How the East could be won 1. Ottawa Senators As much as I hate to say it, they're still very good despite losing Chara and Havlat. Their defense doesn't have the star power that it did last year but the addition of Corvo as well as being able to re-sign Redden is key. Also, their goaltending is stronger than it was by the end of last year. A healthy Hasek made Ottawa pretty much unstoppable, but once he got hurt it made them beatable. This is nothing against Emery, I think he was great last year, but compared to a healthy Hasek, it's no contest. This year they have a 1a and 1b goaltending tandem, similar to Carolina's last year with Gerber and Ward, with Gerber and Emery. If one does go on a cold streak, it's likely the other won't, so they are less vulnerable there. With the loss of Havlat, it inevitably means the break up of the super-line (Heatly-Spezza-Alfreddson). There are two reasons for this, first being the fact that they now have no second line scoring, the other being that Heatly isn't comfortable playing left wing and would rather change it. So I'm thinking the top two lines will have Spezza and Alfreddson on the 1st line and Heatly and Schafer or someone on the 2nd. They are still very skilled and very good. 2. Carolina Hurricanes Why aren't the defending Stanley Cup winners on top? Well simple answer to that is Ward hasn't shown he can play in an 82 game season. If you look back to the beginning of last season, Ward was the starting goalie for Carolina when they came off with that hot start, however he tailed off close to the mid-point of the year and eventually had to be sent down to the minors. The Hurricanes then called him up closer to the end of the season as Gerber's backup and then in the playoffs, well... you know what happened. If a similar situation happens, the Hurricanes don't have a "Gerber" to fall back on, instead they have John Grahame, and if you recall, Ottawa had no problem with Grahame, and Tortorella made sure everyone knew it. On top of that Frantisek Kaberle, leading defenseman point getter, is out 6 months due to a blown knee and Aaron Ward, another solid defenseman, jumped ship to the New York Rangers. All of these things will affect the Stanley Cup Champs, but if Cam Ward can be the goalie that everyone saw him as during the playoffs, the champs will be fine. 3. New York Rangers The Rangers surprised everyone last year with their play. They don't have a stud defenseman but their defense is very solid with the no name players they do have. They had 4 players in the top 20 in +/- with Rosival leading the league with +35 with Wade Redden. The additions that they made will help in Aarron Ward and Brendan Shanahan (who was also in the top 20 of +/-). They a future superstar goalie in Henrik Lundqvist and star young forward Peter Prucha to go along with Jagr to make a formidable force of defense and scoring. However, we?ll see if Jagr will be the Jagr of last year, formidable in every way, or the Jagr of before the lockout who just couldn?t care less. If it?s the latter, then NYR could be in for a long year. 4. Buffalo Sabres The only reason I don't have them higher is because I can't see them beating out Ottawa for the division. Like NYR, their defense has no big names but they get the job done. They are a very quick fast pace team which is fun to watch, even if they ARE the Sabres. Co-Captains Danny Briere and Chris Drury are both excellent leaders and capable of being big time players in the new NHL. Add a healthy Connoley and Afiniganov and this team is still nasty despite losing Dumont. Their goaltending is still superb with Ryan Miller in net, who is capable of challenging Lundqvist as the best young goalie around, plus they still have Marty Biron... for now. I expect Biron to be traded sooner rather than later but expect a good return for them to help ease the pain of losing Dumont. The only thing I see hurting this team is the loss of Jay McKee to St. Louis. However, this team shown in the playoffs that their defense is not made up of just one person when most of their defense fell due to injury. 5. New Jersey Devils Remarkably, the Devils managed to keep their team intact after being above or close to the salary cap all off-season. The Devils managed to convince the league that Alexander Mogilny?s injury was in result of their minor league affiliate team, rather than the big club, so that his $3.5 million salary doesn?t go against the cap this season. Also, General Manager Lou Lamoriello managed to trade Vladimir Malakov plus a first round pick to San Jose for Alexander Korolyuk and Jim Fahey. Korolyuk is a good young player who San Jose couldn?t get under contract last year so he played in Russia so if Lou can get him under contract, they?re that much better. Also what these events mean is that the Devils are able to re-sign 40 goal man Brian Gionta and steady young defenseman Paul Martin, who were both restricted free agents waiting for a contract. With those additions with the point producing of Patrick Elias and goaltending of Martin Brodeur, the New Jersey Devils will be in the playoffs and contending as always. 