2008-09 Northwest Division Standings
Vancouver – 45-27-10 – 100 pts’‘Calgary – 46-30-6 – 98 pts'’Minnesota – 40-33-9 – 89 pts’‘Edmonton – 38-35-9 – 85 pts'’Colorado – 32-45-5 – 69 pts
The Northwest Division is one of the most evenly matched divisions in the league, aside from Colorado and its newly discovered rebuilding phase Vancouver has won the division three of the last five seasons, but should face some of the stiffest competition for the division title in 2009-10. Calgary and Minnesota both made some major acquisitions, while the Oilers upgraded some of their most pressing needs this offseason. Colorado will most likely be a non-factor this season, as they struggled to compete last year, and made no real improvements in 2009.
Offensively, the Wild made the biggest splash this summer, signing former Chicago point leader Martin Havlat to replace the departing Marian Gaborik. Havlat will have a chip on his shoulder and something to prove after he felt he was mistreated during contract negotiations in Chicago. Vancouver made sure they didn’t lose their star offensive players, and spent big bucks to retain the services of the lethally interdependent Sedin twins. Calgary lost speedy winger Mike Cammalleri to free agency, but still have a number of talented scorers on their roster. The Oilers were unable to land Dany Heatley, but still have plenty of young talent in their organization. Colorado’s best offensive weapon next season will still be Milan Hejduk, but Matt Duchene should get a chance to help shoulder the load, as there aren’t many other scorers on the Avs roster.
On defense, the Flames have a clearcut advantage over the rest of the division. With a blueline that already boasted the likes of Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr and Cory Sarich, the Flames traded for the top defenseman on the 2009 market in Jay Bouwmeester, giving them, arguably, the best top two pairings of defensemen of any team in the league. Vancouver lost longtime blueline anchor Mattias Ohlund, and while Minnesota added solid D-man Greg Zanon, with Jacques Lemaire finally out from behind the bench, the Wild will definitely be looking to open things up a bit this season.
The Northwest has some of the most talented goaltenders in the league, which should make for some interesting matchups this season. The Canucks have to be given a slight edge, considering they just re-signed superstar and team captain Roberto Luongo, who showed that he can singlehandedly win games for them in 2008-09. Minnesota, however, finished 2nd in the league in team defense last year, due largely to the fact that Niklas Backstrom posted the 2nd best GAA in the Western Conference at 2.33. Miikka Kiprusoff had an uncharacteristically less-than-stellar season last year, posting a 2.84 GAA, but still managed to lead all goalies in wins with 45. With the blueline that the Flames have assembled in front of him, Kipper could be in for a Vezina-worthy season in 2009-10. Edmonton added Nikolai Khabibulin in an effort to stay afloat in this packed division, while Colorado signed former Florida netminder Craig Anderson.
2009-10 Standings Prediction’‘Calgary'’Minnesota’‘Vancouver'’Edmonton’‘Colorado’’