If the Atlantic Division is regarded as the best collection of teams in the NHL, the Central might be the next in line to give it a run. Although there are a couple of obvious teams at the top above the rest, most of this division improved over the off-season — and you could make a case that just about any one of them could contend for a wild-card spot until the very end.
While Dallas and Colorado have represented the Central in each of the past three Western Conference finals, the Nashville Predators were one of the biggest winners of the off-season. And newly arrived Utah, doing business much differently than it did under Alex Meruelo in Arizona, could throw a wrench into the established order of things here.
The Central figures to be a highly competitive division once again in 2024-25. So how will it shake out? We take our shot at predicting the final finish.
1. Colorado Avalanche
After reaching 50 wins and finishing six points off Dallas' division-winning pace from 2023-24, we can definitely see a path back to the top for Colorado, which won this division in 2022 and 2023.
First, Casey Mittelstadt appears to be capable of filling the 2C hole the Avalanche have had since Nazem Kadri left as a free agent, which will go a long way over the grind of 82 games. Valeri Nichushkin, suspended for six months and placed in Stage 3 of the player assistance program, could be eligible to return in November, which could be a huge boost if it happens. In the meantime, rookie Nikolai Kovalenko arrives as one of the more intriguing, mysterious rookies. A 24-year-old, sixth-round pick from 2018, he's been near a point per game player for a couple years in the KHL and registered four points in six AHL games (regular season and playoffs) at the end of 2023-24.
An even bigger development, however, would be the return of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who seems to be making progress. A right-knee injury has kept him on the sidelines since Colorado's Cup win in 2022.
With a great mix of players in the top four on the blueline — including one of, if not the best, top pairs in the league — the Avs took a shot on Erik Brannstrom and Oliver Kylington, who could form the bottom pair. Not bad. If Alexandar Georgiev can be even a sliver better than he was last season, the Avs may not just win the Central, they could easily contend for the Presidents' Trophy.
2. Dallas Stars
Jim Nill's team earned the label of being the "deepest" lineup in the NHL last season and, among the forwards at least, that could be true again in 2024-25. Last season's breakout from Wyatt Johnston unlocked another threat for the Stars as he attained 30-plus goals, and this season they're adding two more young players who could be vying for the Calder Trophy: Logan Stankoven and Mavrik Bourque. At the time the former was called up to the NHL midway through last season, these two players were 1-2 in the AHL scoring race. Bourque ended up winning it, with 77 points in 71 games.
That will have to make up for the loss of Joe Pavelski, who retired after a 27-goal, 67-point season.
In net, Jake Oettinger is one of the best players in the game at his position and there's little concern about him, beyond wondering if he should play a little less often in the regular season. Just in case, the Stars acquired Casey DeSmith to back him up.
Where Dallas could be exploited — and was in last season's playoffs — is on the blueline. While the Stars do have a great leading talent in Miro Heiskanen and a very promising young partner in 23-year-old Thomas Harley (who is still an RFA), the depth boasted up front is not there on the back end.
Ilya Lyubushkin, Matt Dumba and Brendan Smith will make up half of this unit, which won't be able to replace the lost excellence of Chris Tanev. When injuries hit last season, Dallas didn't have the same horses on defence to make it up, and that's even more true in 2024-25.
3. Nashville Predators
From 99 points to over 100? There are lots of reasons to believe things could break right for Nashville this season.
To begin, the Predators were one of the biggest winners over the summer, signing both Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos, two highly dangerous players on offence who should help propel head coach Andrew Brunette's desire to push on that side of the ice. Brady Skjei was also added to the blueline, which was already pretty good to begin with, and his skillset leans into Brunette's style as well.
The X-factor will be Juuse Saros, signed to an eight-year extension after probably the worst season of his career — a .906 save percentage and 2.86 GAA. Still just 29 years old, though, he's a great candidate to have a bounce-back season. He's carried worse Predators teams into the playoffs before, so a top-five performance behind this year's version could deliver the franchise's best season in years.