6. Philadelphia Flyers Health, defense, and goaltending is always an issue for this team. They have Forsberg as their new captain, but as we all know he tends to have long periods of absences. The Flyers aren't as strong as they once were and will need to rely on the younger players more such as Gagne, Richards, and Carter. Their defense is led by Joni Pitkanen, where if he were to get hurt their defense would be in shambles due to Johnsson leaving for the Minnesota Wild. It's scary, for a change goaltending could be a strong point for them this year with Esche and Niitimakii up for them. However, right now Niitimakii is out of the line up for at least a month and Esche has not always been that consistent where he?ll be amazing one night and horrid the next. If the worst happens, they could fall out of the playoff picture 7. Montreal Canadiens Les Habitant seems stronger than it has been for many many years. They didn't really lose anything since last season, plus they added Samsonov and a healthy Koivu. Their defense looks solid when healthy with Sheldon Souray and the newly acquired Janne Niinimaa to go with Mathieu Dandenault on defense. Right now the defense is banged up but they should be fine later in the season. The only question I have is can Huet do it again? Christobal Huet is a 31 year old goaltender who all of a sudden came out of nowhere to steal the starting job from Jose Theodore and take them to the 7th seed in the playoffs. During the pre-season Huet has been very shaky and not the same goalie we saw back in April. If Huet can be the goalie we saw last year, Montreal will contend in the playoffs. If he doesn?t, then they could fall and fall hard. 8. Boston Bruins The Bruins, like the Canadiens, have the same type of goalie problems. However their defense looks absolutely amazing with Chara, Brad Stuart, and Paul Mara to head it up. Offensively Bergeron and Boyes will use their speed and youth to really take it to opponents, while Glen Murray will do what he does best... score. With the addition of Marc Savard and put him in between Murray, Bergeron, or Boyes then point totals will only go up. On top of that, Phil Kessel will be a very good bright spot for the Bruins, being ready to step in right out of college. As I said, goaltending is an issue for them, can Tim Thomas do what he did at the end of the season again for the Bruins, or will they have to turn to Toivanen to do the job. Or what might possibly happen is former Leaf prospect Tuuka Rask might get up there, probably not this year but maybe next year. But in this league you need to get some sort of goaltending in order to win. If Thomas or Toivanen can?t do the job, then the Bruins will have to find other means to do so. 9. Atlanta I had a hard time deciding between the Thrashers and Bruins for who makes the playoffs and who doesn't. They both have great scoring, but one has something the other doesn't. The Thrashers have the goalie that Boston needs in Lethinen, this guy is up there with Lundqvist and Miller in my opinion (if he stays healthy). The reason Atlanta ended up 9th instead of Boston is that Atlanta lost more than they received in the off-season. Boston improved greatly over the off-season which is easily seen in their defense, which is head over heals better than Atlanta's, especially after they traded Modry to the Stars. Last year if Lethinen was healthy all year I think they might have been a 5-8 seed in the east. Now I don't think they're as good without Savard and Modry. 10. Toronto Maple Leafs You can never discount the Leaf factor. They always do tend to surprise people, whether it being better than they should be, or worse then they are. Last year they had that last surge to try and make the playoffs and if they had more time, they probably would have done it. Unfortunately, all this really did was give the people of Toronto false hope of how good this team really is. Over the off-season they went out and took a risk on Raycroft, replaced Allison with Peca, and really shored up the blue line with Kubina and Gill. Under new coach Paul Maurice I think we'll see the Leafs be a lot more like what we saw at the end of the season rather than the beginning. With Raycroft, you can really only go by your gut feeling on how well he'll do this year. Personally, I'd like to think that the lockout, as well as injury problems contributed to his horrible sophomore season. But knowing the