Regular season predictions 2021-22

I thought we could start having fun while we wait for the season starts.

Looks like most moves have been made but I say orders of prediction can be edited until the puck drops on the regular season.

Here’s my prediction of the standings and who makes the playoffs this year.
Atlantic
Tampa x
Toronto x
Florida x
Boston
Montreal
Ottawa
Detroit
Buffalo

Metropolitan
NYI x
Carolina x
Philadelphia x
Washington x
NYR x
Pittsburg
New Jersey
Columbus

Central
Colorado x
Minnesota x
Winnipeg x
ST-Louis x
Dallas
Chicago
Nashville
Arizona

Pacific
Vegas x
Edmonton x
Calgary x
Los Angeles x
Seattle
Anaheim
Vancouver
San Jose

No big surprises here.
Few things of notice.

It’s a toss up on wether Boston makes the playoffs or not with the NYR. I expect they will both fight it off for the last wildcard.

The isles and Carolina will be in a dead heat for first in the Met.

Ottawa could beat out montreal in the standing but I’m still think they don’t.

The west is fairly weak. I think colorado wins the presidents trophy and probably
the cup if they don’t get too injured.

LA makes a return to the playoffs thanks to the kids and a weak conference.

Anaheim could finish higher than Seattle.

I expect San Jose will fight Arizona for the last spot in the league.

Edit : with crosby and malkin out to start the season. I don’t see Pittsburg asking the playoffs.
Also think that with all the recent moves the isles have made, they lead the conference.

I now expect the finals to be the Islanders vs colorado

Tampa will struggle big time. Off-season surgeries, they lost a ton of support players, Cup hangover. Book it. They'll still make the playoffs, of course, but there's no way they finish first. I'm still not sold on Florida. Sooner or later I'll be wrong but who knows. I also don't see any way that Montreal finishes ahead of Ottawa. Just don't see it. Sure, Dvorak is an upgrade over last season's Kotkaniemi but he's certainly not the player that management hoped KK would become. They've lost a ton on the defensive side with Danault and, of course, Weber; and Price is a year older -- again! Boston lost Krejci, Rask, Kuraly, Miller. Is *this* the year age and turnover finally catches up with them? Gotta happen sooner or later. Leafs may do well if Mrazek lives up to expectations. I think it'll be a tough year for him adjusting to the spotlight.

While I don't think the Sens will win the Division I have a strong feeling they will be a heck of a lot more competitive than they were at the start of last season. If Murray can keep it together they will make the playoffs.

I like where your head is at with most picks. A few notable differences:

Atlantic
Tampa x
Florida x - Don't underestimate the Panthers who have the best goaltending tandem in the NHL
Toronto x - Takes a step back. Will hit a tough stretch half way through the season that messes with their confidence
Ottawa - Biggest jump. They get reliable goaltending and finish the year strong with Sanderson in the lineup. Pinto and Stutzle take big jumps.
Boston - Don't underestimate the importance of Krejci. Bergeron's in a contract year and the Bruins depth isn't what it used to be.
Montreal - No center depth will be their achilles heel.
Detroit - Blah
Buffalo - Blah x 2

Metropolitan
Carolina x
NYI x
Pittsburgh x - Barely edges out the Flyers. End of Pittsburgh's window.
Philadelphia x
NYR X - Fox continues where he left off and Lafrenniere has a bounce back season.
New Jersey - Defense is greatly improved and Jack Hughes shows up to play
Washington - The tank is getting empty. Suspect goaltending, ageing core.
Columbus - Going to be a long season.

Central
Colorado x
Chicago x - Biggest off-season adjustments plus the return of Toews and Dach
Minnesota x
Winnipeg x - Defense continues to be atrocious
Dallas - Another year of superstars underperforming.
St-Louis - Will be down Schwartz and Tarasenko
Nashville
Arizona

Pacific
Vegas x
Edmonton x
Vancouver x - Healthy Petersson and lots of off-season moves gets them back in the playoffs.
Los Angeles x
Seattle - Will miss the playoffs but momentum of inaugural season sees them win lots of home games
Calgary - Going to be a looooong season
Anaheim - Zegras wins ROY
San Jose - Don't know where they go from here...

