The Pacific Division houses the defending Stanley Cup champion, another squad that’s basically in Stanley Cup-or-bust mode, a fast-rising recent expansion team, another force out of Hollywood, and a collection of rebuilders and question marks.
There is a wide range of expectations within this group of teams, and the difference between top and bottom may be wider than any other division in the NHL.
Here’s our look at one player from each of the Pacific’s teams who needs to perform this season.
ANAHEIM DUCKS
The Ducks are still knee-deep in their rebuild and won’t really have playoffs in mind yet. Presumably they’ll fall out of the race early again and we’ll go through the whole John Gibson trade speculation once again at the deadline.
Despite being a yearly trade candidate and swirling rumours that he’d prefer a move out, Gibson remains a Duck and will be their starting goalie once again, at age 30. Formerly thought of as one of the NHL’s top young netminders, Gibson’s numbers have slipped, though that surely has something to do with the roster that has deteriorated in front of him through this rebuild.
Because of his falling numbers (Gibson had an .899 save rate last season) and big cap hit ($6.9 million), he’s not too enticing on the trade market and the Ducks have yet to find a return for the player that they can live with. The best-case scenario for all parties would be for Gibson to get off to a hot start and maybe even keep the Ducks hanging around into the Christmas season. Maybe then a contender would feel comfortable enough to trade for the remaining four years of Gibson’s contract.
We can hope there is a pathway to conclude the endless speculation around this goalie.
CALGARY FLAMES
There is an obvious player who needs to step up big-time here, and it’s Jonathan Huberdeau.
After the Flames boldly acquired him and MacKenzie Weegar from Florida for Matthew Tkachuk last summer, they watched as both Tkachuk and the Panthers had career- and franchise-best finishes. Meanwhile, the Flames floundered and now enter a season with a whole host of questions and uncertainty around their core of veterans.
In his last season with Florida, Huberdeau broke out with a career-best 115 points, but wound up scoring 60 fewer points in Year 1 with Calgary. The Flames simply cannot have a player they invested eight years and $84 million in to produce on par with a second-liner.
There is a ton hanging over this year’s Flames, who have five important pending UFAs of their own to figure out. A strong start would go a long way toward confirming the sense that last year’s Flames were at least partly a victim of bad luck and are genuinely better than their finish. If that happens, perhaps it gets easier to keep everyone.
But that won’t happen if Huberdeau struggles again. In some ways, he holds the keys to the immediate future of this franchise.
EDMONTON OILERS
Evander Kane‘s career high in goals is 30, something he’s achieved twice. In two seasons with Edmonton, Kane has played 43 games (due to a late start after signing with the team in January) and 41 games (injury), over which time he’s scored at a 37-goal pace. A healthy, engaged and productive Kane could be the element that really puts the Oilers over the top.
He’s in a position to succeed next to Leon Draisaitl, but 15 of the 16 goals Kane scored last season came at even-strength because he’s not gotten a regular gig on the historically awesome top power-play unit. He could set new career highs even without that cushy position, and you can see how he could blow up if that were to ever come.
This team goes as far as Connor McDavid or Draisaitl will take it, but reliable scoring from others is absolutely necessary. If healthy, Kane could be in for a monster season.
LOS ANGELES KINGS
After making it clear that he wasn’t going to stay long-term first in Columbus, and then Winnipeg, Pierre-Luc Dubois finally got the move he wanted and an eight-year contract commitment from the Los Angeles Kings.
Now, it’s time to show he’s worth it.
Dubois is coming off a 27-goal, 63-point season with the Jets, which roughly fell in line with some of his best offensive seasons. In Los Angeles, Dubois figures to make up one heck of a three-headed monster of centres with Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault and, ideally, Dubois will simply take over Kopitar’s role when it comes time for the 36-year-old to move into retirement.