Leafs luck he'll flop again, thus is the luck of Leaf fans. Like I said, getting Peca, pretty much just replaces losing Allison, hopefully Peca's leadership and the fact that he's home push him to have a better season then he had last year. With the additions of Kubina and Gill, I think the Leafs have a decent top 4 defense. After all the whining about McCabe's and Kubina's contract on how much they got, the way it turned out comparing it to some other one's (Chara) they were a steal. The one issue with the Leafs defense is that, when it comes to McCabe and Kaberle, one is nothing without the other. Leafs better pray one doesn't get hurt otherwise it?s like they lost two defensemen. Kaberle is the puck carrier, he?s the one responsible for getting the puck from the defensive side to the offensive side without turning it over. McCabe has the nasty point shot, which is feared amongst goalies. Kubina was Tampa's #1 defenseman on their run to the Stanley Cup and really excelled, he could also play with Kaberle if need be because they have good chemistry together from playing in the Olympics. Gill is iffy here though. I don't think Boston was using him right last year which contributed to his bad year. I can see him being the type of guy in front of your own net clearing guys out of the way with his gigantic size (which rivals Chara). However he's a liability with the puck, so we'll see. Also look for improvements from young Leafs like Stajan, Steen, and Wellwood. I can see the Leafs anywhere from 7-11 depending on if everything goes right for them or not. 11. Florida Panthers Despite the odd loss of Keenan before the season even started, I really like what the Panthers did. With the Luongo trade I think they've become a more well-rounded team. Auld with Belfour will make a good 1-2 tandem, especially when Belfour goes down (and he WILL go down). Auld got a bad rap in Vancouver just because Vancouver is very hard on their goalies. Look for him to excel in a market like Florida. With the addition of Bryan Allen, the Panthers get another solid defenseman which is making their defense become slowly more solid with players like Boumeester and Mike Van Ryn also in the mix. Last but not least, getting Bertuzzi was key. Even though he has had a rough couple of years in Vancouver he should be great for Florida. Just the pure fact that he's out of Vancouver will make him that much better because he will be left alone and has the possibility to put the Moore incident behind him (unless Moore wants to put a lawsuit in Europe against him cause he has distant relatives there who were emotionally shaken from the incident ). Plus he finally has a top quality centre to feed him pucks in Jokinen, which he never really had in Vancouver, though Morrison was decent, but not to the caliber of Olli Jokinen. 12. Tampa Bay Lightning I honestly think aside from Lecavalier, Richards, and possibly St. Louis, they aren't that good. Their defense is alright, but not great with young Paul Ranger and solid players like Filip Kuba and Dan Boyle, but compared to others it's nothing special unless they all of a sudden prove to be like the Rangers and Sabres. They traded Freddy Modin for Marc Denis this off-season to settle their goalie problems, but I think they needed Modin more, like Ottawa, TB doesn't have much 2nd line scoring. Modin came into his own after being dealt to the Lightning from the Maple Leafs for Corey Cross and seems like he'll continue to improve, especially at the prospect of playing with Rick Nash, Sergei Federov, Nikolai Zherdev, and Anson Carter in Columbus. Marc Denis has always been "Okay" at best for the Blue Jackets but was never able to lead them to anything good. So we'll see if that changes for him, but I doubt it. 13. Pittsburgh Penguins They still need defense, but if they can outscore everyone and Fleury stands on his head, they would be ahead of the Islanders and possibly the Capitals. Crosby will have Malkin to play with and vice versa and they'll just feed off each other all year. Fleury can stand on his head from time to time, but just like Luongo's stay in Florida, he can't be pelted with 50 shots and be expected to win all the time. Gonchar, though I'm not sure if he's able to, needs to step up his defensive game. That isn't what he gets paid for, but the Pittsburgh organization should make it clear to him that now it is. It's possible you could see the younger Staal up with the big club to, which will also add to the amazing youth that this team has. 14. Washington Capitals This team reminds me of Calgary a bit before they got to be where they are now. It's a very hard working team, and aside from Ovechkin and Kolzig, most people haven't heard of their players. However, they haven't clicked yet. They are still