NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

Just as Nashville Predators defenseman Seth Jones was talking about feeling less stress going into his second season because he has more certainty about his job, his surroundings, his game and the NHL as a whole, he realized all of that might not be true.

"I do have a new coach, so it's almost like doing it again," Jones said.

Jones doesn't have anything to worry about there.

Predators coach Peter Laviolette is one of Jones' biggest fans. He said Jones, who will turn 20 on Oct. 3, is ready to take the next step in his career, to being a more consistent, offensive-minded, minute-munching defenseman in Nashville.

TORONTO -- If the Toronto Maple Leafs are able to stay in the picture for a Stanley Cup Playoff spot deep into the season, they'll likely be able to look back at the competition they created in training camp as a big reason why.

"Players are going to have to perform or they're not going to get the ice time they expect," Maple Leafs general manager Dave Nonis said.

Some might not get any ice time at all with the Maple Leafs if it works out the way Nonis, president Brendan Shanahan and coach Randy Carlyle have it planned.

In the post-mortem to the Maple Leafs 2013-14 season, Toronto executives and Carlyle deduced lack of depth and experience were two correctable reasons for why the team fell short of a Stanley Cup Playoff spot.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

Erik Karlsson has watched as the longtime face of the Ottawa Senators has changed during the past 15 months.

The changes began when Daniel Alfredsson stunned many who thought he would sport the Senators crest for life when he signed as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings on July 5, 2013. This summer the Senators honored the trade request of Jason Spezza, who had succeeded Alfredsson as captain, sending him to the Dallas Stars.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

Blake Wheeler wants you to know that he's got a great job, and nobody -- not his Winnipeg Jets teammates, not the prospects in St. John's, not you -- is taking it off his hands anytime soon.

"You always have that feeling from when you were a young player in the League," Wheeler said. "You never want to miss a shift, you never want to miss a rep, because there's always somebody gunning for your job. So the more you can be on the ice, the better. You never want to miss any time."

Since entering the NHL with the Boston Bruins in 2008-09, Wheeler barely has. In six seasons, the 28-year-old has missed four games. He last sat out on Jan. 17, 2012, after being hit in the throat with a puck two games prior. Over the 166 consecutive games since, Wheeler has solidified his position as one of the most reliable and consistent performers in the League.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

The Ottawa Senators are at a crossroads as they embark on the 2014-15 season. Will they continue along the path of inconsistent play that plagued them throughout last season and ultimately left them short of a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third time in the past six years, or will they recover to become the "Pesky Sens" that advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2013?

Ottawa followed up a season-opening win with just three more victories in its next 13 games (3-6-4). The Senators went 7-10-3 from mid-November until late December, and a 7-2 road loss to the Boston Bruins before the break for the Sochi Olympics began another bad run. Their ill-timed 2-8-2 skid included a crushing 5-4 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens on March 15, when Ottawa blew a three-goal lead with less than four minutes remaining in the third period.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

The Winnipeg Jets believe they can make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated to Winnipeg despite a roster mostly left intact after the team finished at the bottom of the Central Division last season.

However, the to-do list is lengthy for coach Paul Maurice, who will begin his first full season with the Jets.

The Jets' power play was 25th in the League, and their 18 home wins were the second-fewest in the Western Conference.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

"If" is the operative word for the Winnipeg Jets this season, but they believe that they have answered at least one question so far.

The Jets' goaltending, power play and defensive depth remain major issues, but coach Paul Maurice also identified the team's fitness level as a critical area for improvement after he replaced Claude Noel on Jan. 12. Since then, a commitment to fitness has become a constant throughout the organization.

Maurice could not save the Jets from a seventh-place finish in the Central Division, but he brought optimism and accountability to an organization that struggled in its adjustment to the Western Conference.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2014-15 season, which will include in-depth looks at all 30 teams throughout September.

General manager Bryan Murray has set the bar for what will be the measure of success for the Ottawa Senators in 2014-15, and it is nothing less than a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Murray's expectations might seem like a tall order for a team that finished 11th in the Eastern Conference last season, particularly now that the Senators have lost the point-per-game production of No. 1 center Jason Spezza (687 points in 686 games), whose wish to leave Canada's capital was accommodated by a trade to the Dallas Stars.

The loss of Spezza's offense, however, is hardly the only priority the Senators will have to address to reach Murray's goal. Here are Ottawa's three keys to success:

The Minnesota Wild had three goaltenders on hand Friday when they hit the ice for the first time at training camp. But they weren't the three general manager Chuck Fletcher and coach Mike Yeo were banking on all summer.

Darcy Kuemper arrived at camp after signing a two-year, one-way contract worth $2.5 million. Also present was Ilya Bryzgalov, who went 7-1-3 down the stretch last season with the Wild, wasn't re-signed, but was invited to camp on a tryout contract this week after Josh Harding broke his right foot in an off-ice incident.

Harding, who's expected to miss at least two months, has been suspended by the Wild. He was expected to compete with Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom for the starting job.

Kuemper, who was 12-8-4 after Harding and Backstrom were lost to season-ending injuries in 2013-14, was happy to be back.

"It was a longer summer than I expected it to be, but I'm super-excited to get it done and to be back here," he said after practice at Xcel Energy Center. "Now that it's over, I'm just looking forward to the season and trying to pick up where we were last year and build off the success we've been having lately."

OTTAWA -- Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean and forward Bobby Ryan are looking at evolving their identities this season.

For MacLean, the NHL's coach of the year two seasons ago, it's a softening of the edge he felt was needed last season, but one that turned out to be too sharp.

For Ryan, who is coming off surgery for a sports hernia, it's an expanded role as he enters the last season of his contract and ponders his future and how he might fit into the Senators' picture over the long term. He can become an unrestricted free agent after the 2014-15 season.

How well the two grow and adapt to changing roles will go a long way toward determining the Senators' success this season, and, ultimately Ryan's future with the team.

As the Senators prepared to take off Friday for Newfoundland and a doubleheader of preseason games against the New York Islanders on Monday, MacLean was asked how he could be a better coach this season.

"Win more games?" he said. "Besides that? I think I just have to be myself. We ask the players to be themselves. I think it's important that I be myself and do what I do."