few all minor (or mostly minor) teams will be able to compete from day 1, thus the rationale for people picking sharks1 as an early favorite. they are mostly (all?) major and most have tier 1 experience.
for that same reason, oc1 (02s) and ducks1 (02s) are in the same grouping.
the minor teams with tier 1 experience will catch up a bit to the mixed teams, but hard to skate against a 15 yr old in january and february.