SERAVALLI: 32 Bold Predictions For The 2021-22 NHL Season
By Frank Seravalli
Fortune favors the bold. Or so the saying goes.
In NHL prediction world, going bold is like forgetting to pack underwear on an eight-day road trip. You’re just setting yourself up for embarrassment.
We wouldn’t have it any other way. Go bold or go home. This is supposed to be fun.
With that in mind, here are 32 bold predictions ahead of the 2021-22 NHL season:
1. The Toronto Maple Leafs won’t just win one round this season, their first since 2004. They’ll win two before falling short in the Eastern Conference Final. They also won’t be Canada’s last team standing.
2. Unflappable Spencer Knight will become the first goaltender since Steve Mason in 2008-09 to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. It won’t take long until it’s officially Knight’s crease in Sunrise, supplanting $10 million man Sergei Bobrovsky.
3. Marc Bergevin will shake Geoff Molson’s hand and depart his post as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens following this season. There were already rumblings during the Stanley Cup Final that Bergevin would ride off into the sunset if the Habs hoisted the Cup last season. The job wears on you – especially taking the heat in two languages.
4. The Arizona Coyotes will relocate to Houston after 25 seasons in the desert. The City of Glendale has already notified the ‘Yotes it intends to terminate the team’s lease at Gila River Arena after this season. The Coyotes have attempted to jumpstart numerous new arena projects, all of which have fallen flat. Yes, the NHL has been patient. They don’t want to leave the fifth biggest city in the U.S., but Houston is fourth, fits in the Central Division better, has a viable NHL arena and prospective owner. Oh, yes, and can’t imagine NHL owners would mind the couple hundred million dollar relocation fee after floating players a billion during the pandemic.
5. Jack Eichel WILL be traded before Christmas, putting a merciful end to the drama that has hung over the Sabres franchise like a dark cloud. Buffalo will work with an interested mystery team to approve an artificial disc replacement and pave the way for a deal.
6. The Edmonton Oilers will set a new NHL single season record for power-play conversation rate. The record belongs to the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens, who hit on 31.9 percent. These Oilers have the fourth-best mark ever at 29.5 percent from 2019-20, and this is their first full season attempt since then. “I haven’t seen a power play like that before,” said three-time Cup winner Duncan Keith.
7. Ken Holland will also trade for a goaltender this season in Edmonton. The Oilers explored a bevy of options before running back the tandem of Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen for a third straight season.
8. Move over, Dave Andreychuk. The Great Eight is coming for ya. In the next milestone to fall, Alex Ovechkin will pass the Hall of Famer Andreychuk for most power-play goals (274) in league history. He is six away. Ovechkin will score 44 total goals this year, continuing his assault on Wayne Gretzky’s goal record.
9. Best PointsBet ™️ preseason NHL wager: Buffalo Sabres under 68.5 points.
10. Yep, the Sabres will edge out the Arizona Coyotes in the Race for Shane Wright at the bottom of the NHL standings. One problem: the Sabres won’t win the Draft Lottery. The Detroit Red Wings will finally have their numbers come up after being so close the last number of years, with Wright being the right man to put Hockeytown back on the map again.
11. Keith Yandle will set the new NHL ironman record for consecutive regular-season games played as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 18 vs. Detroit. Yandle, 35, needs 43 more games to pass Doug Jarvis for most all-time at 966. He was a healthy scratch in the postseason for Florida last year, but the streak was kept alive by virtue of it being a playoff game. (Fun fact: Jarvis’ streak also ended as a healthy scratch.)
12. Team USA will erase a 42-year drought and capture the Americans’ first gold medal in men’s hockey at the Olympics since the 1980 Miracle on Ice. Buoyed in Beijing by Auston Matthews, Patrick Kane, Connor Hellebuyck and the Tkachuk Brothers, this is the year for the U.S. to break through and halt Canada’s best-on-best streak at three events.
