NHL Playoffs: Two Western Conference Teams That Should Bounce Back

Todd Cordell

7 years ago

Two Western conference teams that could make it back to the NHL playoffs this year

Every season there is plenty of turnover in the playoff picture as, on average, a couple of teams per conference fail to make the playoffs the year after doing so.

This, of course, means the door opens for some non-playoff teams to make it back to the dance.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a couple of Western Conference teams who should bounce back and make the playoffs in 2017-18.

Dallas Stars

Many are bullish on the Stars this season, and it’s pretty easy to see why.

Led by Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Jason Spezza, they already had one of the better forward cores in the league. That didn’t stop GM Jim Nill from going on a spending spree this summer signing dynamic winger Alexander Radulov and two-way center Martin Hanzal in free agency.

Factor in the return of Mattias Janmark, who missed the entire 2016-17 season due to injury, and the continued development of Radek Faksa, Brett Ritchie, and Devin Shore, and it’s not hard to imagine the Stars finishing near the top of the league in goals next season.

They should be much better in terms of keeping the puck out, too.

Ken Hitchcock will no doubt be tightening the screws defensively. It’s reasonable to expect more from youngsters like Esa Lindell and Julius Honka moving forward. The addition of Marc Methot should also help stabilize the back end — although not to the extent many seem to expect.

The biggest area of improvement could come between the pipes.

The Stars replaced Antti Niemi, who was an absolute disaster last season, with Ben Bishop. Regardless of how you view Bishop — some see him as a high-end starter while others believe he’s average — I think we can all agree that’s a big step in the right direction.

With Bishop and Kari Lehtonen, who quietly had a strong season at 5v5, the Stars goaltending should at least be adequate. That’s all they’ll need given the firepower they have.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets were one of my sleeper teams last season, and they fell on their face, but I’m going right back to the well this year.

Up front, they are absolutely loaded. Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine and Nik Ehlers make for a dynamic top-4 and underrated forwards Bryan Little, and Mathieu Perreault nicely round out the top-6.

The bottom-6 looks promising, too. The Jets finally moved on from anchor Chris Thorburn, and Brandon Tanev, who put up just four points in 51 games, figures to have his role decreased moving forward.

Shawn Mathias, Adam Lowry, and Joel Armia are solid bottom-6 pieces, and the Jets have the luxury of surrounding them with quality skill guys (like Kyle Connor, Nic Petan, and Marko Dano) if they wish to do so.

On defense, the Jets should be better than they’ve been in a long time. Jacob Trouba is a legitimate top-pairing guy. Dustin Byfuglien brings an unmatched mix of skill and power. Josh Morrissey is developing into a fine player. Tobias Enstrom is still a very good defender, and a healthy Tyler Myers should help as well. I’m not in love with Dmitry Kulikov, but he’s probably better than he showed in Buffalo last season — it’s hard not to be — and you can do worse with depth spots.

The Jets should also be much better between the pipes. The Ondrej Pavelec experiment finally reached its end (better late than never, right?) when they signed Steve Mason in free agency.

Mason doesn’t have the best reputation, but he was quietly very good during his tenure in Philadelphia.

Mason posted a .931 save percentage at 5v5 over the last four seasons, which was good for 4th in the NHL. The only goaltenders who out-performed him in that game state were Carey Price, Braden Holtby, and the underrated Scott Darling, who did so over a much smaller sample size.

If Mason can provide the Jets with goaltending remotely close to that caliber they should win their fair share of games. I’m betting he can.