Bana Predicts: NA Conference

[Banackock 8,141]

Hello everyone. I hope you're doing better than me  Unfortunately I waited until Sunday to get everything done and of course I have zero motivation or energy to do anything but here I am finding away to power through it. Being a GM, I don't normally do these kinds of articles as I don't want to cause controversy or come off as cocky or anything like that. However, I also don't want to do an around the league with Bana article this week so I've chosen to take the tougher path and carve this one out. A reminder to every little community member we have (big, too, if little offends you) that it's only an opinion and anything can happen. I'm very open minded to how this season is going to go and am looking forward to seeing how crazy it's probably going to be. NA is looking a little weaker than normal and EU is the cake to be eating this season. While it is weaker, there's still going to be some tough competition. For the regular season finale standings, these are my thoughts.

 

1. Toronto - They're about as equal to Seattle and while Seattle has some aspects that are stronger than Toronto's, I'm giving the fact that everything is mostly close (F, D and G), but their minor edge in Lindbergh in net could be the deciding factor that allows Toronto to edge Seattle out for first place in the NA conference. Again, things are very close. Anything can happen.

 

2. Seattle - I'm also putting Seattle here because it's a safety net. You put yourself 1st and you better damn end up there! Seattle's goalie has 160 less TPA but we know that doesn't mean everything. I believe Seattle has a stronger offensive core and while Toronto has the "strongest D-man", I'd say both defensive cores are equal. At the end of the day, will Seattle's goalie slip? Will Toronto's shine? Or will Seattle's impressive forward core out power their Canadian rivals?

 

3. DC Dragons - If NYA was stronger (better D and g), maybe you'd give them the edge. Calgary is also still not horrible, but they're missing some depth pieces as well. DC has a full roster and while it's not as good as management probably thinks, it's still a full roster with some advantages as well. They're not a bad team. Management, while making some questionable moves in the sense that they sped things up quicker than they maybe should have, did a good job building themselves up the best they could while in a weaker market. Their goalie is young and developing nicely. They're at that point now where they're going to be competitive. They do have 3 good forward players (nothing after that at the moment) and their defensive core can easily contend with Toronto's and Seattle's. So much so that it may even be the best as they have the two highest TPA guys. They can surely beat both Toronto and Seattle. We've seen STHS do things like this before and in reality too. Based strictly off TPE, they should be the 3rd best team. 

 

4. Calgary - They have more depth than NYA and have the better goalies. Calgary, at this moment, as the better everything. They still are a weaker team but welcome to the league and conference where less than 50% of the teams are actually going for it. Someone who may have wanted to rebuild or retool with a good pick may not get that option. Then again, some GM's are more than okay with getting the 7th overall pick instead of 4th. This next draft is good, but the higher the better. Looking at their picks, they also don't own their first so it would be a head scratcher for them not to try and make playoffs. Why would we want to help out another team like that? The better they do, the better chances they have at improving the London pick for themselves as well. 

 

5. NYA - New York has some good pieces at the moment. I know Jerome is on the block and I know at some point he's going to be moving this season. My speculation is GM's are going to wait to see how their rosters play out. Maybe someone makes a move because they need to shake things up. I'd imagine some would be open to acquiring them down the road when cap becomes more affordable. However, I do not see them purchasing him at the moment for the price listed or else he would have been traded already to someone who wasn't the owner of the player himself. It was a gamble and I'm sure it will pay off. If other GM's hold their guns though, that price comes down. However, there's always a fish in the pond that's dumb enough to bite the same hook twice! These guys also own their first so... tank city, baby? Things have been dark in NYA for some time!

 

6. Chicago - Chicago has more than they had last season and it surprised me a little bit. Depending what the two teams do above them, they could be a fringe team. Like the other two above them, they're only a fringe team because of how things are in NA. They have some ok because that are developing, but I expect them to be a lottery team for this season which is easily the best choice for them and management. With this being said, without owning their pick in the next draft it wouldn't surprise me if they made some extremely minor moves if the prices are low enough just to try and make some noise. What's a 3rd anyway nowadays!!

 

7. Vancouver - Same as above. It was hard to place these teams because they're all kind of the same with some differences but depth in areas. They do have some decent TPA players still and you never know. They also don't have their first round pick so it doesn't make a massive amount of sense to tank unless you want to scratch the other GM's back which I wouldn't strongly understand. 

 

 

there, over 1,000 words..

 

11-17 april

18-24 april 

[Shindigs 1,771]

I really think Seattle's forward depth will put you ahead of Toronto. But as you said, you can't really pick yourself for 1st. It's also going to be interesting to see how Toronto's 6 pass first players, including every single Dman, ends up working out for them.