Both the Stars and Flames are in for some serious evaluation -- in Dallas, it starts in the front office; in Calgary with a veteran roster that may require turning iconic captain Jarome Iginla into trade bait. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

While everyone is talking playoff matchups and predicting the number of stitches that doctors will need to close the combined wounds of the Penguins and Flyers, there are 14 other clubs who are packing up for the summer and planning for next season. Here’s a roundup of the NHL’s also-rans and what might be in store for them during the offseason. We’ll start at the bottom of the league and work our way up.

Columbus – Yes, the Blue Jackets won seven of their last 11 games and ownership continues to back the hockey department, but the team’s dreadful start when so much was expected, its last place finish, the coaching change, the fan protest, and the Rick Nash mess all made for a dreadful season. The future of interim coach Todd Richards is uncertain, but the huge question mark is Nash’s fate. If he is traded — which is widely expected — what will embattled GM Scott Howson get in return? Will it be enough to reverse this club’s direction and win back the many discontented fans? Michael Arace of The Columbus Dispatch summed it all up over the weekend.

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The Sharks-Kings season-ending home-and-home could have a big impact on the West's playoff field. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at how the Eastern and Western Conference playoff races were shaping up for the top and bottom qualifiers. Not surprisingly, the races for postseason positioning appear as though they may not be settled until Saturday, the final day of the regular schedule, setting up the possibility of some real drama before the even bigger drama of the postseason gets underway next Wednesday.

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It's possible that the Predators' impeccable Pekka Rinne may be wearing down from his heavy workload. (Scott Kane/Icon SMI)

It’s the oldest adage in the game: You win in the playoffs with great goaltending. But sometimes you win with only good or just average goaltending (as we pointed out a year ago when we looked at how the postseason clubs were fixed at the position on the eve of the annual tournament), but no one can deny how much Tim Thomas meant to the Bruins in their march to the Stanley Cup last season. His winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP marked the 15th time that a goalie has been so honored since the trophy was first presented in 1965.

Suffice to say, it’s hard to go anywhere in the spring if you have a leaky guy standing — or falling — in the crease, so with the playoffs only nine days away, here’s how the each Western Conference clubs goaltending shapes up. Click here for our Eastern breakdown.

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Chasing the Stars in the Pacific Division, Joe Pavelski and the enigmatic Sharks control their own destiny. (Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)

As the days of the regular season dwindle down to a precious few, the playoff picture has begun to get clearer, but only somewhat. Much remains undecided, including the bottom qualifiers in each conference and the first round seedings.

From a strictly mathematical perspective, only the Blues and Rangers have clinched playoff spots and only the Blue Jackets have been eliminated.

Yesterday, we looked at the East and today, let’s take stock of  the Western Conference where, realistically, it appears that the Oilers, Wild and Ducks are close to joining the Blue Jackets in the Also-Ran department, too far out of contention with too few games left for us to believe they can make a serious charge to eighth place.

Beyond that, not much is certain.

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Winger David Jones (four goals in six games) has been a key to the Avalanche's roaring start this season. (Gary Angus/ZUMAPRESS.com)

We’re a dozen days into the season, a bit too early for any big pronouncements, but not  for some observations. And how can you not observe that the Colorado Avalanche  — who finished 29th in the league last season — are now first overall in the NHL?

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Hoping for an offensive boost, the Wild are hoping that Dany Heatley's 26 goals and apparent lack of speed last season were a mere blip in his otherwise productive career. (Jason O. Watson/US PRESSWIRE)

The moves – and non-moves – that NHL teams have made for the upcoming season can leave one either jubilant or very puzzled. We looked at a few that we called “science experiments” in early July and it has indeed been a wild summer of roster movement. There are few sure things in the world (hey, if you want a guarantee, buy a washing machine) and here are nine situations that might be considered some of the biggest gambles in the league. As with our looks at rookies last week (here and here), these are not in any particular order and not intended to be a definitive list. Just some thoughts as we head toward training camp.

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Center Cody Hodgson got valuable experience in the 2011 playoffs. (Anne-Marie Sorvin/US PRESSWIRE)

Training camp is a time for new faces and few things excite fans more than their NHL team introducing a rookie into its lineup.

Long gone are the days when rookies were almost always eased in, forced to learn from a seat on the bench the rigorous man’s game that was hockey at its highest level and only seeing sporadic action. The NHL is now more of a younger man’s game, especially since post-lockout rules have put a premium on speed. Rookies more often earn important spots and are more easily integrated into the lineup.

