Faceoff Factor

Evaluating Teams Post-Free Agency: Pacific

Michael Farkas | National Hockey League

Aug 5, 10:14 PM | Hype this story!

With about four weeks gone in the free agency period, most of the top tier talent has found itself a new home. Now that things have slowed down considerably, Faceoff Factor will go division-by-division and break it all down.

The Pacific Division.

Anaheim Ducks

Gained: Brendan Morrison (1 yr, $2.75), Steve Montador (1 yr, $800K), Eric Boguniecki (1 yr, $525K), David LeNeveu (1 yr, $600K), Joakim Lindstrom (RFA)* [* – acquired from Columbus]

Lost: Teemu Selanne (UFA), Todd Bertuzzi (CGY), Doug Weight (NYI), Jean-Sebastien Aubin (UFA)

Still needs to: Get under the Upper Limit, find a top four winger, be wary of impending goalie equipment changes.

Approximate cap space remaining: (-$3.24 million)

Rumors associated with them: As usual, Mathieu Schneider and Todd Marchant are churning heavily within the rumor mill, but at their price it’s tough sledding. The Ducks will almost certainly have to move at least one of them to get into a good position cap-wise, and all the more if Selanne is coming back.

Notes: The Ducks have shed some dead weight in Todd Bertuzzi, however, Mathieu Schneider and Todd Marchant eat up more than $8 million in cap space on a team that currently resides north of the $56.7 million Upper Limit. The defense is solid once again, with two defensemen-of-the-decade again lining up in front of Giguere and Hiller. If the goalie equipment changes are significant (which they probably won’t be), Giguere’s numbers could suffer greatly.

Current lineup (for depth purposes, not actual lines):
Kunitz-Getzlaf-Perry
Ryan-Morrison-Sutherby
Moen-Pahlsson-Neidermayer
May-Marchant-Carter
Ex. Parros, Boguniecki, Lindstrom

Niedermayer-Pronger
Schneider-Beauchemin
O’Donnell-Montador
Ex. Huskins, Salcido

Giguere
Hiller
Ex. LeNeveu

Dallas Stars

Gained: Sean Avery (4 yrs, $3.875/yr), Lauri Tukonen (1 yr, ~$886K)* [* – acquired from Los Angeles]

Lost: Niklas Hagman (TOR), Antti Miettinen (MIN), Mattias Norstrom (retired), Stu Barnes (retired), Johan Holmqvist (Europe), Brad Winchester (StL)

Still needs to: Hope that Fabian Brunnstrom is the God that he is purported to be (he isn’t), sit back and watch Brendan Morrow dominate.

Approximate cap space remaining: $1.72 million

Rumors associated with them: There are rumors that the Stars will scoop up recently bought out forward Mark Parrish. A move like that would effectively push Fabian Brunnstrom to the minors, which may be best for him at this point.

Notes: The Dallas Stars build yet another solid lineup. The top six is talented, gritty and down right nasty at times but has a very high offensive upside. Brunnstrom probably won’t have a big impact on the NHL, but while the hype machine was out in full force, Brunnstrom puttered out down the stretch in Sweden and probably needs a year in the AHL to get him started. There are very few players in the lineup that don’t serve multiple purposes, even the goalie Turco could probably score a goal if called upon. Time is an issue, Norstrom and Barnes already retired and the lineup isn’t getting too much younger beyond that.

Current lineup (for depth purposes, not actual lines):
Morrow-Ribeiro-Lehtinen
Eriksson-Richards-Avery
Brunnstrom-Modano-Ott
Barch-Lundqvist-Crombeen
Ex. Petersen, Tukonen, Neal

Zubov-Boucher
Robidas-Niskanen
Daley-Grossman
Ex. Fistric, Vishnevskiy

Turco
Stephan
Ex. Climie

Los Angeles Kings

Gained: Denis Gauthier (1 yr, $2.1)* [* – acquired from Philadelphia]

Lost: Ladislav Nagy (UFA), Rob Blake (SJ), Lauri Tukonen (DAL), Brian Willsie (COL), Scott Thornton (retired)

Still needs to: Not make it so obvious that they want Tavares or Hedman, make Jonathan Bernier’s potential stay a more comfortable one, realize what a difference a new coach will make with this team.

Approximate cap space remaining: $27.12 million (approximately $12 million under the Lower Limit with Patrick O’Sullivan and Jarret Stoll still to sign)

Rumors associated with them: There are plenty of rumors involving Los Angeles that include grabbing big salaries like Mathieu Schneider, Jay McKee and Nikolai Khabibulin. There’s also a rumor that Bret Hedican will sign with a California-based team, and Los Angeles seems to be the most likely choice in that regard.

