Faceoff Factor

Preseason Divisional Power Rankings: Atlantic

Michael Farkas | National Hockey League

Aug 7, 01:58 AM | Hype this story!

The clattering of calculator buttons and the last few available free agents swallowing their pride and signing for $500,000 less to remain in the NHL, it’s nearing the end of the offseason. It’s time to shift from offseason mode to “I’m ready for the season to start” mode. Faceoff Factor hears your increasingly intense cranial callings and plans to deliver. This is part one of six in a series of divisional preseason power rankings, first up, the Atlantic Division.

The Atlantic Division saw just about every major free agent sign within the division and has created a lot of question marks along the way. How will team chemistry work out for teams like Philadelphia and the Rangers? How will a quiet, but up and coming, team like the Penguins react to the new firepower? How bad will the Islanders be? All are questions that must wait until April to be answered completely, but here’s a sneak preview.

5th: New York Islanders

After especially costly goals in 06-07, Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro would often wind up and look like he was about to chop off the head of whatever defenseman was lying in his crease at the time. Well, the good news is, half of those problem defensemen are gone (Tom Poti and Sean Hill)…the bad news, Marc Andre Bergeron and Freddy Meyer are going to see more ice time. The Islanders made the terribly misguided decision to make trades that screamed, “Cup run!!!” at the end of last season, when they were in ninth place. Needless to say, they did not even belong in the playoffs last season and the Sabres made that immediately known.

Adding Bill Guerin makes sense because the Islanders won’t get anywhere close to the playoffs, something Guerin knows all too well. Ruslan Fedotenko makes $2.9 million, he scored 12 goals last season, and Islanders fans complained about Yashin’s salary? Comrie’s got the upside to make something happen out there, but with a serious lack of talent, combined with a serious lack of depth and a serious lack of future assets, the Islanders are going no where fast for a long time to come.

Yashin is still one of the highest paid players on the team in what should be a very long year on the Island.

4th: Philadelphia Flyers

Well, there was no where to go but up for Philadelphia after last season, and they made quite the impression on the free agent market since late June. New faces Daniel Briere, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell and Martin Biron (deadline acquisition) make up four of the top five highest paid players on the team. Unfortunately, Derian Hatcher, Mike Rathje and Mike Knuble aren’t far behind. There is an anxious tension among Flyers fans now-a-days. They have to make sure this works right away or else they will become everything they’ve ever hated: the 1996-2002 New York Rangers.

Teams with this much turnover are very hard to predict, their boom or bust potential is probably the highest among all NHL teams right now. Flyers fans have heard it all by now though, “Briere was bad in Phoenix’s big lineup,” “Timonen gets paid like an elite defenseman, but he’s like a less-talented Brian Rafalski,” “Hartnell hasn’t done anything at the NHL level,” “Biron hasn’t done this or that and he always loses his job,” “Lupul is garbage, he didn’t do anything last year,” and so on. I won’t go into great detail on that, it’s been said enough.

Honestly, it’s as good as a coin flip right now and I’m going to err on the side of caution and put them fourth in what becomes a very tight race for first.

3rd: New Jersey Devils

Well, another offseason and another key component(s) is gone. Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski head the list this time around. Martin Brodeur and the Devils are used to this though and it seems like Brodeur gets better every time this happens. Maybe if teams stop creating holes in the Devils lineup Marty would become more complacent. The defense takes yet another hit, but Lou Lamoriello is so used to making a patchwork defense of unknowns that it’s probably fun for him now. Gomez gets downgraded to Zubrus and they lose one of the league’s top puck carriers in the process. Paul Martin will probably take on a more prevalent role on the power play and may take over puck carrying duties from now on. Parise and Zajac are another year older and they create a very young, very talented one-two punch down the middle should Zubrus end up on the wing.

With Kevin Weekes as the new Devils backup, Devils fans should root for an 82 game season by Brodeur in 07-08. The Devils took a couple of damaging blows by losing Gomez and Rafalski, but as a team, they just aren’t that worse than last year. And with Martin Brodeur in your crease the sky’s the limit for this team. As always, the Devils will compete for the top spot in the Atlantic, but they’ll come up just a bit short this time around.

Little known fact: Zach Parise is the Michael Cammalleri of the East, if he doesn’t already have your attention, he’ll get it this year.

2nd: Pittsburgh Penguins

Well, the Pittsburgh Penguins might have had their breakout year a year or so sooner than expected, that’s bad news for the rest of the league. Sidney Crosby is the best player in the world right now and he’s just turning 20 as a write this. If hockey fans weren’t so spoiled by the recent Crosby and Ovechkin rookie campaigns, we’d all be going nuts over Evgeni Malkin’s top-20 finish in scoring last year as a rookie. The Penguins once again fail to answer their need of a top line sniper and a minute-eating defensive defenseman, but that doesn’t mean they are in bad shape. Petr Sykora played on Malkin’s line in Russia during the 04-05 season, Darryl Sydor provides some depth and veteran leadership and the hopefully-impressive arrival of rookie Kristopher Letang should help the Pens along nicely.

Marc Andre Fleury is progressing very steadily in net for the Penguins. Although it seems like he’s been around forever now, he’s only 23 years old and coming off a 40 win, five-shutout season with a questionable defense. If Fleury eliminates the soft goals, and the Penguins defense, well, plays defense, they’ll be in good shape because the offense is dynamic and always pressing for chances.

The Penguins will miss the top spot in the Atlantic by just a point or two, but the core of this team still has years ahead of it. With perhaps a couple trades along the way, could very well be Cup contenders right now.

1st: New York Rangers

The sign outside the Rangers locker room says, “you must be this rich to go beyond this point.” Eight players next season will make at least $3 million or more (including Shanahan and his bonuses). Adding Gomez and Drury to a fairly stacked lineup probably can’t hurt. The Rangers may very well have the league’s best top-six forwards, which should make their powerplay nearly unstoppable. Henrik Lundqvist recovered from an early season slump last year to get mentioned in Vezina Trophy talk. The only weak link is the defense in front of him. Mara, Malik and Rozsival don’t strike me as “shutdown” defensemen, as a matter of fact, they don’t even strike me as “slow down” defensemen. That could cost the Rangers some games if they aren’t careful with the puck.

Despite the Rangers’ new faces, the team has largely remained intact from last season. A team that gelled quite well actually. Defense, again, remains a focal point, and the rumors connecting them to Ed Jovanovski only make the situation worse. However, the Penguins have been successful with some minor leaguers on the blueline, the Rangers can make it work with, perhaps, an even more explosive offense. Fedor Tyutin could be a key piece for the Rangers this season, if he can handle the minutes and the defensive duty, the need for his offensive touch to fully develop may be unnecessary after all.

The Rangers took a good group and made it better by adding two more stars. They stand to take the biggest advantage of weak goaltending and weak defensive teams and for that I’ll give them the Atlantic Division.