Five defensive prospects who could help you win your pool in 2013-14.

Many NHL teams are entering this offseason with the mandate to clear cap space, as the salary cap is dropping to $64.3 million for the 2013-14 season. And because of that, there will be a lot of roster openings around the league. Young players are very valuable in situations like these, as their rookie contracts typically carry very low salary cap hits. However, they need to be ready for the NHL game, particularly as defensemen. It isn’t easy to step in and log top four (or even bottom pairing) minutes as a rookie.

Read on for five lesser-known defensive prospects that are primed to make an impact in 2013-14.

Roos takes a look at non-playoff teams and gives suggestions on which players will improve and who will disappoint in 2013-14. First up - the Eastern Conference

This time of year, most fantasy hockey enthusiasts are either closely following their guys in the playoffs or taking a break until free agent signings begin during the summer. The problem is that both approaches ignore the players on the 14 teams which didn’t make the NHL playoffs, and risks an “out of sight, out of mind” situation where you won’t be able to remember enough about these players when the time comes for retentions or offseason deals.

Here is the first of a two-part column about players on non-playoffs teams (this week covering the Eastern Conference teams, next week the Western Conference), focusing on two players from each team – one who I think is a good bet to improve next season, and another who I feel will disappoint.