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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Habs fans want Patrick Roy to be Montreal's next coach or GM, but his connection to Quebec City, where he's the owner/bench boss of the junior Remparts, makes his return unlikely. (Leon T. Switzer/ Icon SMI)

For a few years now, every time NHL executives have been questioned about the possibility of the league returning a team to Quebec City, they’ve responded the same way: There are no teams available right now, and even if there were, the absence of a suitable arena makes it unlikely. But all that changed on Sunday when the city’s mayor and a corporate executive signed a long-anticipated deal on a new building. Ground is scheduled to be broken this fall and the arena will be ready in the fall of 2015.

That’s not an insignificant date. It coincides with the expiration of the lease that keeps the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum. Of course, it’s also possible that the team now known as the Phoenix Coyotes will be ready at that time to move into the new Quebecor Colisee. The new Nordiques (or whatever they will be called) will have played the intervening three years in the old Pepsi Colisee, which is scheduled to get $7 million in emergency improvements starting this spring.

Of course,  the Coyotes could move elsewhere, or maybe not move at all. And it’s possible that Quebec City’s new arena will not have an NHL tenant when it opens. But considering the delirious return of the NHL to Winnipeg last year, not too many people believe the league will forego a chance to create more delirium as soon as it can.

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Not many deadline deals work out as well as the Islanders' acquisition of forward Butch Goring in 1980. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

It wasn’t always this way, this craziness around the NHL trade deadline, when all the talk turns to who might be headed where and the actual games — yes, the regular season is still going on — seem to take a back seat to all manner of rumors and speculation. Once upon a time, the trade deadline came and went with little fanfare. All that changed on March 13, 1980, thanks to Islanders GM Bill Torrey when he acquired Butch Goring, the final piece in what became a great dynasty.

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The Coyotes likely will go, but where is the question, as the most frequently-cited cites have drawbacks, such as a noticeable lack of fan interest, an arena that isn't big enough, and even a toxic waste problem. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The first U.S.-based hockey team to win the Stanley Cup was the Seattle Metropolitans in 1917, but there has been no big league hockey in that town since 1924. Lately, there’s been some real buzz that the NHL could be headed back there.

Sunday’s story in The Seattle Times, that a 44-year-old San Francisco hedge fund manager with roots in Seattle wants to build a new arena in his old hometown, has helped put that city front and center in the discussion — especially after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned Seattle earlier this month at the All-Star Game. Based on that story, and the attention it received in the hockey blogosphere  (here , for example), the possibility of Seattle becoming an NHL city turned into a Monday wire service story, which in turn morphed into stories and radio programs about how the Coyotes could be destined to move there along with the NBA’s original gypsy franchise, the Sacramento Kings (née, the Kansas City Kings, Cincinnati Royals and Rochester Royals).

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Nassau Coliseum is decrepit, but Isles fans may not be keen about going to Brooklyn to see their team. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

So here we go again. Islanders owner Charles Wang, still unable to get any movement in Nassau County on a new arena, has decided to have his team host a preseason game in a large arena elsewhere, one that does not already house an NHL club. The obvious implication is that if he can’t get a deal to his liking on Long Island, he’s got options. Look out Long Island — Charles Wang is moving his team.

Well, he’s done this before with Kansas City. This time he’s doing it with Brooklyn. But, like the Kansas City ploy — where the game drew only 9,792 people, thus cooling any ardor Wang may have had for relocating there — this Brooklyn gambit is likely more of a charade than a bona fide threat.

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Philosophical differences between coach Brent Sutter and captain Jarome Iginla do not bode well for the Flames. (Colleen De Neve/ZUMAPRESS.com)

Coaches are hired to be fired, as the saying goes. But what happens in between cements the perception we have of the guys who stand behind the bench in the NHL, the ones who prepare their teams in long hours of meetings and video study. It’s a hard job, especially when fans, the media and even the players believe they know better than the coach what a team should be doing.

That seems to be the situation in which Flames coach Brent Sutter finds himself vis a vis his captain Jarome Iginla. Sutter believes his team won’t be the consistent force it can be unless everyone buys into his scheme, and that Calgary will continue to play as a bunch of individuals and not realize the potential of its collective talents. Specifically, he wants Iginla — the 15-year NHL veteran who has topped the 1,000 point plateau and is only 11 goals away from 500 — to concentrate on his defensive game.

Right now, the 34-year-old Iginla is minus-12, with only five goals and four assists — not vintage Iggy.

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Rookie goalie Anders Nilsson was thrown to the marauding Penguins in the latest sorry display by the perpetually rebuilding Islanders, who are again sinking out of sight. (Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE)

Sidney Crosby’s magnificent return on Monday night overshadowed — well, more like dwarfed — the sorry performance of the team he singlehandedly dismantled: the New York Islanders. Heap as many accolades you want on Crosby, they are all deserved as he commanded his superior skills to produce a magical night for the NHL and the world of sports.

But let’s also look at the team he sliced and diced, one that is on the verge of kissing yet another season goodbye after having not even completed one quarter of the schedule. That team is, once again, a mess.
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Some day, some way, the Islanders will get a new arena near the crumbling building they play in now. (Anthony Gruppuso/US PRESSWIRE)

On Monday night, I just caught the tail end of the Winnipeg Jets’ game against the visiting Rangers, which, by all accounts, New York was lucky to win, 2-1. In many NHL arenas, frustrated fans would have booed the home team, but in what will almost certainly be a year-long love-in at the little arena on the prairie, Winnipeggers applauded their club for its effort.

Everyone, it seems, loves the Jets. I’ve been giving my Minnesota North Stars hat a rest and wearing my Jets chapeau lately (the old logo, thank you) and getting compliments from hockey friends about my good taste. I can’t recall where I heard this, perhaps it was the CBC’s Elliotte Friedman on a radio interview, but it seems that our neighbors up north, apart from those in Winnipeg, have made the Jets Canada’s second favorite team. Fans in the rest of the country cheer for their team and then for the Jets, the refugee franchise whose transfer north is celebrated as a symbolic “Screw you!” to the NHL’s Sunbelt strategy.

The embrace of the Jets, not just on the ice but also at the cash register, has some people wondering: Can the nouvelle Nordiques be far behind?

Well, no one is reserving moving vans so quickly. We know that won’t happen until Quebec City gets an arena, which is not looming. It has just formed an engineering/architecture group for the $400 million proposed project that was first announced two years ago. No rush, especially because any new building with that price tag is going to draw some fire for being one of the league’s most expensive arenas in what would be the NHL’s second smallest market after Winnipeg and, inevitably, a drain on taxpayers. In fact, the legal wrangling on the new building is just beginning.

And we know that new arena won’t happen until — and unless — there’s a team that is out of options and has no choice but to relocate to Quebec. There are no expansion plans, at least none that are publicly known. Is an NHL team destined abandon its current market and wear a redesigned Nordiques sweater?

Gary Bettman apparently doesn’t see the Islanders as being the team to wear that uniform.
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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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Lost in the chaos of Feb. 11 was Michael Grabner becoming one of three Islanders to hit the 20-goal mark that night and the team scoring nine goals for the first time since 2003. (Mark Lenihan/AP Photos)

In a sign that intelligent life exists on Earth, the Islanders have changed their plan to rebroadcast their infamous brawl-filled Feb. 11 game against the Penguins at a fan viewing party scheduled for this Friday.

SI.com has learned that the party will go on, but the Islanders and MSG Network have agreed to switch the game to a victory over the Sabres in which Michael Grabner’s hat trick goal was the winner.

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