Burning Questions for the NHL in 2016

The National Hockey League's Christmas break is in the books, and it's back to business as things start to get serious.

More than ever, parity is the name of the game. Playoff seeding is far from settled, and the league's individual year-end awards all remain up for grabs.

I'm curious to see how the new three-on-three all-star tournament plays out and what the league will do about its fan-voting leader, enforcer John Scott, but I'm not curious enough to consider anything all-star-related to be a "burning question."

Here are the 10 storylines that will be most intriguing during the season's second half. Do you agree, or are you wondering about other things?

Will an Expansion Announcement Be Made?

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After actively soliciting bids for expansion franchises during the first half of 2015, the NHL is dragging its heels on making an announcement about whether Las Vegas and/or Quebec will be invited to join the league anytime soon.

At the league's December board of governors' meetings, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated to the Canadian Press, via Sportsnet, that the process of making a decision on expansion is ongoing. There's no set timetable for an announcement or a vote by the franchises.

If expansion does go ahead, Scott Burnside of ESPN.com points out that the existing teams will need time to make decisions about how to handle the expansion draft. "We think it’s incumbent on the league to let all concerned—Bill Foley in Las Vegas, the would-be owners in Quebec City, GMs, players and fans—know its expansion plans at All-Star Weekend, even if that means explaining that expansion will be on the shelf for the present time," Burnside suggests.

Expect the expansion situation to come into focus before we're too deep into 2016.

Can the Anaheim Ducks Get on Track?

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Last May, the Anaheim Ducks finished their season one win short of qualifying for the Stanley Cup Final.

This season, they have come out of the Christmas break as the last-place team in the Western Conference. 

The team's biggest problem has been scoring. Anaheim's 62 goals scored is worst in the league—12 fewer than the 29th-place Philadelphia Flyers. The Ducks lost some secondary scoring with the offseason departures of Matt Beleskey, Kyle Palmieri and Francois Beauchemin but are also experiencing serious scoring slumps this season from their remaining stars, particularly Corey Perry (11-10-21), Ryan Getzlaf (1-19-20) and Ryan Kesler (4-8-12).

The Ducks rank 27th in the NHL in shot attempts this season—though they're among the teams with a league-low 33 games played. Anaheim is also dead last in team shooting percentage, with just 6.3 percent of its shots resulting in goals. 

Despite their challenges, the Ducks remain just six points out of the third playoff spot and seven points out of second in the congested Pacific Division. A weeklong hot streak could bounce them right back into contention—make the playoffs and anything can happen.

Which Other Teams Will Make a Playoff Push?

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Anaheim isn't the only prestige team on the wrong side of the playoff cut line coming out of the holiday break. After reaching the Stanley Cup Final last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been decimated by injuries and are one point out of a wild-card spot, while the Pittsburgh Penguins are three points back as they try to get in sync under new coach Mike Sullivan.

In the West, the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets join the Ducks in failing to maintain their playoff form from last season. An 8-2-0 record so far in December has helped the Flames climb within two points of a postseason berth, but the Jets have gone 4-5-0 to fall into last place in the strong Central Division.

Which Underperforming Stars Will Turn Their Seasons Around?

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If you look at this list from General Fanager of the NHL's top salary-cap hits for the 2015-16, you'll notice that there's not a strong correlation between the cap space a team allocates to top players and the performances that they've been delivering.

Patrick Kane is the exception, with a league-highest $10.5 million cap hit this season and an NHL-best 50 points on a Chicago Blackhawks team that has climbed the standings in December thanks to an 8-4-1 record.

But Kane's teammate Jonathan Toews, who's making the same money, has managed just 21 points in 36 games. The rest of the top seven is not exactly putting up superstar numbers, either.

Third-place Alex Ovechkin is tied with fourth-place Evgeni Malkin and three other players for 24th in league scoring with 30 points. Fifth-place P.K. Subban has just one goal with the Montreal Canadiens after scoring 15 times last year, sixth-place Sidney Crosby has just seven goals and 24 points, and seventh-place Corey Perry is on pace for 27 goals and 51 points—five years after he won the Hart and Rocket Richard Trophies with 50 goals and 98 points.

