The Central Shuffle - Predicting their Regular Season Standings

With such a competitive league, a lot of teams just look to get a shot in the playoffs - and that starts with your division and how you stack up against your rivals. For this blog, we'll take a look at where I believe each team will finish within the Central, and the rationale behind my (likely wrong) opinions.

1. Dallas Stars

After another successful season finishing 1st in the Central & the Western Conference as a whole, as well as 2nd overall in the league, the Stars young group will only continue to improve. When looking at their notable losses this offseason, the names of Joe Pavelski, Ty Dellandrea, Chris Tanev, Ryan Suter, Jani Hakanpaa and Scott Wedgewood come to mind. With only having Tanev as a trade deadline acquisition, the team really didn’t lose any key players. Pavelski’s veteran presence will be missed, and the shutdown nature of Tanev’s game was huge, but the team has worked to partially mitigate this with the signings of Matt Dumba and the re-signing of Matt Duchene. Now, I don’t necessarily agree with the AAV of the Lybushkin signing, but he will be able to fill Suter’s void, and Casey DeSmith will be a solid back up to Jake Oettinger. With this roster being rather identical on paper to start the season, it is easy to project them to find the same success as last year, but I believe that the potential further improvement from their young core could cement the Stars at #1. Hopefully this year Robertson can improve his play and return to his 2022-self where he put up 109 points - 29 above this year's performance. 

2. Colorado Avalanche

This one is a bit of a tossup for me, as the season that Nashville will have could vary a good amount, but we’ll get more into that later. Regardless, a team like Colorado that has proven their ability to dominate time and time again is the more reliable answer for this #2 spot. Last year, the Avs finished 3rd amongst the division, but that is behind a Jets team at #2 that I expect to have a worse season this time around, with the Avs still having put up 107 points last year. The roster this year definitely has a few holes to fill, including a less than ideal forward group depth-wise. Now, the return of Valeri Nichuskin and Gabriel Landeskog would really help this team out, but there are a lot of question marks surrounding their returns, so no point speculating too much on that topic.  They still have an impressive d-core with the obvious names of Makar and Toews, but a tandem of Georgiev and Annunen worries me. At the end of the day, McKinnon, Rantanen, Makar and Toews will always be a very competitive roster, but maybe the next team on this list could take the #2 spot.  

3. Nashville Predators

First, let’s discuss some of the major concerns around the factors that will dictate that way this team will perform in the 2024-25 season. Will they click from the start? Will Skeji’s fit alongside Josi work well? Will O’Rielly and Stamkos be able to hold off father time? All of these questions will have a huge impact on where the Pred’s finish within the division. At the end of the day, Andrew Brunette is a great coach and this is a very veteran, savvy roster, so I believe this team will be able to come out of the gates and be a really competitive team from the start. The Avs ability to prove time & time again how they perform over 82 games has me putting them ahead of the Pred’s, but having Juuse Saros between the pipes nearly has me giving the edge to Nashville. Nevertheless, it will be an interesting race; so if Georgiev struggles and one (or neither) of Nichushkin and Landeskog return and aren’t their impactful selves, Nashville will likely take the 2 spot. 

4. Winnipeg Jets

Following a game 6 exit in the first round of the playoffs against my #2 team on this list, the Jets were unable to improve their roster, but instead downgraded greatly. Winnipeg lost a few big names this off season, such as Brenden Dillon, Tyler Toffoli and Sean Monahan, as well as one of the best backup goalies in the league in Laurent Brossoit. So, if this team finished second in the division last year with 110 points, a 8-12 point decrease could be possible this season; therefore slotting them in 3rd-4th spot in the division (based on last year). Couple Winnipeg’s decrease with the improved Nashville roster, and the Jets are looking like a team that will have to settle for a wild card spot (at best) within the Central. 

5. Utah Hockey Club

To begin the bottom half of the division, I have the Utah Hockey Club slotting in at the #5 spot. I might be a little biased here since I love a lot of players on this team, but with the early signs that owner Ryan Smith has shown to make this team more competitive than the poor Arizona fans saw for years, I think they will be much improved. This team has a bunch of exciting players, including Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Josh Doan to name a few. I also like their d-core, especially the additions of John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev alongside the recently-extended Sean Durzi. With so many young players that have the opportunity to grow this year and a proven star in Clayton Keller, their offensive lineup might surprise a lot of us and easily secure this #5 spot. This will be a fun team to watch, especially a Jack McBain and Kevin Stenlund duo on the 4th line. 

6. Minnesota Wild

Despite some great seasons over the last few years, the Wild seem to be stuck in the middle as a team. The roster is still well constructed with aggressive bottom-6 checking lines and some impactful forwards upfront like Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, but depth scoring is a major concern. Their d-core has some names I like, including Jared Spurgeon, Brock Faber and Jonas Brodin, but unfortunately lack 6 strong defensemen.This season, Boldy and Faber will be X-factors for this Wild team as they look to once again get themselves in the upper half of the Central division. If Kaprizov can get another 40-goal season and they receive a slight improvement from their goalie tandem, this team could outdo last year's performance with 87 points. Unfortunately, with the question marks surrounding depth scoring and goaltending, this team realistically slips into the #6 spot, once again missing the playoffs. 

7. Chicago Blackhawks

Congratulations, Blackhawks fans, you are no longer the bottom of the Central! Many people have said that Chicago is one of the most improved teams in the league over the summer, but it’s hard to give a team credit for that when they will most likely be bottom 2 in their division. Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of the additions they have made and the identity that they have begun to build with a few of their signings, but they still have a ways to go until they are a top 4 team in this division. I think that the line of Bertuzzi, Bedard, Teravainen is genuinely a really fun line to watch; specifically to see Bertuzzi take a Zach Hyman-esqe role alongside the league's next McDavid (Bedard). I really hope Andreas Athanasiou can stay healthy this year, because his speed and offensive capabilities will make him an important 2C, with “All-Star” Jason Dickinson slotting into the third slot. I also look forward to seeing Kurashev continue to grow his game, along with Reichel likely finding his way up the lineup to continue gaining NHL experience. Their 6 defensemen are legitimately NHL-caliber, and honestly have a little more consistency than other teams in this league could say, especially the veteran presence that Alec Martinez and T.J.  Brodie will add to this young core. Speaking of the young d-core, I really like the way they have set themselves up, and think that Alex Vlasic, Kevin Korchinski and Artyom Levshunov will be amongst the league's best d-cores in 3-5 years. 

8. St. Louis Blues

After winning it all in 2019, this team has lost the majority of their veteran players they won with, their head coach left and now coaches a contender, and they now sit amongst the bottom of the league - and no, I am not talking about the Toronto Raptors, but instead the St. Louis Blues. When looking at their forward group, there are really only a few pieces that stick out like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchenvich. Alexy Torpochenko is a player I enjoy in a bottom-6 forward role, with Parayako and Binnington being brighter spots on the back-end of this roster. I am pretty confused with the direction this team is going right now, and am maybe a little worried for Blues’ fans, but we’ll have to see the decisions that they make at the trade deadline this year and what that means for their direction going forward.