I believe there needs to be some big movers and shakers in the West. The East has a clear power structure with the best teams being great and the worst teams being far out of the playoff picture. The West on the other hand has 8 teams that could all make the playoffs. I doubt the SHL GMs want to leave their season to an extremely uncertain set of circumstances. My bold prediction for this season is that there is going to be some huge moves made in the west in order for teams to differentiate themselves. This could lead to an all-out arms race. There are bottom feeders in the east who will be selling off any valuable assets they have, and they most likely will want to keep them out of the Eastern Conference. There might also be a team or 2 in the west that gets off to a bad start or realizes they are getting older and might want to hit the reset button. The situation is perfect for some big in-season moves and I believe we are going to see a lot of them!

[189 words]