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What Happened on Exile, Stays on Exile The Exiles are back. One of the most famous franchises in all of hockey has returned to action with the reincarnation of the St. Louis Blues in Colorado. And to the dismay of many fans, a huge chunk of the original team has been left behind for a new season, to be played in Ontario, Canada. While the relocation is sure to leave a lot of fans disheartened, the NHL has been able to add quite a bit of muscle to their league by grabbing a piece of Colorado in the process. The NHL has gotten a bit more local in an attempt to draw fans to the area. All they have to do is compare an Oilers’ home game against Dallas at Rexall Center with an Avalanche’s game against the Stars at the Pepsi Center, and they’ll know the difference. Ex-Blues’ Captain Loses The departure of former Blue captain Brett Hull from St. Louis leaves the Blues without a leader. The team picked up another legendary body, Adam Oates, as well as ex-Winnipeg forward Rob Zamuner. Hull leaves his old team with two Stanley Cup rings in tow to help guide the team. With plenty of talent already available for the Blues, there’s a chance Hull may just keep his job as captain of the team. However, if any other members of the original team are available, it might be better to have them for a change. Since Hull and Zeman are coming back, there are going to be plenty of familiar faces to fill out the roster. If a star player like Hull or Hull wasn’t available, there’s little doubt that they would try and swing a trade to bring them to St. Louis. Ex-Blues’ Stars Return Home The biggest story of the offseason was the return of Mike Keenan, who was able to bring all of his old teams back to him for the 2005 season. With Keenan is a few ex-Blues, including Al MacInnis, Brendan Shanahan and Gary Suter. Keenan could very well get one more piece to his team for next season in a trade for Jeff Brown. However, it’s unlikely that a player like Brown would get many games of ice time with the Stars this year. So if this does become a possibility, it should be a trade that fans will want to see happen. This also has potential to be the biggest trade deadline deal in recent memory. If a team was going to get a huge return for a player, it may be the Stars who have a need for one. However, since there are so many great teams with solid talent in their system, it would be very unlikely to find a star player available for trade. Ex-Blues’ Goalie Gets a Shot The goaltending situation in St. Louis was a little bit up in the air, which might have made the Blues choose to look elsewhere. However, goalie Garth Butcher’s story was interesting. When the Blues traded for their new goalie, their original plan was to have him in a backup role. But then Butcher played so well that it looks like the Blues will find a spot for him somewhere in their system. It’s possible that some of the new guys in camp could start to push veterans out of the way, as well as any other guys who might be in a similar situation as Butcher. If that’s the case, you could see some tough decisions made when it comes to the net in St. Louis. New Blues and Ex-Blues Both Lose Some Good Ones Two other key names from the original team were lost, and for different reasons. Goalie Curtis Joseph was traded to Anaheim, which makes it difficult to have the current team match up well against the Oilers, without that goalie. Another key name that was traded was Sergei Zubov, who is the captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has said that he may not move to Columbus. While Zubov has never really been happy in Columbus, he has the option to stay there for one more year, and the Oilers could certainly use that kind of player to get them closer to the playoffs this season. This might not be the year of the Calgary Flames, but the team is still not going to go down without a fight. The 2004-2005 season will be their best season since 1992-1993, with many of their own players who are still very effective and in great shape. While this will not be an amazing season, it will still be an enjoyable one for fans of the Flames. Ex-Penguins Leave The new Penguins left the old team after getting a new jersey and logo. They kept many of their current players, including Crosby and the rest of the team. The most recent ex-Pens that departed were Max Talbot and Alexei Kovalev. Talbot had been a key member of the team for the last five seasons, so this will certainly leave a hole. However, it is unlikely that a player like Talbot will be missed by the team, as they are in such high demand as it is. Trading Talbot to another team, though, could bring in a great pick for the team. Kovalev is 34 years old, and he has a big body that might have left him too much for someone to take with them. Plus he has a lot of ties to Russia, and the team won’t want to take on his salary if they can help it. So expect him to be traded at some point in the season if he’s around. Ex-Sabres Leave The best thing that happened to the Sabres was the move of Dominik Hasek, who was a key player for the team for many years. This allowed them to have a real chance at rebuilding through the draft. The departure of Hasek, however, gave the team a new look that certainly fits the new style of hockey in Buffalo. The problem is that it left the Sabres without a lot of size in their lineup. The defense isn’t going to be too much of a problem, because the Sabres picked up Mike Grier, Rob Ray and Steve Montador before losing Hasek. It’s unlikely that anyone gets signed in Buffalo after what happened to them. However, they might bring a few guys over from other teams just because they are available. Ex-Flames are Back Home The fans are still not happy that the Flames didn’t make the playoffs last year, so they might want to watch their new team. The team is moving from California to Atlanta. The problem with this is that Atlanta is only going to be the home of the team for two seasons. Then it will be back on the move, as the team will be playing in St. Louis for the 2005-2006 season. At least the fans can enjoy the first few games while they are in Calgary, as they will play the Oilers and Detroit. But after that, it’s sure to be a lot of home games for the team. Ex-Sabres Move North The ex-Sabres were originally going to be leaving for Seattle, but that deal never materialized. The team is planning to make that move at some point in the near future, but the timing is still up in the air. However, if the league approves of the move, expect them to move to North Carolina at some point in the next five years. The only question mark at the moment is that they have not announced where their season tickets will be sold. It’s unlikely that a team that started out so poorly will be moving to Seattle in the near future. Although the team did make a very good move with their draft picks, they still have very few players that are good enough to make an impact with the league. This won’t be a season where fans will be able to expect many victories. Ex-Hurricanes Build From Within The 2005-2006 season will be a rebuilding season for the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes may not be able to buy any player, so it will be interesting to see if they can build from within to build up for a playoff push next year. They are hoping that some of the young players will make a jump this year to help fill in the gap with players like Rod Brind’amour