Other megastars who are failing to live up to their cap hits this season include Perry's teammate Ryan Getzlaf ($8.25 million, one goal), Eric Staal ($8.25 million, five goals), Phil Kessel ($8 million, 20 points), Rick Nash ($7.8 million, 24 points) and Steven Stamkos ($7.5 million, 28 points).

Other than Kane, the top of the scoring race is populated with relative bargains such as Jamie Benn (47 points, $5.25 million), Tyler Seguin (47 points, $5.75 million), Taylor Hall (39 points, $6 million) and Johnny Gaudreau, whose 15 goals and 37 points are costing the Calgary Flames just $925,000 in cap space this season. 

It seems unlikely that so many top performers have all hit a wall at once, and it's important to remember that players such as Toews and Ovechkin are having fine seasons even if their offensive numbers are below their usual levels. Younger talents are stepping up as big-time scorers, but expect to see some of the old guard flash their skills as the stakes get higher in the season's second half.

Are the Dallas Stars and Washington Capitals for Real?

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The Dallas Stars and Washington Capitals are making strong cases for their teams to be included among the Stanley Cup favorites when the playoffs get underway in April.

Last season, the Stars crowned their franchise's first-ever Art Ross Trophy winner in Jamie Benn but failed to qualify for the postseason. This year, Benn and his linemate Tyler Seguin are tied for second place in the scoring race, and sophomore defenseman John Klingberg is earning consideration as a dark-horse Norris Trophy candidate for his strong play at both ends of the ice.

With 126 goals, the Stars have produced nearly 17 percent more offense than the second-best Washington Capitals. Even more impressively, Dallas has tightened up at its own end of the ice. Last season, the Stars ranked 26th in the league on defense. This year, backstopped by the all-Finnish netminding tandem of Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen, they've improved to a solid 12th.

Meanwhile, the Capitals own the NHL's best defensive record in their second season under the guidance of coach Barry Trotz. Braden Holtby is making a case for himself as the leading candidate for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goaltender, and the Capitals have bought into an effective structure that has them riding a seven-game winning streak as the NHL's hottest team.

With Dallas and Washington ranked first and second overall in the NHL standings, strong regular seasons aren't enough to erase the memories of both franchises' rather dodgy postseason histories. Dallas won the Stanley Cup in 1999 but hasn't won a playoff round since 2008, while Washington has reached the Stanley Cup Final just once in its 41-year history and then was swept 4-0 by the Detroit Red Wings in 1998.

Dominant regular seasons are nice to have, but both these teams have their sights set on playoff success.

Who Will Win the Rocket Richard Trophy?

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For the last three seasons and five times during his 10-year NHL career, Alex Ovechkin has been the recipient of the Rocket Richard Trophy, awarded to the NHL's leading goal-scorer.

This year, he might have some competition.

Ovechkin has scored just 17 goals in 32 games this season—a pace that would get him to just 41 for the year. That would be his lowest total in a non-lockout year since he scored 38 in 2011-12. Right now, Ovechkin is tied with Mike Hoffman and Evgeni Malkin for sixth place in goals, five behind current leaders Jamie Benn and Vladimir Tarasenko.

Typically, Ovechkin gets hotter as the season wears on. In 2014-15, he also picked up just 17 goals before the new year and then added another 36 after January 1.

He will need to catch fire like that again if he hopes to claim his sixth Rocket Richard title. He could face a serious challenge this year from a group that includes but is not limited to Benn, Tarasenko and Patrick Kane.

Which Impending Free Agents Will Move by the Trade Deadline?

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The 2016 trade deadline falls on February 29. During the next two months, teams around the league will need to decide whether they think they can compete for the Stanley Cup. 

If they think they're in the hunt, they may want to try to acquire some help for the stretch run and the long postseason grind. A number of impressive free-agents-to-be could be on the market this spring.

Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and Dustin Byfuglien of the Winnipeg Jets are just three of the highest-profile impact performers who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents this summer and have not yet signed contract extensions with their current clubs.

In early December, John Hoven of Mayor Manor reported that Kopitar and the Kings were close to finalizing a new eight-year deal. With the Kings in a strong position to get back into the playoffs, it would be a huge surprise to see Kopitar traded by the deadline—or leave Los Angeles at all.

Stamkos and Byfuglien, on the other hand? Both their situations will be fascinating to monitor over the next two months—and they only represent the tip of the iceberg.

We don't see many in-season trades in the NHL these days, but the deals clustered around this year's deadline could deliver plenty of intrigue.

Is There Enough Time for Connor McDavid to Take a Run at Rookie of the Year?

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Eighteen-year-old phenom Connor McDavid was proving he was worth every breath of hype that accompanied his entry into the NHL before he suffered a broken clavicle while killing a penalty against the Philadelphia Flyers on November 3.

Mark Spector of Sportsnet reported December 18 that McDavid has now resumed skating with his Oilers teammates. He hasn't started taking shots yet, but his return to the Edmonton lineup shouldn't be too far off.

With 12 points in 13 games, McDavid was among the NHL's rookie scoring leaders when he was injured. As of December 26, he had dropped into a tie for 12th in the race, 19 points behind current rookie leader Artemi Panarin of the Chicago Blackhawks.

That's some serious ground to make up. If McDavid catches fire and—dare to dream—the Oilers make the playoffs for the first time in a decade, do you think that would be enough to earn him the Calder over Panarin and other rookie standouts like Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings, Max Domi of the Arizona Coyotes and his old nemesis Jack Eichel of the Buffalo Sabres?

Which Team Will Win the Auston Matthews Sweepstakes?

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McDavid and Eichel caused a furor when they became eligible for the draft in 2015. This year, Auston Matthews is following in their footsteps as the next great phenom.

Matthews has looked good this season playing with the Zurich Lions in Switzerland, where he has 25 points in 22 games, and he is also impressing in the early stages of this year's World Junior Championship. To this point, all signs indicate that, like McDavid and Eichel, Matthews is the real deal.

The NHL is introducing a new system for the 2016 draft lottery, which will give all 14 non-playoff teams a chance at any of the top three picks in the draft. Per NHL.com, the team with the worst overall record will still have the best odds of receiving the first overall pick, but those odds will only be 20 percent—not exactly a slam dunk.

Just six points separate the bottom 10 teams in the league, from the Arizona Coyotes and Colorado Avalanche with 35 points down to the Columbus Blue Jackets with 29. The race for last place and the best-possible chance of drafting Matthews looks like it will come right down to the wire.

How Many More Coaches Will Lose Their Jobs?

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Speaking of last-place Columbus, the Blue Jackets made an early move to try to improve their fortunes by replacing coach Todd Richards with John Tortorella after an 0-7-0 start to the season.

Columbus has gone 13-14-3 since Tortorella took over—an improvement, to be sure, but not enough to get out of the NHL cellar.

On December 12, the 15-10-3 Pittsburgh Penguins brought in Tortorella's former assistant Mike Sullivan to replace their fired coach Mike Johnston. Pittsburgh is 2-4-0 so far since Sullivan took the reins.

Entering the new year, Anaheim's Bruce Boudreau looks like he could be the next coach on the chopping block, as the Ducks approach the halfway point of their season at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

Writers such as Jason Botchford of the Province also turned up the heat on the Vancouver Canucks' Willie Desjardins after a 6-2 blowout loss to the Minnesota Wild in mid-December. The Canucks have, for now, eased the pressure on their coach by going 3-1-1 in their last five games—one of their best stretches of the year.

Will Boudreau and Desjardins still have their jobs at the end of the regular season? Would either team's management group be bold enough to make a coaching change if an extra push was needed to make the playoffs? Which other coaches around the league will find themselves on less-than-solid-ground as late-season games in a tightly packed league take on more and more importance?

All stats courtesy of NHL.com and current through games December 26.