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NHL Season Preview For Central Division, 2022-23

The 2022-23 season of the NHL is almost upon us! So the team at SportsTips thought there was no better time than the present to go through all the teams in the Central Division and provide our thoughts on their chances.

NHL Season Preview For Central Division, 2022-23
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Tue 4th October 2022

We simply cannot wait for the new NHL season to start, and we are counting down the days until the very first puck drop. If you are like us and love the NHL, then you definitely need to have a read on below, as we take a look at each and every team from the Central Division and analyze their chances for success in this brand new season.

Arizona Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes were the worst team in the league last season which was expected. They finished last in the Central Division and the Western Conference with a 25-50-7 record. The team started a rebuilding process a few years back. 

They traded away players such as Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Darcy Kuemper, Christian Dvorak, Conor Garland, and Adin Hill in return for many draft picks, and the return on that investment has yet to show up. Most of their draft selections are not yet in the big league and the Coyotes’ roster is full of players with bad contracts which they hope will be switched for good signings and once again – draft picks.

The only interesting thing about the Coyotes at the moment is the Jakob Chychrun saga. The 24-year-old defenseman has been connected with many trade rumors and with the season right around the corner, he is still on the Coyotes roster.


With Chychrun putting one foot out the door, the Coyotes’ offense doesn’t look well at all. They were the worst scoring team last season and there is almost no doubt that they will find themselves in the same situation in the year to come.

To make things even worse for the Coyotes, their defense is also certainly not up to par. Many times last season, it seemed like the Coyotes didn’t even put effort into defending. Troy Stecher is the only hope for coach Andre Tourigny, but one man cannot do much.

There is no doubt that the Coyotes will be again near the bottom of the league. The only question is exactly how bad they will be. It seems likely that they will be as bad as they were last year. The rebuilding process is still ongoing in Arizona and it seems like they are stuck at the foundation.

Chicago Blackhawks

After winning the Stanley Cup in 2015, things have gone downhill for the Chicago Blackhawks. Entering last season, they made numerous trades that landed top-quality players in the Windy City. Even though the situation on the ice looked promising, the off-ice issues proved to be lethal.

The team’s general manager Brad Aldrich was accused and later convicted of sexual offenses against former players. It was a huge scandal and the Blackhawks became a team nobody wants to be involved with. That took a huge toll on the team’s record as they started the season with nine consecutive losses and needed seven games to simply have a lead at some point in a game.

Kyle Davidson took over as the team general manager and he will have a ton of work to bring back the Hawks where they once belonged. Last season they finished with a 28-42-12 record which put them in seventh place in the Central Division and 14th place in the Western Conference.


Patrick Kane was the only good thing about this team last season and he will be the main offensive force for the Blackhawks in the season to come. Jonathan Towes is another player who was with the Blackhawks when things were much different and may be a valuable asset for the team as he is entering the last year of his contract. 

Kane is in the same situation and it will be interesting to see if the team will sign him to an extension or maybe trade during the season. The goalie position is the one that suffered the most changes in the off-season. Marc-Andre Fleury, Kevin Lankinen and Colin Delia all left, and Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom will take over.

However, there are not many reasons for optimism in Chicago as the team is still far behind the competition. It seems like they don’t have the capacity to defeat any contender and that will definitely leave them near the bottom of the conference.

Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are the defending champions as the Avs won their third ever Stanley Cup and the first after two decades. Colorado entered last season as the top team to win but the start was not very promising. They had many new faces on the team and needed time to adapt. 

As the season progressed, they started to climb the standings and once they got on top of the Western Conference, they were there to stay. The Avs failed to win the President Trophy, missing out by only a couple from the Florida Panthers but were the best when needed the most. 

They Swept the Nashville Predators in the opening playoff round. In the second one, they lost two games to the St. Louis Blues before sweeping the Edmonton Oilers in the Conference Final. The back-to-back champions Tampa Bay Lightning were not a team that could have messed up the Avalanches’ plans of winning the Stanley Cup, which they did in a six-game series.