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I like where your head is at with most picks. A few notable differences:

Atlantic
Tampa x
Florida x - Don't underestimate the Panthers who have the best goaltending tandem in the NHL
Toronto x - Takes a step back. Will hit a tough stretch half way through the season that messes with their confidence
Ottawa - Biggest jump. They get reliable goaltending and finish the year strong with Sanderson in the lineup. Pinto and Stutzle take big jumps.
Boston - Don't underestimate the importance of Krejci. Bergeron's in a contract year and the Bruins depth isn't what it used to be.
Montreal - No center depth will be their achilles heel.
Detroit - Blah
Buffalo - Blah x 2

Metropolitan
Carolina x
NYI x
Pittsburgh x - Barely edges out the Flyers. End of Pittsburgh's window.
Philadelphia x
NYR X - Fox continues where he left off and Lafrenniere has a bounce back season.
New Jersey - Defense is greatly improved and Jack Hughes shows up to play
Washington - The tank is getting empty. Suspect goaltending, ageing core.
Columbus - Going to be a long season.

Central
Colorado x
Chicago x - Biggest off-season adjustments plus the return of Toews and Dach
Minnesota x
Winnipeg x - Defense continues to be atrocious
Dallas - Another year of superstars underperforming.
St-Louis - Will be down Schwartz and Tarasenko  
Nashville
Arizona

Pacific
Vegas x
Edmonton x
Vancouver x - Healthy Petersson and lots of off-season moves gets them back in the playoffs.
Los Angeles x
Seattle - Will miss the playoffs but momentum of inaugural season sees them win lots of home games
Calgary - Going to be a looooong season
Anaheim - Zegras wins ROY
San Jose - Don't know where they go from here...

Sanderson on the team in Ottawa?

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I like where your head is at with most picks. A few notable differences:

Atlantic
Tampa x
Florida x - Don't underestimate the Panthers who have the best goaltending tandem in the NHL
Toronto x - Takes a step back. Will hit a tough stretch half way through the season that messes with their confidence
Ottawa - Biggest jump. They get reliable goaltending and finish the year strong with Sanderson in the lineup. Pinto and Stutzle take big jumps.
Boston - Don't underestimate the importance of Krejci. Bergeron's in a contract year and the Bruins depth isn't what it used to be.
Montreal - No center depth will be their achilles heel.
Detroit - Blah
Buffalo - Blah x 2

Metropolitan
Carolina x
NYI x
Pittsburgh x - Barely edges out the Flyers. End of Pittsburgh's window.
Philadelphia x
NYR X - Fox continues where he left off and Lafrenniere has a bounce back season.
New Jersey - Defense is greatly improved and Jack Hughes shows up to play
Washington - The tank is getting empty. Suspect goaltending, ageing core.
Columbus - Going to be a long season.

Central
Colorado x
Chicago x - Biggest off-season adjustments plus the return of Toews and Dach
Minnesota x
Winnipeg x - Defense continues to be atrocious
Dallas - Another year of superstars underperforming.
St-Louis - Will be down Schwartz and Tarasenko  
Nashville
Arizona

Pacific
Vegas x
Edmonton x
Vancouver x - Healthy Petersson and lots of off-season moves gets them back in the playoffs.
Los Angeles x
Seattle - Will miss the playoffs but momentum of inaugural season sees them win lots of home games
Calgary - Going to be a looooong season
Anaheim - Zegras wins ROY
San Jose - Don't know where they go from here...

I just think Ottawa might have a few players not slumping but not taking the biggest jump either.
I think Vancouver is a Dung show.

St. Louis added salad and buchnevich so I think they’re about the same.

