St. Louis will be a difficult team to predict, but I can see two reasons to think Dallas may have a chance to pass them in the standings this year
1) They had some of the better puck luck in the league last year, as they lead the league in shooting percentage for most of the year. They ended up in 3rd place for shooting percentage (behind Anaheim and Colorado) as the offense dried up near the end of the season, causing that little skid in the standings. So basically what I'm trying to get at is that much like Colorado, I don't believe they were actually as far ahead of the Dallas Stars of 2013-14 as the standings would have indicated at first glance. It's definitely easier to imagine the Stars making up nearly 20 points of ground in the standings if you consider that the Blues are likely to drop back of where they were last year independent of any roster decisions.
2) They've made a terrible gamble with their goaltending. Quite frankly Brian Elliott is a significantly below average starting NHL goaltender, who has posted a below average even strength save percentage every year he's been in the league besides that one miracle season in 2011-12, and Jake Allen has not shown anything at the AHL or NHL levels previously to suggest that he's going to be able to step in if Elliott can't give the Blues consistent goaltending. This is one of the more glaring examples in recent memory of a good team with a major hole in the roster that could be their undoing.
The Stars were already in the same neighbourhood as the blues at even strength play. Last season the Blues were 7th in the league at even strength fenwick ratio in close games, and the Stars were 9th. If we get the promised improvement on special teams and Kari Lehtonen can stay healthy there's no reason to think the Stars can't make a move in the decision.
My predictions (based on some statistical modeling I did)
1. Chicago - best overall team in the league
2. St. Louis
3. Dallas
-had these two teams pretty much a coin flip. I think I'll believe the Stars can get every facet of their team working at the same time and take that next step when it actually happens
4. Nashville - probably a surprise pick, but I believe their team was undone by bad goaltending last season, and were surprisingly decent at even strength.
5. Colorado - I'm picking them to flame out of the playoffs in hilarious fashion. Taking their two best even strength forwards and replacing them with ancient Jarome Iginla and ancient Daniel Briere should work out great guys
(it will not work out great)
6. Minnesota - another team that played over their heads last season, but looked better in the playoffs. I'm predicting that they stay mediocre to below average at even strength, and that will be reflected more accurately in the standings.
7. Winnipeg - a team going nowhere. The major problem is that they have the worst starting goaltender in the league.. yes probably even worse than Brian Elliott. they will also be below average at even strength play, and seem to have a death wish to run their best forward out of town. Probably the team in the division with the least chance of doing anything.