Hockey Trade Rumors

Here is a preview of the Central Division in no particular order.

St Louis Blues

After being put up for sale and having the losses pile up financially and on the ice, the Blues have found some security in a new owner and a new hockey man running the show.

New Owner Dave Checketts and President John Davidson have breathed new life in to the Blues as the team looks to get back to respectibility. Last season was one of the worse in franchise history and though that brought them the 1st overall pick in the amateur draft, this is not something the Blues wish to do regularly. So Davidson decided to bring in a host of veteran talent to at least get the Blues within striking distance of a playoff spot.

One veteran added was goaltender Manny Legace who helped the division rival Red Wings to the Presidents Trophy. But a poor playoff sent him packing out of Detroit and to the Blues. Legace needs to establish himself as a legitimate number 1 man in nets. Teams were not sold on him as they feared the “Lalime” effect hence why he signed late in the summer and a bargain price. If he fails, Curtis Sanford, who was fairly good on a bad St Louis club will get the first shot.

The Blues needed to upgrade all areas including defence which actually boasted some decent young talent. The team landed blue chipper Erik Johnson in the draft to give the new Blues someone to build around. But the team went out and signed Jay McKee to add some established NHL talent to the team. McKee instantly becomes one of the team leaders for St Louis and joining Barret Jackman, Christian Backman, Eric Brewer, Dennis Wideman gives the Blues a really good top 5. As long as they can stay healthy (which has been the Blues problem to begin with) there should be enough mobility, skill, grit and toughness to be a really well rounded defence unit. The Blues were brutal in their own zone and it was caused mostly by never having the same 6 D play together on a consistent basis.

The Blues were almost as bad offensively as they were defensively. This is why the team brought in 4 proven scorers to improve the team’s anemic offence. Keith Tkachuk was the teams only real scoring threat but with the re-additions of Doug Weight and Martin Rucinsky joining newcomers Bill Geurin and Radek Dvorak, and holdover Petr Cajanek, the Blues actually can field 2 decent scoring lines. Now questions will arise about the ages of some of these players but until the Blues begin to restock their system of good young forwards, veterans will have to do.

For this season anyway, the Blues have brought in a ton of veterans to hopefully stay in the playoff race past November. Their first goal is to back some sort of respectability. Their second, is to rebuild an organization a bit thin on youth. That will take some time and the hope is the veterans they brought in will buy them some.

Nashville Predators

The Predators have shed their expansion label with back to back successful seasons, an increase in payroll and a willingness to move some futures for help in the present. After luring some big name free agents to Nashville such as Paul Kariya and Jason Arnott, trading first round picks for a rental player and committing much more money to the payroll than in their initial seasons, the obvious step is for the team to bear the fruits of its labour.

There is now a sense of urgency for GM David Poile and coach Barry Trotz to take the Preds to the next level. After tasting the playoffs the last couple of years, it may be time now for Nashville to go beyond the 1st round. The team has brought in many good pieces, they will simply need everything to fall into place.

For one thing, Tomas Vokoun needs to be healthy. He is the team’s best player and most valuable player. His absence was felt last playoff as the Preds bowed out fairly quickly. Though backup Chris Mason played well, Vokoun is the engine that makes the Preds go. He is a good reason why the Preds can be an aggressive offensive team as he can allow his teammates to take chances knowing he is back there to make the big save. Vokoun signed a hefty long term deal which should serve notice that he is healthy and ready to go.

Secondly the Preds will need their young defence to show they are capable of carrying the load. Shea Weber and Kevin Klein have the inside track over a few other youngsters for the last two spots on D however nothing is guaranteed.. Weber will bring a needed physical presence with Witt, Eaton and Markov all gone. They will be join second year man Ryan Suter and the veteran of the group at only 23 years old, Dan Hamhuis. These youngsters will need to step up if the Preds do wish to reach the next level. The talent is there, the only question is if they can handle the pressure of being a contender. The defence also consists of two of better offensive blueliners around in Marek Zidlicky and Kimmo Timonen. Zidlicky and Timonen are two veterans of the group and only Timonen is over 30. Though undersized, they are tailor made for the new NHL that focuses on speed and skill.

The team is also going to need their new faces up front to fit in to the team’s system and plan of attack. Jason Arnott, JP Dumont and Josef Vasicek bring a very different element not seen in Nashville and that is size up front. The Preds for the most part have gone with smaller players with great speed buzzing around like a hornets nest. But the need for size was evident after getting pushed around by the Sharks in the playoffs. With those 3 offensively inclined players joining the likes of Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan Martin Erat and David Legwand, scoring goals should not be a problem for the Preds. The problem will be coverage in their own end and it will be up to younger players like Scotty Upshall, Scott Hartnell and Jordin Tootoo to lead in that department. Coach Barry Trotz has implemented a defensive first system thanks to their expansion roots but so many offence first players, it may be his hardest work yet to come to mould the players into a strong two way unit. They will miss captain Greg Johnson and original Pred Scott Walker in that department.

