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A Look At The Central
by Paul on 07/30/09 at 05:48 PM ET
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from Wes Goldstein of CBS Sportsline,
Detroit is starting to feel some heat in its own backyard though, with three other young and improving Central teams making the playoffs last season. The Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues entered the postseason for the first time since the lockout and the Columbus Blue Jackets for the first-ever time. And lurking not far behind it are the Nashville Predators, who had to deal with several key injuries yet still narrowly missed the postseason cutoff line.
Here’s a graded looked at what they’ve been doing so far this summer…
Detroit still has some tweaking to do with a lineup pushing against the cap and needs a couple more depth players, but what matters here is that the very good core remains intact and ready for another run. Grade: B
Dale Tallon was retired as GM, ostensibly because qualifying offers weren’t mailed in time to several restricted free agents. That cost the team serious re-signings premiums and cut into the cap space for retaining several key young players whose contracts are coming due next year. But Tallon wasn’t replaced by his assistant Stan Bowman until the middle of July. After making all the roster moves. Bowman, by the way, was previously the Blackhawks point man when it came to contracts, and is the son of legendary coach Scotty Bowman, a trusted consultant to team president John McDonough. Grade: C
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