Puck Drop Preview: 2014-15 Pacific Division

Welcome to Puck Drop Preview 2014-15, where our hockey department gives you a detailed look at each team from around the NHL leading to the start of this hockey season and offers our insight and analysis. Makes sure to stick around until the end of the series, where we’ll offer our full predictions for the standings in each division, and eventually our collective LWOS 2014-15 Stanley Cup pick. You can check out all our articles on our Puck Drop Page.  Today is the 2014-15 Pacific Division.

The Pacific Division brought three teams to the 2013-14 Stanley Cup Playoffs — the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, and Los Angeles Kings — and all three of those teams finished their season by reaching the 100-point plateau. The division also produced the Stanley Cup champions, the Kings, for the second time in three years. Unfortunately for the Coyotes, they failed to make the playoffs, falling just short by three points from the last wild card spot in the Western Conference. The bottom three spots were held by Canadian teams, the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers.

With the domination of the three California teams expected to once again be the storyline of the Pacific division, what does that mean for the remaining teams? Arizona and Vancouver will be in the hunt for one of the wild card positions while the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames will attempt to move away from the basement of the Western Conference and prove their critics wrong.

Some of the finest from Last Word On Sports’ hockey department will be discussing the Metropolitan Division: Ben Kerr, Shawn Wilken, Ken Hill, Daniel Rocchi and John Carroll. The results are in and here’s where our panel stands when it comes to how the division will pan out.

1. Anaheim Ducks (average rating – 1.8)

Ben, Ken & Shawn – 1st

Daniel – 2nd

John – 4th

THOUGHTS by Ben Kerr : Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry form one of the best first lines in hockey, and adding Ryan Kesler to the mix gives the Ducks a legit second line center who can play really hard minutes.  They also have depth up front.  The blueline is led by Beauchemin.  Fowler, Vatanen, and Lindholm have room to grow. I also think they’ll be just fine in net with Andersen and Gibson. The question is, can a Bruce Boudreau team win more than one playoff round?

HOWEVER, John Carroll thinks : The Ducks are a team poised for regression following two straight division titles. Their puck possession numbers left a lot to be desired last year, as their 50.1% Fenwick Close percentage ranked right in the middle of the NHL at 15th. What carried them last year was a sky-high shooting percentage (9.83% in 5v5 score close situations, best in the league by almost a full point over 2nd place Colorado), which is likely unsustainable. The Ducks do have above-average shooting talent, but they clearly don’t have a lot of room to regress in this category. Should their shooting percentage come back down to earth even a bit, say in the 8.5% range (which would still be quite good, mind you), their point total would likely take a significant hit from the 117 they ended up with last year. And in a very competitive Pacific division, that could be enough to send them crashing down the standings, perhaps even into the Wild Card race.

2. Los Angeles Kings (average rating – 2)

Daniel – 1st

John, Ben & Ken – 2nd

Shawn – 3rd

THOUGHTS by John Carroll : 

3. San Jose Sharks (average rating – 2.4)

John – 1st

Shawn – 2nd

Ben, Ken & Daniel – 3rd

THOUGHTS by Ken Hill : The Sharks have been the punchline to many a joke since their playoff collapse to the Kings last spring, but make no mistake about it, this is still an elite team, as their 51 wins in 2013-14 can attest. Captain or no, the Sharks have depth at all positions, great top-end talent, and are a force to be reckoned with again this year in the Pacific.

Shawn Wilken adds : It’s intriguing to see what happens with the move back to defense from forward for Brent Burns. Their defense is already pretty rough around the edges and if Niemi himself can’t cover the ground, things could be dangerous for the Sharks. Yet, you take a look at their forward group and they are among the most potent offensive powerhouses in the entire league. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau are still elite scorers at this stage while Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture add an excellent punch and two-way play. With the emergence of young guns Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto, the Sharks will be battling for top spot in both the Pacific Division and Western Conference. Just how much will the Playoff collapse of last year affect this group heading into a new season, we can’t tell you but surely their regular season success will be a continuing trend.

4. Vancouver Canucks (average rating – 3.4)

John – 3rd

Ben, Ken, Daniel & Shawn – 4th

THOUGHTS by Ken Hill : The Canucks are a team in transition, but seem to be rebuilding on-the-fly the right way. The veteran core was historically bad last year, a trend that isn’t likely to continue. Vancouver was a top-ten possession team last year but their PDO (combined shooting percentage and save percentage), was in the bottom third in the league, indicating the team suffered from some bad puck luck on too many nights. So the veterans should rebound, while the team will also be finally getting an influx of youth on the roster. Despite the circus surrounding the goaltending in recent years, Ryan Miller and Eddie Lack are a great one-two punch. Expect Vancouver to be fighting for the wildcard spot in the West until the final day of the season.

