2021 NHL Season Prediction Thread

[StiffStick33]

Leafs fans just stroking themselves watching their star prospect in playing the other day. Would love to see Hogs up against Robertson at some point. Both with 1st round talent, somehow end up getting picked up in the 2nd

[Cocolocci]

Canadian Divison

Playoffs:
#1 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. #4 Winnipeg Jets (Leafs in 6)
#2 Vancouver Canucks vs. #3 Calgary Flames (Canucks in 6)
Round 2:
#1 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. #2 Vancouver Canucks (Canucks in 7)

West Division

Playoffs:
#1 Colorado Avalanche vs. #4 Minnesota Wild (Avalanche in 5)
#2 St. Louis Blues vs. #3 Vegas Golden Knights (Golden Knights in 7)
Round 2:
#1 Colorado Avalanche vs. #3 Vegas Golden Knights (Avalanche in 6)

Central Divison

Playoffs:
#1 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #4 Dallas Stars (Hurricanes in 6)
#2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. #3 Columbus Blue Jackets (Lightning in 6)
Round 2:
#1 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #2 Tampa Bay Lightning (Lightning in 7)

East Division
Playoffs:
#1 Philadelphia Flyers vs. #4 Boston Bruins (Flyers in 6)
#2 Washington Capitals vs. #3 New York Islanders (Capitals in 6)
Round 2:
#1 Philadelphia Flyers vs. #2 Washington Capitals (Flyers in 7)

Conference Finals:
Colorado Avalanche vs. Vancouver Canucks (Avalanche in 7)
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Philadelphia Flyers (Lightning in 6)

Stanley Cup Finals:
Colorado Avalanche vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Avalanche in 7)

 

Top 5 FWDs

1) Pettersson  26G 41A 67P

2) Horvat         28G 27A 55P

3) Miller           27G 24A 51P

4) Boeser       31G  18A 49P

5) Hoglander  17G  20A 37P

 

Top 5 Ds

1) Hughes         9G 37A 46P

2) Schmidt         8G 35A 43P

3) Edler             7G 25A 32P

4) Myers            4G 19A 23P

4) Juolevi           2G 21A 23P

 

Demko   32GP 2,16 92,1%

Holtby    22GP 2,29 91,8%

DiPietro   2GP 2,68 91,2%

 

• Walter (Babe) Pratt Trophy - "Best Defenceman": Quinn Hughes 

• Daniel & Henrik Sedin Award - "Community Leadership": Bo Horvat

• Fred J. Hume Award - "Unsung Hero": Tyler Motte

• Cyrus H. McLean Trophy - "Leading Scorer": Elias Pettersson

• Pavel Bure Award - "Most Exciting Player": Elias Pettersson 

• Cyclone Taylor Trophy - "Most Valuable Player": Elias Pettersson

• Three Star Award - "Most Three Stars Selections": Elias Pettersson

 

Players w/ most games this season (Line-Up)

Miller - Pettersson - Boeser

Pearson - Horvat - Hoglander

Motte - Gaudette - Virtanen

Roussel - Beagle - MacEwen

Eriksson/ Hawrlyuk - Sutter - Lind

 

Hughes - Schmidt

Edler - Myers

Juolevi - Hamonic

Rathbone - Rafferty/ Chatfield

 

Demko

Holtby

DiPietro

 

 

[rychicken]

key highlights

•  
• Canucks make the playoffs, knocked out in round 2
• Edler has a year that many will refer to as "his best year in the past few years", and "he has found a second wind" 
• Demko has a few rough starts, but overall most will consider him a #1 goalie
• I put 47% of the board on ignore and get one temporary ban 
• Horvat gains more attention from media around the league, HNIC, etc 

[Azzy]

Goalies

Holtby: 19 wins, .918%, 2.45 GAA

Demko: 8 wins, .903%, 2.96 GAA

 

- Holtby starts more games than Demko, who struggles to recapture his playoff form.

- We still expose Holtby in the Expansion Draft.

 

Defense

Hughes: 4-49-53

Hamonic: 2-12-14

Edler: 7-14-21

Myers: 3-11-14

Juolevi: 1-10-11

Schmidt: 6-29-35

 

- Hughes continues where he left off and is Top 5 in Norris voting.

- Juolevi looks solid but carries a couple of injuries that limit his minutes.

- Schmidt proves he is worth a 3rd round pick.

- Rathbone gets a few games as injury cover.

