Team Name: Vancouver Canucks

Record: 26-15-7, 1st in Northwest, Lost 4-0 to San Jose in Western Conference Quarterfinals

Players of the Season: The Sedin Twins led the way in 2013 with Daniel Sedin topping the team with 12 goals. Brother Henrik led the Canucks in assists (34) and points (45) and plus/minus rating (+19). It’s safe to say the Sedins are going to lead Vancouver again.

Breakout of the Season: Jannik Hansen put up solid numbers (10-17–27) for a short season. He posted his third straight year with a double-digit plus-minus rating (+12) and notched his first three power-play points of his six-year career. He looks to be primed for about 50 to 55-point season in a full campaign and get some more power play time.

Disappointment of the Season: The goaltending situation didn’t clear itself up. Corey Schneider outperformed Roberto Luongo, statistically speaking, in the regular season. But Schneider (17-9-4, 2.11 GAA, .927 save percentage, 5 shutouts) got whipped on in the playoffs. Luongo (9-6-3, 2.56 GAA, .907 save percentage, 2 shutouts) performed better against San Jose but it didn’t stop the broom.

Team Analysis: With two good goalies on the roster, something has to give. There’s going to be a coaching change and Vancouver will try for a fifth straight full season of 100 points or more. They have the kind of team that can do it but why they falter in the playoffs is anyone’s guess.

2013-2014 Story Lines: How will the team be different with John Tortorella or Kings’ assistant John Stevens at the helm? The Sedins are both going to be free agents after the season ends-how will the team keep them both, or either of them, or neither of them? What will happen between the pipes with Schneider and Luongo-who stays and who goes?

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, Hansen, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler, Dan Hamhuis, Jason Garrison, Kevin Bieksa, the starting goaltender

Guys On the Fringe: Mason Raymond

Team Name: Anaheim Ducks

Record: 30-12-6, 1st in Pacific, Lost 4-3 to Detroit in Western Conference Quarterfinals

Player of the Season: Ryan Getzlaf led the team with 15 goals, 34 assists and 49 points. He topped the team with 15 points on the power play (4G, 11A) as well and was the engine on which the team drove all season.

Breakout of the Season: Nick Bonino had modest numbers of 5-8–13 with a -3 rating and a career-high three power-play points. It doesn’t look like much on paper but he had only five more points in 23 more games last season. Bonino has the potential to pick up a nice pile of points in a full campaign.

Disappointment of the Season: Daniel Winnik had five goals in his first four games of the season including a pair of two-goal games to open the season. And then he wound up scoring just once more for the rest of the season. Ugh.

Team Analysis: The Ducks did everything right in 2013 but they couldn’t get the job done against Jimmy Howard and Detroit in the first round. They had a top-10 offense (8th), defense (9th) and power play (4th). They even a middle of the road penalty kill (13th) and yet they failed in the playoffs. Goaltenders Viktor Fasth and Jonas Hiller both posted solid seasons but it’s hard to tell which one will take the lead in 2o13-14.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Will Teemu Selanne come back for another season at age 43? Will Fasth or Hiller be the starting goaltender for this team?

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan, Francois Beauchemin, Andrew Cogliano,

Guys On the Fringe: Selanne, Bonino, Fasth, Hiller (since no starter has been defined yet), Sheldon Souray

Team Name: Minnesota Wild

Record: 26-19-3, 2nd Northwest, Lost 4-1 to Chicago in Western Conference Quarterfinals.

Player of the Season: Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu both get this distinction. Parise (18-20–38 with 13 PP points) and Koivu (11-26–37 with 13 PP points) were two of the most consistent players on this team this season. They, along with Suter, were the three real keys to success on the power play.

Breakout of the Season: Josh Harding doesn’t have a great stat line with a 1-1-0 record and a 3.24 GAA and .863 save percentage. He did, however, perform better in the playoffs. He allowed Chicago 12 goals in five games with a better GAA and save percentage. And all of this while he is battling the effects of MS. On top of this, he might be a sleeper in goal next season as he could inherit the top job.

Disappointment of the Season: Ryan Suter started out slowly on the blue line. Like no goals and 12 assists through the first two months of the season slowly. A 16-point March helped him save value but when you factor in his contract (13yr, $98MM)  you expect more out of him. While it is mildly disappointing, it’s not like a first-round pick playing six games then tearing a knee ligament.

