LOS ANGELES – Are you ready for some hockey? I certainly am. I’m also ready for an 82-game regular season where every team plays every other team at least once. 
I’m also ready for the Seattle Kraken. Seattle is a great city that will have a fantastic franchise.
I will miss NBC’s hockey coverage, but I’m excited to see TNT’s coverage. I’m as excited to see ESPN’s coverage as I am to see a Coyotes vs Sabres game. I will cringe but still watch.
The Western Conference is a tale of two divisions. The Central Division is stacked with veteran-laden teams. Many of the Central teams have Stanley Cup aspirations. The Pacific Division is filled with team young teams on rise with playoff aspirations.
Here is my yearly always fearless, sometimes right Western Conference preview.
CENTRAL DIVISION
- Colorado – The Avalanche have the best line in hockey West of the Mississippi. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are incredible but after losing Brandon Saad and Joonas Donskoi the Avs don’t have the depth they had last season. The defense, led by the exquisite Cale Makar, are excellent offensively but can get pushed around in their own zone. Darcy Kuemper is not a downgrade from Philipp Grubauer if he stays healthy, something he has trouble doing. It’s Stanley Cup Final or bust for the Avalanche.
- St. Louis – The Blues are only two years removed from their Stanley Cup. They still have Ryan O’Reilly and surprisingly Vlad Tarasenko. They added Brandon Saad and Pavel Buchnevich to help their scoring upfront. The backend will be improved as Torey Krug will play better in his second season in St. Louis. Colton Parayko contract signing means the negotiations will not be hanging over him. If St Louis gets goaltender Jordan Binnington’s best they will be a tough out.
- Chicago – The Blackhawks are getting back their three-time Stanley Cup champion captain Jonathan Toews. He rejoins his 3-time Champ buddy and greatest American player Patrick Kane. Chicago is fortified on offense. Alex DeBrincat is coming off an outstanding bounce back year. Kirby Dach and Dominik Kubalik are young and impressive. Tyler Johnson brought his two Cups to Chicago. There is a new era on the Chicago blueline. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook are gone. Seth Jones brings his Norris caliber play to Chicago. Bryan McCabe brings grit and defensive responsibility. The Hawks traded for reigning Vezina goaltender Marc–Andre Fleury. Fleury can tutor Kevin Lankinen as he moves up the all time win list.
- Dallas – The Stars may have the best top four defensemen in the Western Conference. Veteran Ryan Suter has been added to the group that includes Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and John Klingberg. All-Star center Tyler Seguin will be back in the Stars lineup. The Stars forwards are a nice mix of veterans (Seguin, Jamie Benn, Joe Pavelski ) and kids (Jason Robertson, Denis Gurianov, Roope Hintz). Anton Khudobin and Braden Holtby give Dallas a formidable goaltending duo. Each could be a number one.
- Winnipeg – Jets head coach Paul Maurice has to know this is his last kick at the can with this team. Either he or the team will have to make changes if they disappoint again. Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler are not getting any younger. Kyle Conner is an excellent winger but Pierre-Luc Dubois has not lived up to expectations at wing or in the pivot. The defense has needed to be bolstered for a few years now but are Nate Schmidt and Brendan Dillon are closer to bottom pair than top pair defensemen. Connor Hellebuyck is an elite goaltender and will keep the Jets in the playoff mix until the end.
- Minnesota – The Wild’s first franchise superstar Karill Kaprizov is the real deal. Last season was not a fluke for Kaprizov but probably for the rest of the team. Even if all the forwards play just as well as last year can the Wild expect to get the same goaltending out of Cam Talbot and Kaapo Kahkonen they got last year? The holes left by Ryan Suter and Carson Soucy on the blue line will be hard to fill as well.
- Nashville – The Predators have been overrated for a few years because hockey media dreams of warm spring nights partying in Music City. Nashville’s important players Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene never live up to expectations. Viktor Arvidsson’s departure gives the Predators even less scoring up front. Ryan Ellis’s departure means the defense now has only a Big 2 (Roman Josi, Matttias Ekholm) not a Big 3. Jusse Saros taking over the net from Pekka Rinne is two years too late.
