This week we will look at the final four teams in the West after we reviewed Minnesota, Nashville, San Jose and Seattle last week, Colorado, Dallas, Edmonton and Los Angeles the week before and Anaheim, Arizona, Calgary and Chicago here.

Brennan Des is doing the same thing with the Eastern Conference here.

Erik Karlsson was traded from San Jose to Pittsburgh and was one of my Core Four for San Jose. Will Smith was the fourth overall pick for San Jose in the 2022 draft and until another prospect emerges, he probably slots in place of Karlsson now.

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.

St. Louis Blues

Jordan Kyrou (F) (25 years old) – Kyrou increased his shots per game from 2.5 to 3.4 and in the process raised his goals from 27 to 37 while keeping his shooting percentage around 14 percent. He is signed until the end of 2030-31 at $8.125 million AAV and will need to maintain about a point per game or better to bring the Blues value as he doesn't bring a physical or defensive game to the table.

Robert Thomas (F) (24) – Like Kyrou above, Thomas is signed until the end of 2030-31 at $8.125 million AAV. While he likely won't score more than 20-25 goals per season, he is a distributor of the puck who has 103 assists in his past 145 games. He's improved in the faceoff circle from 49.8 percent to 52.9 and has improved defensively. One thing to monitor is his even strength points went down from 63 to 42.

Brayden Schenn (F) (32) – Schenn is signed for five more years at $6.5 million AAV. While it might not be ideal to have a second-line center as a piece of your core, Schenn would be a coveted center on most NHL teams. He has played 852 career games and will turn 32 in October. He has settled into 20-25 goals and 35-40 assists and still posts a few hits (140 in 2022-23). The fear with fairly physical players is that they tend to decline in their early 30s and that is where Schenn is now.

Justin Faulk (D) (31) – Faulk has four years remaining on his contract at $6.5 million AAV. After his first two seasons in St. Louis, I was pretty critical of the seven-year deal that they had extended to Faulk. He has turned it around since 2021-22 with 47 and 50 points while posting back-to-back 100 hits and 100 blocks. The last three years of his contract are all under $4.75 million in salary.

Vancouver Canucks

Elias Pettersson (F) (24) – Pettersson broke out for 40 goals and 102 points in 2022-23. He also surprisingly posted 74 hits and 89 blocks (2nd in the NHL among forwards) and increased his shots per game from 2.4 to 3.2 while maintaining a shooting percentage of 15.5 percent. The most impressive stat for Pettersson in my mind was his increase in even strength points from 41 to 77. There is still some room for improvement on the power play and in the face-off circle but other than that he's a superstar. He's a restricted free agent after 2023-24 so the Canucks will look to lock him up long-term.

Quinn Hughes (D) (24) – Hughes has 144 points in his past 154 games with 65 of those coming on the power play. He's the best PP quarterback the Canucks have had since Paul Reinhart and has four years remaining at $7.85 million AAV before he becomes unrestricted. His defensive game has taken some pretty big strides and his ability to skate or pass the puck out of his own end is dazzling at times.

J.T. Miller (F) (30) – While Miller's $8 million AAV deal with seven years remaining might not age well, he's a core piece for the next two or three years at the very least. While the power play flows through Quinn Hughes, it flows through Miller next as evidenced by his 69 PPPs compared to Pettersson's 52. While his 99 points from 2021-22 might be out of reach he can certainly reach into the upper 80s once again.

Thatcher Demko (G) (27) – The Canucks desperately need Demko to be the 91.5 save percentage Demko rather than the 90.1 Demko from last season. He was injured for much of 2022-23 and will get a fresh start on a Canucks team who should be better in their own end. Demko has three years remaining at $5 million AAV.

Vegas Golden Knights

Alex Pietrangelo (D) (33) – The Golden Knights will be looking to repeat, so naturally their core is a little older than most teams. Pietrangelo had 54 points in 73 games along with 177 blocks while averaging over 24 minutes per game. He is still matched up against the highest quality players on other teams and doing well. He is signed for four more years at $8.8 million AAV.

Mark Stone (F) (31) – Stone has only played more than 75 games once since 2016-17. He's only 31, but it feels like he is about 36 years old with his troubling back issues. He has managed to play 80 games over the past two seasons and had 26 goals and 42 assists. It is the playoffs where he really shines as he has played 68 games with Vegas in four years and has had 29 goals and 32 assists with 24 points in 22 games on the way to winning the Stanley Cup.

Jack Eichel (F) (27) – Eichel was able to play 67 games in 2022-23 which was good news for Vegas as he looked like the player he was before his neck issues in Buffalo. He led the team with 26 points in 22 playoff games. His career-high in points is 82, but there is no reason he can't threaten that in the next little while. He has three years remaining at $10 million AAV.

Shea Theodore (D) (28) – Theodore only has two years remaining at a bargain $5.2 million AAV. I don't believe the Golden Knights will be able to afford to keep him for his next contract, but he is still a core player for the next two years. In 87 playoff games in his time with Vegas he had 13 goals and 47 assists.

Winnipeg Jets

Kyle Connor (F) (26) – The Jets seem to be a team in transition, from one core to another. Connor is still signed for three more years at $7.14 million AAV. He came close to 50 goals in 2021-22 when he had 47 in 79 games and followed that up with 32 goals and 49 assists in 2022-23. He has averaged over 3.0 shots per game in each of the past four seasons.

Josh Morrissey (D) (28) – Morrissey is signed for five more years at $6.25 million AAV which will be a bargain if he can come close to his 16 goals and 60 assists in 78 games. Even if his production comes a little back down to earth, 50-60 points would be impressive. He had 89 hits and 119 blocks to add to his value.

Gabriel Vilardi (F) (24) – It might be a lot of pressure to include Vilardi here who has a career-high of 23 goals and 18 assists and has only played 152 games in the NHL. This speaks to the transition the Jets are in and perhaps the step backwards they have taken. It would be easy to include Nikolaj Ehlers or Mark Scheifele but Ehlers is only signed for this year and next while Scheifele will be a UFA and will likely be dealt at some point. Connor Hellebuyck will also be unrestricted after 2023-24 and is likely to be traded as well.

Cole Perfetti (F) – (21) – Including Perfetti here is similar to including Vilardi as both haven't really proved that they can carry a team at the NHL level. With all the impending departures in the forward group, Perfetti should get a good shot at sticking in the top-six sooner than later. He just needs to stay healthy and progress from his 30 points in 51 games.

As mentioned in prior weeks, 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 it could spell some lean time ahead.

That concludes the Western Conference Core Fours. Let me know if you have some different players you would have included.

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