Pacific Division Free Agency Preview
The Pacific Division is a hyper competitive grouping with lots of drama and twists. Every franchise in the Pacific is traditionally strong and they are all play-off quality teams, though last year Dallas and Anaheim fell just short of qualifying. These are the situations each team faces and the moves they may make:
Anaheim Ducks: The Ducks may have won the Stanley Cup three years ago, but they allowed their defensive line to crumble and were unable to make the play-offs. They addressed this issue by taking Cam Fowler in the National Hockey League Entry Draft, but still need a more immediate defensive solution while the youngster develops.
The Ducks’ free agency moves relate entirely to what they decide to do about veteran forwards Teemu Sellane and Saku Koivu. Both players are old and may be willing to return for reasonable wages. If not, Anaheim still has its top three scorers and should use the money freed up by Sellane and Koivu to immediately bolster defence.
Anaheim was ranked 22nd last season by allowing 2.96 goals per game and 24th in penalty-killing with a paltry 79.3 percent. Goalie Jonas Hiller was also tried due to the Ducks allowing 33.4 shots per game, second most in the League.
The Ducks should forget about Selanne and Koivu, or retain just one for cheap, and get themselves both a scoring and a stay-at-home defence-man to ease their blue-line woes.
Dallas Stars: The Stars are attempting to freshen up their franchise, as evident by not re-signing 21-year veteran Mike Modano. While Modano may have been the face of the Stars, his 30 points last season were not enough to help them make the play-offs.
Replacing Modano should be inexpensive and not too difficult. If the Stars want to be aggressive, they can even try and make a move for free agent Matthew Lombardi, who put up 53 points last season for the Coyotes and has a ton of speed which allows him to create opportunities for others.
The Stars also need to address their defence issues. They ranked one below the Ducks in goals allowed with an average of 2.98 and were 27th in penalty-killing. Additionally they just signed injury-prone goalie Kari Lehtonen and it is essential that they provide him with some blue-line protection.
Los Angeles Kings: Last free agent season, the Kings added Ryan Smyth to their roster. This season they seek to add another elite scorer in Ilya Kovalchuk.
The Kings finally ended a playoff drought last season and have seen their nucleus of Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson develop into phenomenal players. This gives them a lot of money and possibilities to offer Kovalchuk. If they are able to add him, the Kings should be able to go deep into the play-offs.
Additionally, Mike Modano has listed L.A. as one of the teams he would play for should he not retire. He wouldn’t be expensive and his play-off experience would be immensely valuable to the Kings.
Phoenix Coyotes: Last season the Coyotes were a team where struggling players from other franchises came to thrive. They picked up Lee Stempniak from the Maple Leafs and he scored as many times for Phoenix in 18 games as he did for Toronto in 62. They also picked up Wojtek Wolski from the Colorado Avalanche, and he averaged a point per game for Phoenix.
Phoenix’s main needs this off-season are to retain the players entering free agency. Lee Stempniak is set to enter free agency, as is top-defender Zbynek Michalek. There should be lots of interest in Michalek from other teams, and as Coyotes coach Dave Tippet is defensively-oriented, re-signing Michalek will be a top priority.
The Coyotes are on a tight budget and not able to pick up any super impacting offensive players. It is likely that Phoenix will call up their 2009 top-choice Oliver Ekman-Larsson. It seems their success will be based on defensive prowess, unless Wolski gets even better and Stempniak returns.
San Jose Sharks: The Sharks have built up a franchise that will be a long-time contender, but have also built a reputation for underachieving in the playoffs. San Jose is allowing goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to enter free agency, and therefore will be looking for a new No. 1 goalie.
Possible goalie options for San Jose include Mary Turco, Chris Mason, and Dan Ellis, all of whom are considered capable of being the starting net-minder for a team. As they have retained essentially all of their other free agent stars, like Joe Pavelski and Devin Setoguchi, the only other thing San Jose needs to do is find a defence-man to replace the recently retired Rob Blake.
They have the money for both of these signings and with these subtle changes they can perhaps finally go the distance in the post-season.
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