Faceoff Factor

Preaseason Divisional Power Rankings: Pacific Division

Michael Farkas | National Hockey League

Sep 18, 12:56 AM | Hype this story!

The Pacific Division plays host to some of the league’s best talent. It also houses the Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks and my personal Stanley Cup favorite, San Jose Sharks. The always solid Stars didn’t make any substantial additions but the Los Angeles Kings completely revamped the lineup, giving Kings’ fans a reason to believe again. The Coyotes are young, but they have some young talent that fans should pay to watch. It’ll be interesting to see how this division plays out.

5th: Phoenix Coyotes

The Coyotes played some pretty poor hockey last season and that’s unlikely to change this year. However, they have some very intriguing parts to work with. The question is whether or not they show up to play in Arizona. Players like Tomas Surovy, Enver Lisin and Alexei Kaigorodov have a lot of potential, especially the latter two, but it’s uncertain as to how willing they are to remain in North America. It would have probably been better to hold on to Oleg Saprykin as well, who falls into the same category and has actually proven himself at the NHL level.

Unfortunately for Coyotes management, some old faces are still there, such as Ed Jovanovski and Nick Boynton, both of which were shopped around this offseason. Shane Doan and Steven Reinprecht have looked decent together in prior seasons. The additions include somewhat talented castoffs Radim Vrbata and David Aebischer. Both of whom produce good results when given the right situation. Aebischer has the ability to steal a few points for the desert dogs but it won’t be an easy task by any stretch. Blueliners Zybnek Michalek and Keith Ballard are becoming prominent defensemen already, which is a good sign of things to come.

It’s the peak of the heat wave right now in Phoenix, it will be a little while before the temperature comes down and the wins come up. It’s a dry heat.

4th: Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings struggled mightily last season. They gave up one less goal and obtained one more point than the hapless Coyotes. However, things are going to turn around fast for the Kings. Management opened up their collective wallets to bring in free agents Brad Stuart, Ladislav Nagy, Michal Handzus, Tom Preissing and Kyle Calder. None of which are world beaters by any stretch, but perhaps because of that, they will help aid a rebuild; as opposed to big money superstars on long term deals, which isn’t usually the best idea for a recently struggling franchise. To further this, Nagy and Stuart only signed for one year and Calder for just two.

Another big difference for the Kings will be in net. Jason LaBarbera should be taking over as the starter. LaBarbera has looked good at the AHL level for years now and Dan Cloutier has looked quite the opposite at the NHL level. Michael Cammalleri, Alexander Frolov, Anze Kopitar and Patrick O’Sullivan are phenomenally talented and will be featured in the NHL for years to come. Jack Johnson will get his first full season under his belt this year as well. This Kings team is probably one year away from being in the playoffs; they are as close to the “Penguins of the west” as any team in the league. And if all this talent isn’t enough, they have one of the best, if not the best, goalie in the QMJHL in Jonathan Bernier progressing nicely.

The Kings can challenge this year and with LaBarbera in net you don’t have to turn on the red light…..Roxanne (had to, direct hate mail to my e-mail please).

3rd: Dallas Stars

Remember earlier in the offseason, Stars ownership was writing an informal letter to inform fans about how not “stupid” they were for not signing any free agents? Well, the Stars did not waver from that stance as of training camp. Stars fans may be displeased, but the Stars do not have a lot of breathing room under the cap and the lineup isn’t in dire straits as it is. Mattias Norstrom, a deadline day acquisition last year, is the best pseudo-addition they made and he adds veteran leadership and a consistent defensive stronghold, always a plus.

Assuming that at least one of the young guys step up, such as Loui Eriksson, Perttu Lindgren or Vojtech Polak the Stars will be in good shape. The lineup is fairly old however, Turco, Norstrom, Lehtinen, Zubov, Modano, Boucher, Halpern, Robidas and Barnes are all at or over 30 years old already, which is concerning and applies some pressure for winning now. The team is very talented as a whole, despite their age, but are playing in a rough division.

The Stars need a Vezina Trophy type season from Marty Turco to have a chance of making a huge impact this year.

2nd: Anaheim Ducks

Perhaps an asterisk is in order with this prediction. The loss of Teemu Selanne, and, more importantly, Scott Neidermayer may hurt the Ducks. This is a team that has a big time offense but an even more powerful defense, which is important for Giguere. A defense of Pronger, Neidermayer, Schneider, Beauchemin, O’Donnell and Hnidy is nearly impregnable and makes them a favorite to repeat as Cup champs. However, the loss of an irreplaceable player like Neidermayer could be even more costly than meets-the-eye.

GM Brian Burke did try to prepare in case the ship took on water. The aforementioned Mathieu Schneider from the Red Wings and much maligned winger Todd Bertuzzi have been brought in for damage control purposes. The lineup is very impressive talent wise as well: Getzlaf and Perry are heading into contract years and Kunitz just received his big pay day recently. The Ducks could very well repeat, but it’s important not to lose two superstars, believe it or not.

The Ducks offense is great but the defense is even better and it could go a long way to winning them another championship.

1st: San Jose Sharks

There really is nothing not to like about this Sharks team. The goaltending is great with Evgeni Nabokov leading the way. The defense is solid and strong with veterans Craig Rivet and Kyle McLaren, young and impressive with Marc Edouard Vlasic, Christian Ehrhoff and Matt Carle, as well as scrappy and mean because of Rob Davison and Doug Murray. The offense may be one of the league’s best. The best one-two punch at center this side of Crosby and Malkin for starters. Michalek, Cheechoo, Bernier and Pavelski are all young and very talented as well. If that’s not enough, they also have a scrappy set of forwards which includes Mike Grier, Curtis Brown, Marcel Goc and Pat Rissmiller.

There’s not too much doubt in my mind that this is the league’s best lineup overall. Big time goalie, high powered offense and a complete defense makes the Sharks look pretty unstoppable this season. They’ve even managed to lock up Thornton, Marleau, Michalek and late season acquisition Craig Rivet to extensions. Phenomenal job by the Sharks management and they should be handsomely rewarded with the Stanley Cup this season.

East coast bias be darned. The Sharks will be the team to watch this season.

To view all of the previous installments in this series, select below:
Southeast Division
Northwest Division
Northeast Division
Central Division
Atlantic Division