Transition Teams
Posted 11:12 AM ET | Comments 0
As the All Star break and the trade deadline approaches its always fun to look at the teams in transition. I guess it’s best to start with the obvious and this year the obvious is the Ottawa Senators and the New Jersey Devils.
Despite the recent hot streak, New Jersey is not the team it once was. Yes they still have Brodeur and Elias as well as their young star in Parise. However Parise is hurt and both Brodeur and Elias’s best years are behind them. New Jersey has always been a team built around its goaltending and defense, but Hedberg is 37 and Brodeur is 38 and outside of this veteran tandem there’s not much else in the Devils system. Outside of Parise, who is reportedly unhappy with the trading of Langenbrunner and is a RFA at seasons end, there isn’t much top young talent. Right now Kovalchuk and Elias are holding down the offenses but they are in desperate need of help. As it stands right now the Devils also have no depth at the center position and as history has shown everybody you can’t go far in the NHL without depth. The best option for the Devils right now is hope to draft high enough to get Adam Larsson and start rebuilding the team from a similar mold that brought New Jersey so much success.
At the beginning of the season the Senators were seen as a bubble team who would finish in the 6-11 area. The Sens currently sit at 13th and are without first line center Jason Spezza. The team right now is in a downward spiral, but there is still hope. Even though it wasn’t all that long ago that Ottawa was in the finals it might be time to rebuild. Ottawa has a good young goalie in Lehner and good young D-men in Karlsson as well as Jared Cowan. One can’t overlook defensemen Patrick Wiercioch who could put up solid numbers for the Sens in a year or two. So the Sens seem good on the back end however they really don’t have that much goal scoring talent up front. Alfredsson is getting older, Milan Michalek is a 50 point scorer, when healthy, and everyone knows the Alex Kovalev experiment is not working. If Ottawa can get their hands on some good young talent up front they will be good for a while. As far as the whole Jason Spezza saga with people saying that Ottawa should trade him, I believe Walmart supports trading Spezza as well after seeing their 5 dollar Spezza wall; I think they should hold onto him a get him a strong goal scorer to play with. We all saw how good he was with Heatley.
So with every Ying there’s a Yang, with good there’s evil and with every team going down there’s a team coming up. The Atlanta Thrashers and the Nashville Predators seem to have taken the next steps necessary for them to become playoff teams.
In the offseason Atlanta made some big moves, mainly with the Stanly Cup Chaps in Chicago. Byfuglien and Ladd have paid dividends and youngsters Enstrom, Bogosian and Kane are starting to catch fire. But what might be the biggest plus to Atlanta is in goal and giving the responsibility to Pavelec who has been spectacular in the 38 games he has played thus far. Right now the Thrashers hold on to the last playoff spot in the East and if they don’t make it this year it is a disappointment, however; this year they have proven that they are not the same Thrashers they were a couple years ago and seemed to have put together a team that could be competitive for many years.
Nashville has always been a tough team to play against because they would continually grind their opponents out every game. However over the last year or so the Predators have added some goal scoring touch with Hornqvist, Sergei Kostitsyn and Wilson leading the offense. Even though Nashville is stronger offensively they have managed to stay strong defensively to. Shea Weber is one of the best defensemen in all three zones who gets the perfect compliment by the physical Ryan Suter. Like all good teams on the rise Nashville gets good depths scoring as well. The one things Nashville always seems to have is great goaltending depth. Behind Pekka Rinne, who is having yet another strong season, is Anders Lindback and Chet Pickard both could one day be number one goalies in the NHL.
Of course this post would not be complete if I failed to mention the likes of the New York Islanders, the St. Louis Blues or the Minnesota Wild all teams who haven’t really moved up or down. All three teams have managed to stay in the same spot over the past few years. Yes I am aware that the Blues made the playoffs not that long ago but that just seems to be a spike in the current trend. As it stands right now all three of these teams have good assets they just have to start producing, or get your players to report to the team.
Despite the recent hot streak, New Jersey is not the team it once was. Yes they still have Brodeur and Elias as well as their young star in Parise. However Parise is hurt and both Brodeur and Elias’s best years are behind them. New Jersey has always been a team built around its goaltending and defense, but Hedberg is 37 and Brodeur is 38 and outside of this veteran tandem there’s not much else in the Devils system. Outside of Parise, who is reportedly unhappy with the trading of Langenbrunner and is a RFA at seasons end, there isn’t much top young talent. Right now Kovalchuk and Elias are holding down the offenses but they are in desperate need of help. As it stands right now the Devils also have no depth at the center position and as history has shown everybody you can’t go far in the NHL without depth. The best option for the Devils right now is hope to draft high enough to get Adam Larsson and start rebuilding the team from a similar mold that brought New Jersey so much success.
At the beginning of the season the Senators were seen as a bubble team who would finish in the 6-11 area. The Sens currently sit at 13th and are without first line center Jason Spezza. The team right now is in a downward spiral, but there is still hope. Even though it wasn’t all that long ago that Ottawa was in the finals it might be time to rebuild. Ottawa has a good young goalie in Lehner and good young D-men in Karlsson as well as Jared Cowan. One can’t overlook defensemen Patrick Wiercioch who could put up solid numbers for the Sens in a year or two. So the Sens seem good on the back end however they really don’t have that much goal scoring talent up front. Alfredsson is getting older, Milan Michalek is a 50 point scorer, when healthy, and everyone knows the Alex Kovalev experiment is not working. If Ottawa can get their hands on some good young talent up front they will be good for a while. As far as the whole Jason Spezza saga with people saying that Ottawa should trade him, I believe Walmart supports trading Spezza as well after seeing their 5 dollar Spezza wall; I think they should hold onto him a get him a strong goal scorer to play with. We all saw how good he was with Heatley.
So with every Ying there’s a Yang, with good there’s evil and with every team going down there’s a team coming up. The Atlanta Thrashers and the Nashville Predators seem to have taken the next steps necessary for them to become playoff teams.
In the offseason Atlanta made some big moves, mainly with the Stanly Cup Chaps in Chicago. Byfuglien and Ladd have paid dividends and youngsters Enstrom, Bogosian and Kane are starting to catch fire. But what might be the biggest plus to Atlanta is in goal and giving the responsibility to Pavelec who has been spectacular in the 38 games he has played thus far. Right now the Thrashers hold on to the last playoff spot in the East and if they don’t make it this year it is a disappointment, however; this year they have proven that they are not the same Thrashers they were a couple years ago and seemed to have put together a team that could be competitive for many years.
Nashville has always been a tough team to play against because they would continually grind their opponents out every game. However over the last year or so the Predators have added some goal scoring touch with Hornqvist, Sergei Kostitsyn and Wilson leading the offense. Even though Nashville is stronger offensively they have managed to stay strong defensively to. Shea Weber is one of the best defensemen in all three zones who gets the perfect compliment by the physical Ryan Suter. Like all good teams on the rise Nashville gets good depths scoring as well. The one things Nashville always seems to have is great goaltending depth. Behind Pekka Rinne, who is having yet another strong season, is Anders Lindback and Chet Pickard both could one day be number one goalies in the NHL.
Of course this post would not be complete if I failed to mention the likes of the New York Islanders, the St. Louis Blues or the Minnesota Wild all teams who haven’t really moved up or down. All three teams have managed to stay in the same spot over the past few years. Yes I am aware that the Blues made the playoffs not that long ago but that just seems to be a spike in the current trend. As it stands right now all three of these teams have good assets they just have to start producing, or get your players to report to the team.