Report cards: Pacific | Atlantic
The Detroit Red Wings won their division last season by a wider margin than anyone before -- going on to capture the Stanley Cup in June. And now, they're a better team.
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| Marian Hossa brings even more skills to the loaded Wings. (US Presswire) |
In order of last season's finish, here's a graded look at what each Central Division team has done so far this summer.
Detroit Red Wings
You know life is pretty good when the best free agent on the open market wants to play for your team so badly, he's willing to leave a fortune in cash on the table to do it. But Detroit has the NHL's best organization, it is a perennial Stanley Cup contender, and for a guy like Marian Hossa who is desperate to get a ring, Motown is the place to be.
Hossa took far less than he could have earned elsewhere to fit into Detroit's salary cap structure, signing on for one year in a stunning move that upgrades what was already a superbly talented and balanced lineup. Signing Hossa was the highest profile move the Red Wings have made so far, but it wasn't the only important one. In fact, Detroit convinced defenseman Brad Stuart, a trade deadline acquisition who fit in very nicely, to re-sign for a similar hometown discount, and picked up backup goalie extraordinaire Ty Conklin to replace the retired Dominik Hasek. Repeating as Stanley Cup champions has become nearly impossible in the last couple of decades, but Detroit has all the elements to do it. Grade: A+
Nashville Predators
One of these days, the hockey story in Nashville will be strictly on what happens with the team on the ice. Until then, the focus will continue to be about challenges off the ice.
Last summer, the issue was the controversial sale and potential relocation of the franchise, and now the intrigue involves a member of the ownership group who has turned out to be a scam artist and a talented young scorer named Alexander Radulov who is trying to skip out on his contract to play for a lot more money back home in Russia. Otherwise, things have been unremarkable this offseason for the Predators, who have focused their efforts successfully on locking up key young players like Ryan Suter, Dan Ellis and Martin Erat for long-term deals.
That's the good news for the Predators. But the team continues to operate as always on a tight budget, and has not made any other significant improvements to a team that barely made the playoffs last season and seems destined to be on the bubble again. Grade: C
Chicago Blackhawks
They were young, exciting and showed the fruits of several years of drafting high last season, which put the Blackhawks back on the Chicago sports radar even though they missed the playoffs. But fans in Chicago are sophisticated enough about hockey to know they've got something good going on, and the new management team is smart enough to realize it has to take advantage of the momentum. That's why the Blackhawks made some of the biggest headlines splashes of free agency, landing one of the top prizes in puck-moving defenseman Brian Campbell in a $56 million deal and then following up by signing goaltender Cristobal Huet for another $22 million.
