In the 4th installment of my series of analysis on the make up of the 2011 NHL playoff teams, I examine the bottom four teams in the Western Conference, and find some striking similarities in how they were constructed. As a reminder, I group the players into four categories based on how they were acquired. First round draft picks, later round draft picks, trades and free agency / waivers. I then assign a percentage to each category to measure the impact the category has had on the team’s makeup.
The Nashville Predators
Player Development – 46%
Never before has a team done so much with so little. Everyone is always surprised when Nashville is in the playoffs once again, but when you look at who has come up through their system you begin to understand why. Names like Weber, Erat, Franson, Hornqvist, Rinne, O’Reilly, Klein and Tootoo have all come courtesy of later round picks, a testament to the player development going on in Nashville.
Trades – 22%
The Predators have brought in some key talent through trades, including top scorer Sergei Kostitsyn, Steve Sullivan, Shane O’Brien, and most recently, Mike Fisher. They don’t deal that often, but they seem to be able to plug holes and get the most out of players other teams have struggled with.
Top Prospects – 22%
The contributions of the four players brought in through trade fairly evenly match the top prospects in the organization, made up of Ryan Suter, David Legwand, Colin Wilson and Jonathon Blum. While they’re certain to have more top prospects join them in the future, for now their contributions have been fairly limited.
Free Agents – 10%
JP Dumont and Marcel Goc have contributed, but the only other free agent signings to help the Predators are role players like Joel Ward and Francis Boullion.
Nashville is very well coached and that is evident in their player development. Both Pekka Rinne and now Anders Lindback have come up through the system, and picks like Weber and Suter solidify the back end. While they are short on offensive talent, they work as a team and grind out goals.
The Los Angeles Kings
Top Prospects – 35%
While the Kings are supposed to be the Western counterpart to the Penguins / Capitals prospect laden teams, the reality is that they can only boast five top prospects, including Doughty, Kopitar, Brown, Bernier and recent call up Trevor Lewis. While Doughty, Kopitar and Brown are major contributors, they pale in comparison to Washington’s cadre of prospects.
Trades – 30%
Almost as important as the draft, GM Dean Lombardi has made some solid moves to acquire big players like Jack Johnson, Ryan Smyth, Dustin Penner, Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene and Justin Williams. This provides LA with most of their depth.
Player Development – 20%
Jonathan Quick, a former later round pick, has taken over in goal for them, while Wayne Simmonds, Kyle Clifford and newcomers Alec Martinez and Andrei Loktionov give the Kings some options and payoff for picks made in the later rounds.
Free Agents – 15%
The Kings bolstered their young defense core with some free agent signings like Rob Scuderi and Willie Mitchell, while Ponikarovsky and Handzus add depth to their forward group.
LA has tried many times to land the big free agent fish, but it hasn’t worked out. They’ve managed to climb back into playoff contention on the backs of their draft picks, while dealing for pieces they need.
The Phoenix Coyotes
Free Agents – 34%
The former Winnipeg Jets have lived and died based on the signing of free agents. Jovanovski, Bryzgalov, Whitney, Aucoin, Pyatt, Fiddler, Schlemko, Belanger and others have signed on the dotted line to come to Phoenix.
Top Prospects – 28%
Another team thought to have a wealth of prospect talent hasn’t really shown it yet, as Shane Doan was their 1st round pick in 1995 with Winnipeg and he bolsters the strength of this category. Other notables are Martin Hanzal, Kyle Turris, Mikkel Boedker and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Trades – 28%
Derek Morris, Sami Lepisto, Lee Stempniak, Lauri Korpikoski, Radim Vrbata, Scottie Upshall and more recently Michal Roszival were all traded for, providing the Coyotes solid scoring options while rounding out their defense.
Player Development – 10%
It’s hard to rank a category with a single player in it as contributing 10 percent of the club’s success, but when that player is Keith Yandle, second in scoring and a Norris trophy candidate, that makes it a little easier to understand.
Phoenix has been in trouble for a few years now off the ice, and the team on the ice has suffered as a result. Many of their prospects were supposed to have made a bigger impact by now, but they still manage to sneak into the playoffs with solid signings and trades while waiting for their prospects to develop.
The Chicago Blackhawks
Player Development – 30%
These rankings would have been quite different using last year’s cup championship team, but the team that snuck into the 8th spot in the West owes a lot of it’s success to later round picks like Crawford, Keith, Hjalmarsson, Bolland, Bickell, Brouwer and Dowell.
Top Prospects – 28%
It’s hard to measure the impact here as this category has dwindled somewhat, but they still retain their core of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook as top prospects. All three are major contributors to the club with Toews and Kane leading the offense.
Free Agents – 24%
With Marian Hossa and Brian Campbell signed to big time contracts it’s easy to forget the team signed Scott, Pisani, Hendry, Kopecky and Turco as well. They have added the players to put them over the top through big signings.
Trades – 18%
Patrick Sharp was the big name to come via trade, though support players like Stalberg, Frolik, Leddy and Campoli were all traded for as well. Decent players that should still be with the Blackhawks for a long time.
The Blackhawks had to sell off somewhat this off-season, dumping home-grown players like Byfuglien and Burish, but overall Chicago’s resurgence has come from the draft floor.
All four of these teams save maybe the Blackhawks have managed to find the right combination through trading and drafting. The Hawks were able to pull out the ultimate victory last year but some bad contracts saw the team move a lot of players while hanging onto their drafted core. Overall, the Western conference shows a lot of variety in team building in their top 8.
In the final installment of this series of columns I am going to provide some aggregate data and analysis, while relating that data to the current state of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Stay tuned.
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Born and raised in Northern Ontario but currently living in Toronto, Tyler wouldn't have it any other way. Home to his two favourite sports teams, Tyler revels in the day to day sports experience that is Toronto. 