 

Forwards

Boeser: 23-21-44

Pettersson: 22-25-47

Horvat: 20-17-37

Miller: 18-19-37

Sutter: 7-6-13

Pearson: 11-11-22

Roussel: 5-6-11

Beagle: 3-2-5

Virtanen: 9-7-16

Motte: 8-6-14

Gaudette: 13-14-27

MacEwen: 9-6-15

 

- PP falters despite addition of Schmidt, forward totals fall off as a consequence

- As we've already seen with Miller missing the first few games, any players who miss time are being backfilled with players who don't contribute offensively

- Gaudette looks good all season

- Jake plays in fits and starts, again

- Benning adds a forward at the deadline again (I'm guessing Marcus Johansson)

 

Overall

The Canucks scrape the playoffs in 4th but the combination of the short season, time missed for key players, injuries at the time and Covid fatigue means we're out first round to Winnipeg, who wins the Scotiabank North Division and the Stanley Cup.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Azzy

[nuck-lifer]

• Finish 3rd in division
• beat Winter-peg in round one and and lose to Vegas round two
• Edler goes down with injury for half the season and olli steps in nicely to take over the top 4 position with Schmidt by his side
• Holtby has a bounce back year playing majority of game as Demko loses 15 games due to injury
• Hamonic makes us forget about Tequila and allows Hughes to have a Norris caliber season selected in top 3 for NHL top D 
• Hoglander gets off to quick start but fizzles by mid season and Jake finally sticks to the tops 6 for the balance of the season
• Loui is sent to Utica with Baer and decides to retire at the end of the year to head back to Sweden to play in the old timers league
• disappointment of the year is Sutter who gets injured for half the season and never gets his game back leaving Gauds to come up big in 3rd line center role
• Unsung hero of the year is Roussel enjoying his best season of his career with 35P still continuing to piss off the competition
• Brocks gets his shot velocity back and is the top scorer on the team

 

Petey- 25G 33A 58P

Brock 27G - 27P 54P

Miller 22G 30G - 52P

Huggy 9G 43P - 52P

Bo - 20G - 29A 49P

Jake- 20G 22A - 42P

[Toyotasfan]

I truly think Colorado is going to choke.

[Dumb Nuck]

I’m starting to have my doubts that this season will finish, I so hope it will, but that’s my prediction.

[Bad_BOI_pete]

Top 5 scorers

Petterson 22G 38A 60P 56GP   

Hughes    11G 42A  53P   53GP  

Miller       18G 32A  50P 52GP

Horvat      23G  26A  49P 56GP

Boeser     20G   26A  46P 52GP 

 

Holtby 16W 11L 3OTL 90.9%

Demko 15W 10L 1OTL 91.0%

 

Canucks will score the third most goals

Canucks will let in the 15th least goals

Canucks PP will finish 1st

Canucks PK will finish 13th

Canucks will finish 1st in the Canadian division and 7th overall in the league

 

31W 21L 4OTL 66P

 

Canucks will have a strong playoffs and lose in the conference finals.

 

Hughes will be nominated for the Norris trophy

Hoglander will be nominated for the Calder Trophy

 

Go Canucks Go      

Edited January 13, 2021 by Petey_BOI

[iinatcc]

So I got quite a bit of heat from here some months ago in saying how the Canucks are the least improved team of the North/Canadian division. And many people here made arguments in why I was wrong.

 

I just listened to an audio clip in TSN 1040 where they said many hockey experts, analysists, and the media were polled on predicting the final standings in the North Division and which team improved the most and least.

 

Seems like the result is that the Canucks were the least improved of all the teams in the Canadian division and predict they will miss the playoffs.

 

Rey Ferraro had Vancouver as the 2nd least improved team in the division, which is already better than the consensus and the overall predictions seems to be

1. Toronto
2. Montreal
3. Calgary
4. Edmonton
5. Vancouver
6. Winnipeg
7. Ottawa  

 

So I hate to say I was right, I really don't, but I guess I was. 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by iinatcc

[Ballisticsports.]

1 hour ago, iinatcc said:

So I got quite a bit of heat from here some months ago in saying how the Canucks are the least improved team of the North/Canadian division. And many people here made arguments in why I was wrong.

 

I just listened to an audio clip in TSN 1040 where they said many hockey experts, analysists, and the media were polled on predicting the final standings in the North Division and which team improved the most and least.

 

Seems like the result is that the Canucks were the least improved of all the teams in the Canadian division and predict they will miss the playoffs.

 

Rey Ferraro had Vancouver as the 2nd least improved team in the division, which is already better than the consensus and the overall predictions seems to be

1. Toronto
2. Montreal
3. Calgary
4. Edmonton
5. Vancouver
6. Winnipeg
7. Ottawa  

 

So I hate to say I was right, I really don't, but I guess I was. 

 

 

Only predictions are not reality

Who predicted the 82 Canucks ?

