Wednesday, October 08, 2003

1. DETROIT RED WINGS

Coach: Dave Lewis

General manager: Ken Holland

2002-03 record: 48-20-10-4

Newcomers: G Dominik Hasek, D Derian Hatcher, LW Ray Whitney, D Jamie Rivers

Departures: C Sergei Fedorov, C Igor Larionov, LW Luc Robitaille, D Patrick Boileau, D Dmitri Bykov, D Jesse Wallin

Strengths: Return of Hasek, who led Red Wings to Cup in 2002, provides psychological boost and upgrade in goal. ... With addition of Hatcher, defense corps anchored by Nicklas Lidstrom probably is best in league. ... Whitney should enhance power play.

Weaknesses: Fedorov's departure via free agency creates gaping hole up front. ... Key veterans such as Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull are starting to show age. ... First-round sweep by Anaheim raised questions about Lewis' work and future.

Outlook: Will enter playoffs in usual spot, on short list of Cup contenders.

2. ST. LOUIS BLUES

Coach: Joel Quenneville

General manager: Larry Pleau

2002-03 record: 41-24-11-6

Newcomers: RW Mike Danton, C Jeff Heerema

Departures: RW Valeri Bure, C Cory Stillman, RW Tyson Nash, D Richard Pilon, LW Martin Rucinsky, G Fred Brathwaite, LW Shjon Podein, C Steve Dubinsky, LW Jason Dawe

Strengths: Al MacInnis, Barret Jackman and healthy Chris Pronger handle lots of quality minutes on defense, and do it well. ... Rookie LW Peter Sejna could develop into major offensive force. ... C Doug Weight can do more for offense than he has.

Weaknesses: Do not have elite goaltender needed to challenge for championship. ... Departures of Stillman, Rucinsky erode offensive depth. ... Were most-penalized team in league last season, putting extra strain on mediocre penalty-killers.

Outlook: Everything suggests Blues will remain a second-tier power.

3. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Coach, general manager: Doug MacLean

2002-03 record: 29-42-8-3

Newcomers: C Todd Marchant, D Darryl Sydor, C Trevor Letowski, G Fred Brathwaite, C Mark Hartigan, C Dan Fritsche

Departures: D Jamie Allison, D Darren Van Impe, C Mike Sillinger, LW Ray Whitney, G Jean-Francois Labbe, RW Matt Davidson

Strengths: MacLean has patiently assembled team that gets better each season. ... Brathwaite will be capable backup for Marc Denis. ... LW Rick Nash has making of premier power forward.

Weaknesses: Do not always use excellent team speed in best way possible. ... Whitney's departure is blow to power play. ... Invariably suffer in comparisons to Minnesota, which entered league at same time.

Outlook: Steady climb should continue; whether it's fast enough to satisfy ownership might be the issue.

4. NASHVILLE PREDATORS

Coach: Barry Trotz

General manager: David Poile

2002-03 record: 27-35-13-7

Newcomers: RW Jordin Tootoo, D Curtis Murphy, C Ben Simon, D Ray Schultz, RW Mike Farrell, LW Jim McKenzie, D Jamie Allison, D Wade Brookbank, G Chris Mason

Departures: D Andy Delmore, D Cale Hulse, D Karlis Skrastins, RW Oleg Petrov, LA Todd Warriner, LW Stu Grimson, C Domenic Pittis, LW Reid Simpson, RW Brent Gilchrist, LW Vitali Yachmenev, D Alexander Riazantsev

Strengths: Tomas Vokoun is one of NHL's most underrated goalies. ... C David Legwand shows signs of living up to potential. ... D Kimmo Timonen's value is much higher than his profile.

Weaknesses: Would be playoff threat if 0-0 games were worth two points. ... Power play, penalty-killing are poor. ... Ownership's reluctance to spend money prevents Poile from plugging holes in roster.

Outlook: Another life-done-me-wrong winter in country music capital.

5. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Coach: Brian Sutter

General manager: Mike Smith

2002-03 record: 30-33-13-6

Newcomers: C Tuomo Ruutu, C Scott Nichol, D Deron Quint, LW Ville Nieminen

Departures: C Mike Eastwood, C Andrei Nikolishin, LW Chris Simon, D Todd Gill, RW Mike Peluso, D Sami Helenius

Strengths: Ruutu has outstanding ability and knack for annoying opponents. ... G Jocelyn Thibault is strong, although stats suffer from playing behind leaky club. ... Penalty-killing is efficient.

Weaknesses: Jon Klemm is one of few reliable contributors on defense. ... Power play is miserable oxymoron. ... Ownership spends like franchise is down to its last dollar.

Outlook: Cubs will win a Stanley Cup before Blackhawks do.

