Disappointing Team of the Year
No, as disappointed as we are, the Anaheim Ducks didn’t make the list. This award goes to the team that most underperformed to expectations.
3rd Place – Arizona Coyotes. The Yotes just can’t seem to get ahead in the league. They missed the playoffs for the sixth straight year. This is mostly due to a continued cycle of poor play, followed by unwise draft choices. Aside from Oliver Ekman-Larsson, they Arizona hasn’t exactly drafted a bunch of all-stars. Clayton Keller is probably the closest thing to an offensive star this team has. Antti Raanta was a good goalie to bet on for the future. Unfortunately, for the Coyotes Raanta couldn’t stay healthy in the present.
2nd Place – Chicago Blackhawks. How the mighty have fallen. The Blackhawks had reached the Stanley Cup finals five of the last nine season, winning the whole thing three times. They were expected to contend again this year after posting the best record in the west last year. This year, Jonathan Toews disappeared from the score sheet and Corey Crawford went out with an upper-body injury (head) in late December which took him out for the rest of the season. Couple that with Duncan Keith‘s meeting up with father time and Chicago’s season fell apart.
1st Place – Edmonton Oilers. It looked as though the Oilers finally turned their franchise around in 2016-17. After 10 straight seasons of missing the playoffs, Edmonton finally returned to the dance. They finally shored up their goaltending with the acquisition of Cam Talbot; and have arguably the best player in the game, Connor McDavid. Unfortunately for the boys in orange and blue, they couldn’t maintain the momentum and fell back to sixth place in the Pacific Division.