The core of the team is still there and Colorado is entering this season as the main contender to win it all. Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen are still one of the best offensive trios in the league as they all scored over 30 goals last season.

Nazem Kadri will be the leader of the team and the creator of one of the best offenses in the league. The only major change in the Avalanche lineup is the goaltending position. Darcy Kuemper didn’t sign a contract extension and left for the Washington Capitals. Pavel Francouz will jump in his place, and the newcomers Alexandar Georgiev and Jonas Johansson will seek their chance.

It seems like the Avalanche are not as good of a team as they were in the playoffs but they will have enough time to put everything in place, just like they did last season. Whoever would like to attack the Stanley Cup will have to go through Colorado.

Dallas Stars

The Dallas Stars had an amazing 2021-22 season even though they saw an early playoff exit. Playing in the Central Division, the Stars could not compare themselves with the best teams, but they believed and played hard which gave them a playoff berth. Dallas finished the season with a 46-30-6 record which saw them in 4th place in the Central Division and 7th in the Western Conference.

Goalie Jake Oettinger was probably the key player for the Stars as he finished the regular season with a 30-15-1 record, posting a .914 save percentage, 2.53 GAA and stopping 9.8 goals above average. The Stars went on to lose to the Calgary Flames in the overtime of Game 7 but won the hearts of the fans. Oettinger was even better in the playoffs with a .954 save percentage and a 1.81 GAA.


He quickly made a name for himself and will definitely be a crucial player for the Stars in the upcoming season. The Stars lost their top two defensive men as John Klingberg and Andrej Sekera left in free agency. With these two gone, Oettinger’s role will be even more important.

When it comes to the offense, the Stars have Joe Pavelski as their top scorer. He turned 37 this year but he averaged just under a point last season, which was the best record of his career. Mason Marchment is the biggest acquisition in the off-season and the former Florida Panthers team member will have a big role in the Stars lineup right away.

The Stars will make another step forward in the upcoming season but it is still hard to believe that they will find the way to the top of the division. They possess the quality to make it to the playoffs and once there, no team will have an easy series against them.

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild were one of the biggest surprises last season in the NHL. They finished with a 53-22-7 record which put them in second place both in the Central Division and the Western Conference. They were the fifth-best scoring team in the league with 310 goals in the season and no defense had a response for them. 

Unfortunately, they themselves were just an average defensive team finishing in 18th place in goals allowed with 253. All that was enough for the second seed in the conference but that did not help them at all as the Wild lost in the opening round to the St. Louis Blues. They brought in veteran goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury and many saw him as the weakest link in that series.


Kirill Kaprizov is the franchise player and someone who will definitely be one of the superstars of the league in the years to come. The 25-year-old Russian recorded his first 100+ point season finishing with 108, 47 of which were goals. Kaprizov will have great supporting staff in Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Joel Eriksson Ek, Frederick Gaudreau and Matt Boldy. 

With all these players on the roster, coach Dean Evason will have nothing to worry about on the offensive end but that will not be the case on the defensive. Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba are the players who will take the most of the load on defense and they are just an average caliber compared to the rest of the league.

Fleury has turned 37 years old and the question is how much he has left in the tank. The Wild traded for Filip Gustavsson from the Ottawa Senators who will be the backup goalie. With Kaprizov healthy and on top of his game, the Wild are definitely among the best teams in the West but the fact is that they depend too much on him. With the current roster, they will be back in the playoffs but will be good enough for nothing more than that.

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators were a decent team last season and are expected to be even better in the year to follow. The Preds finished the 2021-22 campaign with a 45-30-7 record which was good for fifth place in the Central Division and eighth in the Western Conference. As good as they were, the Preds had no luck running into the Colorado Avalanche and being swept pretty easily in the opening round with goalie Jusse Saros being sidelined with an injury.

Failing to win a single playoff game was pretty disappointing for the Predators but they have nothing to worry about. After managing to keep their best player Filip Frosberg, signing him on a long-term deal, and extending coach John Hynes, the Preds are all set for the upcoming season.


They are a potent offensive team, finishing in 12th place last season in goals scored. Roman Josi recorded 96 points last season, the closest that any defender has come to reaching 100 points in a single season in the last 20+ years. Matt Duchene was another player who made a huge leap and the Predators expect even better play from these two in the 2022-23 campaign.

Even though they had a good core, the Predators’ general manager David Poile didn’t stay still. He added Nino Niederreiter who scored 24 goals last season for the Carolina Hurricanes. On the defensive end, the Predators are stronger for Ryan McDonagh who was a major piece in Tampa Bay’s recent success.

Juuse Saros finished third in Vezina Trophy voting last season and there is no question he will be on top level next season. The problem is that the Predators don’t have a decent backup for him and he was forced to play a league-record 67 games last season. However, the Predators are a solid team made of players who know themselves very well. They may not be among the top teams in the conference but will definitely be in the playoff picture.

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues are one of the teams that made the biggest leap last season and the question is if they have any room to improve. They finished third in the Central Division and fourth in the Western Conference with a 49-22-11 record.

The Blues were the fourth-best scoring team in the league with 311 goals in the regular season. The major leap was a result of multiple players having their breakout seasons. Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich all had over 70 points last season, going over that mark for the first time in their careers. Veteran Vladimir Tarasenko recovered from injury and got back to full shape, scoring career-high 82 points.

All of this led the Blues to their best playoff performance in recent history. In the opening round, they defeated the second seed in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild in six games. They were considered major underdogs in the second round against the Colorado Avalanche but managed to win two games in that series.


Going into the upcoming season, the Blues fans have every reason to be excited. The team’s scoring potential is still among the best in the league and the Blues can defeat anybody on a good day.

The defense will be questionable, especially at the goaltender position. Jordan Binnington posted a .901 save percentage, the lowest in a single season in his NHL career and we will see early on if he is going to keep his starting job. Ville Husso has improved a lot in his second season and coach Craig Berube may decide to go with him.

However, the Blues are a team that is heading in the right direction and they will be one of the most fun teams to watch. They will definitely make the playoffs and whoever runs on them will have a tough series.

Winnipeg Jets

The Winnipeg Jets are coming off another disappointing season and failed to make the playoffs. Despite the fact that they are playing in a tough division, the feeling is that they could have been more competitive. The Jets finished the 2021-22 campaign in sixth place in the Central Division and 11th in the Western Conference with a 39-32-11 record.

Kevin Cheveldayoff, the Jets general manager, was aware that changes needed to be made and he went to work. The 67-year-old coach Rick Bowness will replace Dave Lowry who served as an interim coach last season. 

Bowness is returning to the team where he started his impressive coaching career and the Jets fans strongly believe that he is the man that can bring the team back to their winning ways. Blake Wheeler is also stripped from the captain role as he was the main man for the last six seasons. That may not bring huge changes but is still a change that is worth mentioning.


The key for the Jets improvement lies in the defense. Connor Hellebuyck had a good season behind him with a .091 saving percentage but the Jets still allowed 2.97 goals per game which was better than only Arizona and Chicago in the division. After Dustin Byfuglien left the team in 2019, the Jets have struggled to find their defensive leader and that is the main reason for the team’s failures.

Things do not look much better in the offense as Paul Stastny left to join the Carolina Hurricanes. Still, the Jets have promising young prospects in Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Pierre-Luc Dubois. Some of these three players, or maybe all of them, will have a breakthrough season and that is what the Jets are waiting for.

Knowing the competition in the division and the conference, it is hard to believe that the Jets will make a major improvement. Just like last year, they will finish just under the spots that lead to the playoffs.

When the 2022 NHL season does eventually begin, make sure SportsTips is your go-to destination for NHL picks. We will provide NHL picks for each and every game of the season from our experts, so you can place your bets with more confidence!

Marko is a former athlete who meanwhile got his law degree. He has followed basketball since the ‘90s and is very familiar with all levels of the game, from the NBA, and the NCAA, all down to European leagues and international competitions. He is also very fond of tennis, soccer, NHL and MLB and can provide reliable previews and analysis that will lead you to placing a winning bet.

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