NHL Preview: Pacific Division

By: Ben Malley

1. Anaheim (1)

The Ducks are the defending champions and despite losing two of their best players you can hardly say they’ve even taken a step back. Sure Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne will be missed, but Todd Bertuzzi and Matthieu Schneider are admirable replacements.

Brian Burke will have been glad to part with Dustin Penner for the price Kevin Lowe paid for him. An Oilers first round compensation draft pick looks nice and tasty this year with Edmonton sure to miss the playoffs and maybe even finish at the bottom of the conference. With two legitimate number one goalies and (number two draft pick behind Sidney Crosby) Bobby Ryan in the mix we are talking about a team that will coast into the playoffs.

2. San Jose (4)

Coach Ron Wilson may have just one more year to get it right. With a couple of seasons worth of playoff disappointments the Sharks come back with no goalie dilemmas (Evgeni Nabokov is the undisputed number one with Vesa Toskala in Toronto) and a young core that is one year older. All 23 or younger, defensemen Matt Carle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic and forwards Steve Bernier, Joe Pavelski and Milan Michalek should be even better this season. And much hyped 2005 first round pick Devin Setoguchi has made the team after recovering from the knee injury that forced him to spend another season in juniors last year.

Wilson has been experimenting with Patrick Marleau on the top line with Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo in preseason. If this line stays together it is the best line in hockey. With the loss of defensive stalwart Scott Hannan to Colorado, the Sharks may look to add to their young blueline sometime this season, but their wealth of young forwards and top goaltender make them a cup favorite once again.

3. Dallas (8)

The Stars won’t score a lot of goals, but they won’t give up many either. Regular season standout goaltender Marty Turco proved the doubters wrong in last years playoffs, his team just couldn’t manage enough goals for him in the only seven game series in the entire 2007 playoffs.

The team lost the non-effective Ladislav Nagy to Los Angeles and scoring help is expected from a group of players who had down seasons last year. Mike Modano, Brendan Morrow and Jere Lehtinen, three names synonymous with the Dallas Stars, have seen their numbers decline. Morrow took over the captaincy last season, but only played half the year due to injuries. Modano missed a quarter of the season, which saw one year wonder Mike Ribeiro lead the team in scoring (59 points).

The team is led on defense by Mattias Norstrom who will stick his face in front of a puck if it helps the team. Sergei Zubov and Phillipe Boucher are guaranteed big point getters on the power play. Dallas should make the playoffs if Modano and Morrow can stay healthy and get back to 65 points each. Todd Fedoruk will attempt to make a return to the league with Dallas after having his head bashed in by Minnesota’s tough-guy Derek Boogard last year.

4. Los Angeles

The Kings season will rest on its goaltending questions again this year. Last year when Dan Cloutier wasn’t letting beach balls into his net he was injured. This year he was waived and with nobody taking on his contract he will sit in Manchester. Jason Labarbara had an outstanding year in AHL and 19-year-old QMJHL prospect Jonathan Bernier has impressed in the pre-season.

The Kings brought in a group of five marginal free agents to shore up their young foundation. Ladislav Nagy and Michael Handzus hope to find the chemistry they had in St. Louis and Phoenix. Kyle Calder will probably play a third line role, but has impressed in the pre-season and may find his way onto the top six. Patrick O’ Sullivan and Anze Kopitar are entering their second seasons. Kopitar was well on his way to a runner-up finish for the Calder behind Evgeni Malkin until he missed his team’s last 10 games due to injury. Kopitar will play with Michael Cammalleri whose point per game pace last season led the team in scoring.

The blue line should be one of the best in the league with Lubomir Visnovsky a legitimate elite point scoring defenseman alongside the Lidstroms and the Gonchars of the world. Tom Preissing and Brad Stuart were added along with the first full season of Jack Johnson and Rob Blake in a contract year. Solid goaltending would be enough to get this team into the playoffs, but as of now that’s still a huge question mark.

5. Phoenix

The Coyotes shouldn’t be very good. They have not added anyone of note and a team that finished near the bottom of the conference last season should stay there during their rebuilding process. With Curtis Joseph gone, three mediocre goalies, Vancouver/Florida cast off Alex Auld, Colorado/Montreal castoff David Aebischer, and former Toronto backup Mikael Tellqvist will fight for the number one job.

Ed Jovanovski is somehow getting paid $6.5 million. They will hope to move that salary at some point this season as it doesn’t come off the books for another four years. Young center Peter Mueller is a bright spot prospect on a team that lacks scoring punch. There isn’t a lot of good things to say other than the Coyotes may get the number one pick and the honor of drafting Oshawa’s John Tavares, the CHL’s MVP last season.