There is plenty of optimism in Nashville and with that comes expectations. They are among the favorites now and though ironically named to prey on their opponents, it is now Nashville who has become the hunted.

Detroit Red Wings

It will be a strange experience in Detroit as for the first time in a long time there is no number 19 Steve Yzerman ready to lead his team to victory. Though he has struggled with injuries and missed several games the last few years, his mere presence was a boost to the Wings. Now without their inspirational leader, the Wings will need to go forward and try to defend their Presidents Trophy.

The task will be much harder without Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan, a team with not enough toughness and one without the scoring depth as in years past. The cap crunch has been more than difficult to deal with for GM Ken Hollland. With a large competitive advantage in the pre-cap days, the Wings spent freely in terms of money and draft picks/prospects at all costs to win. Now the team will need to go back and build from within and go with youth. However the Wings are no slouches as they still have some top end talent, a strong nucleus and a solid coach.

In goal, back for a 3rd stint is the Dominator Dominik Hasek. The first time he came in he helped the team win a cup. The second time he created a goalie controversy between himself and Cujo. Now he is coming off yet another controversial year getting hurt at the Olympics and not being around to help the Sens who once again struggled without a proven goalie. His track record speaks for itself but he is leaving a legacy of turning his back on his team when they need him most. He proved last year he can still play, however he needs to show he can stay healthy and leave the distractions behind. This was a bigger risk than the other former Wing goalie they brought back in Chris Osgood who is slated to be the backup. The only judge whether it pays off or not is whether the Dominator is around and playing in the spring.

The new face of the Wings, is an old and familiar face, Niklas Lidstrom. The reigning Norris winner was the obvious choice to take over as Captain. At 36, he is still one of the best around and shows no signs of slowing down after last year’s strong showing. This is his team now and it will be interesting to see how one of the best blueliners of all time can handle filling the leadership void left by Yzerman and Shanahan along with still being the best defenceman in the game. He will be surrounded by a very veteran D. Chris Chelios is in his mid-40s and still is an effective player. He will be helped by Danny Markov and Andreas Lilja in the grit department. Markov was brought in to replace Jiri Fischer who’s career is in doubt. Mathieu Schnieder is still a good point producing blueliner even at age 37. The only youngsters around are blue chip prospect Niklas Kronvall and the surprising Brett Lebda. Kronvall has the potential to be the man on D for years to come however he needs to prove he can stay healthy.

Though gone are the days where 500 plus goal scorers and hall of famers work on the 4th unit, the forward corps is still fairly solid. However missing Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Robitaille, Hull and not really being able to spend to replace them may catch up to them at some point. Also the losses over the years of Lapointe, McCarty and now Shanahan have certainly taken away plenty in the toughness department. It will be up to Holland and his staff to start building up their group of forwards from within and regain that key nucleus that were around for almost all 3 championships.

There is some top end talent remaining. Pavel Datsyuk is one of the flashiest, most exciting players to watch, dazzling us with his puck skills. Hendrik Zetterberg is on the cusp of being one of the best in the game at both ends of the ice. Robert Lang is a solid veteran who can still produce points. They still have gritty players like Kris Draper, Kurt Maltby and Tomas Holmstrom who provide the Wings with superior special teams play. The team also managed to find some under-30 talent in Mikael Samuelsson and Jason Williams who surprised some with their offence. What they will need now is for a prospect like Jiri Hudler to step in and step up his play and help bring back some offensive depth that does not seem to be there on paper. Without much money to spend, it will require one of these young players to deliver a big year if the Wings wish to remain on top.

The veterans that remain, the skill players that will lead the way and playing in a weak division should ensure the Wings return to the playoffs. But a top seed is no guarantee and this year may be the teams biggest grind to bring the cup back to Motown.

Columbus Blue Jackets

After being lapped by their expansion cousins and the novelty of being an expansion club beginning to wear off, it about time now for the Jackets to start being a competitive team year round. Far too often the wins start coming well after the Jackets are all but eliminated from contention.

The additional veteran talent brought in the last couple of years has given the Jackets their deepest roster in franchise history. Adding them to the bevy of young talent the team has (it has helped drafting in the top 8 every year) there is reason to believe that Columbus will be alive past Christmas unlike past years.

