The rosters are set and the 2014-15 NHL season is ready to commence.

With four games Wednesday night and 12 more Thursday, numerous players will be making their NHL debuts. Some, like the Tampa Bay Lightning's Jonathan Drouin or the Calgary Flames' Johnny Gaudreau, entered training camp as favorites to end up on the opening night roster.

Others are more of a surprise, and earned a place on the roster when it wasn't expected. Here's a look at some of the players who might cause fans to say, "Who are these guys?"

William Karlsson, Anaheim Ducks

Karlsson, 21, was expected to battle fellow Swede Rickard Rakell for a role at center behind Ryan Getlzaf and Ryan Kesler, but both players ended up making it. A second-round pick (No. 53) in 2011, Karlsson led HV71 in scoring (37 points in 55 games) in the Swedish Hockey League in 2013-14 before putting up 12 points in 17 American Hockey League games at the end of the season.

The bad taste has been in the mouths of the San Jose Sharks ever since they were eliminated by the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

After building a 3-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, the Sharks lost four straight, become the fourth team in NHL history to lose four in a row after winning the first three games of a playoff series.

Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons.

San Jose will try to take its first step toward redemption when it opens the season at Los Angeles on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN1), but first the Sharks will have to watch the Kings raise their championship banner to the rafters of Staples Center.

LOS ANGELES -- Even if they wanted to try, the San Jose Sharks can't avoid it now.

High above their heads when the puck drops on the Sharks' 2014-15 season Wednesday at Staples Center against the Los Angeles Kings (10 p.m. ET, NBCSN, SN1) will be a new Stanley Cup championship banner that for all intents and purposes could have been theirs.

The Sharks would have at least had as good a shot as any team had they avoided a historical collapse.

"Any time I think of the Kings or our team thinks of the Kings we remember what happened last year," Sharks center Logan Couture said. "The memory of last year will still be pretty fresh for a lot of guys."

CHICAGO -- Poise was the theme of the day for the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday and, really, for all of the preseason.

It's the reason rookie defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk has shown surprising control with the puck on his stick. It's why coach Joel Quenneville isn't afraid to break up one of his best defense pairings, Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmarsson, for what he thinks will create better balance on the back end. It's what allowed general manager Stan Bowman to keep a calm, measured approach to the fact the Blackhawks went almost the entire offseason with a payroll hovering above the $69 million salary cap.

The trade of former defenseman Nick Leddy to the New York Islanders on Saturday barely got the Blackhawks under the cap, but nobody associated with the team even broke a sweat about it, least of all Bowman.

New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh considers it quite an honor to be named the 27th captain in franchise history.

McDonagh met the media Tuesday for the first time since he was named captain Monday.

"This is an Original Six team, so it means a lot," McDonagh said according to NorthJersey.com. "The expectation that this organization expects from its players and obviously its leaders, you're expected to carry yourself very well on and off the ice.

"It's something I'm very aware of and something that I'm going to continue to work at, and I'm very fortunate to have a great group of leaders around me."

The Rangers on Monday also named four alternate captains, defensemen Marc Staal and Dan Girardi and forwards Martin St. Louis and Derek Stepan.

The Stanley Cup will stay in the Western Conference for a fourth straight season if the majority of NHL.com and NHL Network experts are correct.

Six members of the 11-person panel predicted the Chicago Blackhawks would win the Stanley Cup for third time in six seasons, following championships in 2010 and 2013.

The Los Angeles Kings were the choice of four members of the panel, who believe the NHL will have a repeat Stanley Cup champion for the first time since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and 1998.

The Boston Bruins, the only Eastern Conference team to win the Cup since 2011, was the lone East team picked to win the championship.

Though the panel was pretty evenly split between Chicago and Los Angeles winning the Western Conference, the Eastern Conference champ featured more varied opinions. Seven made the Boston Bruins the pick, while two others picked the Tampa Bay Lightning. One panelist picked the Montreal Canadiens and one went for the defending Eastern Conference champion New York Rangers.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- There was a feeling of optimism on the ice at Nassau Coliseum on Monday, perhaps an ever greater feeling than when the New York Islanders opened training camp less than three weeks ago.

Already expected to vie for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, the Islanders bolstered their chances Saturday when they acquired defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy. The newest Islanders practiced for the first time Monday and afterward expressed their excitement of helping New York take that long awaited next step.

"Holy mackerel," Boychuk said as he entered the dressing room after practice to a horde of reporters eager to get his response to the trade that sent two second-round draft picks and a conditional third-round draft pick to the Boston Bruins.

"So far so good," Boychuk said. "It was a nice welcoming. Everybody came up and was friendly, and so far it's been a good transition.

"It was a quick pack, but it's an easy move because it's only a four-hour drive so it wasn't too bad. It'll be a good test for us come Friday [against the Carolina Hurricanes in the season opener]."

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which begins Wednesday, Oct. 8.

Summer may be the most enjoyable season for many people, but when it comes to NHL teams, they want to put off the start to their summers as long as possible.

But for the six Western Conference teams that missed out on the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoff party, their goal since the second week of April has been figuring out how to extend their seasons into May -- or even June, like the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings.

So how can the teams that missed the fun turn into postseason hits? As training camps open this month, NHL.com today examines why fans of the unlucky six can hold onto their playoff hopes:

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which begins Wednesday, Oct. 8.

With the start of the regular season a week away, the pressure is starting to build for some players who know they'll have to be big-time producers for their teams to improve or contend.

Here's a look at a player from each of the 14 teams in the Western Conference who'll be under pressure to perform as soon as the puck drops:

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which begins Wednesday, Oct. 8.

With the start of the season a week away, NHL teams are working feverishly to figure out how to patch holes and put the right faces in the right places.

It's not easy. Even the best teams have questions that have to be answered, hopefully before the season opens.

Here's a look at a key question facing each team in the Western Conference: