The top 5 Stanley Cup Contenders heading into this season
Dallas Stars
These next two I think are probably a tier below Edmonton, New York and Florida but they're still very strong teams.
I haven't liked the Stars' moves this offseason however they still have their main core of players that got them to game six of the Western Conference final last year.
This offseason they lost Chris Tanev, Joe Pavelski, Ryan Suter, Radek Faska, Craig Smith, Ty Dellandrea and Scott Wedgewood.
The two biggest losses are Chris Tanev who was arguably the best deadline acquisition league-wide last season and Joe Pavelski. He retired after yet another solid season where he posted 27 goals and 40 assists for 67 points.
The Stars brought back Duchene on a good deal that is a year-long and worth three million dollars, Ilya Lyubushkin, Matt Dumba, Brendan Smith, Colin Blackwell and Casey DeSmith (All salary statistics from PuckPedia.com).
Lyubushkin and Dumba were two of my five worst signings of the offseason. Lyubushkin was locked up to a three-year deal with an average annual value of 3.25 million dollars. Dumba got a two-year deal with an AAV of 3.75 million. The money on both of the deals is way too expensive and the term doesn't make sense to me. I'm relieved Brad Treliving didn't make that Lyubushkin deal.
Even with those two bad deals, the Stars are still going to get another year of Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Miro Heiskanen, and a wildcard in Mavrik Bourque. Bourque is projected as the third-line centre on dailyfaceoff.com heading into his rookie year. They also have a strong veteran core with Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene.
Oettinger had a down year last regular season for his standards. He played 54 games posting a .905 save percentage, 0.49 goals saved above average and a goals saved above expected of 1.46. He had a great playoff, playing 19 games and posted a .915 save percentage, 3.77 goals saved above average and 4.93 goals saved above expected (All advanced statistics from EvolvingHockey.com).
This team has a lot of talent and I'm excited to watch another year of their young forwards. They're always solid and they'll be a top team in the West yet again.