NHL Predictions 2012: Predicting the Northwest Division

The Northwest Division has been one that has been dominated by one team for the past couple of seasons with the rest of the teams struggling to even make the playoffs.

Over the offseason, this division has seen a lot of changes from several teams trying to become more competitive in the division and throughout the league.

While it doesn't look like anybody has done enough to overtake the Vancouver Canucks as division champs, the Northwest Division will definitely be a lot more challenging this season.

So here's a look at how things are going to play out.

5. Calgary Flames

The Flames haven't done a whole lot to get better this offseason and will still be relying heavily on Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay.

Scott Hannan is about the only notable change on this team from last season.

The Flames are old and inconsistent in about every way you can think of and are one more poor season away from needing to rebuild their roster.

I think they'll play decently within their own division as they always do, but they won't be able to stay with many of the teams from the Pacific and Central divisions.

Calgary has brighter days ahead of then, but they haven't hit bottom just yet.

4. Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are going to be one of the most exciting young teams to watch in the NHL this year.

They are loaded with a lot of young talent, which is a double-edged sword.

Their biggest issue is defense and finding some consistency in net, but it should be incredibly exciting to see how Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ends up playing with Taylor Hall; or if Nugent-Hopkins manages to stay on the team past the nine game trial period.

Edmonton is also pretty small up front, but I think they'll start seeing some of the dividends of their great draft picks starting to pay off this year as they start moving out of the basement of the Western Conference.

3. Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche are loaded with new faces in goal, on the blue line and even a few up front.  Several other players are returning from injury which gives this team a feel of one that has had a complete overhaul from head to toe.

I think all these new faces may have the Avalanche stumbling a bit at first as they search for consistency and chemistry between the lines and pairings.

The biggest question mark for this team will be its goaltending. Can Semyon Varlamov play a full season and stay healthy, and will J.S. Giguere be the stabilizing figure everybody wants him to be?

If these guys can perform well for the team, it will go a long way towards helping the Avalanche move up in the division.

It is unfair to automatically assume the Avalanche will just stink like they did towards the end last year because of how bad their injuries hurt them and how well they performed prior to those injuries.

Let's not forget the Avalanche were within one point of first place in the Northwest Division in the middle of December last year before things went totally down hill.

They're bigger, more durable and equally as fast and talented. There will be ups and downs, but the Avs will do pretty well this year.

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild may be the surprise team of the NHL this year as they'll make one of the biggest jumps in the standings of any of the NHL teams.

The Wild might have been the most aggressive team in the offseason, making big trades with the San Jose Sharks to bring Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi to help bump the scoring for their team.

Mikko Koivu is still one of the most underrated players in the entire NHL and will benefit greatly from having a couple other big time players with him.

The Wild may also stumble a bit at the start as they all get used to new faces and a new system from new coach Mike Yeo, but I think we may see a big winning streak from the Wild at some point this season that will turn a lot of heads.

1. Vancouver Canucks

Vancouver is still clearly the best team in the Nortwest Division and will once again run away with the division title.

The Canucks will probably see a lot more challenges from the teams in this division as each team in the Northwest has the goal of usurping Vancouver's spot atop the conference.

At the end of the day, however, the Cancuks still have the best talent, most scoring, deepest team, best defense and best goaltending.

Vancouver will once again reign above the rest.