30 Teams/30 Days: Minnesota Wild

Outlook:

The Marian Gaborik era in Minnesota is over and now the Wild will move on. Okay injury history aside, it might have been risky to sign him, but he’ll still be a big loss nonetheless.

With Gaborik off to Broadway and playing for the New York Rangers, the Wild went out and signed Martin Havlat, who was last seen with the Chicago Blackhawks. Havlat, who was instrumental to the Hawks playoff run last year, comes to a team that had Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette and Owen Nolan as their only 20-plus goal scorers. The addition of Havlat should help the goal-scoring department, but other players have to step up.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard has stepped up in the offensive department for the past few years, and has posted one 20-goal season in his career. If the native of Sherbrooke, Quebec can post anywhere between 20 and 30 goals this year, then the Wild could make some noise, with that extra goal scorer. Antti Miettinen could be on the verge for a career year, while Eric Belanger should also chip in on offense.

While the offense still has question marks in Minnesota, the Wild’s defense is still very strong.

In his first season in Minnesota, Marek Zidlicki showed that he’s still a threat on the power play as he tied his career high in power play goals with 10. The former Nashville Predator had 12 goals last year for the Wild.

Brent Burns returns to the Wild blueline along with Kim Johnsson and Nick Schultz. Two notable additions during the offseason were Greg Zanon from Nashville and Shane Hnidy from the Boston Bruins.

Elite goaltender and Niklas Backstrom is back for 2009-10, while Josh Harding, should get some time in as the No. 2 goaltender.

This year will be a season of change for the Wild. Gaborik is gone and so is General Manager Doug Risebrough, who was the first GM in Wild history, and head coach Jacques Lemaire.

With new GM Chuck Fletcher and new head coach Chuck Fletcher with the team, this year will be a work in progress. But with that said, they are still one of many playoff contenders in the Western Conference.

Prediction: Fourth in Northwest, 13th in West

Projected Lines:

Andrew Brunette – Mikko Koivu – Martin Havlat
Owen Nolan – Pierre-Marc Bouchard – Antti Miettinen
Benoit Poullot – James Sheppard – Eric Belanger
Robbie Earl – Colton Gillies – Kyle Brodziak

Kim Johnsson – Brent Burns
Marek Zidlicky – Nick Schultz
Shane Hnidy – Greg Zanon

Niklas Backstrom
Josh Harding

30 Teams/30 Days Los Angeles Kings

Apologies for the late posts for 30-in-30. I have been under the weather the past couple days. Today I’ll get you updated with the L.A. Kings and Minnesota Wild

Outlook:

While the Los Angeles Kings made some improvements during the offseason, they are still not quite there in terms of being a playoff team, but they aren’t too far away either.

During the summer the Kings improved their defense by signing free agent and former Pittsburgh Penguin Rob Scuderi while acquiring forward Ryan Smyth from the Colorado Avalanche. With the additions of those veterans, the Kings did lose some key players.

While the Kings acquired Smyth from the Avs, they also sent defensemen Kyle Quincey and Tom Preissing to Colorado in return. However, with the addition of Scuderi and youngsters Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson on the rise, the Kings blueline is looking very solid. Matt Greene, Peter Harrold and Sean O’Donnell round up the top six.

The top six defensemen will be vitally important this year, especially with some inexperience in goal. However, Jonathan Quick showed signs of brilliance last year as he had four shutouts and was 21-18-2 in 44 games played last season. The former UMass-Amherst netminder is the favorite to get the nod as starter. Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Bernier could also get some time in net this year.

Last season, the Kings leading scorer was Anze Kopitar who registered 66 points. The addition of Smyth should help Kopitar, who again is a youngster on the rise. With 32 goals last year, Alexander Frolov will continue to show consistency in the goal-scoring department.

Kings captain Dustin Brown returns while Jarett Stoll—who is questionable for the start of the year—and Michal Handzus, who along with Smyth, Kopitar and Frolov, will be the top six forwards in L.A.

Looking at the rest of the roster, both Teddy Purcell and Oscar Moller should see more ice time while gritty forward Wayne Simonds and tough guy Raitis Ivanans (try saying that three times fast) help stabilize the checking line.

So what is in store for second year head coach Terry Murray and company this year. They’ve made improvements, but again they still are not quite ready to make the playoffs. With that being said, things could still get interesting at the Staples Center this year.

San Jose is the elite team in the Pacific Division now that Heatley is there, with Anaheim in second. The race for that third spot in the division could be important and that will be between the Dallas Stars and the Kings. Dallas has the edge based on experience, and therefore will edge L.A.

As I said before, the spot for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West could go down to the last week and even the last day of the year. Dallas has the edge now for that spot, while Columbus, Nashville, Minnesota, Edmonton and Los Angeles could all hang around during the last few days of the 2009-10 season. For now, the Kings are on the outside looking in.

Prediction: Fourth in Pacific, 12th in West

Projected Lines:

Alexander Frolov – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Ryan Smyth – Jarrett Stoll – Michael Handzus
Teddy Purcell – Oscar Moeller – Wayne Simonds
Raitis Ivanis – Trevor Lewis – Justin Azevedo

Jack Johnson – Drew Doughty
Matt Greene – Rob Scuderi
Sean O’Donnell – Peter Harrold

Jonathan Quick
Erik Ersberg