Unlike the Eastern Conference, the West is a gigantic dogpile of teams vying for any semblance of playoff relevance. A relentless fight full of parity, developing franchises, revivals, and headaches aplenty. For every Los Angeles, there's an Edmonton struggling to gain traction. Not to mention off-ice turmoil for teams like Arizona and Calgary leaving their futures in their home cities in question (Calgary's is pretty surprising, to say the least).
For these sixteen teams? Anything goes. Except for Seattle, who've just shown us that they're an expansion team. Vegas really fooled us as to the potential success of first-year teams, didn't they?