The key will be the goaltending because for the first time since their inception, goal will be a question mark going in. For their first few seasons the team enjoyed the play of Marc Denis in goal. He basically kept the team from being embarassed every night. He put up solid numbers in most categories except wins and losses. The question is if Pascal Leclaire can take over and be the number 1 guy. He has been a bit injury prone but has tremendous talent to succeed like many other French Canadian goalies. He is the favorite to take over Denis but the team also brought in Mika Norrena who starred in Europe but never tasted the NHL game and Ty Conklin who is currently remembered for losing game 1 of the finals this past spring. One of those 3 will need to establish themselves as a legtimate starter or the Jackets will be in trouble once again.

The team did not change their D much and that may come back and hurt them as well. If the blueline becomes injury prone again as they were last year, there will not be enough depth to get by. Captain Adam Foote leads the way and really brought the team a ton of leadership and respectability. His poor number last year were mainly due to him trying to do too much early on. He should be much more comfortable now with the team and the city and should get back to the Foote of old. The team will need Bryan Berard and Rosy Klesla to stay healthy. They are key cogs in the top 4 D. Klesla needs to emerge as a top 3 pick or else he may take the route of Aki Berg or Andrei Zyuzin and be a middling NHL blueliner that was drafted too high. Duvie Westcott and Ron Hainsey surprised with their fine play and hopefully they can continue that. The team needs it as the system is filled with players who are not quite cut out for NHL work.

The team should not have much trouble scoring goals and that is even with Nikolai Zherdev holding out. The Jackets have several very good offensive weapons of course led by Rick Nash. The team really missed him at the beginning of the year which led to the weak start last season. The team should have a 50 goal man if he remains healthy. If Zherdev does come back, the team will have 2 very dangerous 1 on 1 players to create chaos for opponents. They may eventually have 3 this year if Gilbert Brule turns into something special. The tools are there for that to happen. He is perhaps one of the leading Calder Trophy candidates. With veterans like Fedorov, Modin, Carter, Vyborny there is no shortage of proven firepower on this team. This kind of depth has never been seen in Columbus in their short history. They better take advantage of it.

It will be all up to the goaltending to see how far the Jackets go. But they are going to need to do something to keep fan interest up and nothing solves that better than winning and being competitive.

Chicago Black Hawks

Desperate times called for desperate measures. For the second consecutive summer the Hawks have overpaid a good but not superstar like player to lure them to the Windy City. With a dwindling fan base and consistent losing, the sense of urgency was far too much for the Hawks to do nothing.

But there is a difference between doing something for the sake of doing something and doing something proactive. The team has picked up some decent hockey players, but it just seems like there is no plan and/or idea behind these moves which is why so many questions get brought up.

Nikolai Khabibulin is not the best goalie in the league and thus did not deserve to be paid like it despite winning the Cup for the Lightning. Winning moved him among the elite, but he has always fought a bit of consistency problems and it showed last year with his terrible play. The Hawks need him to get back healthy and playing at a high level. He is going to have to start winning some games on his own for the Hawks to go anywhere but down.

The D is a mix of inexperienced youngster with old, slow, extinct blueliners. The young players give Chicago some hope. Brent Seabrook was terrific as a rookie and is perhaps the teams best on D. Duncan Keith was very good as well as he adapted well to the new rules thanks to his good mobility. It is expected that Cam Barker at some point will play a good portion of games with the Hawks this year after starring in Junior. Jim Vandermeer came as advertised: tough, rugged, and in-your-face. What they need is a player like Adrien Aucoin to be a big minute muncher, point producer and leader on defence. He was far from that last year and that was not what the Hawks thought they were purchasing for $16 million.

Aucoin was one of the duds from last summer. The hope is that their big purchase this year as in the $18 million dollar purchase of Martin Havlat doesnt turn into one as well. The reigns are going to be loosened for the former Sens forward to show off his terrific skills. He is no longer in the shadows of Alfie or Hossa and now is the meal ticket for the Hawks. Can he deliver in that role after being a support player is a question he will need to answer with his play. Bringing in Michal Handzus to support Havlat was really and underrated move this summer and may turn into a real good one if he can remain healthy and put some more points on the board. Handzus will get to play a scoring role after being a top checker for the Flyers. The team is also hoping for Tuomo Ruutu to come back healthy as he would give the Hawks another strong one on one threat and much needed scoring balance and depth.

After these 3 the rest of the forwards are going to be made up for now with some overpaid veterans (Smolinski, Lapointe), some younger forwards who havent reached their potential (Vrbata, Sharp, Arkhipov) and some even younger forwards with no experience at all (Bolland, Blunden, Toews). There are plenty of jobs open and there for the taking. Who will seize the opportunity is anyone’s guess.

The Hawks are a few years away from the playoffs. There simply is not enough depth and NHL ready talent to be any threat. But at least after this past losing season they didnt change their coach again and have a deep cupboard of youth.