It’s been a long time coming, but the NHL and NHL Players Association (NHLPA) have come to a Return to Play Agreement. The 2020-21 season will begin January 13 and run for 66 regular season games. Due to COVID travel restrictions, there has been a division realignment, pulling the Canadian teams into their own segregated division.
Speaking of divisions, there is a new playoff qualification format. The top four teams in each division will advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With the loss of three Canadian-based Pacific Division foes - Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver - the Golden Knights now share a division with the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues. Also joining the new West Division are the Minnesota Wild.
There are some familiar faces in the West Division or as I like to call it, the Pacific-ish Division. High emotion games will continue as planned, with the bitter rival San Jose Sharks included in the West along with their fellow Californians the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. The Arizona Coyotes round out the West Division with one of the best goaltending tandems in the NHL.
With the top four teams advancing in each division, the West projects fairly obviously through three spots. Their final qualifier is essentially a toss up between all five remaining teams. These four will play one another in the first round of the playoffs (1 v 4, 2 v 3) and then advance for reseeding based on regular season records. Here’s how I think the West Division will shake out after 56 games, along with a quick breakdown of each club.
Colorado Avalanche
1st Place West
Advance to Western Conference over MIN
Last season, the Colorado Avalanche were on pace to win the Central Division. An early stoppage thwarted that and crowned the Blues with their fourth Central Division title in team history. Despite coming up short, the Avalanche are a team to be feared with big skill at all three phases of their lineup.
Up front, the Avalanche have top-end talent in Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Captain Gabriel Landeskog is a solid complimentary piece, along with 2019-20 newcomers Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri, and Joonas Donskoi. The unit finished with a conference-leading 237 Goals For and look to top that mark in 2020-21.
Defensively, the Avalanche boast a trio of hot young defenseman with solid depth behind them, both old and new. Cale Makar, the 2019-20 Calder Trophy winner dazzles alongside Samuel Gerard. They may be joined by Bowen Byram this season, another testament to GM Joe Sakic’s mastery of the game, both on and off the ice.
This team has top-level talent, good depth (Compher, Bellemare) and an aggressive mentality. They play fast and that’s tough to match. Wherever the game goes, the Avs can compete. Expect them to win the West Division, barring injury to one of their superstars (MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar).
Vegas Golden Knights
2nd Place West
Advance to Western Conference Semis over STL
A playoff mainstay since their inception, the Vegas Golden Knight boast a solid roster with a few A-plus pieces on both ends of the ice. Forward Mark Stone is a bona fide stud while Shea Theodore and the newly signed Alex Pietrangelo are both number one defenseman, on the same unit.
Pietrangelo’s signing and the subsequent trade of Nate Schmidt wasn’t perfect, but the player-for-player swap did upgrade the unit as a whole. Pietrangelo is a proven leader and winner coming with experience as the captain of the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. He could stunt the ascent of Theodore, after signing an 8-year contract, but he very talented and the team felt they had to have him.
Theodore will likely remain paired with Alec Martinez on the second defense pair and QB one of the power play units. The sky’s the limit for the 24-year-old and he will likely take another step forward in his progression this season. His dynamic two-way play helps boost the Golden Knights and they will flourish, especially if he can start matching his even-strength offensive production on the PP.
If this team wants to be successful, they’ll need to ride a great goaltending tandem in Robin Lehner and Marc-Andre Fleury and get something closer to the 2017 versions of William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault. Without those men providing adequate support for Stone and Max Pacioretty, the team will struggle to score. Alex Tuch will likely remain relegated to the third line and it’s imperative that Pete DeBoer finds the right linemates to get him going. The likes of Nicolas Roy, Chandler Stephenson, and Cody Glass will be the first to try their hand at it.
Vegas can certainly challenge for the No. 1 seed if there is any semblance of a third line, if they get league-average performance out of the grinding fourth line, and if Nick Holden, who is slated to open the season as a full-time partner to sophomore Zach Whitecloud, performs well. Replacements will be waiting in the wings with Nic Hague, Jake Bischoff, and Dylan Coghlan all banging on the door of opportunity.
St. Louis Blues
3rd Place
A season removed from a Stanley Cup win, the Blues are preparing to March forward without their long-time captain Pietrangelo. But as we all know, where there’s loss, there’s also opportunity. The Blues snagged their opportunity, signing Free Agent defenseman Torrey Krug to a contract upon Pietrangelo’s exit. Krug’s insertion will severely soften the blow of Pietrangelo’s Vegas relocation.