I am just glad to see some hockey and see how we will do, as long as the effort is there this year i will be ok

[gizmo2337]

Standings:
1. Calgary
2. Vancouver

3. Edmonton

4. Montreal

5. Toronto

6. Winnipeg

7. Ottawa

Toronto falls to a few bouts of injuries/illness. Overworked, tired players have them fall in the standings after a strong start (nothing new to see here - underperforming train wreck). Calgary regains some of it's former offence from 2 seasons ago and is a consistent team all year. Vancouver exceeds expectations with added offence and improved defense. Both goaltenders have a strong showing all year as 1A and 1B goalies. The biggest surprise is Toronto underperforming, not handling the media criticism well, and generally self imploding as the playoffs approach. One or more player(s) will be "more" responsible for this than others, due to unnecessary covid-19 exposures during the season - and they will get publicly shamed for it.

 Juolevi has a strong consistent breakout in his first year and becomes a staple of the penalty kill as the season progresses. With the addition of Hoglander and Podkolzin, the loss of Toffoli is forgotten, and Pearson becomes expendable. Our D corps shows a massive improvement all around. Pettersson and Hoglander compete for both the goal of the year and shootout move of the year. Schmidt becomes a new leader in the dressing room and rubs off positively on the rest of the players. 

Hopeful thinking: Gaudette improves in the faceoff circle and learns to play the PK.

[Kragar]

Not only do we finally beat the Jets this year, I say we beat them at least three times!

 

Bust that slump, bust that slump

[Lazurus]

The writing will be on the wall by February 15 - 21. Teams not in could be out at the end. It is just math. Under.500 in win/loss isn't in the playoffs First 12 are super important

[McIlhargey the Lesser]

Canucks finish first in the North.

Montreal doesn’t do nearly as well as pundits predict.

Petey scores 80 points.

 

That’s all I got.

[ForestFalcon]

Ok, let's get this out there.

 

Canucks finish third in the division.

Miller and Pettersson will score 30+ goals.

Hoglander will have 25+ points

Canucks win Stanley Cup with Loui Eriksson scoring the Cup winning goal as his only goal in the playoffs.

[-AJ-]

With the season officially over now, this thread is re-opened to assess our predictions!

[-AJ-]

On 12/24/2020 at 3:52 PM, -AJ- said:

My stat predictions (some rounding throws the addition a bit off):

 

Name	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	Points/Game
E. Pettersson	55	20	40	59	1.074
J. Miller	55	19	31	51	0.925
B. Boeser	56	20	26	46	0.817
B. Horvat	56	23	22	45	0.804
Q. Hughes	51	5	35	40	0.781
A. Gaudette	56	14	17	31	0.554
A. Edler	53	6	23	29	0.545
N. Schmidt	52	5	21	26	0.500
J. Virtanen	52	13	12	25	0.482
T. Pearson	55	13	12	25	0.451
N. Hoglander	50	9	15	24	0.480
B. Sutter	56	7	11	18	0.321
O. Juolevi	52	3	13	16	0.303
T. Myers	48	5	10	15	0.319
A. Roussel	44	5	9	14	0.328
T. Motte	52	7	5	12	0.231
T. Hamonic	42	3	8	11	0.262
Z. MacEwen	22	4	3	7	0.318
L. Eriksson	20	2	4	6	0.300
J. Beagle	45	3	3	6	0.136
J. Benn	27	1	3	4	0.162
B. Rafferty	2	1	1	2	1.183
J. Hawryluk	4	0	1	1	0.341
J. Bailey	6	1	0	1	0.111

 

Team Record: 27-25-4: 58 points, 5th in North - Barely miss playoffs

 

Notes:

 

- Team has a strong offensive year, but struggles defensively, causing them to miss out off the playoffs by 1 point

- Miller regresses a little, as most expect

- Pettersson takes a step forward above a point-per-game finally

- Against all odds, Horvat continues to improve

- Hughes has an outstanding second year, finishing 7th in Norris voting

- Pearson regresses quite a bit with fewer empty net points

- Motte has a minor breakout season offensively

- Sutter has a comeback year, playing some minutes on a more offensively-minded line

- Juolevi has an alright, but unspectacular rookie season (much like Stecher/Hutton)

- Fans everywhere want Benning and Green both fired once the team misses the playoffs, but the Benning and the the Aquilinis hold their ground, giving them another chance (thankfully)

- Hotlby and Demko split the games about 60/40 in favour of Holtby

-  Hamonic fills Tanev's role nicely, including being injured for about 15 games

- Hoglander is the weak link on the 2nd line, but still fits in well enough. Gets some 3rd line time too with Gaudette and Virtanen getting a bit of top 6 time as well

 

- Edmonton struggles without Klefbom and barely edges out Vancouver for the last playoff spot. The team is carried by a suprisingly decent defensive core and incredible offense from McDavid, Draisaitl, and an underrated Nugent-Hopkins

- Winnipeg finishes 6th in a close race with the Senators, who improve notably

- McDavid wins the Art Ross with an incredible 90 points, playing in all 56 games

- Lafreniere wins the Calder with 50 points in 54 games

- Stutzle is a Calder finalist

 

North Division Standings Prediction:

1. Flames

2. Maple Leafs

3. Canadiens

4. Oilers

5. Canucks

6. Jets

7. Senators

 

Extremely close division, maximum of 8 points separate 1st and 7th.

