I read an article from Tony Abbott this morning speculating that the Wild could be executing a one year tank if the Russian gov't restricts NHL players travel. Kaprizov is (apparently) still having work visa issues and unable to get out of Russia.
If Kaprizov can't return, that's 80 goals and almost 200 points lost between him and Fiala with a 38 year old starting goalie.
From the article-
"They look at the success of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, and Colorado Avalanche. Those teams won 12 of the last 14 Stanley Cups, and top-2 draft picks are the foundations of all of them."
I'm not concerned about any team besides Chicago being worse than us, but the Bedard/Mischkov sweepstakes could be quite entertaining.
Great...potentially the three teams trying to tank in the league may all be in the same division.
I think this is still a long shot for Minney and I think they would be happy with a top 10 pick in an offseason rather than going straight to the bottom.
I truly think the only teams who have actually gotten worse on paper are CHI, CGY, ANA, SJ, MTL and us. I can't think of any other team that got considerably worse, and you could make an argument that we will be better with players developing and being more used to AT's systems. There are some top teams that got a touch worse due to having to lose players due to cap reasons, but it's not like any of those teams will fall into lotto land.
PHI - bad offseason but DeAngelo is a good hockey player for what he brings. And that unit seems to have gotten tighter without Giroux. They should have committed to the tank but they didn't and are ultimately a smidge better because of it. Also Couturier should be back and potentially Ellis
SEA: Added Burakovsky and potentially will add Wright and a full season of Beniers.
ANA: Really gutted some of their best vets. They could be very bad, but they still have a ton of potential on that roster. They overperformed at the start of last season, I feel like they will start slow and progressively get better through this one.
SJ: Lost Burns, which I think is a bigger blow than it may seem. They just have too much talent to be bottom 3 bad. A couple key injuries could do them in though, especially since other teams have gotten so much better.
WPG/VAN: both seem like they are in the same spot. Lots of good kids and vets, but the team mix is off. Either could start blowing it up, or surprise folks.
MTL: On paper they moved out some good players, but they should also be much healthier and wont have such a shit show of a season. I think they are much better than last year and probably close to 10th worst in the league that last place.
NYI: Started putting things together at the end of the season. But the east is just so stacked now that I have a feeling they may actually struggle and the some of the vets may take a step back. This is a team that could potentially blow it all up and race to the bottom.
My too early to know anything predictions are:
CHI - 32
AZ - 31
ANA - 30
NYI - 29
SEA - 28
PHI - 27
SJ - 26
MTL - 25