Stevie Y & My Predictions for 14th

Steve Yzerman continues a busy first summer by resigning gritty winger Steve Downie to a two-year contract with a $1.85 million cap hit and signing defenseman Randy Jones for a year at one million (per capgeek.com). Downie became an important part of the Lightning last year (and is more or less the only true asset gained from trading Dan Boyle) scoring twenty-two goals, and his cap hit seems quite reasonable. Meanwhile, Randy Jones is a depth signing and he'll provide a veteran presence on the third pairing, and make the younger defensemen (Matt Smaby, Matt Lashoff, Mike Lundin, Ty Wishart) have to compete to earn a spot on the club. It's interesting to note that this always also seems to be the strategy of Ken Holland with the recent signing of Ruslan Salei being a prime example. Competition for spots in training camp is always a good thing.

As for the teams that I think will place 14th, I'll start out west.

Dallas Stars

While Edmonton is very obviously going through a rebuild, Dallas seems to be more subtly going through a rebuild. There is a definite changing of the guard seeing as how the likes of Mike Modano, Jere Lehtinen, and Marty Turco have departed this summer and staples such as Sergei Zubov departed in previous years. 

Brad Richards had a mega season last year, and he along with Loui Eriksson, Jamie Benn and James Neal (though Neal reamains unsigned) look to lead the Stars offense. And with veterans Brendan Morrow and Mike Ribeiro still in the fold, the Stars look like a team that should be able to score. 

However, the questions come on defense and at goaltending. On defense, Stephane Robidas has put together several impressive seasons, but so far he's proven to be the only legitimate top four defender on the team. Trevor Daley, Nicklas Grossman, and Matt Niskanen all need to get more consistent to be effect top pairing defenders while Skrastins, Fistric, and Lukowich all shouldn't be expected to play top-4 minutes. 

The questionable defensive corps won't make life easy for Kari Lehtonen, who hasn't played a full season in a couple of years. While Lehtonen is very talented, and still young, he needs to show that he can play through an entire season without getting injured while at this point Andrew Raycroft can't be expected to be anything more than a back-up goaltender. 

These kinds of question marks in the Western Conference make me finding it difficult to find a team besides Edmonton that the Stars will be better than, and thus I have them predicted at 14th. 

As for the Eastern Conference I've got the...

New York Islanders

The Islanders added a lot of defensive depth this summer by signing Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, and by trading for James Wisniewski. Still, the argument could be made that none of those players are bona-fide top-4 defensemen, which the Islanders are lacking. Still, the depth will be a good thing and will make youngsters like Bruno Gervais and Calvin De Haan work harder to try to earn a spot on the team. 

Yet, seeing as how the Islanders seem to be looking to try to get Rick DiPietro back to a point where can once again be the franchise netminder he was signed to be, it would have seemed as if a higher profile defenseman would have been a good fit for the team.

As for DiPietro, his health has to be a concern as he's missed most of the past two seasons due to knee injuries. Meanwhile, Dwayne Roloson had a good season last year, but at his age shouldn't be asked to start more than 40-50 games. 

The forwards for the Islanders are young, and relatively unproven. Last year's star rookie John Tavares will likely improve on a solid rookie campaign, and it seems like Kyle Okposo is due for a breakout year. However it has to be wondered whether Matt Moulson was a one-year wonder, and whether Josh Bailey, Rob Schremp, and Blake Comeau will be ready to consistently contribute on the score sheet. Just like Dallas, while the team has plenty of potential and exciting players, there are far too many questions to expect them to place higher than 14th this coming season. And for a young, rebuilding team that's not necessarily a bad thing.