Rookie camps and preseason rookie/prospect tournaments are fast approaching. The big one in Traverse City, MI, will include young hopefuls from eight NHL teams. A five-team tourney will be held in Penticton, BC. There’s also a four-team tourney in Oshawa, ON. So it’s a good time to focus on some of the potential first-year players whose names you may be hearing more frequently after the puck drops in earnest on Oct. 6.

This list is by no means comprehensive and the players are listed in no particular order. They aren’t necessarily favorites to win the Calder Trophy, although some will likely be in the discussion. It’s just a random compilation of names that we’ve been thinking about, players who we figure have a decent-to-excellent chance of making their teams coming out of camp. Some have already gotten lots of publicity, some aren’t well-known. Some played a bit last season, but still qualify as rookies (as Logan Couture and P.K. Subban did in 2010-11). Some  haven’t been in the NHL yet, but hope to break in this season. Some may not make it. Some who are not discussed here will. But they’re all trying to win a job for 2011-12.

Here goes:

Brayden Schenn, Flyers – Penciled in as the Flyers’ third line center, no rookie may be under more scrutiny than the 6-foot-1, 195-pound brother of Luke who came over from the Kings with Wayne Simmonds and a draft pick in the Mike Richards deal. Schenn won’t be asked to take on Richards’ minutes or role as a leader just yet, but GM Paul Holmgren anointed him as something of a poster boy for the new-look Flyers while justifying the deal. Schenn has Richards’ competitiveness, but may not have his scoring touch. Still, he’s good with the puck and plays in all zones. He played eight games for the Kings last fall before bouncing between the AHL and junior hockey and dealing with a shoulder injury. He starred in the World Junior Tournament, where he was the top scorer and named MVP as well as Best Forward. More: James Mirtle of The Globe and Mail did a Q & A with Schenn earlier this month.

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As a key member of Detroit's Grind Line, Kris Draper was at the center of the Red Wings' bitter rivalry with the Avalanche in the late 1990s as well as the team that broke the franchise's long Stanley Cup drought. (Tom Pidgeon/AP Photos)

Perhaps the best dollar an NHL team ever spent was the one the Red Wings paid the Winnipeg Jets in 1993 for minor leaguer Kris Draper. He had played only a handful of games for the Jets in three seasons and didn’t figure in their plans. They just wanted to unload his contract and the Wings figured at worst they’d be getting a speedy young forward for their Adirondack AHL farm club. By January 1994, Draper was in the NHL to stay.

After 17 full NHL seasons with the Wings, Draper retired Tuesday, having been a key member of four Stanley Cup teams, the winner of the 2004 Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward, an alternate captain, a player for Team Canada at the ’04 World Cup and ’06 Olympics, and one of only five players in Wings history to play over 1,000 games for the club.

It’s an impressive resume for a guy who was never a scoring star, but specialized in stopping stars from scoring. And with his big smile, good-guy persona and occasional Chuck Norris beard, Draper was among the most popular Detroit athletes of the last few decades.
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When the NHL resumes its deliberations on what will constitute an illegal hit to the head next season, the one above by Toronto’s 6-foot-4, 243-pound defenseman Mike Komisarek on Colorado’s 5-foot-10, 170-pound rookie Mark Olver will be among the most contentious types of blows. It left Olver trying to crawl off the ice, weakened and apparently dazed, unable to make it back to the bench. He left the game and did not return.

This was not an illegal check under the current rules. But it is a perfect example of the challenges the NHL faces as it mulls the changes it needs to reduce concussions.
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Among the most notable trades so far, Chris Stewart was surprised to end up in St. Louis after believing that he would be part of Colorado's future. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Last Friday, 11 days before the NHL trade deadline, when GMs seemed to be suddenly swapping players like kids trading hockey cards, TSN’s James Duthie, who hosts the annually excellent trade deadline show on that network tweeted, “Wow, quite a day. Well, thanks for watching Tradecentre 2011. We’ll see you nex…wait…what? Oh. Right. Crap.”

Earlier, Duthie had tweeted, “TSN commentators secretly rehearsing dance numbers so that if no trades are left, Tradecentre will become most disturbing Glee episode ever.”

For years, teams waited until the last moment and the countdown was suspense-filled. This year, instead of a one- or two-day drama leading up to the Feb. 28 deadline, we’ve gotten a trading season that started just after the All-Star break. Since Feb. 9 (as the SI.com NHL Trade Tracker reveals), there have been 18 deals involving 36 players and 14 draft choices. On Friday (and early Saturday morning) alone, there were seven deals involving 16 players and six picks. No wonder Duthie was muttering. Monday might prove  to be anticlimactic.
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