In the meantime, Dubois walks into a Kings roster that is biting at the heels of other Pacific contenders Vegas and Edmonton, but has still been a step behind. As some young talent acquired through a short rebuild continues to develop and get added to this Kings roster to make it stronger, Dubois was the big-splash add designed to get this team over the next hump. It’s taken a bit of drama to get him here, so now it’s time for Dubois to deliver.
SAN JOSE SHARKS
This one is a little different because, honestly, the Sharks could be the worst team in the league this season — and they might be fine with that. This is going to be a long road back, and so any one player’s performance isn’t going to set the course or change the way we view the Sharks.
In San Jose, we just want to see some promise begin showing, which is why we want to see 20-year-old William Eklund make the team and leave a mark right away. The seventh-overall pick from 2021 has gotten a taste of the NHL, with 17 total games played across the past two seasons, but spent most of 2021-22 back in Sweden with Djurgardens, and then he posted 41 points in 54 games with the AHL San Jose Barracuda in 2022-23.
Eklund is a high-upside, dynamically offensive player who is integral to the long-term plans of this team. And in a season where the Sharks probably aren’t going anywhere again, we — and they — just want to see that flash.
SEATTLE KRAKEN
As a defenceman in St. Louis, Vince Dunn always oozed potential but was signed to two bridge deals after his entry-level pact expired in 2020 — first a one-year, $1.875-million contract, followed by a two-year $4-million deal. It was under that second contract that Dunn was taken by Seattle in its expansion draft.
The wide-open Kraken roster allowed Dunn new opportunities with greater minutes, and it finally paid off with a breakout 64-point season in 2022-23, lining up with Seattle’s first playoff appearance. Dunn became the Kraken’s top minute-eater at even-strength and on the power play, where he earned just 15 of his points.
Impressively, Dunn finished second to only Erik Karlsson in even-strength points scored by an NHL defenceman last season, and he was a key reason the Kraken’s 5-on-5 offence improved from 28th overall in 2021-22, to the NHL’s best in 2022-23.
This summer, Dunn avoided arbitration and got his big payday on a contract with some term (four years). Now counting for $7.35 million against the cap, Dunn has to be the No. 1 and deliver all over again.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
“Bubble Demko” is but a distant memory at this point, but the hope in Vancouver that Thatcher Demko is that guy remains strong. And, in a way, the goalie might be vital for keeping another franchise cornerstone in place.
At the start of last season, Demko was coming off back-to-back .915 save percentage seasons, and in 2021-22 he proved he could carry a starter’s workload, playing in 64 games. It was all trending up until he started the 2022-23 season slowly after undergoing off-season surgery, and then sustained a lower-body injury in December that kept him out of the lineup for a couple months. Demko even began appearing in trade rumours as another Canucks season spiralled.
Now we start anew again as the Canucks hope for better results under head coach Rick Tocchet for a full season. The optimism for Demko is still there since he finished the 2022-23 season well enough, posting a .920 save percentage in his final 16 starts. If Demko performs, he could certainly help lift the Canucks, which in turn, would go a long way toward convincing Elias Pettersson to re-sign.
Another bad start, or overall disappointing season, from Demko could lead to several other negative outcomes in Vancouver.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Vegas’ crease was a busy one last season, but at the beginning of it Logan Thompson was expected to be the lead netminder. And he was really delivering on that expectation … until a mid-season injury opened the door for others. Laurent Brossoit played 11 games, Jiri Petera two and the Golden Knights even traded for Jonathan Quick at the deadline. But Adin Hill stepped up the most and when Thompson was able to return, Hill didn’t relinquish the crease.
In all, Hill played 27 regular season games, posting a .915 save percentage, but he was even better in 16 playoff games, where he went 11-4 with a .932 save percentage and finished third in Conn Smythe voting. This season, with a Stanley Cup ring on his finger, Hill returns to Vegas with a new two-year contract that pays him a $4.9-million starter’s wage. Vegas doesn’t have cap space to spare, so new pressures will come to Hill as he prepares for a season-long workload he hasn’t yet experienced in the pro game.