SalarySwishSalarySwish
Forums/Armchair-GM

Updated In Depth Central Analysis

Created by: TheFlamingC
Team: 2020-21 Custom Team
Initial Creation Date: Dec. 19, 2020
Published: Dec. 19, 2020
Salary Cap Mode: Basic
Description
Carolina Hurricanes - 4th in Metro last year, have since swapped Justin Williams for Jesper Fast and lost Joel Edmundsson, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Sami Vatanen. Losing Williams hurts but Fast is very good so it eases the pain. Losing Edmundsson, Van Riemsdyk and Vatanen doesn't look too good on paper but not even the most pessimistic person could say it makes this team any worse. The Hurricanes are largely the same as last year. Now 20, Andrei Svechnikov is getting a lot better. I think that trend continues and leads him to his first 30 goal season and 70 points on top of that playing with Aho and Teravainen. Aho almost scored 40 goals last year and I think he falls just short once again but ups his points back to mid 80s this year. Teravainen has now entered his prime and I think he gets 20 goals and 80 points this year which would be a new career high. Reminder that I am using 82 game projections so I understand the numbers. I really like Niederreiter in Minnesota but he hasn't had success in Carolina thus far. I think 40 points is optimistic but possible given he is 28 and should be having his best years. Trochek is 27 and should be having some career years but he is lacking a true line driver to up his production as with Nino. I'd drop Teravainen to this line or Svechnikonv to help get the most from Trochek and Nino. Lacking a line driver, I think he'll get 45 points this year. Now, Martin Necas on the wing will be this line's highest scorer. I think he can get 20 goals and 60 points with some PP time. I think that Trochek, Nino and Necas are all really good players, but need some help to tap into their potential as they aren't line drivers. I'd swap Nino with Svech personally. He'd balance the line and Nino would excel on Aho's left. Warren Foegle is an often forgotten piece that is vital to Canes success. Now 24 and progressing rapidly, I think he'll build on last year's success and will fall just short of 40 points, but still a career high. Jordan Staal, now 32, is going the other direction. I don't think he'll be very useful this year to be honest. He'll have a tough time getting up to speed and the season will be over when he hits his form. Will be useful in the playoffs though. Jesper Fast is a useful third liner, probably gonna score around 30 points, but brings a lot extra to the table. This forward group has one of the NHL's best first lines, a good on paper second line and a third line, that is meh, but will get the job done. If they spread out the first line, I think you get more production from your second line and are a way better team. If not, I think the second line will greatly underperform. On defence, you have one of the NHL's best offensive, two way, defensemen in Dougie Hamilton, best defensive defensemen in Jacob Slavin, plus Brady Skjei, Brett Pesce, Haydn Fleury and Jake Gardiner. Two #1s, 6 top 4s. I think having Gardiner as a 5, even though he can play top 4 will be really beneficial to him as well because it allows him to have weaker defensive assignments and frees him up to create more offence. The NHL's best d-core and it's not that close. two guys that can win a Norris and 4 really good guys behind them. Petr Mrazek is a good tandem goalie, but it honestly doesn't matter with that d-core, he'll do the job. Overall, I think better player distribution could really put this team over the top. For now play-off team and not a contender.
Chicago Blackhawks - 7th in the Central last year, have since swapped out Brandon Saad and Drake Caggiula for Lucas Wallmark and Mattias Janmark, Slater Koekkoek and Olli Maata for Nikita Zadorov and have just gotten rid of Corey Crawford. They were bad and got worse. I'll talk about them but not for too long. DeBrincat will bounce back to a 70 point, 30 goal pace, Toews will regress to a low 60 point, high 50 point pace and Kubalik will replicate his success this year. Won't get 30 goals, I'd say 20 and 50 points is fair. With potential to play with Patrick Kane, I think Kirby Dach will get 50 points this year, a big step up and a good second season. Kane on his wing, is still elite at 32. I think he'll get 30 goals and 80 points this year, in some of his last seasons as an elite player. Strome is now 23 and developing well. If he plays with Kane, I think he can eclipse 60 points and 20 goals. If not, 45 points is still a pretty good season with Alex Nylander and Mattias Janmark. Speaking of Nylander, I think he would score similarly to Strome, I'd imagine high 30 points is fair. I don't know much about the Blackhawks D, but Duncan Keith seems to still be a top 4 d-man, Boqvist looks to have potential to be a top pair guy and Connor Murphy seems to have settled in as a #4. Zadorov is now 25, takes a lot of penalties, doesn't score much and if I remember correctly from his Colorado days, his defence leaves a lot to be desired and Murphy isn't going to fix that. So the defence here is bad. Hopefully guys like Boqvist can develop but this team is a few years away from contending, not to mention having the NHL's worst goaltending tandem, with no solution in sight. Not too much to see here.
Columbus Blue Jackets - 5th in the Metro last year, have since swapped Josh Anderson and Alex Wennberg for Max Domi and Mike Koivu and have lost Ryan Murray and Markus Nutivaara. Were pretty average and are likely gonna stay pretty average but benefit from a weak division. PLD is quickly becoming a 1C and I think this year, he proves himself as a truly elite player who can drive a line. I think 30 goals and 70 points for him. On his wing Oliver Bjorkstrand will get high 20s in goals and around or above 50 points. On the left side, Alex Texier in his first full NHL season. I think he will fall just short of Bjorkstrand production. Low of 20 goals and 40 points because of good line mates. Max Domi as a 2C could thrive, but I don't think this is a good fit. He may clash with Torts and his line mates aren't terrific and are expiring in Atkinson and Foligno. I think we see 40 points and short of 20 goals. Atkinson scored 40 goals at 29, and had guys like Panarin and Duchene, but is now 31, coming off a weak season last year and I don't think Domi will do great here as his centre. I think he'll hover around 40 points, probably above and probably in low 20s in goals. Foligno has now had 3 consecutive seasons of 30 points, below 20 goals and I think we can expect to see that again unless Domi can thrive here. Boone Jenner is a long way removed from 30 goals now and Mikko Koivu and Emil Bemstrom/Liam Foudy won't fix that. Jenner will probably log around mid 30s in points, Koivu will get closer to 40 but not quite and I think Bemstrom could break out. I think he'll get 40 points this year and earn a better role next season, maybe with PLD or Domi (idk how that goes, it's anyones guess but if I'm being honest, not too optimistic about it but we'll see). On defence you have two #1s in Seth Jones and Zach Werenski and 2 top 4s in David Savard and Vladislav Gavrikov. No problem there and I'd say defence is a strength. In net, you have a top 5 goalie tandem in Merzlikins and Korpisalo, partnered with great defence and a defensive system, this team won't get scored on. They won't score too many goals but I think they manage to have another successful season under the Torts regime with good defence and a system meant to prevent goals. They are shocking every year and I think they manage to succeed again, albeit it in a lesser fashion.
Octopus People - No octopus this year
Florida Panthers - 4th in the Atlantic last year, have since swapped long time Shark Mike Hoffman, Brian Boyle and Evgenii Dadonov for Patric Hornqvist, Vinnie Hinostroza, Alex Wennberg and Carter Verhaege as well as swapping Mike Matheson for Radio Gudas. Definitely worse. You still have Huberdeau and Barkov up top but no secondary scoring without Hoffman, Dadonov and Trochek who you lost at the deadline. We'll see what Hornqvist, Hinostroza, Wennberg and Verhaege can do but I'm not hopeful. Barkov, is the biggest waste of a career playing here in the entire NHL. He has the same skills as Eichel IMO but his contract is 5.9. The fact they can't build a competitive team here is remarkable. That said, I think he'll post a career best 40 goal, 100 point Selke candidate season after a weaker season last year. I think he could finally let the league kn ow that he is a great player. Huberdeau will match Barkov at 100, but score 30 on his wing, and like Barkov, really get noticed this year. Both should be top 20 players in the NHL this year. If Owen Tippett is on their wing, I think he could scrape 20 goals and 50 points which would be a terrific rookie season. Only if he's on this wing though. Denisenko, in his rookie season, probably won't fare as well on a Wennberg-Hornqvist line. I think if he gets 30 points, it'd be a successful rookie season. He'll need some time as he wasn't too prolific a scorer in the KHL either. Alex Wennberg is now 26, free of Torts and could be on a PP with Barkov and Huberdeau, I