CRAIG CONFERENCE*****O'CALLAHAN DIVISION
MANCHESTER MONARCHS-One of the league's best resides in Manchester, King Henrik and he will propel Manchester to the top of the O'Callahan division, a nice leap for a team that missed the playoffs last year. While Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel and Ryan Clowe provide the scoring, it will be the nearly 70 games of Lundqvist in net that make the Monarchs such a tough task on the schedule. Veteran blueliner Joni Pitkanen provides points from the point, but the rest of the defensemen are stay at home types like Robyn Regehr so Manchester may add a power play d-man in one of the drafts.
ANTIOCH CRUSADERS - With another of the league's stud netminders in this division, Antioch will remain a perennial contender thanks to Ryan Miller. But the Crusaders have problem a lot of teams would enjoy this offseason. They have Kari Lehtonen who actually got a better rating and played a couple of more games. And make no mistake, with Antioch well over the salary cap, one of them will have to be moved. This team should be deadly on the power play with Christian Erhoff, Tomas Kaberle and Dennis Wideman manning the points. Up front they will get a full season out of Patrice Bergeron, which will help when Pavel Datsyuk misses 24 games. Revival years from Justin Williams and Alex Tanguay will help them score enough to return to the HBHA playoffs, but this team lacks a true sniper, something they will be hard pressed to get and remain under the cap.
BROOME DUSTERS - This is a young team led by some very impressive kids like Jonathan Toews, Loui Eriksson, Michael Frolik and Patrik Berglund up front and one of the youngest core of blueliners you will find anywhere in Marc Staal, John Carlson and Karl Alzner. They feature an old vet in net, Dwayne Roloson and what it adds up to will likely be enough for them to challenge for one of the final spots in the expanded HBHA playoffs.
SILK CITY SABRE CATS - Taking a step back after making the playoffs last year are the league's best nickname and logo. Marc -Andre Fleury stepped up his game for this season and will steal some 2-1 wins for the Cats, but there is a lack of goal scoring here that could see the team leader end up with less than 25 for the season. Tyler Myers and Fedor Tyutin will provide scoring from the blueline but the best up front may be Brandon Dubinsky. Silk City fans will love those grinders like Malone, Recchi, Bergenheim and Stempniak, all guys who can usually come up big in the post season. But they have to win enough regular season games to get there and my prediction is that it won't happen this year.
CRAIG CONFERENCE*****MORROW DIVISION
BROOKLYN HARBOR RATS - Tim Thomas and his 9.4 goalie rating will keep the Harbor Rats ahead of an ever changing roster of players in the Morrow Divison. Veterans Jarome Iginla, Joe Pavelski, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell and Erik Cole will provide more than enough firepower up front, where Brooklyn is loaded. Shea Weber will head up a blueline that has seen several changes, including the addition of Dion Phaneuf in a trade. But it is Thomas' rating that will steal games for the Rats and help them to a second division title.
NORFOLK ADMIRALS - If these guys learn to play together…..good thing this is a computer game, so they don't have to learn, they just have to play. And they will play good enough to get the current version of the Admirals into the playoffs and even challenge for the division title. After a near complete overhaul of the roster, Norfolk is poised to go deep into the playoffs and few things show that more than their recent upgrade in nets, from Jonathan Quick to Pekka Rinne, the type of netminder who will steal you those 2-1 wins when you've been outshot, outplayed and outhit. Solid blueliners like Marc Vlasic, Doug Murray and Brooks Orpik will keep Rinne from facing too many rebounds. Ryan Kesler, Milan Lucic, Martin Havlat, Mike Knuble and Chris Stewart will put up plenty of goals while Kris Letang piles up assists. Unless they start making changes again……
ALBANY ATTACK - Another team that missed the playoffs last year and looks like they could grab a spot for certain this year, except Albany is missing one very important ingredient, a stud netminder. With one of the best defensive corps in the league, led by Duncan Keith, Jack Johnson, Dam Hamhuis and James Wisniewski, they have to add a goalie for these guys to be able to make the playoffs. Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Umberger and Cleary provide the up front scoring.
STONE RIDGE SQUIRRELS - Will ride Anze Kopitar, Tomas Vanek and PK Subban far enough to challenge for one of those extra playoff spots and they will be helped in large part by Ondrej Pavelec, who pulled a 7.1 for 69 games of work, enough to ensure the Squirrels can hang in the chase all year. This is a young team about to add another young stud with the second pick in the rookie draft and their time is coming soon.
CRAIG CONFERENCE*****RAMSEY DIVISION
WINDY CITY JETS - This team will pile up points with Danny Briere, Mikhail Grabovski and Nicklas Backstrom up front along with Nick Lidstrom, Kimo Timonen and Mark Giordano on the blueline. Their power play should be deadly. But they have nobody in nets and although indications are that they will draft Bobrovsky, what if he doesn't last to their pick? We're betting he will and that will be enough to propel the Jets to a division title.
CHICAGO FLYERS - Henrik Sedin and Martin St.Louis will be enough to keep the Flyers in a battle for the division and they should make the playoffs but they have no point production from the blueline and Quick is not the goalie Rinne was. They have some superb penalty killers in Nate Thompson, Scott Nichols and David Steckel.
BRICK DRAGONS - Kulemin, Semin, Spezz, Ladd, Anesimov, Steen, what forwards the Dragons will come at you with! They will score, but they will give up as much as they get with Howard having a tough time this season and not much help on the blueline beyond Girardi and Carle.
VDM BULLDOGS - Well, at least they have next season to look forward to and they are still young. There is just not much beyond Jeff Carter, Devin Setoguchi and James Van Riemsdyk. Cam Ward is one of the better goalies in the league but he doesn't have much help from his blueline and will be on the short end of 2-1 games this season.