Daniel Rocchi adds : 

It would be difficult for the Vancouver Canucks to have a more tumultuous season than they did last year. Between the horribly botched goaltending controversy, the distractions of a circus-act management crew and Ryan Kesler’s dissatisfaction, and of course the caricature known as John Tortorella, there was certainly plenty to watch off the ice in Vancouver last year.

Good thing too, because what happened on the ice wasn’t pretty.  Many Canucks, including Daniel and Henrik Sedin, enjoyed incredibly poor statistical seasons, while the lack of a legitimate number one goaltender once Roberto Luongo was traded snuffed out any hope for the post-season.

This off-season saw few changes to the Canucks roster outside of the subtraction of Kesler and the additions of Radim Vrbata and Ryan Miller, who assume the mantles of first-line winger and starting goalie, respectively. But with the removal of general manager Mike Gillis and Tortorella, the anointing of a proven starting goalie, and a general quieting of organizational distractions, the Canucks are in a better position to compete than they were last season.

This Vancouver roster has seen its glory days come and go. Though a better franchise atmosphere should allow the Canucks to rebound from a poor season and reinsert themselves into the playoff picture, they won’t be able to fend off rising teams like Dallas and Minnesota. Vancouver will probably end up sitting out the post-season for the second season in a row.

5. Arizona Coyotes (average rating – 5.2)

Ben, John, Daniel & Shawn – 5th

Ken – 6th

THOUGHTS by Ken Hill : New name, but likely the same result for the Coyotes this year. The team simply doesn’t have the same scoring pop or depth that their Pacific division rivals boast and will struggle to put the puck in the net on most nights. The defense is solid, but they’ll only go as far as goaltender Mike Smith can take them. It’s possible with an air-tight system and Smith flashing his formerly Vezina-nominated form that Arizona could be within sniffing distance of the wildcard race, but they will still fall short.

Ben Kerr adds : Lost some offence in Radim Vrbata and Mike Ribeiro, but picked some up in Sam Gagner and Martin Erat. Overall it feels like a lateral move at best, and probably even a bit of a step backwards. The Coyotes feel like they are treading water, waiting for a good prospect pool to start making an impact.

6. Edmonton Oilers (average rating – 5.8)

Ken – 5th

John, Ben, Daniel & Shawn – 6th

THOUGHTS by John Carroll : The Oilers improved a great deal in the offseason, adding strong puck possession players Benoit Pouliot and Mark Fayne to a team that desperately needs to play with the puck more. Nikita Nikitin is more of a questionable acquisition, as he never really moved the needle for the Blue Jackets during his time there, but he’s still almost certainly better than what the Oilers were dressing on their blue line before. But there’s simply too much ground for this team to make up with a few solid additions. The Oilers are still well behind the rest of their division when it comes to overall depth at both forward and defense. If they really want to compete with the big boys in the Pacific, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will have to show he can play with top centers like Anze Kopitar, Joe Thornton, Ryan Getzlaf, and Henrik Sedin. While Nugent-Hopkins is still young and has shown some flashes here and there, so far he has yet to live up to his first overall pick billing. Without anything resembling center depth behind him for the Oilers to fall back on, it’s likely to be another long season in Edmonton.

7. Calgary Flames (average rating – 7)

John, Ben, Ken, Daniel & Shawn – 7th

THOUGHTS by Daniel Rocchi : 

The Flames certainly weren’t expected to threaten for a playoff spot or make any sort of noise last season. They certainly didn’t enter the playoff picture, finishing in 27th place, but they certainly did make some noise. Calgary began working on the brand for their rebuild, earning a reputation as a tough opponent. After a botched start to an overhaul long overdue, the Flames had their most promising season in several years, and followed it with a well-executed off-season.

With new general manager Brad Treliving and his staff in place, Calgary finally has a managerial foundation for the future. With front offices stable, Treliving got to work putting his mark on the team, and though they didn’t make a great number of moves, the Flames made several intelligent ones.

Their biggest transaction provides the team with the most goaltending stability it’s had since the days of Miikka Kiprusoff in the form of Jonas Hiller. But after he lost the starting job in Anaheim last season, just how much stability that is remains to be seen. Mason Raymond and Devin Setoguchi are intriguing additions that should give the Flames an upgrade on speed, but whether or not can they provide the same offensive leadership as now-Devil Mike Cammalleri did will be one of the most crucial determinants of the club’s season.

Last season the Flames started to create a winning attitude and identity for their rebuild. The Flames may prove to be a surprisingly resilient team, but they don’t have the roster to make a serious push for a playoff spot. Entering the second full season of their overhaul, the Flames will likely finish in the bottom of their division, and could find themselves in the mix for the first pick of the 2015 draft.

Pacific Individual Preview By Ben Kerr: