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Around the League: Pacific Division Alterations

By Allison Scott

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Free agency just began and that means even more changes will occur “around the league”. In today’s third installment of the series we’ll take a look at the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, the division the Dallas Stars belonged to before joining the Central during the realignment of 2013 before the changes that happened courtesy of free agency.

The Pacific Division is a difficult one to play in for a few reasons, one of which being the drastic time changes when compared to the three other divisions. Another difficulty is the talent found in the seven teams that call the Pacific home.

Anaheim Ducks

Arguably the Dallas Stars’ biggest rivalry, the Anaheim Ducks flexed their playoff muscles last season by making it to the Western Conference Finals. That was as far as they’d go, though, because of the 2015 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.

The Ducks are relatively set in regards to their roster for the next few seasons seeing that elite forwards Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf are signed to long-term deals that both expire in 2021. Other than that they’ve got a few free agents they need to decide on in the near future, while they also solidify their starting goaltender position.

Anaheim made a few recent defensive decisions when they bought out ex-Dallas Star Mark Fistric and acquired Vancouver’s Kevin Bieksa for a second-round draft pick in 2016.

Next season the Ducks will aim to play at the same level they have in season’s past, but this time they’ll look to make it to the Finals and really compete for the Stanley Cup.

Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks have had their own struggles the last few seasons with the controversy over goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Corey Schneider. That, however, is in the past and they’re focused on the future. Vancouver was eliminated from the 2015 playoffs in six games by the Calgary Flames and they haven’t had much success in the post-season since making it to the Finals back in 2011.

Again, their big name players are under contract for a number of years and while there might be a few changes in their roster, the Canucks aren’t going to have the most drastic changes in the league. They did, however, get a second-round pick in next year’s draft for Bieksa.

The focus for the fall will be to find a consistent game and, hopefully, beat out the reigning division champion Ducks for first in the Pacific.

Calgary Flames

The Flames were one of the biggest surprises during the 2014-2015 campaign as they finished third in the Pacific Division and proved their ability to win games regardless of whether or not they should have. The post Jarome Iginla Calgary Flames are gritty, skilled, and more evenly dispersed throughout their line-up than they have been in the past. That style of play is assuredly here to stay.

Unless something changes the Flames will be without goaltender Karri Ramo in net seeing that he’ll become a UFA on July 1st. Other than him, though, the Flames’ roster looks to be intact for the 2015-2016 season.

Next year Calgary will look to play the same style as they did last year, while also improving their skills and making it further in the playoffs.

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Los Angeles Kings

The Kings missed the playoffs by a mere four points last season, which prevented them from defending their 2014 Stanley Cup title. They made some moves over the weekend, acquiring Boston’s Milan Lucic in exchange for the 13th overall pick, goaltender Martin Jones, and prospect Colin Miller.

Lucic’s style of play rings true to the Kings’ brand of hockey and should be a nice fit within the line-up. They also sent forward Mike Richards down to the AHL via waivers and if he clears it LA will pursue a buyout to free up cap space.

Overall the Kings have the goal of making the playoffs next season, while simultaneously getting back to their defense-first style of play. With goaltender Jonathan Quick in net they should be good defensively, they’ve just got to make sure their stars upfront produce.

San Jose Sharks

San Jose has had a myriad of changes over the last year. They removed the captaincy from Joe Thorton and have yet to fill the position, they traded goaltender Antti Niemi to the Stars in exchange for a seventh round pick, and they’ve struggled to find out what exactly went wrong.

The Sharks had a longtime domination of the Pacific Division in which they came in first or second in nine of the last eleven NHL seasons. They had their worst finish of those eleven seasons last year dropping down to fifth and missing the playoffs for the first time in almost a dozen years.

In the fall the Sharks will aim to get back on track and find the level of play they dominated with a few years back. If they don’t, they risk losing even more players or coaching staff and officially entering a rebuild situation.

Edmonton Oilers

With the first overall draft pick in the 2015 selections the Oilers chose Connor McDavid who has been noted as a “generational player”. Edmonton didn’t finish last in their division, which is an improvement; but they’re nowhere near the level they need to be at.

Yes, the Oilers are a young team with limited experience, but they also have an immense amount of skill, ability, and speed. The issue is they can’t harness it into successful seasons. I’d expect the Oilers to trade one of their previous first round draft picks, most likely Jordan Eberle or Nail Yakupov, in hopes of acquiring a solid defenseman.

They did make a trade for goaltender Cam Talbot during draft weekend, which gives them three goalies: Talbot, Ben Scrivens, and Viktor Fasth. While it’s a good issue to have, Edmonton will have to determine who their starter is as well as their back-up before trading away the third goalie.

The Oilers will look to McDavid to produce and work alongside previous first overall picks Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in hopes of coming close to qualifying for the post-season.

Arizona Coyotes

The Coyotes have also gone through immense changes over the last year. From their name change to issues with their arena, Arizona is in a world of hurt, especially after last season.

They finished worst in the Pacific Division as well as worst in the Western Conference and they only finished ahead of the Buffalo Sabres for worst in the league. The future is largely unknown with the Coyotes and it will certainly be interesting to see what happens to their franchise.

For the fall, Arizona will have to put all other concerns regarding the team on the back burner and focus on the task at hand: playing hockey. They’ll need to get back to their defensive-first style of game that worked so well a few years back if they hope to make a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2016.

There you have it! That’s the situations of the seven teams in the Pacific Division. Which team do you think is going to be a surprise for next year out of the Pacific? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Want to learn more “Around the League”? Check out what’s happened pre-free agency in the Central Division here and the Atlantic Division here. Up next is the fourth and final division in the NHL, the Metropolitan! Keep an eye out for that in the next week or so and, as always, thanks for reading!

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