think he's poised for a breakout season. I think he'll score 60 points this year. Hornqvist on the other hand, is regressing. If Barkov and Huberdeau were gonna help him regain his old success, Crosby and Malkin would have last year. That said, he isn't awful. Mid 30 points and just short of 20 goals wouldn't be bad, but that's 3rd line numbers and he's playing 2nd line here. Not quite gonna cut it. On defence, you have Ekblad, Yandle, Weegar and Nutivaara. All are top 4 d-man. Weegar is an extremely underrated defensemen who's good in his own end, Nutivaara is a solid #4, Yandle is a great offensive defensemen and Ekblad is developing into the #1 he's meant to be. I think Ekblad will continue to progress this year and will have another 40 point season and I expect the same from Yandle, even at 34. On the back, I think Bobrovsky will bounce back, but will never win another Vezina. In Columbus, you had a defensive system with great d meant to prevent goals. In Florida, your best two d-men are offensive defensemen. I think he returns to at least a 1b form nonetheless. Overall, this team has great pieces in Barkov, Huberdeau and Ekblad, great prospects in Tippett, Denisenko, Noel, Knight and Heponiemi and a goalie who can be good if he has some defensive defensemen around him but they just don't have the supporting pieces to be competitive in the NHL, and what they did have, walked in FA.
Dallas Stars - 3rd in Central last year, have gotten rid of Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry since. Very similar to the team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals, but they are also missing Tyler Seguin until April-ish and Ben Bishop until March-ish. Jamie Benn, now 31, is a middle six winger on the top line. I think 20 goals and 40 points would be expected from now on. Joe Pavelski's 40 goal days are a long way gone now and I think a 40 point season would be good from all perspectives. I think Radulov is just like Benn and Pavelski on this line. An expired former star playing on the top line. I think 20 goals and 40 points is optimistic. Next is the young line which I think by season's end, will be the 1st line. Gurianov-Hintz-Kiviranta. I think all 3 of these players are poised for big developmental steps. I think Gurianov will get 30 goals and 60 points, Hintz will get 25 goals and 60 points and Kiviranta will get 20 goals and 40 points in his rookie season. That's not too great of a forward group if I'm being honest. This team is built for playoff play, not for regular season dominance and I think they need to sign Corey Perry and get Seguin back to compete. On D, you have two #1s, a #2, and a 3-4. Oleksiak being the 2 if he can replicate his playoff play and Lindell the 3-4. Heiskanen, Hughes and Makar will compete for Norris Trophies for the next 5-10 years and I think Heiskanen will get 2-3 before he's done. Klingberg is also a #1 and has one of the hardest shots in the league. In terms of point production, I think Heiskanen gets 50-60 and Klingberg matches him. This team generates most of their offence from the back and they are going to need more without Seguin up front. In the back, I'm not sure Khudobin can shoulder a #1 load for another 3 months. I think he'd work in a tandem, but cranking out another 30ish solid starts is a lot to ask without any back-ups and playing behind a team ravaged with injuries. He's done it before, but I'm not sure he can do it again. EDIT: Jake Oettinger could potentially be a good back-up compared to recent success of other young highly-touted goalies like Hart, Shesterkin and Samsonov. If he can, I think Dallas will be fine in net. Overall, I wouldn't be surprised if they looked like a shell of their former selves until playoff time (which is what they're built for) and reinforcements arrive.
Nashville Predators - 4th in the Central last year, have swapped Nick Bonino, Mikael Granlund, Kyle Turris, Austin Watson and Craig Smith for Nick Cousins, Luke Kunin and Brad Richardson. So worse up front. In the back they swapped Dan Hamhuis and Yannick Weber for Mark Borowiecki. Also a downgrade. Pretty average and are getting worse. Pretty killer first line of Forsberg-Johansen-Arvidsson. Forsberg is entering his prime and coming off a weaker season. I think a bounce back season is coming. 