Kevin Wickersham

38 Articles

Pacific Division: Vancouver Canucks Season Outlook

Forwards Consider the Canucks’ youth movement in effect. For the first time since 2005-06, one of Vancouver’s top two scorers last year wasn’t named Sedin. 22-year-old center Bo Horvat led Vancouver with 52 points on 20 goals and 32 assists.…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: San Jose Sharks Season Outlook

Forwards Along with franchise icon Joe Thornton, young forwards will play a larger 2017-18 role in tandem with stalwarts Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture. After arriving at the deadline from Vancouver, right wing Jannik Hansen is a candidate to join…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: Los Angeles Kings Season Outlook

Forwards The incoming Blake/Robitaille/Stevens administration seeks increased goal scoring and a quicker pace, but philosophy alone won’t put points on the board. Anze Kopitar could still use some help. With just 12 goals and a career-worst 0.68 points-per-game, he led…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: Edmonton Oilers Season Outlook

Forwards There is stability in Edmonton with Art Ross winner Connor McDavid now signed long-term. 2016-17 sidekick Leon Draisaitl who finish eighth-best in scoring with 29 goals and 48 assists, and 27 power play points. Expect Islander import Ryan Strome…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: Calgary Flames Season Outlook

Calgary Flames 2017-18 Outlook Forwards Calgary’s promising young forwards, including leading scorers Johnny Gaudreau (61 points in 72 games) and Sean Monahan (a team-high 27 goals contributing to 58 points) hope to build on success next year. Matthew Tkachuk, vital…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: Arizona Coyotes Season Outlook

Arizona Coyotes 2017-18 Outlook Forwards   If it wasn’t obvious last year, Shane Doan’s departure officially signaled it’s time for the young players to step up. Arizona’s returning treasure trove of youth begins with forwards Christian Dvorak and Max Domi.…

Kevin Wickersham

Pacific Division: Anaheim Ducks Season Outlook

Anaheim Ducks 2017-18 Overview Defense While not quite the same as last year, the Ducks’ blue line is still deep even after losing Shea Theodore and Clayton Stoner to Vegas. The problem is, two of their mainstays Vatanen and Lindholm…

Kevin Wickersham

2018 Calder Trophy Sleeper Candidates

2018 Calder Trophy Sleepers In the second of a series briefly examining the upcoming season’s Calder Trophy candidates, we’ll take a look at a few sleepers. In our previous post, we detailed several favorites as training camps approach. Joshua Ho-Sang,…

Kevin Wickersham

Top Calder Trophy Favorites For The 2017-18 NHL Season

In the first of a series briefly examining this season’s top Calder Trophy candidates, we’ll take a look at some the favorites out of the blocks. In upcoming posts, we’ll also speculate about some less-publicized sleepers and viable long shots.…

Kevin Wickersham

NHL Draft: Top 2018 NHL Draft Prospects – Defensemen

With the World Junior Summer Showcase recently ended and the Ivan Hlinka Tournament in progress, NHL prospect talk has picked up. Now an apt time to examine some of the top candidates for early selection in the 2018 NHL Entry…

Kevin Wickersham

NHL Draft: Top 2018 NHL Draft Prospects – Forwards

The World Junior Summer Showcase recently concluded and with the Ivan Hlinka Tournament in progress, NHL prospect talk has picked up. It’s an apt time to examine some of the top candidates for early selection in the 2018 NHL Entry…

Kevin Wickersham

NHL Expansion Draft: Los Angeles Kings Primer

Forward Decisions The Kings are trying to work their way out of salary cap purgatory, largely due to pricey, lengthy contracts with two forwards that no longer produce much – Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, Vegas…

Kevin Wickersham