Central Division Free Agency Preview
Last season the Western Conference’s Central Division was the best in the National Hockey League. Three teams in the division finished with over 100 points and one won the Stanley Cup. The teams will surely fiddle around with the rosters slightly during free agency, but it seems likely the Central will remain the best in the NHL.
Chicago Blackhawks: The Hawks finished last season with a 52-22-8 record and went on to win the Stanley Cup. Due to salary cap restrictions, general manager Stan Bowman has thus far been stripping away the roster rather than adding to it. Chicago has traded away Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and Colin Fraser and also will most likely be without John Madden and Adam Burish for next season.
Bowman has let these players go in order to focus on retaining what he considers the Blackhawks’ “core.” To do so, Bowman needs to re-sign Antti Niemi, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Andrew Ladd, all of whom are also entering free agency.
While the Hawks may have lost some notable names, their immaculate drafting has left them with numerous in-house prospects to attempt another Stanley Cup run. Their top two youngsters look to be Kyle Beach and Jack Skille. While Chicago’s cap space is limited, they may still attempt to get a veteran centre or defence man at a cheap price in order to guide their raw roster.
Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings played well last season, and finished 44-24-14 en route to a conference semi-final defeat. Of all the teams, Detroit perhaps needs to make the least moves as their recent year tendency has been to sign their stars to 10+ year contracts.
They have re-signed Nicklas Lidstrom, their only ‘core’ player entering free agency, and also have centre Jiri Hudle returning from playing in Russia.
The only things Detroit has to worry about are potential free agents Brett Lebda and Andreas Lilja not returning, but they seem on pace to be in Detroit again. In the worst case, Detroit has some young defence men like Jakub Kindl ready to step in.
Nashville Predators: As they operate on a fairly tight budget, Nashville is focusing heavily on its young, inexpensive players. They have sent away Jason Arnott and Dan Hamhuis, and are most likely going to attempt to give developing players like Colin Wilson, Cal O'Reilly and Jerred Smithson prominent roles. This will help Nashville polish them, and help them deal with the fact that they simply have little money to spend.
Nashville also still has their entire core of Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Francis Bouillon, Kevin Klein, Alexander Sulzer and Ryan Parent
The only real moves Nashville does need to make are picking up a new No. 2 goalie as they just traded Dan Ellis to Montreal, and calling up 2007 No. 1 pick Jonathon Blum. The replacement for Ellis might be Mark Dekanich, who is currently playing for their American Hockey League affiliate.
St. Louis Blues: The Blues main issue will be their lack of veteran leadership. Keith Tkachuk just retired and Paul Kariya will be testing the waters of free agency.
The Blues have been acquiring players through trading and have high hopes for new acquisitions Jaroslav Halak and Vladimir Sobotka. They will also be looking to try and finally bring their 2008 first-round choice Alex Pietrangelo into a more prominent and consistent role.
St. Louis’s best bet will be to attempt to pick up one of the veteran defence men available as their defence has been injury prone and they have a large amount of cap space. Expect the Blues to makes moves for any of the following: Dan Hamhuis, Paul Martin, Sergei Gonchar, Anton Volchenkov, Zbynek Michalek, Willie Mitchell and Pavel Kubina.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Every single season, the Blue Jackets continue to be unable to find a top centre to play alongside their star Rick Nash. Unfortunately for the 32-35-15 team, this year may not be much better. Things initially looked hopeful as Columbus almost picked up Jason Spezza from Ottawa for the centre role, but the deal fell through.
There isn’t much room or need for any additions besides a centre, as the Blue Jackets have 11 forwards going into next season and a well-established defensive line. While Columbus could always use one of the top defence men that will be entering free agency, they don’t seem to be showing any interest in making movies. Instead, they may eschew spending money in order to wait for prospects John Moore and Cody Goloubef to be League-ready next season.
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