very young but they will continue to improve over the course of the next few years. Their draft pick Nick Backstrom will be in Europe for one more year but once he comes over, already comparisons to Forsberg are being made. Combine that with a player of Ovechkin's calibre then watch out. 15. New York Islanders Yes the punch line to every NHL joke will probably end up dead last in the East, possibly the league depending on how St. Louis, Chicago, and Columbus do in the West. Moral is probably low in the room... well maybe not for DiPietro who got his 15 year deal all done and is now set for life, but for the rest of the team who found hope when Neil Smith was hired, were shocked when he got fired, and was just confused when Garth Snow was hired, coming straight form being their backup goalie. They do have some good young talent like Robert Nilsson and Jeff Tamballini, plus they do have a good core of veterans like Zhitnik, Witt, and Poti. But their season depends on one guy and one guy only.... Alexei Yashin. If Yashin pulls a Jagr and just decides to play then you could see NYI in the playoffs because everyone will just feed off their captain. However, if he does what he normally does, this is where they'll end up. As for goaltending, DiPietro is solid and will have that spot in the blue paint for the next 15 years, so for better or worse Long Island will have to just deal with the goaltending they have now. So as an overview this is what I have the standings for the East. How the West could be won 1. Calgary Flames There are plenty of teams to choose from for this spot. I could easily see it being a few of them. However, Calgary has all the ingredients this year to be successful in the west. In the past their main problem has always been offense, they relied to much on Iginla. This past off-season, they went out and got Alex Tanguay from the Colorado Avalance and Jeff Friezen who jumped from the Anaheim Ducks. Friezen has had a rough couple of years on some bad teams recently. Though before that he could put up points in bunches. If he plays on the top line with Iginla and Tanguay then he should be able to reach those numbers again. Tanguay was a clutch and prolific scorer for the Avalanche. He has won a Stanley Cup and has played with great players before in Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. He will fit in well with Iginla and only help him out. Add that with the foreseen improvement of young players like Matthew Lombardi and Kristian Huselius and point totals should go through the roof. Even though they had to trade long time defenseman Jordan Leopold to acquire Tanguay, the Calgary defense is still probably the best in the league. Led by Robyn Regehr and super sophomore Dion Phaneuf, no one is going to get by them. Phaneuf in any other year would probably have been rookie of the year last season, but unfortunately for him, Alexander Ovechkin and Sydney Crosby were also rookies. To go along with those two they have solid veteran defensemen in Roman Hamrlik, Brad and Andrew Ference, and Rhett Warrener. Also, if any of those guys were to go down, they have Richie Regehr (Robyn?s brother) waiting in the wings to be called up. Now on top of having probably the best defense in the game, they have probably the best goalie too in Miikka Kiprusoff. This man won the Jennings Trophey for having the best goals against average last year and won the Vezina Trophy for being the best goalie in the league. The last thing that contributes to this decision is that the Northwest division has become weaker with Colorado losing a lot of talent and Chris Pronger bolting Edmonton. However, as those two teams got weaker, Vancouver and Minnesota got stronger so we?ll see how that goes. I could see them getting the President?s Trophy too if they play their cards right. 2. San Jose Sharks This is the team I can see winning it all. They have their star players in Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Patrick Marleau. They have their young up and coming players in Milan Michalek, Matt Carle, and Steve Bernier. They have their solid defense that only gets better with Scott Hannan, Kyle McLaren, and Christian Ehrhoff. Plus they have a 1a and 1b goalies in Vessa Toskala and Evgeni Nabokov. On top of that they have the gritty players to make sure no one takes any liberties with their stars in Mike Grier and Ville Nieminen. Right now, for a full 82 game season I don?t see them being able to hold up 1st place in the west when going up against teams like Calgary, but they can defiantly win their division and defiantly make a lot of noise in the playoffs. 