It’s my Parting Shot for the first of my three-part look ahead and predictions for the upcoming 2023-24 W-H-L season…..
In the past few full seasons, predicting who would be champion in the Dub was fairly easy because of the existence of built-up, going all-in “Super Teams” for those particular seasons. Last year, the super teams were Seattle and Winnipeg with Kamloops included as the Memorial Cup hosts. The season before, Edmonton was an obvious “Super Team.” Prior to COVID, Prince Albert and Vancouver were head and shoulders above the pack in 2018-19 and in 2017-18, Swift Current and Moose Jaw along with Memorial Cup-host Regina could be considered “Super Teams.” Those were clubs with double digit numbers of 19-year-old players plus several N-H-L draft picks of first or second round quality!
There really isn’t a “Super Team” or teams in the upcoming 2023-24 campaign, meaning parity – until the games start up at least!
Today, we start with the Western Conference where former Winnipeg, now the Wenatchee Wild shouldn’t be discounted as a contender. They may want to make a splash in their new Washington State city, against five established U-S Division teams, and have a solid core returning.
In my mind, it’s between Wenatchee and Portland for first and second in the U-S, the second place team becoming the third seed for the first round of the playoffs. The second seed will come from the B-C Division where the battle will be between Vancouver and Prince George. The non-division winner becomes the fifth seed with a very good Tri-Cities entry ending up fourth.
From there, the Western Conference faces something they haven’t had to face ever, three teams missing the post-season. My “handicapping” has Seattle in sixth, Everett seventh and Kamloops qualifying for the playoffs in eighth place. Missing out will be Spokane, Kelowna and Victoria!
Tomorrow, a look at the Eastern Conference with a deep dive into the Saskatoon Blades and a league champion prediction on Thursday.
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..
