{"id":185760,"date":"2025-10-02T19:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185760\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T19:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T19:31:12","slug":"nhls-central-division-remains-tough-through-the-season-and-playoffs-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/185760\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL\u2019s Central Division remains tough through the season and playoffs – Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikko Rantanen was a staple for Colorado, helping the\u00a0Avalanche win the Stanley Cup\u00a0as part of his dominant decade in Denver. Then, all of a sudden last winter\u00a0he was gone, traded to Carolina and by spring\u00a0back in the division\u00a0with bitter rival Dallas.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSomeone was like, \u2018Yeah, we might be like getting Rantanen,\u2019 and we\u2019re like: \u2018What are you talking about? Like, there\u2019s no way,\u2019\u201d\u00a0Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger\u00a0recalled. \u201cThen all of a sudden the guy you hate is walking into the dressing room and you\u2019re all like, \u2018Oh.\u2019 And then he\u2019s just a great guy and a great teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rantanen now plays\u00a0deep in the heart of Texas for the Stars, who have made three consecutive trips to the Western Conference Final. His former team has\u00a0Gabriel Landeskog back healthy\u00a0after the long-term captain missed three years\u00a0with a chronic knee injury. And\u00a0Winnipeg\u00a0hasn\u2019t changed much from the group that was the\u00a0best in the NHL\u00a0last season, making the Central an unending gantlet from October through the playoffs, with at least three Stanley Cup contenders at the top.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUnless you win the Cup, it\u2019s a failure,\u201d said Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who won the Vezina Trophy as well as the Hart as MVP. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how far you make it. You\u2019re always looking for what\u2019s going to get you to the next step, and that\u2019s where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJohn Shannon on the Jets: October 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

On the rise<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s point total has declined from 119 points during the championship season to 109, 107 and 102, but two-time Norris Trophy-winning defenseman\u00a0and 2022 playoff MVP\u00a0Cale Makar isn\u2019t bothered. Landeskog is back, Nathan MacKinnon and Makar remain two of the top five players in the league and the Avalanche believe they\u2019ve found their goalie in Mackenzie Blackwood.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going into this year with \u2014 as of right now, knock on wood \u2014 fully healthy,\u201d Makar said. \u201cThere\u2019s no question marks with anything. \u2026 Just as a collective whole, I think it\u2019s a completely different feel with our organization and the excitement that\u2019s around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dallas has a new coach, Glen Gulutzan, after\u00a0firing Peter DeBoer\u00a0following a rough end to the most recent trip to the West final when\u00a0he abruptly pulled Oettinger\u00a0and seemed to pin outsized blame on the franchise netminder. Oettinger says the Stars are full of confidence about getting over the hump.<\/p>\n

Just getting to the playoffs would be momentous for the Utah Mammoth in their\u00a0first season with that name\u00a0and second in Salt Lake City since\u00a0relocating from Arizona. The young core of captain Clayton Keller, fellow forward Logan Cooley and defenseman Mikhail Sergachev got a boost with an offseason\u00a0acquisition of two-time 25-goal-scorer JJ Peterka\u00a0and the Mammoth look capable of taking a big step forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year, we\u2019ve kind of gotten a bit better and realized how hard it is to win and how just tough it is make it, year in and year out,\u201d Keller said. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time, and I think we\u2019re all ready for that challenge and I really think JJ is going to help us out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the decline<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u00a0has nowhere to go but down in the regular season after winning the Presidents\u2019 Trophy with 116 points on 56 wins. The Jets should still be one of the NHL\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWinnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (37) stops a shot from Chicago Blackhawks right wing Ilya Mikheyev (95) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Chicago.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(AP Photo\/Erin Hooley)\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Chicago is expected to struggle in 2023 No. 1 pick Connor Bedard\u2019s third season. The good news: There are some exciting young players around him,\u00a0from forward Frank Nazar\u00a0to defenseman Artyom Levshunov and the\u00a0Blackhawks hope Spencer Knight\u00a0is their solution in net. It will take more time \u2014 especially with\u00a0the salary cap\u00a0rising \u2014\u00a0to improve.<\/p>\n

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Nashville general manager Barry Trotz joked at the start of training camp he was hoping the Predators would prove\u00a0preseason expectations wrong\u00a0a third time in a row. Two years ago that was a good thing when they made the playoffs and not so much in 2024-25 when they were a massive bust following a\u00a0free agent spending spree.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tRelated News\n\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tWinnipeg Jets make 7 more cuts including Brayden Yager, Colby Barlow\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tANALYSIS: Jets\u2019 Connor likely to see big payday with contract extension\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe started gelling and started playing more team hockey by the end of the season, so we once last season ended, I think everyone was just hitching to get a clean slate,\u201d said Brady Skjei, who was one of those additions on a seven-year, $49 million contract. \u201cWe really got to start off on the right foot this year and have a great start \u2014 kind of get that swagger back that we\u2019ve known a lot of us have had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the hot seat<\/p>\n

Predators coach Andrew Brunette\u2019s job could be on the line if his team does not get off to a good start. Then again, so could Trotz\u2019s if ownership decides he should be back behind the bench instead of running the front office.<\/p>\n

Likewise, if Utah does not show growth, Andr\u00e9 Tourigny\u2019s seat could be getting warmer. For now, he is safe.<\/p>\n

Predicted order of finish<\/p>\n

Colorado, Dallas,\u00a0Winnipeg, St. Louis, Utah, Minnesota, Nashville, Chicago.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRAW: Winnipeg Jets Scott Arniel Interview \u2013 Sept. 18\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikko Rantanen was a staple for Colorado, helping the\u00a0Avalanche win the Stanley Cup\u00a0as part of his dominant decade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,6000,118565],"class_list":["post-185760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-winnipeg-jets","tag-winnipeg-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}