30 goals and 70 points playing on a good line in his prime with all prime players and weapons to run a PP with is very reasonable. Johansen in the middle is also in his prime and poised for a bounce back season although 30 goal seasons are behind him. I can see 60 points this year for him with a good season from Arvidsson and Forsberg. I see another bounce back season on this line for Arvidsson. I think another 30 goal, 60 point season is coming. Overall a very solid 1st line. Then Matt Duchene, another prime player. I see 20 goals and just shy of 60 points. His line mates are weaker so he'll need some PP time but a Arvidsson-Forsberg-Johansen-Duchene-Josi PP is bound to score. Kunin is a player showing progression over his seasons and I think he can score 40 points and 20 goals this year with Matt Duchene as opposed to whatever was going on up front in Minnesota. Finally rookie Eeli Tolvanen on the other side. I think hat he'll see similar success to Kravstov this year with high 30s in points and maybe low 40s. With this forward group, I'd drop back Arvidsson and bump up Tolvanen to balance the lines. You have 4 really good guys but a weak overall group so you need to get the most out of guys like Tolvanen and Kunin. On the back end, you have one of the best top 3s in the NHL and one of the worst bottom 3s. Two #1s in Ellis and Josi and a #2-3 in Ekholm. Fabbro, Benning, Borowiecki is not a sight to behold though. The high end talent like the NHL's 2nd best defensemen balances it out. In net, Rinne and Saros is a great duo and I think Saros is gonna become a top 10 goalie in the NHL. Rinne is on his way out but still holding up. This team, like everyone else in this division, won't give up goals but they're not gonna score too many with a similar problem to Florida with secondary scoring.
Tampa Bay Lightning - Stanley Cup Champions and have gotten rid of Kevin Shattenkirk, Zach Bogosian, Jan Rutta and Carter Verhaege. Very good chance of repeating if they don't loose too many guys in a cap crunch. I think you gotta hope Stamkos misses a few months so you can sign Cernak and Cirelli and then put Stamkos on LTIR until your cap builds up and he can return. I think if they have Stamkos for a playoff run, you got to imagine they win another Cup. For now I am going to assume Cirelli and Cernak sign and Stamkos plays game 1. Point is now 24, gonna take a step forward and gonna become this team's best forward this year. I think he'll get 40 goals and 100 points this year because of a weak division. I don't think he'd get 100 if they were in a good division becausethey've matured, don't care as much about the regular season and are looking forward to the playoffs and winning but here, regular season success will be easy. Kucherov is in his prime right now and I think he'll get 40 goals and 110 points on Point's wing. Palat on the other wing will score 20 goals and high 60s in points as it will be impossible not to be dragged up by these guys. On a Killorn-Cirelli-stamkos line, I think Killorn will start to regress at 31, but still pot 20 and 40 for a good season. Cirelli in the middle is a very good 2 way and I think he gets 20 goals and 60 points, plus his defensive abilities with Stamkos on his wing. Speaking of Stamkos, now 30 and injury riddled, I think 30 goals and 80 points would be very successful and boosted because of a weak division. I know I was talking about the great defense of this division, but no way they can stop Tampa Bay. They will score at will. The other team are all going to play to 1-0 wins in shootout round 42. Yanni Gourde on line 3 on the other hand, is already regressing significantly and doesn't have the line mates or talents to tear this division up. I think that at best he gets 30 points. On his wing, Tyler Johnson won't exactly be a sight to behold as guys who are put on waivers don't usually play well for the same team that put them there. He's another guy who's regressing, has weaker line mates and won't be able to score in this division. I think 30 points would be good. Still a petrifying forward group, but I expect significant scoring regressions in line 3, but they have no need for line 3 with their top 6. Their defence, competes with anyone in the league with Sergachev, Hedman, Cernak and McDonagh. Hedman is the best d-man in the league and it's not that close. Mikhail Sergachev behind him, will progress this year and prove himself as a terrific #2 at only 22 years old. Ryan McDonagh is also a terrific #2-3 d-man and Erik Cernak is a very good #4. Another terrific d-core in this division to go with Carolina, Columbus, Minnesota and Nashville. In net, they have the NHL's best goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy. My pick for this year's Vezina Trophy given the inability of non-Lightning teams to score on the fact that every other team will rely primarily on defence to win games. This team will rip up the division and could easily win another Stanley Cup.