Team Analysis:  Backstrom carried the  team as they had offensive issues early on and again late in the season. They opened the season with a 9-7-2 mark despite scoring just 37 goals in 18 games. The Wild went mild late with a 5-8-1 April where they scored 8 goals in the first 7 games of that month. If this team had anything resembling consistency they could push into the upper echelon of their division and maybe conference.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Will Backstrom come back in 2013-2014? He’s an unrestricted free agent and had sports hernia surgery in the offseason. Backstrom had some really good nights (33-save shutout of San Jose) and some really bad ones too (2 goals allowed in 2 shots in the first 3:07 at LA) but should get a lot of play on the open market for teams that need to shore up their goaltending (Tampa, Florida, Colorado to name a few). If Backstrom goes, who will tend the net?

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Parise, Koivu, Suter, Devin Setoguchi (13-14–27)

Guys On the Fringe: Zenon Konopka (only if you need the PIMs), The starting goaltender when one is named, Dany Heatley, Jared Spurgeon (half of his 15 points came on the power play).

Team Name: New Jersey Devils

Record: 19-19-10, 5th Atlantic, No Playoffs

Player of the Season:  Kovalchuk had a solid season (10-17–27 in 27 GP) going before getting hurt. When he went out with his injury, the Devils’ offense went south. And so did their season. The Devils promptly went an 0-6-4 streak after he got hurt and it cost them their season. In that run, New Jersey scored two goals or fewer in eight of those games and was blanked three times.

Breakout of the Season: Andrei Loktionov broke out with career highs in goals (8), assists (4), points (12) and power play points (3). He won’t be much of a name in drafts for this season but he could be easily clipped away as a last-round sleeper.

Disappointment of the Season: Johan Hedberg was nicknamed The Moose. Unfortunately for the Devils, Bullwinkle may have been a better choice in goal than Hedberg. His mark of 6-10-3 with a 2.76 GAA and a save percentage of .883 showed he couldn’t carry the load when he needed to the most. This is also a problem since the Devils don’t have great depth in their organization at that position.

Team Analysis: The Devils’ lack of depth really hurt them this season.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Patrick Elias is a free agent and the question is whether the Devils will bring him back to finish out his entire career with New Jersey. Who will be the goaltender for the Devils? Both Brodeur and Hedberg are over-40 netminders and it’s definitely time for the Devils to get younger in net.

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Elias, Kovalchuk, David Clarkson, Marek Zidlicky,

Guys on the Fringe: Adam Henrique,  Brodeur

Team Name: Philadelphia Flyers

Record: 23-22-3, 4th in Atlantic, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: Giroux led the team with 35 assists and 48 points and 21 points came on the power play. He continued to show that he is the best player from a fantasy perspective on Broad Street.

Breakout of the Season:  Voracek roared to career highs in goals (22), assists (24), points (46), shooting percentage (17.1%), power play points (17: 8G, 9A) and game-winning goals (3). He wound up being one of the best right wings to own and should go higher in 2013-2014 than his ADP in the high 90s. Hopefully, he doesn’t crash any more Ferraris either. We all know car crashes don’t end well for Flyers.

Disappointment of the Season: Bryzaglov posted a bland 19-17-3 mark with a 2.79 GAA and a .900 save percentage. There were times when he looked lost and would allow 3,4 or 5 goals per outing. He was a real roller coaster of a goaltender to own despite all the starts he got.

Team Analysis: The Flyers were like Icarus. They try to fly too high and their wings melted, hurtling them back down to Earth. Unfortunately, that lofty perch they were trying to reach was the break-even point.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Will the Flyers buy out Bryzgalov? His performance might have the phone lines ringing in the Flyers’ front office.

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Giroux, Timmonen, Voracek, Simmonds,

Guys on the Fringe: Scott Hartnell, Bryzgalov, Matt Read, Steve Mason

Team Name: Florida Panthers

Record: 15-27-6, 5th in Southeast, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: Johnathan Huberdeau tied for second in goals with 14 and finished second in points with 31. His nine points on the power play were among the best of the team as well. Huberdeau showed he can be the player to build a team around hopefully the Panthers’ brass recognizes that.

Breakout of the Season: Huberdeau was a rookie last season. A rookie who walked right in and took the team by the horns and led them to last place. From a fantasy perspective, he becomes an guy you want on your roster and his value should go up for next season.

Disappointment of the Season: The whole damn team. When your team is 29th in goals for (2.3), dead, shit-smelling last in goals against 3.5 per game and the worst penalty kill in the league (74.2%) it’s no wonder that this team wound up getting your fantasy squad’s ass kicked like it was their first night in prison.

And yet they somehow finish with the sixth-best power play, connecting 20.4% of the time. Go figure that one out. This team had so many minuses, you would think they are really just a bunch of kick-ass golfers masquerading as a hockey team. But they’re not.

The goaltending was awful from Jose (might have been better with Alvin or Simon or) Theodore, through Scott Clemmensen and to Jacob Markstrom who might be the team’s future. Markstrom was the best of the three with an 8-14-1 mark, 3.22 GAA and .901 save percentage. Yes, that was the best. The stats are below to prove it.

