Speculation: Hot Takes on where each team will rank in the Pacific Division this season...

[Soundwave]

Bouchard also has a lot more calm and higher panic threshold than Jones and Bear. He’s going to make mistakes but it won’t be due to panic

He might be too calm is probably the issue with him. Needs a little bit more urgency in his game.

Anyway the D is not the issue in the sense that with good goaltending they will be fine.

But we need to find a goalie upgrade early in the season at least if there are any signs of cracking on Smith's part.

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

You wanted a hot take. You got it!

Edmonton
Vancouver
Vegas
Seattle
LA
Calgary
Anaheim
SJ

 

[booyakasha]

Edmonton
Vegas
Vancouver
LA
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
SJ

....not really a hot take.

 

[Dirt McGintty]

ya not bias at all lol. You actually think the Oilers are better across the board over Vancouver? Demko-Halak is worse than Smith-Koska? Ya put that to a vote.
And sorry but the depth of Vancouvers forwards trumps McDrai.
But tbf, it's only natural to have blinders we all do.

Any forward depth advantage you may have had was traded to the Coyotes. Or have you not checked in with your own teams board for a while? Seriously name your teams top 12 forwards so we can do a side by side comparison. I tried but I only got to about your 8 best forwards. After that the rest of your group looks like AHL trash.

 

[GOilers88]

Any forward depth advantage you may have had was traded to the Coyotes. Or have you not checked in with your own teams board for a while? Seriously name your teams top 12 forwards so we can do a side by side comparison. I tried but I only got to about your 8 best forwards. After that the rest of your group looks like AHL trash.

Eriksson, Roussel and Beagle is hardly losing quality depth to be fair. They basically traded AHL quality for two NHL quality players with the AZ trade.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

ya not bias at all lol. You actually think the Oilers are better across the board over Vancouver? Demko-Halak is worse than Smith-Koska? Ya put that to a vote.
And sorry but the depth of Vancouvers forwards trumps McDrai.
But tbf, it's only natural to have blinders we all do.

Lol imagine being this guy. Complaining about an Oiler “bias” on the OILER forums haha.

Also Canucks are trash.

 

[Dirt McGintty]

Eriksson, Roussel and Beagle is hardly losing quality depth to be fair. They basically traded AHL quality for two NHL quality players with the AZ trade.

To be fair, I was being a dick.

 

[OilersCoffeeArtBeer]

I said the Oilers will win the presidents trophy this year.

PACIFIC DIVISION RANKING.
Edmonton
Vancouver
Vegas
L.A.
Seattle
San Jose
Flames
Anaheim
Calgary

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Vegas
Edmonton
LA
Vancouver
Seattle
Calgary
San Jose
Anaheim

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

Any forward depth advantage you may have had was traded to the Coyotes. Or have you not checked in with your own teams board for a while? Seriously name your teams top 12 forwards so we can do a side by side comparison. I tried but I only got to about your 8 best forwards. After that the rest of your group looks like AHL trash.

This is one of the dumbest posts I have read in months..congrats.

 

[Oilhawks]

This is one of the dumbest posts I have read in months..congrats.

It’s almost as dumb as the guy he was responding to that came in here to white knight his beloved Nucks

 

[alphahelix]

My newest hot take on how the Pacific Division will pan out this season....

I looked at all the current rosters on capfriendly.com for the 8 teams in the Pacific Division and ranked them looking at their current rosters based on their forwards, dmen and goaltending.

These ranks are my subjective opinions (obviously) of where each team is RIGHT NOW... barring any other further roster moves before the season begins (which of course will happen and these rankings could and will possibly change)... but anyway on to my current ranks and hot takes...

I ranked each category for each team "optimistically"... taking into account player performances from last season plus some young players that are coming up the ranks for each team that may have showed reasonably well at the NHL in their cups of coffee/short stints.

I basically treated forwards/dmen/goalies as equal asset categories and ranked each team 1 through 8 in each category... then added them all up... and the lowest combined total then gets the top overall rank.

So on to the ranks...

Team	Forwards rank	Dmen rank	Goalies rank	Combined ranks (less is better)	Overall rank
Knights	2	1	2	5	1
Oilers	1	2	4	7	2
Canucks	4	3	5	12 (Canucks win tiebreaker with Kraken as they are higher than them in 2 out of 3 ranks)	3
Kraken	5	6	1	12	4
Ducks	8	4	3	15	5
Flames	3	7	8	18	6
Kings	7	5	7	19	7
Sharks	6	8	6	20	8

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Oilers D as 2nd? There are some charts that have the Oilers D 32nd in the NHL. I think that is very optimistic. I can get behind the other rankings, & theres an outside chance that the G outperforms again next year... but I can’t see how the D can be considered in the top half of the division. We’re only above the worst couple teams in D.

 

[Mr Positive]

Imo a big reason our D was suspect was that the forward group lacked depth. Defense is a 5 man effort. The forward group looks much better now. I bet the Oilers will do better this year than last

 

[Samus44]

If EP40 is good to go this season I think Vancouver is going to surprise the hell out of people and hang with us and Vegas.

