The time has come for some July predictions.

Who will win and who will lose in the NHL Pacific Division?

No need to look further.

The Pacific teams will finish in the following order in 2009:

1. Anaheim Ducks

This was a tough one. I tend to defer to the reigning champions until they are dethroned, but in this case, I made an exception.

By defeating the Sharks in the playoffs rather handily, the Ducks have already taken down the President's Trophy winner and deserve to be given the preseason top ranking in the Pacific.

And despite the coventional wisdom from those who don't consider hockey played West of Colorado "real," Anaheim has gotten better.

The draft day trade of Chris Pronger to Philadelphia, of course, was the big offseason news in the NHL. And if that is all one focuses on, it would appear that the Ducks are weaker without him.

If you ask "Are the Ducks better with Chris Pronger than they are with 19 year old Luca Sbisa playing D?"

Obviously, the answer is 'yes'.

Sbisa may turn out to be a very good player. But Chris Pronger is an all-time great and you can't replace a guy like that.

However, by trading Pronger, Anaheim was able to clear major cap space and made significant moves because of it.

If you look at the bigger picture and instead ask yourself the following question: "Were the Ducks better last year with Chris Pronger, Drew Miller and Andrew Ebbett than they are now with Luca Sbisa, Nick Boynton, Saku Koivu, and Joffrey Lupul?"

The answer, in my opinion, is a resounding "no'.

On defense, without Pronger (and Francois Beauchemin who followed former GM Brian Burke to Toronto) Anaheim still has team captain Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Whitney, Luca Sbisa, Nick Boynton, Sheldon Brookbank, Brian Salcido, Brett Festerling, James Wisnieski, Brendan Mikkelson and newly acquired veteran Steve McCarthy. 

Competition in camp will be fierce for the last three spots behind Niedermayer, Sbisa, Whitney and Boynton. They have enough quality there to compensate for injury to anyone except Niedermeyer.

The Ducks have not lacked in recent years for defensmen or goaltenders. Their weakness since winning the Stanley Cup in 2006 has been second line scoring. Ever since Andy MacDonald was traded to St Louis and Chris Kunitz went to Pittsburgh , Anaheim has struggled to find a center and left wing to play effectively with right wing Teemu Selanne.

Doug Weight, Brendan Morrison, Ryan Carter, Todd Bertuzzi and even Travis Moen have tried to skate with Teemu and failed. Drew Miller and Andrew Ebbett stepped up admirably last year but never quite achieved the ability to play at the speed Selanne needs to be effective.

Even though the Ducks defeated the Sharks with Ebbett and Miller playing top six forward positions, the lack of production in their second line was exposed by a deeply talented and very physical Detroit team.

Detroit pounded Bobby Ryan into submission, dominated Ebbett and Miller, and Perry, Getzlaff and Selanne couldnt generate enough offense to win the series. Hiller kept them in most games, but the differential between Detroit's depth (Cleary, Hossa, Franzen, Samuelsson, Filppula, Hudler) and Anaheim's was obvious as the series played out.

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