Team Analysis: I wish I could tell you that the Panthers fought the good fight. I wish I could tell you that – but hockey is no fairy-tale world.  Things went on like that for awhile -hockey consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, the Panthers would show up with fresh bruises. The other teams kept at them – sometimes they was able to fight ‘em off, sometimes not. And that’s how it went for Florida – that was their routine. I do believe those first two months were the worst for them, and since things had gone on that way, this season got the best of them.

(It’s a modified quote from the movie, with a Panthers’ twist on it. )

2013-2014 Story Lines: Will this team pull an Andy Dufresne and crawl through a river of shit to come out cleaner next season?

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Huberdeau, Brian Campbell (8-19–27, 17 PP points, -22 rating)

 Guys on the Fringe:  Tomas Fleischmann, Tomas Kopecky, Peter Mueller

Team Name: Tampa Bay Lightning

Record: 18-26-4, 4th in Southeast, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: Stamkos and St. Louis both get this award. St. Louis won the scoring title with 60 points (17G, 43A) and 20 of them came on the power play while Stamkos was near the top of the goal-scoring list with 29 and 57 total points, 18 on the man advantage.

Breakout of the Season: It’s hard to name one on this team but defenseman Victor Hedman gets the nod. On paper he put together his fourth-straight 20-point season. He got to that level in 30 more games in his rookie campaign than it did this past season. He’s a big man who gets a good amount of ice time around 22 minutes a night so he makes a good play for the blue line on a fantasy team.

Disappointment of the Season: Goaltending got complacent with the offense it had in front of them. When you look at the numbers of the goalies on this team (Anders Lindback, Ben Bishop, Mathieu Garon and Cedrick Desjardins) all of them had a goals against average between 2.90 and 3.00. Someone needs to step up and lock down the top spot. And stop the bleeding in goal.

Team Analysis: They started out 6-1-0 and then just fell on their nose to a 6-6-1 record in the first two weeks of February. The skids started after that and they barely got a look at .500 for the rest of the season with a 3-8-3 April killing any chance of making the playoffs from arguably the weakest division in hockey. We all knew their early-season offensive outburst (37 goals in the first seven games) wouldn’t sustain itself. But when the offense dried up, the goalies were exposed.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Who will be between the pipes for this team? The four guys above didn’t cut the mustard. How will Jon Cooper and company coach this team effectively? Cooper got named to the top spot in March and this will be his first full season at the helm. Adding Rick Bowness as an assistant helps him greatly.

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Stamkos, St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, Teddy Purcell, Hedman, Benoit Pouliot, Matt Carle,

 Guys on the Fringe: BJ Crombeen (only if your team needs penalty minutes), The team’s starting goaltender.

Team Name: Carolina Hurricanes

Record: 19-25-4, 3rd in Southeast, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: Eric Staal 18-35–53 was the best player on the team. He’s definitely the proverbial straw that stirs the drink and Carolina got a real solid season from him. He’s not a first-round pick but will come off the board early.

Breakout of the Season: Jiri Tlusty racked up a career-best 23 goals ,38 points, eight points on the power play and a +15 rating this season. Looking at the stats on the surface those are great numbers for a 48-game season. But when you dig deeper it becomes caveat emptor for Tlusty in 2013-2014. Will he be the guy who scored seven goals in six games in February? Or will he be the guy who had a nine-game drought to open the season. Tlusty also seems to score in twos or threes which further exaggerate the risk-reward assessment on Tlusty. He scores four goals in five games and then goes 16 games without one (save for a hat trick against Washington in early April).

Disappointment of the Season: Cam Ward started out the season poorly, allowing 15 goals in four January games. The season continued to spiral downwards with a seven-game stretch that saw him allow three or more goals five times. He wasn’t getting support from his defensemen who kept hanging him out to dry. Then he suffered a sprained knee ligament in early March and his season was over.

While there were problems in front of him, he may have also had some off-ice distraction to deal with as well. Ward and his wife welcomed their second child to the world about 10 days before the season started. I’m willing to wager a single, green M&M that trying to adapt to having a new baby at home may have led to some difficulty at the start of the season for him.

It’s hard to be high on Ward because of the inconsistencies (see next item). Streaks and slumps happen but when the results vary wildly from one line to the next it makes me want to back away.

Team Analysis: It can be summed up this way. Tlusty and Alexander Semin finished with plus-minus ratings around +15. Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner wound up at -18 and -21, respectively. They all play on the same team. Their power play (27th) and penalty kill (28th) did them no favors either.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Eric Staal injured his knee at the World Championships that resulted in a third-degree sprain of his MCL. The only good news is that won’t require surgery but it’ll still be a couple more months from today before he should be fully ready to go.