3. Nashville Predators They are going to do what they?ve been trying to do since their inception in 1997. That was to take out the Red Wings, their biggest rivals, and become Central division champions. This is a team with no real superstars, only one that could be considered that is goaltender Thomas Vokuun. But this is a team, like the Flames, built on hardwork. Offensively they have players like Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan and Jason Arnott to carry the load while also managing to pick up JP Dumont from Buffalo. Defensively, while still young and unknown throughout most the league, they have Dan Hamhuis, Ryan Suter, and Shea Webber as well as veterans like Marek Zidlicky, and Kimmo Timonen. In goal they have one of the best in the league in Thomas Vokuun, and if he didn?t get hurt last year, the Predators should have gone farther in to the playoffs, though they ran into the aforementioned Sharks in the first round. 4. Anaheim Ducks The Ducks may not be ?Mighty? anymore, but their defiantly is. After surprising everyone last year and making it to the Western Conference Finals, the Ducks only got better in acquiring one of the men who beat them in Chris Pronger from the Edmonton Oilers for Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid, and a couple of draft picks. Put him along with multi-Norris Trophy winner Scott Neidermayer and you have the best defensive pairing in the world. While they did lose some scoring in Lupul, they didn?t by that much. Andy McDonald was a surprise last year getting them 85 points. They have Teemu Selanne who led the team in points and was a real leader for the younger players. Plus they have Ryan Getzlaf and Cory Perry as good young players who are just coming into their own. In net, just like a bunch of teams they have a 1a and 1b goalie in Ilya Bryzgalov and J.S. Guigere. One of them could be moved by mid season but if one falters, the other will be there to back him up. Now this team is remarkably similar to Calgary, these two arguably have the two best defenses in the league, while I think Calgary?s is the best right now, Anaheim?s will be better in the not too distant future with Francois Beauchemin developing as well. Also I just think San Jose?s firepower upfront is too much for any team to handle which is why I don?t have them winning the Pacific Division. 5. Dallas Stars The shootout masters should be up in the league standings again ready to play for the cup. This year Mike Modano was stripped of the C, most likely his decision to relief the pressure being the leader in the dressing room as well as on the ice. Look for him to have a break out year with the team. As for the captaincy, Brenden Morrow takes the honor, who has always been a good presence in the dressing room. Defense they have Norris trophy finalist Sergei Zubov as well as veteran defensemen in Darryl Sydor, Jaroslav Modry, and Trevor Daly (who isn?t really a veteran but solid none the less). Up front a long with Modano they have young Jussi Jokinen, the solid Jeff Halpern and Jere Lethinen, the irritating Mike Ribero, and the fragile Eric Lindros, who if healthy can be a force. If Dallas keeps playing Lindros on the wing, he?ll be less likely to sustain an injury and probably be more effective offensively. In goal, Marty Turco has always been great in the regular season. Last year for a good while was considered as MVP of the league. However, a great player is defined by the playoffs and Turco hasn?t been so great there. If he can get his act together there, Dallas will be seen as more of a threat throughout the league than they are now. If not, Turco could be the next Patrick Lalime, being booted out of town and never get back into the form he once was. 6. Detroit Red Wings The Red Wings free fall down the standings started this off-season where they lost Steve Yzerman to retirement, Brendan Shanahan to the New York Rangers, and Manny Legace to the St. Louis Blues. To replace the leadership of Yzerman and Shanahan, the Wings turn to the future in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. This is just as well because they are superstars in their own right. They are also relying on good players like Mikael Samuelsson and rookie Juri Hudler to pick up some point production with Shanahan gone. However they?re main concern comes in goal. With the loss of Legace the Red Wings were left scrambling to find a replacement. They ended up with a 41 year old Dominik Hasek, where just like Belfour, it?s highly unlikely he?ll stay healthy. To back him up they have 35 year old Chris Osgood to back him up. It?s shaky at best that situation, both are injury prone. On top of that, while they have the defending Norris Trophy winner Nik Lidstrom, they have an aging defense with 40 year old Chris Chelios and 37 year old Matheiu Schneider. However, they are hoping young Nik Kronwall will be able to bail them out of that situation. The way I