West Odds: 

Nashville Predators: -105

Edmonton Oilers: +300

Vancouver Canucks: +550

Dallas Stars: +650

Calgary Flames: +675

Arizona Coyotes: +700

Seattle Kraken: +800

Winnipeg Jets: +800

Anaheim Ducks: +850

Chicago Blackhawks: +900

Los Angeles Kings: +1000

Vegas Golden Knights: +1100

Colorado Avalanche: +1100

St. Louis Blues: +1200

San Jose Sharks: +1200

Minnesota Wild: +2000

Tier 1:  Consisting of only one team, the Nashville Predators. The west is their’s to lose as this team has won the presidents trophy 6 years in a row now and won’t have any real difficulties in doing that for the foreseeable future. 

Nashville returns a lot of stars from previous seasons having PLD, Brandon Dubinsky, Brady Tkachuk, Michael Sgarbossa, then Hedman & Cowan being the top pair easily makes this team the favorites.

Tier 2: Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks 

Here we have two GM’s with tons of regular season and playoff experience. What separates them is that they’ve shown they can beat Nashville in the playoffs. 

Edmonton decided to sign Sam Reinhart long term after trading for him on an expiring deal and that makes this forward group that much better. With names like Kadri, Stammer, and rising star Dylan Holloway. Werenski is a great number 1 and Raanta has shown he can perform in the playoffs

Vancouver returns a lot of the same players offensively with Horvat, Pettersson and Fiala leading the way. On the defensive side a young Jamie Drysdale will now be the #1 Dman with savvy vets being right behind him. The only question mark for this team is in goal as they don’t really know who their #1 is quite yet, and that will be a competition all year between Husso and Blomqvist.

Tier 3: Dallas Stars, Calgary Flames, Arizona Coyotes

The hometown folks return this season all with another playoff series under their belt. 

Dallas looks to build off their last two seasons buy upgrading offensively. The only real agenda for this team in the offseason was to get rid of Jeff Skinner after the horrid performance in 164+ games played with the Stars. Along with him went some of the future but coming in is Jesper Fast who’s proven to play well on teams where he’s not the number 1 or 2 guy as that will be Jamie Benn and Jesperi Kotkaniemi for a very very long time. 

Calgary saw their future gain some upgrades but I think the team now is rocking with Subban in hoping him and Puljujarvi can carry this team to another playoff berth. The question is how long can they rely on Subban before investing more money in the Dman.

The Yotes team we saw with a healthy Kuzy was dangerous last season. Featuring a lot of the same faces along with having some of the best depth in the league the Coyotes have really elevated themselves in the West with Edvinsson still learning as well. What ranks them below Dallas and Calgary is the goaltending as you really never know with Lindback and Primeau looks to get more starts this season.

Tier 4: Seattle Kraken, Winnipeg Jets, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks 

Per usual the West will be extremely competitive and any of these teams could seriously make a run and win the West. 

Tier 5: Los Angeles Kings, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues, San Jose Sharks, Minnesota Wild

While I’m not sure if they can’t make a title run, I’m very confident these teams can compete for a 7-8 seed in the West.