Northwest Division Preview: Canucks See Rivals on Horizon

First place in the Northwest has been the exclusive possession of the Vancouver Canucks for the past few seasons, but now some contenders are emerging to challenge their dominance of the division.

NHL props

NHL futures

Calgary Flames

The season hasn’t even started yet, but already things are going less than smoothly for some of the Flames. New signing Roman Cervenka is dealing with a blood clot, while captain Jarome Iginla is coping with a groin strain and defenceman Anton Babchuk injured his shoulder while playing in the Kontinental Hockey League. On the positive side, Miikka Kiprusoff has performed well in training camp and keeps showing why he’s one of the more underrated goaltenders in the league. They still have Mike Cammalleri and Alex Tanguay ready to give ‘er, and new Flame Dennis Wideman will pitch in on the power play. Youngsters Sven Baertschi and T.J. Brodie may be ready for the big time if the established guys can’t stay healthy. Overall, though, they could use some scoring and depth at almost every position. At least their schedule is favourable — with few back-to-backs and no road trips of longer than three days — until April. Prediction: Fourth or fifth in the division, and near the bottom of the conference.

Colorado Avalanche

When the talk turns to youth movements, Edmonton gets a lot of the (baby)face time. But Colorado also has a deep core of youngsters who should be ready to make their presence felt in a big way: forwards Matt Duchene, Rookie of the Year and team captain Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O’Reilly (who remains unsigned as of this writing), Paul Stastny and defenceman Erik Johnson, with former junior scoring sensation Michael Sgarbossa also waiting in the wings. Their Achilles heel is in net, where Semyon Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere are the answers to a question no one is asking. Their defence is also pretty nondescript past Johnson. The Avs embark on a four-game road swing at the end of January that contains back-to-back games in Calgary and Vancouver, but then it eases up until April when they have three back-to-back games in the first 11 days of the month. Prediction: Depending on how the kids do, they could place anywhere from second to fourth in the division, but should be able to grab the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

Edmonton Oilers

Head coach Ralph Krueger is licking his chops at the prospect of a season, however short, with a group that includes Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall, Sam Gagner and Nail Yakupov. Even the veterans, such as Ryan “Captain Canada” Smyth and Ales Hemsky, will probably benefit from being with an enthusiastic group. So the kids are alright, but who is on defense? Yes, it’s led by Ryan Whitney and Justin Schultz, but they’re known more for their offense than taking care of their own zone. They need more quality in net, where Devan Dubnyk and Nikolai Khabibulin are both a year older but not that much better than before. Still, this should be a fun bunch to watch. Prediction: If they can somehow take care of the goals against, third place in the division and middle of the pack in the conference isn’t too much to expect.

Minnesota Wild

So yeah, Wild majority owner Craig Leipold cried poverty after his club signed forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter to identical 13-year deals worth $98 million each. And what of it? The lockout is over now, and the Wild still have the two biggest players available in last year’s free-agent market. They are excellent pieces to rebuild a club with. Parise can revive the offense even if he has an average year, and is ticketed for the top line with Mikko Koivu and Dany Heatley. Suter is the type of player who can control the flow of a game from his own zone, but that’s when he was matched with Shea Weber on the Nashville Predators: he’s had some growing pains wile trying to adjust to the system on his new team. Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding are a formidable one-two punch in goal when they’re healthy. The schedule is balanced right with no stretch of more than three home or away games at a time; three of their seven back-to-back games in April are evenly spaced during the month as well. Prediction: first to third in the division, and second to fifth in the conference.

Vancouver Canucks

Much has been made of the “disruptive” situation in the Vancouver net, but the Canucks appear to be ready to go with both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider in goal if they can’t find an appropriate deal for their former No. 1. Having won the President’s Trophy in consecutive years as the league’s top regular-season team, they look ready to do so again. However, they need to find a replacement in the second-line center position for the still-injured Ryan Kesler, but they still have the productive Sedin brothers and super-pest Alex Burrows, along with a deep and talented defensive unit headed by Jason Garrison and Kevin Bieksa. Their schedule is tough, with four-game homestands in both February and March but a four-game road trip in March and a five-game trip in April, and six back-to-back games. Prediction: First or second in the division, and first to fourth in the West.