see the Wings is that their window just shut, but a new window is about to open. They have a lot of good young players waiting in the wings and will be led by Zetterberg and Datsyuk to get them back to the Stanley Cup, just not this year. 7. Vancouver Canucks Goaltending can mean everything, and for the Canucks case it does. The Canucks in the past have had everything but the goaltending. These days however, they lost a lot of everything else, but they finally get the superstar goalie they deserve. Roberto Luongo in my mind is right behind Kiprusoff as the best goalie in the league. On a bad team, facing 50 shots a night, he still was one of the best goalies in the league. The defense in front of Luongo, though it took a major hit when they lost Ed Jovanovski to the Phoenix Coyotes, the defense led by Mattias Ohlund, Sami Salo, and Willie Mitchell is a big 3 defense that many teams would die for. Offensivly, Naslund will be depended upon to bring most of the offense, however after the loss of Bertuzzi, and Anson Carter, goals will be hard to come by. They will have to rely more upon the skills of Henrik and Daniel Sedin to bring them offense. If there is no offense, then Vancouver should not make the playoffs, however I don?t see them lacking in that department enough for them to miss out. 8. Phoenix Coyotes Phoenix is a veteran team with a short window to make the playoffs. They have a 37 year old Curtis Joseph in net, who can still play, but not as well as he did with the Leafs 4 years ago. On defense they have Ed Jovanovski, Nick Boynton, Derek Morris, and Keith Ballard who are all very solid, except for Jovo who is a top defenseman in the league. Offensively they also look very solid with captain Shane Doan, Ladislav Nagy, Mike Comrie, and the outspoken Jeremy Ronick. If these guys are able to get it going, then I can conceivably see them making the playoffs and making some noise. But that is up to Mr. Gretzky to put it all together. However, whatever Gretzky touches turns to gold, so I wouldn?t be surprised if they do. 9. Minnesota Wild The Wild have improved in all three areas this offseason. They acquired Pavel Demitra to set up Marian Gaborik, got Kim Johnnson from the Flyers to shore up their blue line, and it was an addition by subtraction mid year last year when they got rid of Dwayne Roloson to the Oilers so Manny Fernandez can have the starting job, which makes life easier on the goalie. What Demitra does is relief a lot of the pressure from Marian Gaborik to score all the time. Demitra is a superstar in his own right and will help make the offense that much better. What?s Philly?s loss is Minny?s gain. Kim Johnsson is a good puck moving defenseman who is able to get the puck from when end of the ice to the other, which is hard to come by these days. If you add him with Keith Carney, Brent Burns, and young Nick Shultz, while very unknown, this Wild defense will quietly be one of the better one?s in the league. However, if someone below surprises the Wild could be easily knocked out of the playoff picture. 10. Edmonton Oilers If I were doing this at the same time a year ago, I would say that if Edmonton got any sort of goaltending they would win the West. Well eventually they ended up getting Roloson and they won the west. This year, it?s a different story. After the loss of Pronger and Jaroslav Spacek on the blue line, and after Marc-Andre Bergeron had his gaff in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals, his confidence can be shaken, the defense is not as good as it was last year, in fact, no where near as good. They have a bunch of solid defensemen in Steve Staios, Ladislav Smid, and Jason Smith but it?s just not enough to compete for the cup, especially in this conference. Unfortunately for the Oil, a big reason Roloson was as good as he was in the playoffs was because of the defense in front of him. I don?t expect Roloson to do as well in net as last year because this is someone who needs a good defense in order to be a good goalie, I don?t see him as one who can carry a team by himself. If Edmonton wants to get anywhere, they are going to have to rely on their offense. Joffery Lupul, the player acquired for Pronger, is a good young player and scored 20 plus goals last year. Also his grandfather is an owner of the Oilers so he should be very settled in. Ryan Smyth is going to need to lead the charge, the gritty forward will have to lead by example and be among team leaders in points. Look for Ales Hemsky to go farther than he did last year and really tear the up the league points wise. If they can outscore everyone, look for them to be back in the 8th seed ready to try again for the cup. 11. Colorado Avalanche If Colorado wants to contend, they?re going to have to rely a lot on