With all that was lost over the summer, there's some consideration for putting the Jets even lower on this list. Sean Monahan's departure leaves a big hole at second-line centre where, perhaps, Cole Perfetti could jump into, but he's still without a contract so close to training camp. Tyler Toffoli's goal-scoring ability acquired at the deadline is also gone from the lineup. Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt were lost from the blueline, and Laurent Brossoit's departure means a downgrade from one of the best backups in the NHL.
Meantime, Nikolaj Ehlers is a pending UFA who just hasn't been able to maximize his ice time while with the Jets. Should they struggle, or he indicate he wants out, that could be another loss to deal with.
In turn, the Jets didn't make any notable improvements to the lineup and require big years from returning vets, or some others in the system to step up. Can Brad Lambert make the team and have an immediate NHL impact after leading the AHL's Manitoba Moose in scoring?
5. Utah Hockey Club
This new team has such a big climb ahead of them to make the playoffs, or catch the group of teams ahead of them in this division, that it's difficult to expect more than this. It's not impossible, however, since Utah was much more aggressively adding to their team in the off-season than it was in Arizona, plus the likes of Logan Cooley, Josh Doan and Dylan Guenther have only just begun to show what they have in store for their careers.
The key changes — and reason for optimism — here is that the blueline has been completely rebuilt and upgraded by every measure. Mikhail Sergachev, John Marino and Ian Cole give Utah solid partners to anchor each pairing, while Sean Durzi is coming into his own heading into Year 4. All of this should make life somewhat easier for goalie Connor Ingram, who took over the starter's job last season and is maybe a dark-horse candidate to be one of Canada's three goalies at the 4 Nations.
6. St. Louis Blues
The middle of the pack in this division could all be pretty close together, and the Blues are in the thick of that. On paper, there are things to like here. Robert Thomas was a better than point-per-game player last season and Jordan Kyrou hit 30 goals for the second straight season. The top of the group is strong and the depth should even be better this season, with Mathieu Joseph able to provide secondary scoring and Dylan Holloway coming over by way of offer sheet full of potential and ability to play on the PK.
With Torey Krug out for the season, Philip Broberg will get all the opportunity he wanted but couldn't get in Edmonton and while overall the back end doesn't flash, you can't complain about its depth. In net, Jordan Binnington finally had a bounce-back season in 2023-24 after seeing his numbers decline a couple years in a row, and he's the favourite to man Canada's net heading in.
7. Minnesota Wild
The good news is that this is the last year the Wild have to endure the extreme cap penalties they inflicted on themselves with the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyouts. Those charges lighten up considerably next season, which might allow the team to get much more active and creative in the trade and free-agent market soon (though a Kirill Kaprizov extension looms two years away).
In the meantime, much of last year's team returns with a roster that finished with 87 points, which was 11 out of the playoffs. Neither of their goalies had a particularly strong season a year ago, but Jesper Wallstedt is the wild card this time around.
The whole team will be playing this one for Marc-Andre Fleury, who announced this will be his last go-around in the NHL. The Wild have their vets mixed in with some young players in Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Marco Rossi who have each shown some special element but are still so early in their careers.
There is a chance that slotting the Wild here could look terrible in April but, again, we see a big crunch in the middle of this division where not much will separate each team.
8. Chicago Blackhawks
Improvements were made this summer that should make the Blackhawks a tougher team to beat, at least. Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen especially help make for a better top six, while "backup" Laurent Brossoit has the potential to earn most of the starts. Even the bottom of the lineup has better veteran depth throughout.
Outside of Connor Bedard going absolutely nuclear — like on a Connor McDavid level — it's still hard to imagine the Hawks passing other teams in this division quite yet. Last season, they finished 25 points back of Arizona, which, as discussed in the Utah section, has only improved itself. It should start to get better, but the rebuild goes on.
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