Wowee, that didn't go so well.

 

- Pettersson was injured, but also played worse than expected.

- Miller regressed as I expected, but by a bit more than I expected.

- Boeser improved as I expected, but by more than expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

- Horvat had a regression for the first time in his career

- Hughes put up slightly fewer points than I expected and was a lot worse defensively without Tanev

- Gaudette sucked and then was traded

- Edler majorly regressed. I was very far off here.

- Schmidt had a very tough time adjusting to the team, but got better as the year went on. Still not as good as I hoped.

- Virtanen was a nightmare.

- Pearson regressed even more than I predicted

- Hoglander performed almost exactly as I predicted, though with a few more goals and fewer assists

- Sutter was close to what I predicted, but not quite and injured--again

- Juolevi wasn't a regular in the lineup and struggled a lot offensively

- Myers outperformed my expectations.

- Roussel's nightmare continues

- Motte performed better than expected, but had injuries

- Hamonic performed as about expected, but slow to start and a hot finish

- MacEwen couldn't put up points this year

- Eriksson barely played and he sucked when he did

- Beagle was about as expected, but injured more

- Benn was far better than expected, but traded

 

- Canucks finished 24th in offense. Not exactly strong. They did struggle defensively at 26th in defense.

- Fans definitely want Benning and Green fired. Not sure if they'll get another chance or not, but early news suggests at least Benning will.

- Demko actually played more than Hotlby, about 60/40 in favour of Demko

- Edmonton did not struggle. Nugent-Hopkins wasn't great, but McDavid was legendary with 105 points in 56 games.

- Lafreniere struggled to start, but picked it up later on. Won't be winning the Calder. 

- Stutzle probably won't be a finalist, but had a solid year.

 

North Division Standings Prediction:

1. Flames - 5th, BIG WRONG

2. Maple Leafs - 1st, Close

3. Canadiens - 4th

4. Oilers - 2nd

5. Canucks - 7th, yikes

6. Jets - 3rd, very wrong

7. Senators - 6th

 

Extremely close division, maximum of 8 points separate 1st and 7th. Big wrong--27 points between Toronto and Vancouver.

[Junkyard Dog]

On 1/3/2021 at 12:05 AM, Junkyard Dog said:

Reserved...

 

Canucks goaltending struggles a lot early in the year but gets tremendously better as the season goes on.

 

Canucks come back from near the bottom of the division to...

 

Neither Pod/Hog are the best rookie on the team next year.

 

Edler retires at the end of the year. 

 

1st one I was right.  
 

2nd one we came back from the bottom of the division to draft lower. 
 

3rd one was wrong. Hog was best rookie and Pod didn’t play. 
 

4th one TBD. 

[Dumb Nuck]

On 12/31/2020 at 12:25 PM, Dumb Nuck said:

I predict that if Green gets fired by game 30 this will be the shot in the arm (get it? COVID joke) the ‘Nucks need to win the Cup.

 

If not, just another mediocre year, maybe 4th, maybe 5th and out in first round if we make it.

 

I also predict canuck73 will spend most of the season once again confused.

 

EDIT: after someone pointed out the inter division play will be like original 6 if Green survives the season I predict a 6th pace finish, we might get off to a good start first dozen games but it’ll quickly go down hill as the intensity goes up. 

1) Well, Green wasn’t fired but had he been we’d been playing tomorrow.

 

2) Had we won today we would have been 6th as predicted, sadly we did worst than I thought.

 

3) Nailed it.

 

I predict exactly the same for next year.

 

 

[73 Percent]

On 12/29/2020 at 11:39 AM, 73 Percent said:

1. We make the playoffs (bounced in the first round)

2. Despite having a better save %, demko starts less games than holtby

3. Green is extended

4. OJ solidifies himself in the top 6

5. Boeser finished second in points on the team

6. ZERO trades are made by the canucks until next offseason

7. Loui little things finishes the season with over 29 pts

8. Ferland doesnt play this season

9. Virtanen finishes with more than 19 goals.

10. Neither podkolzin or tryamkin come to play for vancouver this year.

1. Way off

2. Way off

3. Yet to be seen but I doubt it

4. Nope

5. If Petey wasnt hurt probably. I need a win I'm taking this one.

6. Stupid gaudette trade killed me

7. Lmao

8. Called that one

9. Lmaoooo

10. Called that one too.

 

2.5/10. 

 

Not my finest work.