Captain Canada, Joe Sakic, to get them going. Like the Oilers, the Avs are going to need the offense to carry the load. Along with Sakic, they have Milan Hejduk and Marek Svatos to carry the load offensively for them. Svatos was 3rd in rookie scoring behind Ovechkin and Crosby before he got hurt last year, while Hejduk started the year off with a major injury but is fully recovered for it now. This year, their defense is shot after Rob Blake left Colorado to go back to the Los Angeles Kings. Now patrolling the blue line, they?re going to have to rely on players like John-Michael Liles, Patrice Brisebois, Jordan Leopold, and Kenny Klee. In goal, they have former Vezina winning goaltender Jose Theodore who had an off-year last year. If Colorado is to go anywhere, they need Theodore to return to the glory he had with the Canadiens in 2002. 12. Los Angeles Kings This was a tough choice to make. The LA Kings have made themselves worse for the present when they traded Pavel Demitra to Minnesota for a 1st round pick and Patrick O?Sullivan who was the Wild?s top prospect. The Kings are going to be a younger team with some veteran presence. Anze Kopitar will get time on the top line with Craig Conroy and Alexander Frolov. While they managed to bring long time King Rob Blake, back into the sunshine to shore up their defense. Blake can still play and be a quarterback for their team?s powerplay. Put him with Visnovsky and you have a deadly power play. As for in goal, look for Dan Cloutier to have a bounce back year. He was playing extremely well before he got hurt at the beginning of last year for the Canucks, and was done for the year. He has something to prove and I think he will. 13. St. Louis Blues Now I find this a very interesting team. There is no doubt that they have improved this year. But I think if they?re healthy, they could have one of the best defenses in the league. With Calder Trophy winner, Barret Jackman, good young d-man Christian Backman, potential top defenseman in the league in Eric Brewer, solid veteran defenseman in Jay McKee, a top young prospect in Jeff Woywitka and if they can convince #1 draft choice Eric Johnson to play in the near future, their defense would be formidable. This year it?s unlikely Johnson will play for the team, but in the near future he could. Up front they went out and got Doug Weight back from the Hurricanes after trading him last year, got Bill Guerin who had an off year after the lockout and is looking to prove he can still play, and if Keith Tkachuck can stay fit, he will be able to produce the way he has in the past. Add speedy winger Radek Dvorak and assist machine Petr Cajanek and you have yourself an offense. They also went out and got starting goalie Manny Legace off free agency who should solidify their goaltending. Though if he doesn?t work out in net, Curtis Sandford has shown he is capable to be the starting goalie for this club. This could be a dark horse to make the playoffs if the stars a line for them 14. Columbus Blue Jackets This team will be a very offensively gifted team in Ohio this year. They finally managed to re-sign young forward Nikolai Zherdev to play along with Sergei Fedorov (who is hurt), and goal scoring machine Rick Nash. They?ve also created a 2nd line when acquiring Fred Modin from the Tampa Bay Lightning and Anson Carter of the Free Agent market, both of which should be centered by young Gilbert Brule who will be contending for Rookie of the Year this year. Defensively, aside from Adam Foote, it isn?t very solid. They have Bryan Berard who is still playing with one eye and there are still questions around steroids with him. Even if he can play, he is purely an offensive defenseman. Other than those two defensemen, they are either unproven young players, or players who couldn?t make other teams like Anders Eriksson who couldn?t make it on the Leafs blue line, in which at the time was a pretty sad thing. In net they have a young goalie in Pascal Leclair, who is unproven, but will probably be solid for them considering the lack of defense in front of him. 15. Chicago Blackhawks Now the west is so bunched together that they could very easily be all the way up to 12th. This will be a very young, exciting team who will turn some heads this year. Look for Brent Seabrook to be the Dion Phaneuf of this year and lead the Blackhawk defense. Also look for Adrian Aucoin and Nikolai Khabiboulin to have bounce back years then they did last year. Michael Handzus will also be a good addition for the Chicago team where he will probably help out. Martin Havlat will be the major point producer and may cause them to leap frog a bunch of teams in the west as the new face of the team. I don?t see them making the playoffs at all this year, but their time will come soon.