Chicago will be better but not enough to beat Minnesota

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I like where your head is at with most picks. A few notable differences:

Atlantic
Tampa x
Florida x - Don't underestimate the Panthers who have the best goaltending tandem in the NHL
Toronto x - Takes a step back. Will hit a tough stretch half way through the season that messes with their confidence
Ottawa - Biggest jump. They get reliable goaltending and finish the year strong with Sanderson in the lineup. Pinto and Stutzle take big jumps.
Boston - Don't underestimate the importance of Krejci. Bergeron's in a contract year and the Bruins depth isn't what it used to be.
Montreal - No center depth will be their achilles heel.
Detroit - Blah
Buffalo - Blah x 2

Metropolitan
Carolina x
NYI x
Pittsburgh x - Barely edges out the Flyers. End of Pittsburgh's window.
Philadelphia x
NYR X - Fox continues where he left off and Lafrenniere has a bounce back season.
New Jersey - Defense is greatly improved and Jack Hughes shows up to play
Washington - The tank is getting empty. Suspect goaltending, ageing core.
Columbus - Going to be a long season.

Central
Colorado x
Chicago x - Biggest off-season adjustments plus the return of Toews and Dach
Minnesota x
Winnipeg x - Defense continues to be atrocious
Dallas - Another year of superstars underperforming.
St-Louis - Will be down Schwartz and Tarasenko  
Nashville
Arizona

Pacific
Vegas x
Edmonton x
Vancouver x - Healthy Petersson and lots of off-season moves gets them back in the playoffs.
Los Angeles x
Seattle - Will miss the playoffs but momentum of inaugural season sees them win lots of home games
Calgary - Going to be a looooong season
Anaheim - Zegras wins ROY
San Jose - Don't know where they go from here...

I just think Ottawa might have a few players not slumping but not taking the biggest jump either.
I think Vancouver is a Dung show.

St. Louis added salad and buchnevich so I think they’re about the same.

Chicago will be better but not enough to beat Minnesota

I expect Minnesota to take a step back this year. Not a big one but Chicago has added Toews, Tyler Johnson, Dach, Jones, and Fleury. These guys are all huge additions especially with Toews and Kane contracts expiring in two years. They're going to make a big push for a spot and probably add a big piece at the deadline.

Theoretically Ottawa will have four lines who can forecheck, play defense, and score goals. If Pinto makes the team out of camp as the 2C I expect both he and Stutzle will be a force to be reckoned with flanked by C. Brown.

Vancouver isn't bad. They dealt with a ton of injuries last year. A healthy Pettersson + Garland, OEL, and a super deep blueline will make things interesting. It's weird how they're handling Boeser noting that Hughes and Pettersoon may each make $9M on their next RFA deal. Not sure how they're going to be able to round out their roster this year given the fact that they don't have the cap room to sign their two best players.

wprager wrote:

While I don't think the Sens will win the Division I have a strong feeling they will be a heck of a lot more competitive than they were at the start of last season.  If Murray can keep it together they will make the playoffs.

In addition to the goaltending being a bit of a question mark, our defense is still pretty bad. It's been a while since we had a "good" goalie in the regular season, but our defense has stunk for a while, so it can be tough to figure out which is a bigger problem.

I'm actually not feeling too bad about our D. It's all about time-management. I feel comfortable saying it's better than what we had last year and our D was much better with Brann in the lineup especially when paired with Zub. Del Zotto also put up good numbers in Columbus and Holden is our unknown but could be pretty solid.

Chabot-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Zub
MDZ-Holden

Another option would be to put Brannstrom on his off-wing which is probably the best-case scenario but Brann needs to play with a partner and get a lot of reps instead of having a partner carousel:

Chabot-Zaitsev
MDZ-Zub
Holden-Brannstrom

Still weird to me that we're carrying Mete and J.Brown when we have some good call-up options in the AHL (JBD, Thomson, Aspirot)

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I'm actually not feeling too bad about our D. It's all about time-management. I feel comfortable saying it's better than what we had last year and our D was much better with Brann in the lineup especially when paired with Zub. Del Zotto also put up good numbers in Columbus and Holden is our unknown but could be pretty solid.

