Faceoff Factor

Preseason Divisional Power Rankings: Northwest

Michael Farkas | National Hockey League

Aug 27, 03:45 AM | Hype this story!

One of the hardest fought and highest skilled division of last year was the Northwest Division. This year should be absolutely no different. Two of the league’s best goaltenders reside in the Northwest, Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo. While, some of the league’s best young talent resides in the State of Hockey and the Rockies to the west. And after this past offseason, no one will forget the Edmonton Oilers any time soon either. But how will that translate to their regular season performance?

5th: Edmonton Oilers

Needless to say, we’ll start in Edmonton. The Oilers started their colossal collapse on February 27, 2007, trade deadline day. Captain Canada, lifelong Oiler and fan favorite Ryan Smyth rejected a long-term contract worth more than $5 million per year over a mere $100,000 to $500,000 (yes, I blamed Smyth at the time). Smyth left Alberta crying on his way to Long Island, where inexplicably the ninth place Islanders gave up two first round prospects and a first round pick in the 2007 draft (all 15th overall ironically enough). Oddly enough, this trade goes on to severely damage the future of both teams significantly. Fast-forward six months to the day, let’s see what we have.

The Oilers took their “Ryan Smyth fund” and spent it on a replacement leader and goal scorer? Nope. Power play specialist and defensive liability-extraordinaire Sheldon Souray got the five-year, $27 million deal. The Oilers took their new found prospect wealth and turned it to a great player with a huge upside? Nope. Enormous forward and soon to be enormous disappointment, Dustin Penner is snatched away in a hail of verbal gunfire (nothing against Penner, but he’s not worth more than $4 million per year and a series of high draft picks in a fairly deep draft). The Oilers would keep their prize-pig from the Pronger trade (Joffrey Lupul) and captain Jason Smith though, right? Nope. Traded to Philadelphia for the increasingly disappointing Joni Pitkanen and rapidly aging winger Geoff Sanderson. The Oilers are certainly out of room for offense-only defensemen at least, right? Nope. Enter former Oiler and converted center Dick Tarnstrom at nearly $2 million per season. Finally, Michael Nylander’s wife would give the great City of Edmonton a slap across the face by convincing her husband not to sign with the team. They gained undying animosity from all 29 GM’s, an irate fan base and blueline that makes you wonder, “So, what happens when the other team has the puck?”

What’s the worst part of this? Yeah, it gets worse. When the Oilers finish last and (let’s say for irony sake) win the draft lottery, the first overall pick…belongs to the Ducks from the Penner offer sheet. If this story doesn’t make you want to curl up with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and A Walk to Remember nothing will.

4th: Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild, fairly quiet and reserved on the free agent front as usual, will go into the season without Manny Fernandez for the first time in franchise history. The new kid on the block, Niklas Backstrom will lead the way and extremely promising prospect Josh Harding will be riding shotgun. Backstrom, numbers-wise, had a wonderful first season, a goals against average below two and a save percentage nearing .930 in 41 games last year. Will that be duplicated? I doubt it. Will he get close to those numbers again? I doubt that too. I think there’s a legitimate opportunity here for Josh Harding still, despite the unexpected success of Backstrom. The biggest acquisition for the Wild was depth center Eric Belanger, a versatile forward who is serviceable in any situation.

Despite my fourth place placement, I don’t see the Wild missing the playoffs this season. Marian Gaborik is a top-ten talent in the NHL, no questions asked; if healthy, he’s literally unstoppable. Mikko Koivu is developing into a fantastic player very quickly, if a kid like Benoit Pouliot or James Sheppard or Roman Voloshenko can follow in his footsteps (in terms of quick development) in the coming years, the Wild will be all set. The key parts of the blueline are largely unknown, but very talented. Nick Schultz and Brent Burns, in particular, should certainly get their names on the map this season if they haven’t already.

If the over/under on Gaborik’s point total is 100, give me the over. Once again, the Wild will very quietly go about their business and make the playoffs yet again, no flowers, no flashbulbs, no line.

