in 1998. The impressive part is that Nashville is forced to operate closer to the salary cap minimum than its maximum, so that Trotz received his very first Jack Adams nomination last year is puzzling at best. This will be a transitional year of sorts for the Preds, as captain Jason Arnott was traded, and they lost a couple of key defensemen in free agency ? a common reality because of their internal budget. They did manage to steal away Ryan Parent from Philadelphia and he could excel on this under the radar team with a sound defensive game plan, headed by new captain Shea Weber. The hope is that Weber inks a long term deal to give the organization an identity into the future, and many think he will. The solid offensive upgrades this summer should help the Preds score more than they did last year, especially if Patric Hornqvist scores at a 30-goal pace once again. Expect another playoff berth for the franchise, but don?t expect them to win their first ever playoff series. Prediction: 3rd in the Central, 6th in the Western Conference Additions: Sergei Kostitsyn, Matthew Lombardi, Ryan Parent, Jamie Lundmark, Matt Halischuk. Losses: Dan Hamhuis, Dan Ellis, Jason Arnott, Denis Grebeshkov. Unsigned: None. St. Louis Blues 2009-10: 9th, 40-32-10, 90 points The Blues appear to be the trendy pick to make the leap into the top-8 this season, but I?m not drinking the kool-aid. Yes, they bought high on goalie Jaroslav Halak and paid him handsomely, giving them security and semi-star power in net. And yes, they?.oh wait, that?s it. Outside of Halak, they didn?t improve themselves anywhere else. That is asking for a lot of internal improvements from their youngsters like T.J. Oshie, David Backes, David Perron, Carlo Colaiacovo, Eric Johnson, and hot prospect Alex Pietrangelo. It?s also asking a lot for Alex Steen to once again score at a 25+ goal pace. The retirement of Keith Tkachuk and semi-retirement of Paul Kariya leaves Andy McDonald and Eric Brewer among the only true veterans on the team to guide the youngsters to another level. Don?t get me wrong, I like a lot of their young pieces, but I don?t like them enough to foresee a playoff spot in the immediate future. Prediction: 4th in the Central, 10th in the Western Conference Additions: Jaroslav Halak, Vladimir Sobotka. Losses: Paul Kariya, Chris Mason, Keith Tkachuk, Lars Eller, Mike Weaver. Unsigned: None. Nick can be reached via email nickobergan@hotmail.com or on twitter @NickObergan Click here for the Atlantic Division