Chabot-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Zub
MDZ-Holden

Another option would be to put Brannstrom on his off-wing which is probably the best-case scenario but Brann needs to play with a partner and get a lot of reps instead of having a partner carousel:

Chabot-Zaitsev
MDZ-Zub
Holden-Brannstrom

Still weird to me that we're carrying Mete and J.Brown when we have some good call-up options in the AHL (JBD, Thomson, Aspirot)

I like mete. Leave those kids in Belleville to develop.

As of today I don’t see MDZ or Brannstrom as a top 4 D and although zaitsev has been better, he’s no number 2.

Apparently Chabot-Zub, MDZ-Zaitsev will start camp at least

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I'm actually not feeling too bad about our D. It's all about time-management. I feel comfortable saying it's better than what we had last year and our D was much better with Brann in the lineup especially when paired with Zub. Del Zotto also put up good numbers in Columbus and Holden is our unknown but could be pretty solid.

Chabot-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Zub
MDZ-Holden

Another option would be to put Brannstrom on his off-wing which is probably the best-case scenario but Brann needs to play with a partner and get a lot of reps instead of having a partner carousel:

Chabot-Zaitsev
MDZ-Zub
Holden-Brannstrom

Still weird to me that we're carrying Mete and J.Brown when we have some good call-up options in the AHL (JBD, Thomson, Aspirot)

I like mete. Leave those kids in Belleville to develop.

As of today I don’t see MDZ or Brannstrom as a top 4 D and although zaitsev has been better, he’s no number 2.

I'm not suggesting they'll win a cup with this D. I am saying they aren't that bad. Middle to lower end of the pack in the East but not the worst IMO. There are a few players out of place, ie: Zaitsev should be a bottom-six not a top-six, Brann needs a good partner, etc

tim1_2 wrote:

wprager wrote:

While I don't think the Sens will win the Division I have a strong feeling they will be a heck of a lot more competitive than they were at the start of last season.  If Murray can keep it together they will make the playoffs.

In addition to the goaltending being a bit of a question mark, our defense is still pretty bad.  It's been a while since we had a "good" goalie in the regular season, but our defense has stunk for a while, so it can be tough to figure out which is a bigger problem.

I can't find a website which will show me SOG stats given a date bracket. But at least with SV% it was night-and-day after trade deadline. It's also fair to say that Chabot did not have a good season -- could be argued he played too many minutes -- so it's not outside the realm of possibilities that he has a bounce-back season. Their D got a lot better when Coburn and Gudbranson were moved (and, fair or unfair, Chabot got injured).

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I'm actually not feeling too bad about our D. It's all about time-management. I feel comfortable saying it's better than what we had last year and our D was much better with Brann in the lineup especially when paired with Zub. Del Zotto also put up good numbers in Columbus and Holden is our unknown but could be pretty solid.

Chabot-Zaitsev
Brannstrom-Zub
MDZ-Holden

Another option would be to put Brannstrom on his off-wing which is probably the best-case scenario but Brann needs to play with a partner and get a lot of reps instead of having a partner carousel:

Chabot-Zaitsev
MDZ-Zub
Holden-Brannstrom

Still weird to me that we're carrying Mete and J.Brown when we have some good call-up options in the AHL (JBD, Thomson, Aspirot)

Contracts being what they are I fully expect Bransstrom to at least start in the AHL. There's no way I see a DJ lineup with two guys well under 6' on the back-end. Also (someone's already mentioned it) DJ wants to try Chabot with Zub. Nothing flashy but they guy was solid.

Sending Brannstrom down can't be good for his confidence. He's too good for the AHL and I don't think there's much more he can learn down there. I suppose pairing him with JBD can't hurt but he needs to be in the NHL or traded at this point.

So I guess Dorion is back to negotiating through the media.

With Garrioch saying this morning that the club has offered an 8x8 deal to Brady, that way I imagine they can do damage control if Brady opts for a bridge.

Of course what’s likely missing from all this info is how the deal is structured.

I imagine Brady would like a deal that sees increase in value as the years progress and debates are also focused on bonuses.

The average fan won’t bother with those details but they make a big difference when it comes to actual dollars for the player.