CRAIG CONFERENCE PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS: Brooklyn Harbor Rats, Norfolk Admirals, Manchester Monarchs, Antioch Crusaders, Windy City Jets, Chicago Flyers, Albany Attack, Stone Ridge Squirrels.
Top Scorer: Martin St. Louis (CHI) Top Goalie: Tim Thomas (BKL) Top DMan- Nick Lidstrom (WIN)
ERUZIONE CONFERENCE*****JOHNSON DIVISION
DETROIT FALCONS -The Falcons will repeat as Johnson Division champs thanks to a solid blueline with Visnovsky and Corvo providing points and manning a deep power play, while Kronwall and Hejda put a wall in front of Detroit netminder Craig Anderson. They will get more than enough offense from the likes of Kovalchuk, Horton, Hornqvist and Elias, but they have no true number one center. Matt Cullen, Stephen Weiss and Mike Fisher (aren't they all actually the same guy…..good disguises) could all be two or threes, but not ones. That could hinder how far the Falcons fly in the post season.
LEXINGTON MEN-O-WAR - After missing out on the playoffs last season, the Warmongers will join the party this time around thanks to a high octane offense that features Lecavalier, Heatley, Marleau and Franzen. Put them all on the ice with McCabe on the point and you DO NOT want to be a man down against them. They're gonna need all the goals they can get as Martin Brodeur is not the guy he once was (who of us is?) and his steady decline continues.
KAMLOOPS BLACKHAWKS - They have a good young netminder in Corey Crawford and he just might be able to steal them enough games to make the playoffs, but there are holes up front. Little and Hanzal are the top centermen and Kostitsyn and Neal the top scorers. Need we say more? At least the Hawks have a pair of top notch blueliners in Seabrook and Yandle.
PHILADELPHIA FIREBIRDS - This will be a fall from second place and a playoff spot last year to the cellar of this division. This could be one of those predictions that comes back to bite me, but Patrick Kane, Rene Bourque and Bouwmeester, with Vokoun in nets just doesn't inspire confidence. We may hold a promotional night when the Firebirds come to town……maybe calendar night?
ERUZIONE CONFERENCE*****SCHNEIDER DIVISION
WESTSLOPE CUTTHROATS - Yes, Sid the Kid will take half the season off. Yes, Pronger will miss 30 games. But these are the defending HBHA Champions and when every team in the league comes gunning for them what they will find will be Ilya Bryzgalov and his 7.8 rating for 68 games! They've also got Morrow, Plekanac, Kunitz and Pomminville ready to torch your goalie with Gonchar directing the power play. Says here they hold off Sterling to grab the division again.
STERLING SPITFIRES - They have the goalie with the second best rating in the set in Roberto Luongo and his 8.2. They back him up with blueline studs like Chara, Erik Karlsson and Meszaros. And they top it all off with MVP candidate Stamkos. Let's not forget Michael Grabner, Dustin Penner, Brian Gionta and Dustin Brown. But Sterling will have to move somebody to get under the cap and that depth could be lessened. If they were in any other division I would put them first, but here they finish second.
SAGINAW GEARS - A young team that is strong down the middle (Tavares, Duchene, Bolland, Cogliano) with a couple of more young future stars on the blueline (Hedman, Bogosian) they need to find an identy in nets because Hiller and Conklin just don't cut it. Tavares, Hedman and Duchesne went 1-2-3 in the '09 NHL draft.
BUFFALO SWORDS - They missed the playoffs by two points last season but even with the added spots to grab, they won't be that close this time around. Kiprusoff keeps getting worse, and although the Swords have a stand-em-up blueline in front of him, it won't be enough. Getzlaf, Ovechkin, Ribero and Simon Gagne all have something in common. They have each had better years than this one.
ERUZIONE CONFERENCE*****BROTEN DIVISION
SPOKANE JETS - Made all the right moves this offseason, adding Eric Staal to Perry, Sharp, Claude Giroux and Logan Couture. Also added Bieksa to Drew Doughty on the blueline. With 72 games of 7.7 rating out of Carey Price in the nets this Jets team is ready for liftoff! They would have made the playoffs last year, if this year's rules had been in place. Now it won't matter for them as they walk away with the division.
CALIFORNIA THUNDER - They have that lethal line of Nash-Richards-Gaborik returning, then they can throw Backes and Samuelsson in that forward mix. Byfuglien, Gologoski, Boyle, Martin and Michalek make for quite the set of blueliners too. I would pick them to repeat as Broten champs but for the glaring hole in nets. Kent, it's time to give Antioch a call!!!
SACRAMENTO SNIPERS - Daniel Sedin, Bobby Ryan and Marian Hossa return but with Malkin expected to miss nearly 40 games there isn't much depth up front. Backstrom is still solid in net and his defense corps is loaded with shot blockers but there isn't much there than can help on the power play. Snipers will find themselves involved in a lot of low scoring contests but should win enough to return to the post season.
CHILLIWACK GRIZZLIES - These guys aren't just young, these are young guys we all want!! C'mon, you would all love to have one of the following on your roster: Jeff Skinner, Evander Kane, Brad Marchand, Brandon Sutter, Alex Pietrangelo, Erik Johnson, Semyon Varlamov and Michael Neuvirth. Not one of those guys is over 22. So the Grizzlies will experience some growing pains together in their new den. And they also could use a top center, which would put them into the playoff picture.
ERUZIONE CONFERENCE PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS: Westslope Cutthroats, Sterling Spitfires, Spokane Jets, Detroit Falcons California Thunder, Sacramento Snipers, Lexington Men-O-War, Chilliwack Grizzlies.
Top Scorer : Steven Stamkos (STE) Top Goalie : Ilya Bryzgalov (WES) Top DMan : Drew Doughty (SPO)