Metropolitan Division Season Preview

Columbus – Having secured only their second play-off berth last year and also recording their first post-season victories, pushing Pittsburgh all the way, are building on that success. Brandon Dubinsky signed a new six-year contract while Scott Hartnell arrived from Philadelphia in exchange for R.J. Umberger. Ryan Johansen had a break out year but has yet to sign a new deal ahead of this season. Nathan Horton needs to show he has fully recovered from two lots of surgery and start proving he is worth the seven-year $37.1 million contract. The BJ's fourth-line will be much changed this season. Matt Frattin, Derek MacKenzie, Blake Comeau and Jack Skille have gone from the checking line, however Corey Tropp has re-signed, with Jeremy D'Amigo and Brian Gibbons arriving. Jared Boll and Mark Letestu are also in the frame. Nikita Nikitin's departure from defense is somewhat of a loss though. In what is a highly competitive division, Columbus need to avoid the slow starts that blighted their previous two campaigns to make sure of matching a franchise record 93 points. There is plenty to be excited about in Ohio this season though and with Sergei Bobrovsky between the pipes, Jack Johnson patrolling the blue-line and forwards Ryan Johansen, Brandon Dubinsky and Scott Hartnell, not to mention sophomore's Ryan Murray and Boone Jenner, there is every reason to believe a top-four finish is within their grasp.

Hartnell – Johansen – Horton

Calvert – Dubinsky – Atkinson

Foligno – Anisimov – Jenner

Hjamarsson – Letestu – Tropp

Murray – Wisniewski

Johnson – Tyutin

Erixon - Savard

NY Rangers – A lot has happened to the Rangers since their surprise trip to the Stanley Cup finals in June. Free-agency, trades and a compliance buyout has seen five regular players depart. Top-four defenseman Anton Stralman, checking center Brian Boyle, scoring winger Benoit Pouliot, and most notably of all Brad Richards have all moved on. Dan Boyle arrives from San Jose to replace Stralman, while Lee Stempniak, Matthew Lombardi, Tanner Glass and Chris Mueller have been brought in to fill out the bottom-six forward spots. Alain Vigneault will be hoping to roll out four lines once again. Next summer could also see a similar set of departures unless Marc Staal, Martin St. Louis, Derek Stepan and Carl Hagelin can be tied down. Rangers third-line will certainly miss Pouliot given his good possesion game, and the chemistry he enjoyed with Brassard and Zuccarello, and it remains to be seen who will take his place. Rick Nash also needs to start living up to his hefty wage-bill by delivering more goals.

Nash – Stepan – Kreider

Hagelin – Brassard – St. Louis

Zuccarello – J.T. Miller – Stempiak

Lombardi – Moore – Fast

McDonagh – Girardi

Staal – Boyle

Moore - Klein

Carolina – It's all change at the Canes as Jim Rutherford left as GM to be replaced by Ron Francis, who in turn fired Kirk Muller as coach, replacing him with Bill Peters. Jiri Tlusty, Nathan Gerbe, Ron Hainsey and Brett Bellemore have all re-signed with tough-guy Brad Malone (Colorado) and veteran Jay McClement (Toronto) have came in. Other than that not many personnel changes have improved the team that finished 13^th in the eastern conference for the past two seasons. If Carolina want to make the playoffs they need to improve a power-play ranked 28^th last year, while also trying to wipe out their slow starts to games. With a defensive-minded coach, Peters may struggle to get the best out of an aging blue-line, but their top two forward lines are still among the best in the league with a lot of high-end talent. Goaltending needs to improve too, Cam Ward was injured for much of last season and Anton Khudobin missed 32 games with an ankle sprain.

