Training camp preview: Northwest Division
Once upon a time, the Edmonton Oilers were known as a small-market team that lacked the financial wherewithal to bring in or keep top talent. That reputation began to change when the lockout-driven salary cap leveled the ice surface for franchises like the Oilers and it has gone out the window since local billionaire Darryl Katz purchased the team over the summer and opened his wallet wide.
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| Gagner is expected to be a big part of the future in Edmonton. (US Presswire) |
That's something the Oilers are counting on as they head into training camp next week on the heels of a season that team president Kevin Lowe has described as the organization's best from a development perspective in more than a dozen years. Edmonton failed to make the playoffs for a second consecutive season after going to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006, but the team came on very strong in the second half as rookies Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Tom Gilbert and several other minimally experienced young players began to blossom.
Since then, Edmonton has acted aggressively to build on that promise, injecting some important missing elements to the lineup with the additions of power forward Erik Cole and puck-moving defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky through trades. The Oilers tried to be even more assertive over the summer with over-the-top offers to free agents Marian Hossa and Jaromir Jagr that were ultimately rejected but served notice that Edmonton won't hesitate to pounce on a top player who might become available during the season.
Someone like Marian Gaborik perhaps? While it is unlikely the Minnesota Wild would trade their franchise player to a division rival in midseason, Gaborik's future with the team could remain an issue throughout the year. His status is certainly the biggest question mark for the Wild as they get ready for training camp because talks on a contract extension do not appear to be going well and Gaborik can become an unrestricted free agent next July. Chances are the team would move him rather than let him walk for nothing if they don't come to terms before the trade deadline.
That doesn't bode well for the offensively challenged Wild, who seemed to be moving sideways this summer after winning the division for the first time and then sputtering out of the first round. The Wild let two of its better producers, Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra, leave via free via free agency and then bought out Mark Parrish, although the team appears to have strengthened its back end by trading for puck-moving defensemen Marek Zidlicky and Marc-Andre Bergeron.
Funny thing is that Minnesota identified center as the position it needed to improve on over the summer and then it went out and signed four wingers. And two of them, veterans Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette, are on the back end of their careers.
Colorado captain Joe Sakic is at a similar juncture in his career, although the stylish veteran's late-summer decision to return for one more season qualifies as some rare good news for the Avalanche as they prepare for training camp. The Avs overachieved last season to get to the second round of the playoffs, although that wasn't enough to keep coach Joel Quenneville from losing his job to assistant Tony Granato, and they have done little during the offseason to suggest they won't slip backward this time around.
Colorado did add feisty free agent forward Darcy Tucker and locked up veteran defensemen Adam Foote and John-Michael Liles and forward Wojtek Wolski, but they let go of two other top six defensemen -- Kurt Sauer and Jeff Finger -- and decided against meeting starting goalie Jose Theodore's contract demands.
That means Peter Budaj gets the inside track on the No. 1 job, although newcomer Andrew Raycroft might find getting out of Toronto the tonic for reviving his flagging career.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Flames are counting on a change of scenery to work some magic for the notorious Todd Bertuzzi, whose game has suffered because he still hasn't been able to live down his vicious on-ice attack against Steve Moore in 2004. The Flames signed Bertuzzi at a discounted price after he was bought out by Anaheim, and are hoping he can fill some of the void created by tough choices the team made over the summer because of salary cap concerns.
Money issues forced the Flames to let Kristian Huselius and Owen Nolan leave as free agents and to trade Alex Tanguay, but they did manage to land a talented young center named Mike Cammalleri, who priced himself out of the Los Angeles Kings budget after several productive seasons. But this team is still built around captain Jarome Iginla, goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and a Dion Phaneuf-led defense, but it is getting older and heads into training camp knowing its window of opportunity is starting to close.
Even so, the Flames are in a better place right now than the Vancouver Canucks, who have given their rabid fans little to be excited about after a summer of questionable activity. New GM Mike Gillis, a former agent, hoped to make a big splash but so far has failed to address the lack of offense that was the team's biggest problem last season.
Gillis tried with a stunning two-year, $20 million offer to free agent Mats Sundin. Ultimately though, he had to settle for Pavol Demitra and Steve Bernier as the replacements for Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison who signed elsewhere as free agents.
Vancouver does have a decent group of veteran defensemen and all-world goalie Roberto Luongo, although he will likely have to stand on his head more often than last season for the Canucks to even think about the playoffs.
