There looks like being two stand-out teams in the Western Central this season.
The Arizona Coyotes, like a few other teams, are in a transition phase where they have unashamedly been rebuilding. The team wasn’t good last season and it probably won’t be this season either, but that’s by design and they are now past the worst of it.
They have made some solid additions over the off-season. Matt Dumba, Sean Durzi and Troy Stecher will bring experience to the defensive end, whilst Jason Zucker, Alex Kerfoot and the returning Nick Bjugstad will help the attacking talent. Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther and Jack McBain have already shown glimpses of their potential at the NHL level and they’ll be joined this season by Logan Cooley.
The Coyotes’ 3rd overall pick in the 2022 draft was originally going to play another season with the University of Minnesota, but he’s decided to jump into the NHL right now and will be one of several reasons for neutrals to watch Arizona this season.
As we’re on the subject of rebuilds, the Chicago Blackhawks are now firmly in that category having seen legends Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews depart.
The reward for their terrible 22-23 season was to win the Connor Bedard sweepstake. Considered by many to be the best amateur talent since the last great Connor (McDavid), the number one overall draft pick from earlier this year is immediately being landed with great expectations as a ‘generational talent’.
The Blackhawks have taken the smart approach of bringing in veterans Corey Perry and Nick Foligno to be Bedard’s mentors off the ice and his bodyguards on it. Taylor Hall has also come across in a trade with Boston to add a good experienced linemate for Bedard to work with.
The only potential issue is that Chicago are still going to be a poor team this season. Expecting Bedard to be a world-beater immediately in that context could be expecting a little too much, although such is his talent that it’s not out of the question.
The Colorado Avalanche come into the 23-24 season with a big chip on their shoulders.
Last season, as defending Stanley Cup champions, they battled through bad luck with injuries to key players to win the division, only to see the upstart Seattle Kraken dump them out of the play-offs in the First Round in a memorable Game Seven.
Depressingly they will still be without the services of their captain Gabriel Landeskog for most, if not all, of the coming season; however, Valeri Nichushkin is ready to go after missing the final five games of the play-off series, albeit under a cloud regarding the still-mysterious Seattle hotel room incident.
Ryan Johansen has been acquired in a trade with Nashville and should fill the second line centre role that was such an issue last season, whilst Miles Wood and Jonathan Drouin will also be useful contributors, even though Wood’s six-year deal was one of the more curious contracts of the off-season.
The Dallas Stars made it all the way to the Western Conference Final last season before the eventual Stanley Cup champions, Vegas Golden Knights, brought their season to an end. So near, yet so far!
Their off-season transaction list is quite short, yet this is an instance where that’s of no concern. They didn’t lose much via free agency, they were able to keep mid-season addition Evgeni Dadonov by signing him to a new two-year contract, and they’ve added Matt Duchene on a relative steal of a deal on a 1-year, $3M contract.
In short, they already had a deep, high-quality roster and they’ve still got a deep, high-quality roster.
Describing them as middling Minnesota seems harsh; they surpassed 100 points last season and will be in the play-off hunt yet again in 23-24.
The thing is, the goal isn’t simply to make the play-offs, it’s to try to go all the way and win the Cup. The Wild have been a one-and-done team in each of the past four seasons and when you look at their roster heading into this season there aren’t many signs of clear improvement.
There’s no doubt about them being a good regular season team. They’ve still got quality in the forward lines with Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin are proven defenders and Goaltender Filip Gustavsson looked to take a real step forward last season.
But the questions persist as to whether they have enough to make a deep play-off run and there’s a risk they could even go the other way if they lose some key players for any length of time. Jared Spurgeon starting the season on the Injured Reserve list is not a good sign.
The Nashville Predators’ path looked set: after years of strong play they would be heading into a rebuild and starting to build the next competitive Preds team.
Then former Head Coach Barry Trotz rejoined the organisation to take over as General Manager, previous incumbent David Poile moving aside having been in the role since the team formed in 1997, and decided to go in a different direction.
Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn, Gustav Nyquist and Denis Gurianov have all been acquired as free agents and will be guided by new Head Coach Andrew Brunette.
There’s no getting away from it: the St. Louis Blues had a bit of a shocker in 2022-23.
Having finished third in the division in 21-22, they plummeted down to sixth last season and their total of 81 points was their lowest in an 82-game season since 2007-08.
In fairness to GM Doug Armstrong, that was partly by design as he recognised early that the season was heading south and acted decisively in trading players to amass three First Round draft picks.
With Kyrou, Thomas, Saad and Schenn on board you can expect the Blues to put last season’s disappointment behind them quickly. A play-off spot may be pushing it, but they should at least be in the running heading into the final month.
The Winnipeg Jets’ off-season has been dominated by departures, both actual and rumoured.
Want-away forward Pierre-Luc Dubois got his wish and is now in LA, whilst fan favourite Blake Wheeler is now a New York Ranger after he had the remaining five years of his contract bought out by the Jets to get some of his money of the books.
Top-line centre Mark Scheifele and top-end goalie Connor Hellebyuck are still with the team despite plenty of rumours that they would be traded before becoming Unrestricted Free Agents at the end of the coming season.
All of which could mean that the Jets take a step back and the main story will be what returns they get at the trade deadline; however, they got three decent players for Dubois (Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari) and if Scheifele and Hellebyuck are fired up with their free agency looming then Winnipeg may be a dark horse in the division.
UPDATE: 9 Oct. Winnipeg have just announced that they have signed both Scheifele and Hellebyuck to seven-year contract extensions!