The team has new uniforms (seen here) but without tightening up the defense and becoming more consistent through all four lines, the Hurricanes will be a streaky team to own players on.

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Eric Staal, Semin,

On the Fringe: Tlusty (due to the inconsistency), Ward, Jordan Staal

Team Name: Winnipeg Jets

Record: 24-21-3, 2nd in Southeast, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: It’s hard to pick just one, so we won’t. Andrew Ladd, Blake Wheeler and Evander Kane all deserve the honor. Ladd (18-28–46) led the team in scoring while Wheeler (19-22–41) topped the team in goals. Kane (17-16–33) filled the scoresheet and was the emotional leader. Those three were productive all season and really cleared the Jets for takeoff to the playoffs until Washington intervened.

Breakout of the Season: The whole team. The Jets showed they can run with the big boys and they should contend for a playoff spot in 2014.

Disappointment of the Season: Special teams undid them. Badly. They were dead last on the power play at 13.8% and their penalty kill was successful less than 80% of time which put them at 24th of 30 teams. In February, the Jets went 4-for-37 on the man advantage and followed it up with a 5-for-40 March and a 5-for-38 April.

Yeah, that won’t get it done. If they can be as competitive as they were with their power play weighing them down, imagine how good they could be if the Jets were even, say, middle-of-the-pack on the man advantage.

Team Analysis: The Jets have the talent. They get what looks like a favorable bounce in realignment (see below) and they have a pair of strong blueliners in Dustin Byfuglien and Tobias Enstrom. Enstrom missed 26 games with injury and a healthy Tobias makes the Funke family Jets a contender.

In net, Ondrej Pavelec was a horse making 43 starts but posting mediocre numbers (21-20-3, 2.80 GAA .905 save percentage) which keep him from moving up in the depth charts of fantasy netminders.

2013-2014 Story Lines: The Jets will say goodbye the old Southeast Division and get realigned into Division B in the Western Conference. They get to line up with Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville and St. Louis and the young, hungry Jets team could very well be a playoff team.

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Ladd, Wheeler, Kane, Byfuglien, Enstrom

On the Fringe: Pavelec, Olli Jokinen (7-7–14 but a nasty -19 rating), Grant Clitsome (4-12–16 with a +10) and Bryan Little (7-25–32) and did a good job feeding the bigger guns. Think poor man’s Martin St. Louis and you get the idea.

Team Name: Buffalo Sabres

Record: 21-21-6, Fifth in Northeast, No Playoffs

Player of the Season: Thomas Vanek led the team with a 20-21–41 line despite missing 10 games with an injury. He put up 15 points on special teams (9PPG, 5PPA, 1SHG) and is the clear-cut best asset on the team.

Breakout of the Season: Cody Hodgson posted a nice 15-19–34 in 48 games with seven points on special teams. Last season, his 19-22–41 in 83 games with Buffalo and Vancouver showed what he’s capable of. And on this team he has a chance to shine. Hodgson, the fourth-year center, might get some time with Vanek on the top line in 2013-2014.

Disappointment of the Season: Special teams slayed the Sabres. Buffalo was 29th on the power play at 14.1 percent and 26th on the penalty kill, stopping opponents 79.2% of the time. You have to be better than that to make forward progress in this league.

Team Analysis: Buffalo went from contender to pretender quickly and canned their coaching staff. Lindy Ruff was axed in February while assistants James Patrick and Kevyn Adams were given the boot after the season ended. When you have no consistency behind the bench, the product on the ice suffers. Ron Rolston did what we could in the interim with what he had but it wasn’t much. He got named coach last month so it’s his show to run.

2013-2014 Story Lines: Will Ryan Miller stay in Buffalo? He has one year left on his deal but reportedly put his townhouse on the market. That screams “I’m not coming back!” The bigger question is where would he go if he were to be traded? If he’s gone, can Jhonas Enroth be the man in net for Buffalo?

Who can help Vanek? He can’t carry the team on his own and was a little streaky with his points. He had a couple of five-point games but he also missed some time with injuries too. Joechen Hecht decided to hang his skates up after 14 seasons in the league, the last 10 in Buffalo so he’ll be missed for veteran leadership.

The biggest story of all is that Vanek and Miller are in the last year of their contracts so will they re-up or will they be traded away?

2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Vanek, Hodgson, Tyler Ennis, Miller (if he’s still there)

Guys On The Fringe: Mikhail Grigorenko (has additional value in dynasty formats), Christian Ehrhoff (5-17–22, 9 PP points, +6)