Savvy veterans remain a fixture of this Blues team with the likes Ryan O’Reilly, Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz, Vladimir Tarasenko, and David Perron returning. Depth forward Alex Steen called it a career this offseason, but young exciting players in Robert Thomas, Zach Sanford, and Sammy Blais certainly help soften that blow.
These Blues are a very well-rounded club with equally exciting talent at forward and defense. They play a heavy game, but can both slow down and hang with the speed of the Colorado and Vegas clubs. This season, Jordan Binnington MUST prove he is the goalie of the future, with the departure of Jake Allen who was easily the better of the two last season.
Minnesota Wild
4th Place
As mentioned previously, the last qualifying spot is a toss up. The Wild have a history of slightly above average success, with some promising players on the way. At the same time, they lost captain Mikko Koivu and veteran Eric Staal to free agency this past offseason. Goaltending remains a question in Minnesota as Alex Stalock performed admirably last season as Devan Dubnyk faltered. With Cam Talbot now in the mix, will this season end up being the coming out party for 23-year-old Kaapo Kahkonen and how much immediate impact will Kirill Kaprusoff have on the club?
Ducks
5th Place
Any team with Ryan Getzlaf has a leg up on the competition. He’s a great leader, a talented player, and can do a little bit of everything. He will be joined this season by veteran Kevin Shattenkirk, fresh off a Stanley Cup win with the Lightning, which should help build the character in the Anaheim room. His addition also adds much-needed and valuable blue line depth behind Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm.
John Gibson remains in goal and he’s still one of the best goaltenders in the league. If the Ducks can figure out the game in front of him, Gibson can help propel them toward a playoff spot. They’re a team that’s hard to project, but it feels like the Ducks are getting ready to fly again.
Sharks
6th Place
The San Jose Sharks are no stranger to the Vegas Golden Knights. Neither team particularly likes the other and the emotion runs high each time these teams meet. San Jose struggled mightily last season to the tune of missing the playoffs, finishing at the bottom of the Pacific Division, one point behind the Los Angeles Kings. There is too much talent in the Sharks’ room to stay there, but how good are they going to be in 2020-21?
Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Timo Meier, and Evander Kane highlight the Sharks’ offense, but big losses over the past two seasons will continue to take their toll. Joe Pavelski left for Dallas and made a Stanley Cup run. This past offseason, Joe Thornton relocated to Toronto, to continue his quest for the Stanley Cup.
Martin Jones remains an unreliable option as the starting goaltender for the Sharks. They’ve added Dubnyk, who as mentioned earlier, struggled last season. A healthy Erik Karlsson and refocused Brent Burns will go a long way for the Sharks, but things aren’t looking great on paper. They haven’t entirely addressed their biggest issues and they may haunt them again in the 2020-21 season.
Coyotes
7th Place
Taylor Hall skipped town for Buffalo, before Buffalo signed other good players. That’s all you really need to know about the Coyotes. They were even close to dealing captain Oliver Ekman-Larson which would have been disastrous for the club. It’s hard to see direction for the same Coyotes I projected as a 3/4 seed last season in the Pacific Division.
What do they have? Three solid defensemen in OEL, Jacob Chychrun, and Nik Hjalmarsson. Two solid goaltenders in Darcy Kuemper and Antii Raanta. Promising forwards Clayton Keller, Connor Garland, Barrett Hayton. Productive veterans Phil Kessel and Derek Stepan. What that adds up to remains to be seen, but odds are that they find themselves in a similar scenario to last season, falling further from playoff contention.
Kings
8th Place
A once-dominant club, the Kings have fallen victim to the salary cap, a changing game, and an aging team. A lot of the same faces remain from their Stanley Cup winning years, but that’s more of a problem than a blessing. The Anze Kopitars, Jeff Carters, and Drew Doughtys of the world are on the decline and the Kings have yet to rebuild to a winner.
Jonathan Quick shows flashes of, but is no longer the game-changer of the past. It’s only a matter of time before Cal Peterson takes over for the 33-year-old. Jack Campbell was used as a trade chip or else he’d be the 1b to Quick’s 1A. The team is trying to get younger, but more dark times are on the horizon before the sun will break through in “The City of Angels”.
Over time we will see some young faces in LA as they attempt to rise from the gutter and their 7th place finish in 2019-20. Unfortunately for the Kings, this won’t be their year.
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The January 13 start will come up fast. Training camp is tentatively scheduled to start on January 3, a crash course before the shortened season begins. Games are bound to be overloaded with emotion and adrenaline, as the teams are slated to play a whopping eight games against each division foe. That Vegas-San Jose series will be electric!
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