This week we will begin our look at the Core Four of every NHL team with myself in the Western Conference and Brennan Des covering the Eastern Conference with the Eastern Edge column.

I've done Core Three for a few years but this will be the first time I’ve done four players for each team. Admittedly in the past, a few teams struggled to even have two or three, so this should be interesting and it might be a struggle to name four..

The Core Four are the players from each roster, who should be the foundation for their team to build off of over the next three to five years.

Anaheim Ducks

Trevor Zegras (F) (22 years old) – Zegras has had back-to-back 23-goal seasons while putting up over 60 points consecutively. He has some work to do in the faceoff circle (41.4%) and defensively in his own end before becoming a superstar. Zegras is still heavily sheltered (66.3% OZ starts) and will need to reduce this in his third NHL season. He will need to raise his shot rate (2.3/g) if he is to score 30 goals or more in the future. He's currently an RFA so it will be interesting to see what he re-signs for in Anaheim.

Mason McTavish (F) (20) – As a rookie, McTavish had 26 points in his first 43 games and faded a little in the second half with 17 points in 37 games. He ended up with 17 goals and 26 assists in 80 games. He will need to improve in the faceoff circle (42.3%) but he's already been given more defensive responsibility than Zegras (43.8% OZ starts) which over time should mean more ice time than the 15:22 he averaged.

Troy Terry (F) (26) – Terry is a bit of a band-aid boy with a career-high of 75 games played in his five years in the league. Last year he had 23 goals and 38 assists in 70 games, which was down a little from 2021-2022 where he had 37 goals. With the addition to the roster of Alex Killorn it could cut into some prime time for Terry. Like Zegras above, Terry is an RFA.

Leo Carlsson/Olen Zellweger/Pavel Mintyukov (F/D/D) (18/20/19) – This is kind of cheating to include three players here, but I think that Carlsson and one of Zellweger or Mintyukov will be on this list in the next year or two. My pick would be Mintyukov as I think he's a little more NHL ready than Zellweger on defense and Carlsson could be two years away from the NHL. I do think one of these three will emerge in 2023-2024.

Arizona Coyotes

Clayton Keller (F) (25) – Keller has arrived. He had 37 goals and 49 assists in 82 games and now has 149 points in his last 149 games. He's an established point per game player at this point. If Arizona can improve their power play from 24th overall, there might be some more points on the table for Keller.

Lawson Crouse (F) (26) – On most rosters, Crouse is a very valuable roster piece but not a core player. He's had back to back 20 goal seasons and is always around 200 hits while averaging over 17 minutes per game. He is signed for four more years at $4.3 million AAV.

Barrett Hayton (F) (23) – The 5th overall pick in 2018 has taken his time to get to this point. I think he finally arrived after the first quarter point in 2022-2023. He had just three assists in his first 20 games, but turned it on from there with 19 goals and 21 assists in 62 games. He should be the number one center for the Coyotes in 2023-2024 as he's adept in the faceoff circle (51.1%) and decent defensively.

Logan Cooley (F) (19) – The 3rd overall pick in 2022 dominated in his first US college season at the University of Minnesota with 22 goals and 38 assists in 39 games. He's already stated he is heading back for year two, so his earliest time line is 2024-2025 in Arizona.  He has some similarities with Keller, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli in that they are all under-sized forwards who like to control the play. There is usually space for two or three players like that, so four might force the Coyotes to move one.

Calgary Flames

Jonathan Huberdeau (F) (30) – The Flames need Huberdeau to be much better than his 15 goals and 40 assists in 79 games. Huberdeau will never reach 115 points in Calgary but they would like him to be in the 85 to 90 range on a regular basis. He's signed until the end of the 2030-2031 season at $10.5 million AAV. He's automatically a core player just on his contract alone.

Nazem Kadri (F) (33) – Kadri will be 33 years old when the regular season begins and will still have six years remaining at $7 million AAV. His 24 goals and 32 assists in 82 games is more in line with what we should expect from Kadri instead of his 87 points in 71 games he had with Colorado the year before. Kadri is included here with a caveat that Elias Lindholm moves on from the Flames in the final year of his contract.

Rasmus Andersson (D) (27) – Andersson has three more years at $4.55 million AAV which is a very good deal for the Flames. He's had 50 and 49 points in each of the past two seasons and has had over 125 blocks in each as well. He's not a top-end PP quarterback, but the Flames don't have anything better as a prospect or on their current roster.

Mackenzie Weegar (D) (29) – Weegar re-upped with Calgary for eight more years at $6.25 million AAV. This made him a core player instantly, but the Flames will hope he is a little better than the four goals, 27 assists, 186 hits and 117 blocks. They want 44 points, 179 hits and 156 blocks from 2021-2022 Weegar.

I can't include Elias Lindholm (28) here as he is a pending UFA. If he re-signs with the Flames, he replaces Kadri in my opinion. If Lindholm doesn't re-sign, this will hurt the Flames big time as I believe he is their best overall player. The stark contrast in age of the Flames core with Anaheim and Arizona is troubling for Calgary as they don't really have anyone coming through their system who screams that they could belong here one day.

Chicago Blackhawks

Connor Bedard (F) (18) – Bedard doesn't even turn 18 for another week but is the most talented rookie to join the NHL since Connor McDavid in 2015-2016. He's vital to the Blackhawks if they have any hope of competing in two or three years and he's important to the league who need him to succeed. Bedard doesn't need anything handed to him as he would undoubtedly earn it on his own, but I think Luke Richardson will skip the usual hurdles and go right to first line duties at ES and the PP. 

Seth Jones (D) (29) – There might not be a happier guy in Chicago than Jones with the arrival of Bedard. His seven years remaining at $9.5 million AAV won't be the primary focus of disgruntled fans in the short-term. He has had 17 goals and 71 assists in 150 games in Chicago, but unfortunately he is also a minus 75 over that same period. Hopefully Kevin Korchinski can take some of the pressure off of Jones in running the PP.

Kevin Korchinski (D) (19) – Korchinski was the 7th overall pick in 2022 and just turned 19 so I'm not sure he will be ready to crack the NHL in 2023-2024. Last year he played 54 games with Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL and had 11 goals and 62 assists. If it doesn't happen for Korchinski next year, he's still the best option for an offensive defensemen moving forward for Chicago.

Lukas Reichel (F) (21) – Reichel should get a spot in the top-six this year after putting up 15 points in 23 games last year. The 17th overall pick from 2020 has played 111 AHL games and has 41 goals and 67 assists so there isn't much else he can do at that level.  Like most fantasy takeaways, there is hope that he finds some instant chemistry with Bedard and goes off in production.

The core should be a snapshot of the franchise at a particular time and should reflect where the team is at in terms of competing for the Stanley Cup. The ideal core should be between 22 and 27 years of age and either approaching their peak or in the midst of it. Teams with younger cores who are still prospects, should be in their rebuild or retool phase. Teams with older cores are more than likely approaching the closing of their competitive windows and if they don't have the younger prospects becoming potential core members.

Next week we will look at Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton and Los Angeles.

Thanks very much for reading and if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15