Central Division Preview

Today, Jason Gregor and Frank Seravalli continued their division preview series with a fresh episode of The DFO Rundown. Today’s episode focused on the Central Division, which saw a handful of teams that made some major offseason changes.

Before they got into that, they welcomed a new partner into the show: Fountain Tire. That led to some questions that Frank had about how winter tires work up in Canada. They also talked about the news of James Van Riemsdyk signing in Columbus. Frank says it’s the first of a few expected moves by the Blue Jackets.

They kicked off the division preview by talking about the Chicago Blackhawks. What are expectations for Connor Bedard? How many rookies will be in the lineup? Did GM Kyle Davidson handle the offseason correctly? They answer all of those questions.

They then jumped into the NHL’s newest franchise: the Utah Hockey Club. GM Bill Armstrong had a pretty busy offseason as he basically revamped their entire blueline. Will that along with a collection of young forwards be enough to push them into the playoffs? Also, could their new home give the players a boost?

They also hit on the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild, who were both on the outside of the playoff picture last year. Neither made massive waves over the summer and are banking on internal improvement. The guys broke down whether or not that was the right play.

Tyler then jumped in for a new edition of Fill in the Blank, where he asked the guys about Mikko Rantanen’s next deal, Utah’s look heading into year one, and the chances of their being four 100-point teams in the division.

To wrap it up, they went through the four playoff teams from last year, starting with the Nashville Predators, who spent big in free agency and brought in Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei. Winning the offseason doesnt always translate to winning in the regular season, could that be the case in Nashville?

They then moved on to the Winnipeg Jets, who are running it back once again with the same core group of players. Then there’s the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche, who are both once again looking like the class of the division.

4:20 - News of the week (JVR in CBJ)

6:40 - Chicago Blackhawks

15:55 - Utah Hockey Club

23:23 - Minnesota Wild

32:15 - St. Louis Blues

39:30 - More offer sheets coming?

42:30 - Fill in the Blank

49:00 - Nashville Predators

56:30 - Colorado Avalanche

1:01:00 - Winnipeg Jets

1:07:25 - Dallas Stars

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Shoutout to our new friends at Fountain Tire: https://www.fountaintire.com/promotions/?utm_source=tnn&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=fountain

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