Second Sixes in the Pacific Division

Teemu Selanne	Brendan Morrow	Alex Ponikarovsky	Radim Vrbata	Ryane Clowe
Jason Blake	Jamie Benn	Jarret Stoll	Scottie Upshall	Joe Pavelski
Todd Marchant	Steve Ott	Michal Handzus	Vern Fiddler	Devin Setoguchi
Andy Sutton	Karlis Skrastins	Rob Scuderi	Derek Morris	Jason Demers
Sheldon Brookbank	Mark Fistric	Matt Greene	Adrian Aucoin	Douglas Murray
Curtis McElhinney	Kari Lehtonen	Erik Ersberg	Jason LaBarbera	Thomas Greiss

The last group of second sixes that are going to be posted today, checking out how the Pacific Division matches up against itself.  There are a few more incomplete teams in this division, with some bluelines looking a little bare, but we do have five complete second sixes and a few of them look pretty good.

I think there is a clear favourite among these five and you can find them swimming in the tanks of San Jose.  The Sharks have a pretty solid six to choose from, once you get past the real good stuff on the team.  A very potent group of forwards, offensive defenders and a goalie who will be playing behind a new number one goalie, likely meaning a shorter leash and some extra ice-time for the back-up.  After looking at all 30 teams in the league today, I would say that the Sharks have the most solid second six in the league, which should mean great things to the team's depth early on in the season.

The Dallas Stars get a mention for second in this group, largely because their potential number one goalie is in this six in Lehtonen, which should mean that he'll go in the first four or five rounds this year.  Another big plus for the Stars in this group is Steve Ott, who gets some solid minutes on the second line most nights and he'll likely see the same kind of ice again in 2011.  Their defense doesn't get a great deal credit, but it isn't much worse than the Coyotes'  and not much better than the Ducks'. 

The Phoenix Coyotes have a good bunch of guys on their list, including two really good defensemen, which are going to be attractive at the draft.  The defense here is likely the best out of the five in this group of sixes, but that isn't what will knock the Coyotes down to third , rather it should be the depth of the forwards, namely Vern Fiddler and the amount of ice-time expected for Jason LaBarbera.  Fiddler might lose out his high ranking to some of the younger Coyotes, which may end up as better draft picks, while LaBarbera is playing behind a high-minute goalie in Bryzgalov, which will drastically diminish his value. 

The Ducks will not finish last in this article, mostly because of health concerns of the actual last place team.  The Ducks will be healthy with this group of six going into camp.  The Ducks have a healthy Selanne in their corner and even at 40 years old, he'll still be able to put the puck in the net, making him a pretty good candidate for your team.  The only knock on the Ducks right now is their depth at forward, but there is going to be at least one addition to this group before camp, at the very least bringing Bobby Ryan to the game and shifting some names around.  The defense is still struggling to find some points, while McElhinney will get some more time than he did in Calgary, but Hiller will get the number one minutes and a lot of them.

The Kings had my second favourite best six in the division, thanks to their young stud defenseman, but they fall further down because of an injury to Matt Greene.  The Kings are also drawing close to inserting Jonathan Bernier into the roster on a full-time basis, which may make Erik Ersberg's stock a lot more volatile this Fall.  Ponikarovsky was a poor prize for not getting Kovalchuk in the sweeps, but he does put up points, just not big or clutch points.  Stoll and Handzus haven't quite earned much confidence, but they should be playing with some of the better talent on the team, possibly giving more value to their stock.

San Jose, Dallas, Phoenix, Anaheim and Los Angeles are the order to which I could see the draft taking players to complete these lists.  The Sharks still have such a deep team and they really don't need to insert any more to get some good results.