Tlusty – E. Staal – Semin

Skinner – J. Staal – Lindholm

Gerbe – McClement – Dwyer

Boychuk – Nash – Malone

Sekera – Faulk

Hainsey – Murphy

Liles – Harrison

New York Islanders – After a strong post-season in 2013 much was expected of the Islanders last season, however they cold only manage 13 wins on home ice all year, finished in the bottom five of the NHL standings for the sixth time in seven seasons. Starting Goalie Evgeni Nabokov was injured in November, after the Isles already lost veteran defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky for three months. Over the summer goalie Jaroslav Halak arrived via Washington on a four-year $18 million contract. Forwards Cory Conacher, Mikhail Grabovski (four years $20 million) and Nikolai Kulemin (four years $16.75 million) also arrived to boost the chances of the Nassau Coliseum seeing play-off action one last time. Griffin Reinhart picked 4^th overall by the Isles at this years draft could well see some ice team.although there are several young forwards fighting for a place. It will be interesting to see who will join John Tavares and Kyle Okposo on the top line with Thomas Vanek leaving for Montreal, it is likely Brock Nelson will continue. Calvin de Haan is a useful young defenseman. Any one of 8 players could start on the second or third lines. Grabovski and Kulemin are liekly to start together, with either one of Grabner, Bailey, Strome, Conacher or Lee alongside them. Nielsen will be one of the best third-line centers in the East.

Nelson – Tavares – Okposo

Grabner – Grabovski – Kulemin

Bailey – Nielsen – Strome

Martin – Cizikas – Clutterbuck

de Haan – Hamonic

Visnovsky – Hickey

Donovan – Carkner

New Jersey – The team still seem to be missing forwards Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk and a distinct lack of goals would back that up. They havent qualified for the play-offs since losing to the Kings in the 2012 Finals. Mike Cammalleri and Marty Havlat will help them improve on that and will add depth to three strong centers in Travis Zajac, Patrik Elias and Adam Henrique. Cammalleri is a natural center but can play on the left wing and is likely to line up with Zajac and Jagr. Havlat could form a Czech partnership with Elias. Cory Schneider will prove a hard goaltender to score on although replacing Martin Brodeur is no mean feat, while the veteran Jaromir Jagr shows no sign of slowing down. He played in all 82 games last season scoring 24 goals, 67 points for a plus-16 rating, not bad for a 42-year old eh? Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas and Adam Larsson are all showing promise on defense, but the team really needs to improve its shootout performance.

Cammalleri – Zajac – Jagr

Elias – Henrique – Ryder

Havlat – Zubrus – Brunner

Clowe – Gionta – Ruutu

Greene – Larsson

Merrill – Zidlicky

Gelinas – Salvador

Washington Crapitals – Barry Trotz arrives as coach and started work by improving Ovechkin's game. He noted there was a lot of glide in the over-rated one's game, while his 5-on-5 production has to improve. 24 of the captain's 51 goals came on the power-play last season. Trotz needs to get a good relationship going with his captian for it to be a successfuls season. To help take some scoring burden off Ovechkin, Trotz will deploy an offensive defense. With Nicklas Backstrom on the top line, the speedy Marcus Johansson, creative Evgeny Kuznetsov and youngster Andre Burakovsky will fight over the 2^nd and 3^rd center spots. Brooks Laich or Troy Brouwer will likely join Ovechkin on the top line's other wing. Eric Fehr, last season's third-line center between Jason Chimera and Joel Ward, is likely to move to the wing. Alzner and Carlson will be joined by Orpik and Niskanen on the blue line, giving them a combination of back end offense, physical play, sturdiness in the defensive zobe, skating, passing and puckhandling.

Laich – Backstrom – Ovechkin

Fehr – Kuznetsov – Brouwer

Chimera – Johansson – Ward

Volpatti – Beagle – Wilson

Orpik – Carlson

Alzner – Niskanen

Orlov – Green

Philadelphia – With the team budget close to the Salary cap limit not many changes were made over the summer. Scott Hartnell did depart for Columbus with R.J. Umberger arriving to take his place on the top line with Giroux and Voracek. Kimmo Timonen's hospital treatment to remove blood clots in his right leg and both lungs, along with Chris Pronger's absence, leaves a huge space to fill on defense. The arrival of Michael Del Zotto will help to fill the ice-time but being so close to the salary cap is a huge problem to solve. As the season rolls on dont be surprised to see some of the younger players given a chance while Steve Mason will be relied upon to pull off heroics in the Flyers goal.

Raffl – Giroux – Voracek

Akeson – B. Schenn – Simmonds

Umberger – Couturier – Read

Bellemare – Lecavalier – Rinaldo

Timonen – Coburn

MacDonald – L. Schenn

Grossman - Streit