1. DALLAS STARS

Coach: Dave Tippett

General manager: Doug Armstrong

2002-03 record: 46-17-15-4

Newcomers: D Don Sweeney, D Teppo Numminen, RW Rob Valicevic

Departures: D Derian Hatcher, RW Ulf Dahlen, G Corey Hirsch, C Kirk Muller, D Lyle Odelein, D Darryl Sydor

Strengths: Have surplus of quality forwards. ... Special teams are excellent. ... Year of experience should make Tippett even better. ... Front office has financial resources to make personnel moves, if needed.

Weaknesses: Numminen and Sweeney will help, but losing Hatcher, Sydor weakens defense. ... Do not get enough offense from big-ticket forwards like C Pierre Turgeon, RW Bill Guerin

Outlook: Main concern during regular season will be securing top playoff seeding.

2. MIGHTY DUCKS OF ANAHEIM

Coach: Mike Babcock

General manager: Bryan Murray

2002-03 record: 40-27-9-6

Newcomers: C Sergei Fedorov, LW Vaclav Prospal, D Mike Mottau, D Chris Armstrong, D Todd Simpson, C Joffrey Lupul

Departures: LW Paul Kariya, C Adam Oates, RW Steve Thomas, RW Rob Valicevic, C Marc Chouinard, D Fredrik Olausson, LW Kevin Sawyer

Strengths: Signing Fedorov more than offsets loss of Kariya. ... Reaching Stanley Cup final should reinforce players' commitment to Babcock's system. ... G Jean-Sebastien Giguere seems to be evolving into one of NHL's elite goalies.

Weaknesses: Leadership of veterans such as Oates, Thomas could be hard to replace. ... Cinderella teams often mutate back into pumpkins the following season.

Outlook: Hardly lock to return to final. Hardly out of the question, either.

3. SAN JOSE SHARKS

Coach: Ron Wilson

General manager: Doug Wilson

2002-03 record: 28-37-9-8

Newcomers: RW Scott Parker, RW Alexander Korolyuk, LW Nils Ekman

Departures: RW Teemu Selanne, C Ryan Kraft, D John Jakopin, LW Adam Graves

Strengths: Are strong down middle with Mike Ricci, Patrick Marleau, Vincent Damphousse. ... G Evgeni Nabokov, coming off miserable year born of contract dispute, should be better. ... Defense anchored by Brad Stuart, Kyle McLaren could be strong.

Weaknesses: Management seems committed to holding down payroll, with predictable impact on lineup. ... Penalty-killing had dreadful year.

Outlook: Won't have to cope with pressures of being picked to challenge for Cup this season.

4. LOS ANGELES KINGS

Coach: Andy Murray

General manager: Dave Taylor

2002-03 record: 33-37-6-6

Newcomers: G Roman Cechmanek, LW Luc Robitaille, RW Trent Klatt, C Jozef Stumpel, RW Dustin Brown, D Bryan Muir, G Milan Hnilicka

Departures: G Felix Potvin, LW Craig Johnson, LW Erik Rasmussen, G Jamie Storr

Strengths: Murray is one of NHL's premier coaches. ... Robitaille looks like he might still have a few goals left in those aging hands. ... When they have more players on bench than in trainer's room, Kings can compete with almost anyone.

Weaknesses: Can't keep front-line forwards Adam Deadmarsh (concussion), Jason Allison (whiplash) healthy and both are expected to miss early part of season, along with D Aaron Miller (wrist). ... Performance inside Western Conference must be upgraded.

Outlook: If lineup ever is intact, Kings could be force in playoffs.

5. PHOENIX COYOTES

Coach: Bob Francis

General manager: Mike Barnett

2002-03 record: 31-35-11-5

Newcomers: D Igor Knyazev, RW Tyson Nash, D David Tanabe, LW Dan Cleary, D Cale Hulse, D Nikos Tselios, C Mike Sillinger, D Bryan Helmer, C Chris Ferraro, RW Peter Ferraro

Departures: D Teppo Numminen, LW Kelly Buchberger, LW Scott Pellerin, D Danny Markov, D Drake Berehowsky, D Deron Quint, D Todd Simpson, LW Paul Ranheim, D Martin Grenier

Strengths: Sean Burke is quality goalie -- and superb trading chip. ... RW Shane Doan is good power forward. ... Do not appear to have zeal generally associated with young, rebuilding clubs.

Weaknesses: Could use game-breaking, go-to guy instead of relying on group efforts. ... Lack of leadership with likes of Buchberger, Numminen gone. ... Francis could lose job if Coyotes sputter at start.

Outlook: New uniforms, new arena, same old Desert Dogs.

1. VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Coach: Marc Crawford

General manager: Brian Burke

2002-03 record: 45-23-13-1

Newcomers: G Johan Hedberg, LW Magnus Arvedson, C Brandon Reid, D Martin Grenier, D Jiri Slegr

Departures: C Trevor Letowski, RW Trent Klatt, G Peter Skudra, RW Darren Langdon, D Nolan Baumgartner, D Bryan Helmer

Strengths: Line of Todd Bertuzzi-Brendan Morrison-Markus Naslund ranks among most productive in NHL. ... Ed Jovanovski is verstaile, punishing presence on blue line. ... Hedberg gives Crawford viable alternative to Dan Cloutier in goal. ... Power play might be league's best.

Weaknesses: Giving Hedberg Cloutier's No. 1 job could create fissure in locker room. ... Tight finances lead to depth problems.

Outlook: Goaltending, good health are all that separate Canucks from Cup run.

2. COLORADO AVALANCHE

Coach: Tony Granato

General manager: Pierre Lacroix

2002-03 record: 42-19-13-8

Newcomers: LW Paul Kariya, RW Teemu Selanne, C Andrei Nikolishin, D Karlis Skrastins, D Keith Ballard, LW Peter Worrell, D John-Michael Liles, G Philippe Sauve, RW Cody McCormick, C Marek Svatos

Departures: G Patrick Roy, D Greg de Vries, RW Scott Parker, RW Mike Keane, D Bryan Marchment, C Steven Reinprecht, LW Eric Messier, C Vaclav Nedorest, D Bryan Muir, C Jeff Shantz, RW Brian Willsie, C Serge Aubin

Strengths: Kariya, Selanne add volatile dimensions to dangerous offense, and give team top 1-2 combination of lines in NHL. ... C Peter Forsberg probably is best all-around player in world (under the age of 38, anyway). ... Defense troika of Rob Blake, Adam Foote, Derek Morris has few peers

Weaknesses: G David Abischer had excellent preseason, but Roy's retirement leaves vacancy that can't easily be filled. ... Loss of supporting players such as de Vries, Reinprecht, Keane will cause problems.

Outlook: Roy repeatedly proved value of great goaltending. Wasn't anyone watching?

3. EDMONTON OILERS

Coach: Craig MacTavish

General manager: Kevin Lowe

2002-03 record: 36-26-11-9

Newcomers: G Ty Conklin, LW Raffi Torres, C Jarret Stoll, D Marc-Andre Bergeron, D Mikko Luoma, C Peter Sarno

Departures: C Todd Marchant, LW Dan Cleary, G Jussi Markkanen, C Brian Swanson

Strengths: Team speed annually ranks among league's best. ... RW Ales Hemsky is one of game's most entertaining young players. ... D Eric Brewer is developing into Norris Trophy contender

Weaknesses: Power play is inconsistent at home, consistently poor on road. ... Marchant's departure will hurt penalty-killing. ... Routinely have to unload quality players for financial reasons.

Outlook: Always entertaining, never quite deep or good enough.

4. MINNESOTA WILD

Coach: Jacques Lemaire

General manager: Doug Risebrough

2002-03 record: 42-29-10-1

Newcomers: C Marc Chouinard, RW Alexandre Daigle, LW Chris Bata, LW Mika Hannula, LW Christoph Brandner

Departures: C Cliff Ronning, D Lubomir Sekeras, D Curtis Murphy

Strengths: Lemaire might be NHL's premier teacher/coach and gets full value from his team's speed. ... Manny Fernandez, Dwayne Roloson are solid tandem in goal. ... Defense corps is efficient.

Weaknesses: Offense-challenged lineup will suffer terribly if world-class LW Marian Gaborik, C Pascal Dupuis remain out in contract disputes. ... Will not be able to surprise opponents like last season.

Outlook: Cinderella sequel is a lot to expect.

5. CALGARY FLAMES

Coach, general manager: Darryl Sutter

2002-03 record: 29-36-13-4

Newcomers: C Steven Reinprecht, D Rhett Warrener, RW Matt Davidson, LW Josh Green, LW Krzysztof Oliwa, D Jesse Wallin

Departures: C Chris Drury, D Bob Boughner, C Scott Nichol, G Jean-Francois Damphousse, C Steve Begin, D Mike Mottau, LW Craig Berube, LW Ladislav Kohn

Strengths: RW Jarome Iginla should rebound from lackluster year. ... Defense corps is solid and should continue to improve

Weaknesses: Do not have nearly enough regular contributors to offense. ... G Roman Turek does not provide consistency needed by team with limited talent and depth. ... Penalty-killing, power play are awful.

Outlook: NHL's longest playoff dry spell will swell to eight years.

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