3rd: Calgary Flames

The Flames made some moves that could best be described as “interesting.” Or, consequently, could be described as “Keenan moves.” The Flames added $4 million a year outpatient Adrian Aucoin to the once-conservative blueline. While they were eating cap space as if it was a goal, they added Cory Sarich (certainly a well-intended move for a very solid defensive defenseman) at $3.6 million until 2012. Forward Owen Nolan also extended his career by taking an incentive-laden contract worth up to $2 million. However, to their credit, while the Flames were throwing around money, they’ve been managing to stave off a potential apocalypse by re-signing captain Jarome Iginla and hard-hitting defenseman Robyn Regehr until 2013. They are still a Dion Phaneuf and Miikka Kiprusoff signing away from averting disaster entirely though.

I suppose I don’t speak too favorably upon the Flames up there, do I? Well, Miikka Kiprusoff gives you a chance to be a Cup contender no matter who’s in front of you. If anyone saw even one game of Calgary’s first round playoff exit, you know exactly where I’m coming from. Iginla, Tanguay and Huselius headline a group of top-end forwards but don’t leave much scoring depth behind them. The defense seems weaker than in years past, but still competent.

It comes down Kiprusoff, the Flames can go anywhere if Kipper is stealing games for them. Simple as that.

2nd: Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche were the league’s hottest team at the end of 2006-07 and the team only got better since then. Their two additions were two of the biggest that the offseason had to offer: the aforementioned Ryan Smyth and gritty defensive defenseman Scott Hannan. The offense is all there of course. Led by long-time captain Joe Sakic and pleasantly surprising, Calder runner-up Paul Stastny. Throw in the gritty Smyth, the highly skilled Wojtek Wolski and Milan Hejduk with talented offensive defenseman John-Michael Liles and the Avs seem to be developing into an offensive juggernaut, again.

The Avalanche really have a lot of parts in place to be great this season. Peter Budaj needs to keep pucks out of the net and Jose Theodore out of the crease and the Avs could be dark horse contenders for the Stanley Cup believe it or not. I think Budaj is a very good goalie, someone I had high hopes for since his days in Hershey (AHL) and there’s no reason why he can’t pick up where he left off last season. Colorado possesses a “defense-first” blueline by and large, with Hannan, Skrastins, Leopold and Sauer manning the fort. The names might not be headliners, but they play an effective game back there for Colorado.

The Avalanche got at least one point in all but two games from February 25th to April 8th (going 15-2-2 to end the season). The Avs won’t be quite so dominant, but they will be right back in the playoffs again.

1st: Vancouver Canucks

Roberto Luongo. The next couple paragraphs really don’t matter, just a mere journalistic formality. The Canucks are going to bring the same basic team to the table this year. Aaron Miller, an elderly defenseman was the most noteworthy addition and a new guy that gets a six-figure salary to watch Luongo play, some “big dummy.” Talk surrounding the Canucks, has them chasing oft-injured, although dominant center Peter Forsberg to play along side fading fellow Swede Markus Naslund. GM Dave Nonis is trying to wake up a slumbering offense, if that means trading Markus Naslund (assuming they don’t sign Forsberg) or Brendan Morrison (both UFA’s at season’s end) then so be it.

The Canucks offer a well-balanced group of forwards. The offensively gifted Sedin twins with whomever is fortunate enough to be on their line (Taylor Pyatt). In addition, to that, Naslund and Morrison still provide offense, but not as much as their Western competitors. There’s a lot of grit in the bottom-six, between Ryan Kesler, Matt Cooke, Byron Ritchie, Jeff Cowan, Trevor Linden, Brad Isbister and a bottomless barrel of such players in Manitoba (AHL) the Canucks have the ability to work, and frustrate, you to death. The defense is outstanding and intelligent. Ohlund, Salo and Mitchell eat a ton of minutes, while Kraijcek and Bieksa work the offensive game well. Luc Bourdon will be just icing on the cake.

Roberto Luongo cemented himself among the game’s elite in Florida, but no one cared then. So, he went and did it again in Vancouver. They can challenge for a Cup with a goalie like that in net.