NHL team projections for 2013

[DJBuckeyes]

Here's a look at top contenders, bubble teams and cellar-dwellers for the 2013 NHL season.

Top contenders
Pittsburgh Penguins -- Heading into the 2012 postseason, the Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin-led Penguins were installed as Cup favorites by Vegas after averaging a torrid 4.5 goals per game over the final month of the season. It didn't work out so well; Pittsburgh suffered a first-round ouster to rival Philadelphia as Marc-Andre Fleury was outplayed by Ilya Bryzgalov in an unexpected goal-fest. But with the under-the-radar summer acquisition of unappreciated goalie Tomas Vokoun, the Penguins may have fixed their only significant weakness.

Boston Bruins -- For the first time in the past few seasons, the Bruins' biggest question mark is in net, with Conn Smythe and two-time Vezina Award winner Tim Thomas stepping away from hockey, at least for the time being. The 25-year-old Tuukka Rask put up a near-Vezina season in 45 games as a younger man in 2009-10, but no one knows if he can carry the load over a full -- albeit 48-game -- season. Plus, the Bruins don't have a veteran backup as a safety net.

Vancouver Canucks -- The Canucks had the misfortune of facing a red-hot Kings team that was much better than their No. 8 seed indicated. By the time top forward Daniel Sedin returned to the lineup and they had settled on Cory Schneider in net, it was too late to recover. It's easy to forget the Canucks were back-to-back President's Trophy winners.

Chicago Blackhawks -- The Blackhawks remain a top contender, masked by some recent playoff misfortune. Losing to a dominant Canucks squad in overtime of Game 7 in 2011 and getting stonewalled by Mike Smith despite outplaying the Coyotes in 2012 are excusable series losses. Chicago's biggest unknown is the quality of the next wave of youngsters coming up to reload the squad with more talent; depending on how they fare, the Blackhawks could remain solid or vault back up to a top contender for the next few seasons.

Los Angeles Kings -- As dominant as the Kings were in the playoffs (16-4), you might question why we don't have them installed as favorites. Aside from wondering whether they can keep up the motivation throughout another regular season (just ask the 2011-12 Bruins, who faded in the second half), the Kings' biggest question is between the pipes. As fantastic as Jonathan Quick was in 2011-12, goaltending performances are notoriously fleeting. Before last season, the soon-to-be 27-year-old hadn't proved to be anything more than a slightly above-average netminder -- and now he's coming off of back surgery. Conversely, though, one of the reasons L.A. was better than perceived going into the 2012 playoffs was its awful puck luck throughout most of the campaign, which turned around after the coaching change to Darryl Sutter, the acquisition of Jeff Carter and simply better fortune on its unsustainably poor shooting percentages.

Bubble teams
Minnesota Wild -- Even with the big free-agent additions of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, Minnesota has only risen from our 30th-ranked team from last preseason (and it played like it for the second half of 2011-12) to a fringe playoff contender this campaign. The Wild have talent coming through the pipeline, but it's likely a season or two early for Minnesota.

Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs -- Other teams that may have improved enough to plan for additional dates in May include the Hurricanes -- bolstered by "possession monster" Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin -- and the Maple Leafs. If you think back to last season, Toronto was right in the thick of the hunt at 48 games before its late-season collapse sent it to the draft lottery.

Cellar-dwellers
Columbus Blue Jackets -- At the other end of the spectrum, it's no shock that we foresee the Blue Jackets as most likely to finish last. Though they have picked up some building blocks for the future, the departure of Rick Nash won't help their short-term prospects.

Florida Panthers -- How about projecting last season's third-seeded Panthers as 29th in the league? Though Florida arguably has the league's most talented farm system, VUKOTA is bearish on the Panthers' prospects in the short term. A fortunate 18-7 record in overtime and the shootout helped them overcome a negative goal differential (minus-24). Florida's luck with "loser points" was similar to that of Anaheim in 2010-11, and we saw how that worked out for the Ducks in 2011-12.

Phoenix Coyotes and New Jersey Devils -- We also peg Western Conference finalist Phoenix and Cup finalist New Jersey as likely to fall from the postseason ranks. Expected regression by last season's top goaltender by GVT, Mike Smith, explains the Coyotes' fall, while the Devils have to deal with the departure of captain and top two-way forward Parise. That said, coaches Dave Tippett and Peter DeBoer have shown their ability to lift squads of mediocre talent, so it's possible that one or both of these teams will confound VUKOTA.

Final note
In terms of the projections, clearly some teams will do better than 61 points (prorated from 104 over 82 games) and worse than 47 points (prorated from 81). Likewise, chances are also good that the best and worst teams won't be the Penguins and Jackets. Why? Because some teams will have an unfair share of good and bad fortune in terms of both injuries and action on the ice.

What you see in our above projections are the most likely outcomes for each team, which end up more bunched up than they will be in reality. But there's no telling which teams will be the recipients of what kind of fortune. That's why they play the games.

Source: ESPN

[pooh555]

The X-Factor for the Canucks this season is going to be Corey Schneider, he cannot afford to slump, this will be his first year as a full-time starter(or that's what I'm assuming they will do), and he can't pull a Steve Mason on them.

[Reveryroadie]

Rangers are going to be good this year with the addition of Rick Nash, and the return of a healthy Marian Gaborik

[DBTS]

Originally Posted by Matt In A Hat

The X-Factor for the Canucks this season is going to be Corey Schneider, he cannot afford to slump, this will be his first year as a full-time starter(or that's what I'm assuming they will do), and he can't pull a Steve Mason on them.

Kind of the same issue for the Bruins with Rask.

[Shiphockey7]

Pens - if they make a splash at the trade deadline (for an Iginla??) to get a winger for Crosby, then look out.

Bruins - all on Rask

Rangers - Gaborik isn't healthy but with Nash, I think they're the team to beat in the East

Blackhawks - still have goaltending questions, not sold on Crawford

Kings - Kopitar out to start the year, but most of the team is unchanged, obviously can get hot and win a bunch of games (and the Stanley Cup) but they were a 7 seed last year for a reason.

Canucks - can Schneider keep it up, what are they going to get back for Luongo?

Look out for the Hurricanes, with Jordan Staal now, they have two solid top two lines and that just may be enough to give Cam Ward some more help and carry them along.

[DupuisLesRapide]

Losing Jordan Staal is far more significant than signing a back-up goalie, even if they got Brandon Sutter in exchange. Jordan is one of the best defensive Cs in the league and can turn on the offense when asked/needed. He's been in the league 6 years but he's still only 24. Was disappointed when they traded him, but I understand him not wanting to be a 3rd liner anymore behind Sid and Geno.

[Shiphockey7]

Sutter wasnt brought in to score goals, he is there to prevent them

[DupuisLesRapide]

He'll be taking Staal's role as the 3rd line C.