Notes: The perpetual rebuild continues in Southern California. With O’Sullivan and Stoll still up on cinderblocks, the Kings lineup is woefully malnourished. Their core of top-four defensemen include a guy that was waived and sent to the minors and spent the year there in Denis Gauthier, a defensive defenseman that Edmonton got rid of in Matt Greene and a player that just played plain bad last year in Tom Preissing. That said, I think a new coach in Los Angeles will do them wonders because Marc Crawford’s system was, simply put, wrong. LaBarbera, Ersberg and Bernier give the Kings a good goalie selection and competition for the future. Will this be the last year that Los Angeles’ regular season is just a dressed up and drawn out training camp for the future?

Current lineup (for depth purposes, not actual lines):
Frolov-Kopitar-Brown
O’Sullivan-Stoll-Calder
Handzus-Armstrong-Boyle
Ivanans-Richardson-Zeiler
Ex. Purcell, Moulson, Lewis

Johnson-Preissing
Greene-Gauthier
Doughty(?)-Harrold
Ex. Hickey, Martinez

LaBarbera
Bernier
Ex. Ersberg

Phoenix Coyotes

Gained: Kurt Sauer (4 yrs, $1.75/yr), David Hale (2 yrs, $700K/yr), Todd Fedoruk (3 yrs, ~$1.058/yr), Garth Murray (1 yr, $500K)

Lost: Radim Vrbata (TB), Niko Kapanen (Europe), Mathias Tjarnqvist (Europe), Mike York (CBJ), Brendan Bell (OTT), Bill Thomas (PIT)

Still needs to: Use training camp to ensure that the defensive depth is plentiful and can handle what the NHL requires.

Approximate cap space remaining: $14.16 million

Rumors associated with them: Nothing substantiated, the big move was made at the draft when they grabbed Jokinen for Ballard.

Notes: The Coyotes are doing everything right in this rebuild. Already, with Bryzgalov between the pipes, they could push for a playoff spot. They have deep talent and adding Montoya to the fold adds a younger and better goalie than LeNeveu. The defense is a work-in-progress now that Ballard is gone, but there is some potential in the system and is the next step for the Coyotes to address now. This should turn out to be one of the most focused and successful rebuilds in recent NHL history.

Current lineup (for depth purposes, not actual lines):
Jokinen-Mueller-Doan
Turris-Hanzal-Lisin
Carcillo-Reinprecht-Tikhonov
Fedoruk-Zigomanis-McGrattan
Ex. Perrault, Porter, Winnik

Jovanovski-Morris
Michalek-Sauer
Yandle-Hale
Ex. Jones, Ross

Bryzgalov
Tellqvist
Ex. Montoya

San Jose Sharks

Gained: Dan Boyle (6 yrs, ~$6.667/yr)*, Rob Blake (1 yr, $5), Brad Lukowich (2 yrs, ~$1.567/yr)

Lost: Brian Campbell (CHI), Craig Rivet (BUF), Matt Carle (TB), Curtis Brown (UFA), Ty Wishart (TB), Patrick Rissmiller (NYR), Sandis Ozolinsh (UFA), Alexei Semenov (UFA)

Still needs to: Dodge the Upper Limit by less than a quarter million dollars, get a hold of the Tin Man and ask him what he did to remedy his problem.

Approximate cap space remaining: (-$226K)

Rumors associated with them: Nothing substantial, although there are rumblings that McLaren may be shown the door.

Notes: Once again the Sharks build a team that makes them look like Cup contenders, that is, until they get to the playoffs. The Sharks once again throw star power into the equation and hope that someone can will them into the Cup Finals. If there was a team that could do it, this could certainly be it. The offense is stacked, the top portion of the defense is overrated (Boyle and Blake) but still stacked, none-the-less, and Evgeni Nabokov is a top 3 or 5 goalie in the NHL. Their playoff struggles together have probably become even more of mental problem and may have gotten to the point of “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Current lineup (for depth purposes, not actual lines):
Michalek-Thornton-Cheechoo
Clowe-Marleau-Setoguchi
Mitchell-Pavelski-Grier
Shelley-Goc-Roenick
Ex. Couture, McGinn, Kaspar

Boyle-Blake
Ehrhoff-Vlasic
McLaren-Lukowich
Ex. Murray, Joslin

Nabokov
Boucher
Ex. Greiss

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