Petersson, Horvat, Miller, Boeser, Hoglander, Demko, Hughes, Garland, Podkolzin. If OEL has any sort of bounce back I think they have a lot of good pieces. I don't know why everyone says they suck ass.

Probably because they sucked ass last season. lol

 

[harpoon]

I said the Oilers will win the presidents trophy this year.

PACIFIC DIVISION RANKING.
Edmonton
Vancouver
Vegas
L.A.
Seattle
San Jose
Flames
Anaheim
Calgary

I think the Flames should be one spot lower. I don’t see them finishing much above Calgary.

 

[McSuper]

My newest hot take on how the Pacific Division will pan out this season....

I looked at all the current rosters on capfriendly.com for the 8 teams in the Pacific Division and ranked them looking at their current rosters based on their forwards, dmen and goaltending.

These ranks are my subjective opinions (obviously) of where each team is RIGHT NOW... barring any other further roster moves before the season begins (which of course will happen and these rankings could and will possibly change)... but anyway on to my current ranks and hot takes...

I ranked each category for each team "optimistically"... taking into account player performances from last season plus some young players that are coming up the ranks for each team that may have showed reasonably well at the NHL in their cups of coffee/short stints.

I basically treated forwards/dmen/goalies as equal asset categories and ranked each team 1 through 8 in each category... then added them all up... and the lowest combined total then gets the top overall rank.

So on to the ranks...

Team	Forwards rank	Dmen rank	Goalies rank	Combined ranks (less is better)	Overall rank
Knights	2	1	2	5	1
Oilers	1	2	4	7	2
Canucks	4	3	5	12 (Canucks win tiebreaker with Kraken as they are higher than them in 2 out of 3 ranks)	3
Kraken	5	6	1	12	4
Ducks	8	4	3	15	5
Flames	3	7	8	18	6
Kings	7	5	7	19	7
Sharks	6	8	6	20	8

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

So there you have it... cancel your Sportsnet/NHL TV hockey season package as you already know the Pacific division season results and tune in to the playoffs in April when the real action begins.


Flame away at all those ranks if you like or better yet man up and post your own ranks and take a stand instead of just throwing out whiny, bitchy complaints and criticisms at others that actually put it on the line and make predictions.

The Oilers D wouldn't be ranked #2 and sure the hell their goalies aren't ranked 4th unless the are in the AHL . Forwards I agree

 

[Perfect_Drug]

f*** Vegas.


We'll be first. Vegas keeps hemorraging depth, and they just lost their heart and soul player.

 

[Delicious Pancakes]

Edmonton
Vegas
LA
Seattle
Calgary
Vancouver
San Jose
Anaheim

 

[brentashton]

I’m a gonna get roasted for this but unless the Oil fix the goalie spot,

Vegas
Vancouver
Edmonton
LA
Calgary
Seattle
Anaheim
SJ

 

[jesusbuiltmyhotrod]

I quoted the wrong person, I meant to quote the stupid Nucks troll lol.

 

[Pucklington]

The Pacific is such a bad division...

VGK
Edm
.
.
.
.
.
Who cares, it's a pile of trash.

 

[Pucklington]

Got not so hot take - Vancouver will have a worse season than last year.

OEL is not a good D. We are upset about Keith... just wait. He was an offensive d, that was mediocre at D. He's now a marginal offensive D, who has regressed defensively and has a monster cap hit. Swapping OEL for Schimdt made their team worse... Garland is good add, but overall there team looks pretty poor.

Calgary is basically same team as last year, with marginally worse D.

LA will improve, but they are not a playoff team. Adding stars who are a year older.

SJ...

Anaheim...

Seattle - who's going to score?

Vegas is better than Edm, but if they get another goalie... who knows....

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Oilers D as 2nd? There are some charts that have the Oilers D 32nd in the NHL. I think that is very optimistic. I can get behind the other rankings, & theres an outside chance that the G outperforms again next year... but I can’t see how the D can be considered in the top half of the division. We’re only above the worst couple teams in D.

Whatever charts those are that your reading which say our D is 30th or lower you can safely ignore.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

The Pacific is such a bad division...

VGK
Edm
.
.
.
.
.
Who cares, it's a pile of trash.

LA will be greatly improved and I think so will Vancouver. Seattle will win a lot of 2-1 games and I don’t think they are done adding offence. There’s a lot of pieces they have on D to move still.

 

[Pucklington]

LA will be greatly improved and I think so will Vancouver. Seattle will win a lot of 2-1 games and I don’t think they are done adding offence. There’s a lot of pieces they have on D to move still.

Kopitar and Doughty are a year older. Kopitar had amazing year, and they still stunk. They added players, but it isn't reasonable to expect that from Kopitar again. I think at best they are level.

Vancouver... I look at the team last year vs. this year and I don't see any player who will improve them enough to make the playoffs.

Schmidt is a better player than OEL, and I don't see adding Garland making that big a difference.

Vancouver may have the worst defense in the division.