6 Bold Predictions for Remainder of 2022-23 NHL Season
We are now entering the stretch run for the 2022-23 NHL regular season, and now that all of the rosters are set following the NHL trade deadline it is time to make some bold predictions for the remainder of the year.
The focus of the predictions range from some individual milestones, to potential team successes, to potential team failures.
Let's get into it.
Connor McDavid Will Score 70 Goals
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Connor McDavid is having one of the single most dominant seasons in modern NHL history and is absolutely running away with both the goal scoring and point races.
Entering play Thursday he was on an 82-game pace for 68 goals and more than 150 points.
In the history of the league, only five players have ever topped 65 goals and 150 points in the same season, with Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Phil Esposito, Bernie Nicholls and Steve Yzerman hitting those milestones. Nobody has done it since Lemieux during the 1995-96 season.
Not only should McDavid hit those numbers—barring injury, of course—I am also going to go one step further and say that he will do something that has not been done since the 1992-93 season and reach the 70-goal mark. Teemu Selanne and Alexander Mogilny were the last players to reach 70 goals that year, and McDavid has as good of a chance as anybody to get there.
Lemieux (69 goals in 1995-96) and Alex Ovechkin (65 goals in 2007-08) have been the closest players to the 70-mark since then.
McDavid, at his current pace, is going to be knocking on the door, and he is just one hot streak away from being able to make up the ground he needs.
All of those numbers should make him a slam-dunk MVP winner.
Toronto Finally Advances in the Playoffs
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It has to happen eventually, doesn't it?
The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has not won a playoff series since the 2003-04 season (that is TWO lockouts ago) and has lost six consecutive first-round series with this current core.
There are a couple of different ways to look at that.
The pessimistic way is to say this front office, coaching staff and core simply does not have what it takes to put together a serious Stanley Cup contender, and after more than a half a decade of second- and third-place finishes in their own division, as well as six straight first-round playoff exits, this is all this team is. Especially when the Maple Leafs have lost in so many different ways. As underdogs. As favorites. With big series leads. By being outplayed. By simple bad luck.
The optimistic way of looking at it is that they have lost a bunch of Game 7s that could have gone either way, and that eventually the coin flip has to fall in your favor.
If it does not happen this year, it may never happen.
Not only do the Maple Leafs have one of the league's best teams on paper, they also made some significant additions at the trade deadline to bring in Ryan O'Reilly (who is currently injured but should be ready for the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs), Jake McCabe, Noel Acciari, Luke Schenn and Sam Lafferty.
While they are on course for a first-round matchup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, that series does not look quite as daunting as it did a year ago. At some point the Lightning are going to run out of steam after so many extended playoff runs, and that might be starting to happen this season, as they are badly fading down the stretch and playing their worst hockey of the season.
Everything is aligned for Toronto to finally break through that glass ceiling.
If the Maple Leafs do not? With this roster? With a potentially favorable matchup? After all of those moves? Then it will really be time to make some dramatic changes to the front office, coaching staff and roster.
Dallas Wins the West
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With the Colorado Avalanche having a down year for a variety of reasons, the door is wide-open for somebody unexpected to emerge as the Stanley Cup Final representative from the Western Conference.
Say hello to the Dallas Stars.
The Stars have been one of the conference's top teams from the start of the season and have all of the key ingredients you want to see from a potential Stanley Cup team.
Their top line of Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz is again one of the league's best lines, dominating games when they were on the ice together. Entering play Thursday they were outscoring teams by a 39-18 margin in 577 minutes of five-on-five play.
They also have some improved secondary scoring from a year ago thanks to a bounce-back year from Tyler Seguin, the emergence of rookie Wyatt Johnson and some shrewd trade-deadline additions in Max Domi and Evgenii Dadonov.
Miro Heiskanen is also the type of No. 1 defender every Stanley Cup contender needs who can play big minutes in every situation.
The most important factor: They have Jake Oettinger in goal and nobody else in the Western Conference does.
Oettinger is becoming the type of goalie who can not only mask flaws that exist on a roster, but also the type of goalie who can take over games and single-handedly swing a result or a series. Or perhaps even an entire season.
Every other contender in the West has flaws and questions, including in goal. The Stars do not really have many weaknesses, and the competition around them is down enough that they have the ability to put together a run that could take them all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
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Calgary Overtakes Winnipeg for a Playoff Spot
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Even though the Calgary Flames lost their two best players from a year ago by losing Johnny Gaudreau in free agency and trading Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, they still entered the offseason looking like a potential contender in the Western Conference. Mainly because the Tkachuk trade landed them Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar and they went out and added Nazem Kadri in free agency.
But through the first three quarters of the season the Flames have been one of the league's most disappointing teams and consistently on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture.
That should change by the end of the year, mostly because the Winnipeg Jets are looking like a team that could let what should have been a guaranteed playoff spot slip away.
The Jets are playing their worst hockey at the absolute worst time of the season and are watching their cushion disappear.
They entered play Thursday still owning a four-point lead over the Flames, but the two teams have one head-to-head meeting left that could play a pivotal role in that spot. The Jets also play a pretty daunting schedule the rest of the way with 10 of their remaining 17 games coming on the road. Winnipeg is only a .500 team away from home this season.
Even Nashville, which has four games in hand on both teams, is hanging around in that race despite being major sellers at the NHL trade deadline. Whether it is the Predators (unlikely) or Flames (likely), somebody is going to catch Winnipeg.
Erik Karlsson Reaches the Century Mark and Wins Another Norris Trophy
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He may not have received a trade to a Stanley Cup contender to continue his championship pursuit, but Erik Karlsson has at least demonstrated to the hockey world that he remains a world-class superstar.
He will also have an historic season to announce that.
Karlsson will become the first defenseman since Brian Leetch during the 1991-92 season to eclipse the 100-point mark, which should be enough to get him the third Norris Trophy of his career.
That would make him just the ninth defender in league history to win three Norris Trophies, and also just the sixth defender to ever top the 100-point mark in a single season.
All of that will only cement his status as a future Hall of Famer.
Along with the two Norris Trophies he has already won, he has also been a runner-up two other times.
He has been the one consistent bright spot in the Sharks' otherwise disappointing year.
Carolina, Not Boston, Wins the Stanley Cup
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It is going to be easy to want to pick the Boston Bruins to win the Stanley Cup because they have been the best team in the league from the very start of the season and are well on their way to one of the best regular-season performances in league history.
David Pastrňák is having an amazing year.
Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí still have it as a top center duo.
Their defense is outstanding.
They have two great goalies.
But it is still not going to get them another Stanley Cup.
It is the Carolina Hurricanes' time to break through, and their youth and speed is going to reign supreme in the playoffs. They may not have the top-tier, elite scorer. They may not have made the kind of big splash that was expected at the trade deadline. But they did make some very good under-the-radar moves to land Jesse Puljujärvi and Shayne Gostisbehere, and they still have a rock-solid team from top-to-bottom that has no clear weaknesses.
Their offense has been a problem in the playoffs in recent years because of the lack of high-end finishers, but they still have an outstanding team loaded with talent and a style of play that is tough to match up with. The Hurricanes also have strong goalie depth, they have a great defense and their forwards can roll four lines.
Washington eventually broke through and won it all. St. Louis did the same. Tampa Bay got there after playoff disappointments. Colorado broke the second-round ceiling a year ago. This year it is Carolina that gets there.
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