For too long now, Draft Day is the only day of the year when the Alberta teams are relevant. The day that they turn the National Hockey League standings on its head, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are suddenly front and centre.
But as the Vancouver Canucks join the rebuild train out west, and the Winnipeg Jets eternally hang around the playoff cut, the question arises: Are the four Western Canadian teams closing into a pack? And will any of that pack find its way into the Top 8 out west next year?
You couldn’t find four more distinct set of parameters, from the lengthy rebuild in Edmonton to what they hope will be a much quicker fix in Vancouver. From a Calgary team that dug this hole through years of neglecting its drafting and development, to a Jets club that does both of those things pretty well but can’t seem to pull the trigger on that crucial deal that could put them over the top.
Vancouver was by far the most active team in the NHL on Friday, with Jim Benning working on an overall culture change, which should surprise no one.
Think about it: Benning worked in Boston, which beat Vancouver in a Stanley Cup Final partially due to the Bruins’ advantage in size and physicality. Then he takes over the Canucks, and what does he see? A too-small, too-passive lineup filled with older cats who aren’t going to change their stripes.
I see the tear-down continuing in Vancouver, with Benning using the trade deadline to move another veteran or two with a no-trade clause. All of that will bring the Canucks right back to the Western Canadian pack, a group that can’t stay in the deep 20s forever, can they?
Benning grabbed big Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann in the first round Friday, after adding Derek Dorsett, Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa via trade earlier in the day. It was a pretty good first day’s work for Benning, but screamed to the hockey world that there will be plenty more moves before he has a roster in Van City that strikes his fancy.
The journey has barely begun in Calgary, but with Sean Monahan last year and Sam Bennett this, the Flames look to be set at that crucial centre-ice position for years to come.
I’ll predict they’ll get two more Top 5 draft picks before the Flames are ready to make a run at the playoffs, but new GM Brad Treliving is the perfect man for a job in Calgary that will hinge on how well the Flames draft and develop.
Edmonton? We’re sticking with our “Year 5 of the rebuild” theory on the Oilers, who hope to follow Pittsburgh, Chicago and Colorado — each of whom flirted with the basement in Year 4 of their rebuilds, then flourished in Year 5, where Edmonton will be in October.
The Avalanche in 2012-13 looked no less a disaster than Edmonton did last season, and suddenly the Avs were in the playoffs a year later. With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as a No. 1 centre, Leon Draisaitl filling the void (eventually) as that big horse right behind Ryan Nugnet-Hopkins, Taylor Hall the NHL’s most productive left winger over the past two seasons, six-foot-five Darnell Nurse on the way, Justin Schultz finding his game, Jordan Eberle, David Perron….
The Oilers can’t stay bad forever.
Winnipeg? The roster has size (Dustin Byfuglien, Blake Wheeler), leadership (Andrew Ladd), young skill (Jacob Trouba, Evander Kane, Mark Scheifele), and as of Friday, a highly skilled Dane named Nikolaj Ehlers.
There is more than enough in Winnipeg to suggest the Jets are the class of the West, but if that’s the case, how come they never seem to get anywhere? Is this the year that Winnipeg can be Western Canada’s Ottawa, the team from a less sexy city that shows the rest of them how it’s done, the way the Sens have in years past?
They can’t stay average forever, these Jets. For that matter, neither can this group of Western Canadian teams continue to disappoint in their own way.
Maybe the worm will turn, and the power base that lies today in California will one day reside out West in Canada. And maybe, just maybe, that transformation started on Friday.