- Arizona – The Coyotes are back to becoming the money launderers of the NHL. After a few seasons of respectability the Desert Dogs are back to embarrassing. This summer Arizona parted ways with all of their above average goaltending, their quality coach Rick Tocchet, their Captain Oliver Eckman Larsson and their best young player Conor Garland. Only Phil Kessel, Clayton Keller and Jakob Chyckhrun remain… for now.
PACIFIC DIVISION
- Vegas – The Golden Knights are the best team in the worst division in the NHL. The Knights gave away Vezina-winning goaltender Fleury for nothing. It’s time for Robin Lehner to prove all of his drama is worth it. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is one of the only Knights who had a good post season. None of the Knights forwards had stellar post seasons. Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and original Knights Riley Smith, William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault are good to great players but not superstars. The Knights are good enough for coach Pete DeBoer to be a Maid of Honor and not the bride again.
- Edmonton – The Oilers have two of the five best players on earth up front in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl but one again not a scoring winger befitting of these two scoring champs. Zach Hyman should give half his salary to the Toronto media for pretending he’s Brendan Shanahan. Darnell Nurse is a horse on defense. The Oilers hope Duncan Keith can bring leadership and some grit to the back end. If Cody Ceci can prove last season was not a fluke, the Oilers defense will be much improved. Hall of Fame GM Ken Holland, for some unknown reason, did not improve the goaltending, again. Edmonton will out gun most teams in regular season but once again probably won’t win a playoff series.
- Vancouver – The Canucks resigned Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes and will have a successful season after last season’s unmitigated disaster. Forwards Petterson, Brock Boeser. Bo Horvat, Nil Hoglander and newcomer Conor Garland give the Canucks a good young core. Vancouver got Arizona to take all of their bad contracts enabling the Canucks to reconfigure their bottom six forwards. Oliver Eckman Larsson wants to prove he’s not washed up. OEL and Hughes give the Canucks blueline scoring Tyler Myers and Travis Hamonic give it muscle. Thatcher Demko and Jaroslav Halak in net give Vancouver a chance to win every night,
- Los Angeles – The Kings are not Stanley Cup contenders but they are playoff contenders. Stanley Cup hold overs Anze Kopitar, Dusty Brown, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick have been given veteran help as well as a promising set of youngsters this season. Phillip Danault gives Kopitar help at center and Viktor Arvidsson gives the Kings a bona fide scoring winger. Alex Edler gives Doughty veteran help on the backend. These acquisitions give the Kings promising youngsters the ability to grow into their own roles on the team. Make no mistake though the Kings with Cal Petersen and Quick in net are in win now mode.
- Seattle – The Kraken inaugural season won’t be as phenomenal as the Golden Knights was but it won’t be as awful as the Ottawa Senators was either. The Kraken forwards led by Yanni Gourde, when he returns from injury are a gritty bunch with speed. They will be hard to play against. They won’t score a ton of goals but they’ll fore check you to death. Brandon Tanev will be a fan favorite by Halloween. The defense is big and mean. The goaltending (Grubauer, Chris Driedger) will be excellent. The only thing holding Seattle back from a playoff spot might be their coach, Dave Hakstol.
- Calgary – The Flames will continue to decline. If the injection of Darryl Sutter didn’t spark them last season what makes anyone think it will this season. Off season trades needed to be made but GM Brad Treliving refused to rip off the band aid. Blake Coleman was a great pick up but is he going to play on all four lines. The Flames defense was underwhelming last season and now they’re without former captain and Norris winner Mark Giordano. Jacob Markstrom is great in net but something about this team never adds up.
- Anaheim – The Ducks have been disappointing for a few years now. Rookies center Trevor Zegras and defenseman Jamie Drysdale showed their pedigree as late season callu-ps last season but other than Max Comtois has any young Duck come close to exceeding expectations. Ryan Getzlaf is lessening his role this season but who will step up. The Ducks defense is always solid on paper (Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Cam Fowler) and always on the IR. Is this the season goaltender John Gibson asks out?
- San Jose – The Sharks can blame a lot of the problems on team chemistry. Evander Kane’s distractions were a problem but on most nights Kane was the Sharks best player. Blame must also go to the fact 1/3 of the Sharks payroll dedicated to three aging and declining defensemen (Erik Karlsson, Brent Burns and Marc Edouard Vlasic). The Sharks need to tank, probably will anyway and get some high draft picks and rebuild.
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