Written by Allan Mitchell at Bleacher Reports.com
The NHL curtain is raised for another season, as 30 teams chase the 2016-17 Stanley Cup. Across the league there are all kinds of changes and adjustments for fans, who will need to buy a program to catch up with new names now playing for their favorite team.
The balance of power changes slowly in the NHL, so fans in Pittsburgh, San Jose, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York should be able to look forward to successful seasons. There are teams on the rise, including the Winnipeg Jets, Carolina Hurricanes and the Buffalo Sabres.
Major trades mean tracking success and comparing in order to find out who won those big deals, and, of course, it all culminates in who makes the playoffs and who is on the outside in April. Here are the top storylines for the 2016-17 season.
One of the hardest things to do in the modern NHL is repeat, and the Pittsburgh Penguins have a chance to do it in 2016-17. The last team to accomplish the feat was the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998, and the last time the Penguins had a chance was 2010 on the heels of its 2009 Stanley Cup win.
Pittsburgh has a lot of positives, including exceptional depth in goal—the emerging Matt Murray and veteran Marc-Andre Fleury—and at center ice, where Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the best tandem in the NHL.
One of the key elements for the Penguins is the ability to ice three scoring lines, something that freed Phil Kessel during the playoffs and gave the team a massive edge on the San Jose Sharks in the finals. Great stories like Conor Sheary and Murray—impressive postseason contributors—will have a chance to make a mark during the regular season.
There will be hurdles—Sidney Crosby’s concussion issue as detailed byLuke Fox of Sportsnet being one—but general manager Jim Rutherford negotiated the rapids a year ago with all manner of difficulties and could do it again. If the Penguins win a second straight Stanley Cup, it will be the first back-to-back win of this century.
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