NHL division preview: 4 questions looming over the Central
The Central Division has two Western Conference powerhouses and six teams aspiring to improve on their 2022-23 campaigns.
The NHL's Central Division contains a couple heavyweights in the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars, but this division didn't have a banner year in 2022-23.
The eight teams combined for a minus-51 goal differential, the Stars were the only club to win a playoff round and the leading Avalanche would've come third in two of the NHL's other three divisions.
Adding Connor Bedard to the mix improves the watchability of this group of teams, and the Avalanche are a star-studded squad not far removed from a Stanley Cup victory. There's still quality here, but there's also uncertainty with the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues floating around in competitive purgatory.
The Arizona Coyotes are always good for some drama, but it rarely happens on the ice, and the Dallas Stars are dangerous, but relatively quiet — while the Minnesota Wild can't seem to make anything happen in the playoffs.
Here are the questions that could define the Central in the upcoming season.
Have the Avalanche found some secondary scoring?
There is absolutely no doubting the star power on an Avalanche team with Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar in its lineup. That trio combined for 282 points last season and scored 41.6% of Colorado's goals.
If the Avalanche are going to get back to their championship-winning ways, however, an injection of secondary scoring is needed — especially with Gabriel Landeskog out for the season.
Colorado addressed this weakness in the offseason by replacing the departing J.T. Compher with Ryan Johansen and trading for Ross Colton — who'd been an efficient scorer in a limited role with the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's a promising combination of additions that might be just what the Avalanche needed.
If the new guys don't come through, the Avalanche can probably ride their stars to a winning season, but capturing another Stanley Cup will be difficult if they're as top-heavy as they were in 2022-23.
Can Filip Gustavsson elevate the Wild?
Minnesota has been respectable but unremarkable for most of its recent history with seven first-round exits in the last eight years. The Wild have been a little more successful in the regular season in the last two years, producing 216 points — the sixth-best total in the NHL.
Kirill Kaprizov is a superstar, Matthew Boldy is ascending, and the defense corps should be solid enough even after losing Matt Dumba. Even so, this team's most direct route to a standout season is through their goaltender, who broke out in a big way last year.
The former Ottawa Senator put up an astounding 31.3 GSAA despite playing less than half of Minnesota's games, but he should see a bigger share of the workload in 2023-24 with Marc-André Fleury turning 39 in November.
Minnesota was an average team in terms of shot differential in 2022-23 as it outshot its opponents by 0.4 attempts per game. Considering the roster stability on this squad, that seems unlikely to change in a significant way this season which means goaltending will be critical to the team's success.
Moving more starts from Fleury to Gustavsson could be a difference maker if the Swede is able to replicate last years success — but that's a huge if.
What will Dallas get from its old man cohort?
The Stars are a team lacking profound weaknesses, but one of their theoretical strengths could falter in 2023-24.
Dallas got excellent secondary production from forwards other than Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz last season, but most of those players were older and seem susceptible to age-related decline. Joe Pavelski turned 39 this summer and while he's been able to elude Father Time in recent years, that might not hold up.
Jamie Benn gave the team a 78-point campaign last year, but he hadn't topped 53 since 2017-18 and it would be tough to count on a repeat in his age-34 season. Tyler Seguin isn't quite as old (31), but he hasn't been at his best in recent years, either. Throw Evgenii Dadonov (34) and Matt Duchene (33) into the mix and Dallas' secondary scoring is reliant on players who pose increased risk of injury and decline.
Dallas got a taste of that part of the team slowing down in the playoffs against Vegas in 2022-23. Robertson and Hintz scored half of the Stars' goals in the series while Pavelski, Benn and Seguin combined for just two goals and five points.
How does Connor Bedard look?
The general scouting consensus seems to be that Bedard is a generational talent on par with guys like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. The expectations could not be higher based on the way Bedard made a mockery of the WHL and dominated the world juniors last season.
CONNOR BEDARD SETS A NEW CANADIAN RECORD FOR MOST GOALS AT THE WORLD JUNIORS! pic.twitter.com/CJwpYmJdvW
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) January 2, 2023
Most NHL fans have watched a clip or two of Bedard at this point, but everyone wants to see this 18-year-old perform game-in and game-out at the sport's highest level.
There's just one reason to check out Blackhawks games this season, but it's a big one. We won't know how Bedard's career will go based off a single season, but the rookie might give us a hint.
