The Nashville Predators, who are No. 12, play the San Jose Sharks, unranked and without a single voting point from the staff members who participated in the weekly Super 16 power rankings, on Friday and Saturday in the 2022 NHL Global Series at O2 Arena in Prague.
But the Predators are the fourth-ranked team from the Central Division behind the Colorado Avalanche (No. 1), St. Louis Blues (No. 9) and Minnesota Wild (No. 10). The Dallas Stars are also in the Super 16 at No. 14, making the Central the only division with five teams ranked.
The Metropolitan and Atlantic divisions each have four teams ranked. The Pacific Division has three.
The 13 NHL.com and LNH.com staff members who make up the panel that ultimately decides which team is ranked where will be offering their thoughts on why they ranked a certain team where they did.
Each of the members puts together his or her version of what they think the Super 16 should look like. Those are submitted and a point total assigned to each. The team that is selected first is given 16 points, second gets 15, third 14, and so on down to No. 16, who gets one point.
Here is the Super 16 as the NHL season is about to get underway, with thoughts from the staff members whose individual rankings are below:
1. Colorado Avalanche
Total points: 207
“The Avalanche are the defending Stanley Cup champions, which is why they are No. 1. They return 10 forwards and five defensemen who were regulars in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. They’re also getting defenseman Samuel Girard back after he missed most off the Stanley Cup run with a broken sternum. They have all the ingredients to repeat, including a championship pedigree and the experience of winning, two things they did not have at this point last season. With both, they should be better equipped for a championship run. Alexandar Georgiev has to prove he can be a No. 1 goalie. He replaces Darcy Kuemper, who was 10-4 with a 2.57 goals-against average and .902 save percentage in the playoffs last season. Georgiev is the Avalanche’s biggest question mark, but they’re not a team that relies on getting A-plus goaltending to win. They just need Georgiev to be good as Kuemper was, and the talent can do the rest.” — Dan Rosen, senior writer
2. Tampa Bay Lightning
Total points: 188
“The Lightning return most of the core of the team that reached the Stanley Cup Final the past three seasons, including forwards Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Losing defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward Ondrej Palat will hurt, but they’ll have full seasons with forwards Nicholas Paul and Brandon Hagel, and defenseman Philippe Myers has a ton of potential. They now have the one thing they lacked the past two seasons: the anger that comes with losing. The Lightning came up two wins short of something no team had done since the New York Islanders won the Cup four straight years (1980-83). Now you’re taking a talented team and giving them more motivation? To me, that’s a championship recipe.” — Adam Kimelman, deputy managing editor
Video: Steven Stamkos at No. 18 on NHL Network’s countdown
3. Carolina Hurricanes
Total points: 176
“Carolina is a good candidate to win the Stanley Cup because it has upgraded around an already strong group of forwards in Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, and defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce. The Hurricanes solidified their top six among forwards with the acquisition of Max Pacioretty and top four among defensemen with the addition of Brent Burns. Pacioretty is recovering from an Achilles injury, but he should be back for the playoffs. Carolina was without its most consistent regular-season goalie during the playoffs last spring when Frederik Andersen was out with a knee injury, so his return is a key to any success. When healthy, the power play will be bolstered by the additions of Pacioretty and Burns. Forward Seth Jarvis will be expected to follow up a…
Read More: Super 16: Avalanche enter season No. 1, Lightning No. 2