For the standings 1, 2, 7, 8 are no-brainers. For 3 vs 4, I took Nashville as they have a similar team make-up to Columbus, but I think they have slightly better d, way more star power and slightly worse goalies than Columbus. For 4 vs 5, really a no-brainer for me. 5 vs 6 was hard but past Huberdeau, Barkov and Ekblad, Florida doesn't have too much going. I feel more confident in Minnesota's ability to prevent goals and too squeeze out wins.

EDIT: Copy and paste from previous rendition of this, any mentions of Minnesota are from before and just ignore it.
ROSTER SIZESALARY CAPCAP HITOVERAGES TooltipBONUSESCAP SPACE
8$1$46,313,416$0$2,500,000-$46,313,415
Left WingCentreRight Wing
Logo of the Tampa Bay Lightning
$7,875,000$7,875,000
LD
NMC
UFA - 5
Logo of the Carolina Hurricanes
$8,460,250$8,460,250
C
UFA - 4
Logo of the Dallas Stars
$894,166$894,166 (Performance Bonus$2,500,000$2M)
LD/RD
UFA - 1
Logo of the Columbus Blue Jackets
$5,400,000$5,400,000
RD
M-NTC
UFA - 2
Logo of the Nashville Predators
$9,059,000$9,059,000
LD
NMC
UFA - 8
Logo of the Florida Panthers
$5,900,000$5,900,000
C
NMC
UFA - 2
Logo of the Chicago Blackhawks
$2,625,000$2,625,000
RW
NMC
UFA - 3
Logo of the Detroit Red Wings
$6,100,000$6,100,000
C
UFA - 3
Left DefenseRight DefenseGoaltender
ScratchesInjured Reserve (IR)Long Term IR (LTIR)
Logo of the Tampa Bay Lightning
$6,750,000$6,750,000
C, RW
UFA - 2
Logo of the Carolina Hurricanes
$5,300,000$5,300,000
LD
UFA - 5

Embed Code

  • To display this team on another website or blog, add this iFrame to the appropriate page
  • Customize the height attribute in the iFrame code below to fit your website appropriately. Minimum recommended: 400px.

Text-Embed

Click to Highlight
Dec. 19, 2020 at 1:14 p.m.
#1
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jul. 2019
Posts: 327
Likes: 92
wow thats a lot of work, good job
TheFlamingC liked this.
Dec. 19, 2020 at 2:38 p.m.
#2
Banned
Avatar of the user
Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 19,215
Likes: 4,837
they need to adjust these divisons. The other division is a blood bath with BOS, WSH, PIT, PHIL all in the same division. 4 of the top 5 in points last year.
Meanwhile TB over there with the weak schedule.
This need some changing. They should throw WSH in that division, or PIT. and then swap out someone from the other division that also has 3 of the 4 top point teams from last year from the west.
That way these divisions are more balanced. Maybe STL would be a good fit to move over.
Dec. 19, 2020 at 3:05 p.m.
#3
Thread Starter
Avatar of the user
Joined: Apr. 2019
Posts: 3,446
Likes: 1,805
Quoting: pharrow
they need to adjust these divisons. The other division is a blood bath with BOS, WSH, PIT, PHIL all in the same division. 4 of the top 5 in points last year.
Meanwhile TB over there with the weak schedule.
This need some changing. They should throw WSH in that division, or PIT. and then swap out someone from the other division that also has 3 of the 4 top point teams from last year from the west.
That way these divisions are more balanced. Maybe STL would be a good fit to move over.


Oh for sure. I really want Buffalo and Pittsburgh in the playoffs but teams like Columbus or San Jose are all but guaranteed a spot. Columbus has overstayed their welcome and I personally think they are a bad team. San Jose is a travesty and crime against humanity on defense and I would be appalled if they make the playoffs
 
Reply
To create a post please Login or Register
Question:
Options:
Add Option
Submit Poll