13. Winner of the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award: Florida’s Bill Zito. No manager has leveraged the NHL’s flat-cap, post-pandemic world better than Zito. Sam Reinhart. Patric Hornqvist. Sam Bennett. Anthony Duclair. Carter Verhaeghe. Gustav Forsling. If he can keep Jonathan Huberdeau in the fold long-term, the Cats have the foundation for sustained success.
14. Jeff Gorton will be the next man up whenever there is a management change in the NHL. Watching the Rangers vie for a playoff spot just three years after his letter to fans will remind owners of his solid track record following his unceremonious disposal by James Dolan last spring, the only recent management change in an unusual period of job security for GMs.
15. Connor McDavid will collect 151 points, the NHL’s first 150-point scorer since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. McDavid hit 105 last season in just 56 games, a 154-point pace.
16. Playoff teams: Toronto, Tampa Bay, Florida, N.Y. Islanders, Carolina, Washington, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh (East); Colorado, Winnipeg, Minnesota, Dallas, St. Louis, Vegas, Edmonton and Vancouver (West).
17. Best PointsBet ™️ preseason longshot NHL wager: Boston Bruins +475 to miss the playoffs.
18. Tomas Hertl will be the No. 1 name on Daily Faceoff’s Trade Target list heading into the March 21st deadline. The Sharks have had cordial discussions with Hertl’s camp, but an extension won’t be in the cards and San Jose will have little choice but to recoup as many assets as possible for the talented Czech who can control his destination with a three-team trade list.
19. Auston Matthews will score 62 goals this season. Also, Mitch Marner will become just the third player (McDavid, Nikita Kucherov) in the last decade to average more than one assist per game.
20. More goals: Toronto’s Michael Bunting will be the best value signing of the summer on a cost-per-goal basis at $950,000 AAV. Scouting report on Bunting: Not as dogged as Zach Hyman on pucks, but has a similar attitude and work ethic. Great around the net and has better hands than Hyman. Book him for 20 goals. The best part for the Leafs? He’s on a two-year deal.
21. With so much attention on the futures of Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in Pittsburgh, the focus will shift to Bryan Rust and Brian Dumoulin at the trade deadline if the Pens are out of the playoff mix. Both are near their all-time high trade value – and at 29 and 30, they might not fit in Pittsburgh’s long-term plans (read: retool/rebuild) with long-term contract extensions.
22. The incomparable Willie O’Ree will become just the second player bestowed with hockey’s ultimate honor – to have his No. 22 retired across the NHL when it is raised to the TD Garden rafters in Boston on Jan. 18, 2022, exactly 64 years to the day after he broke hockey’s color barrier. If that’s not a consideration among NHL executives, it should be.
23. The world will be Johnny Hockey’s oyster next summer. With Aleksander Barkov and Mika Zibanejad signed to mega extensions, winger Johnny Gaudreau will become the premier free agent available when the market opens on July 13, 2022.
24. Lightning rod for criticism Tony DeAngelo will be the NHL’s unofficial comeback player of the year. DeAngelo, 25, will be on his best behavior and rehabilitate his image after signing a one-year, $1 million ‘prove-it’ deal in Carolina – staring down one final chance to get it right.
25. DeAngelo’s teammate, Jaccob Slavin, will take home the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. Slavin will rebound with a splashier point total this season, triggering voters to recognize how his impeccable defensive game is one of the biggest drivers of the Hurricanes’ success.
26. The NHL’s general managers will deliberate the merit of eliminating icing while on the penalty kill. This rule has been positively implemented across USA Hockey minor age groups, encouraging creative puck decision making. If pee-wees can do it, NHLers can. It should also produce more offense and more goals by virtue of more offensive zone time and more offensive zone faceoffs. It has never really made sense why you’d be allowed to break one rule (icing) after already breaking another with a rules infraction that resulted in a penalty.
27. St. Louis Blues coach Craig Berube will become the first coaching casualty of the season. Yes, he is only two seasons removed from leading the Note to a Stanley Cup in 2019. But two first-round exits have followed under “Chief” and that he begins the season in the final year of his contract is telling.
28. Marc-Andre Fleury’s stay in Chicago will be a short one. After one season with the Hawks, one of the most popular players in Pittsburgh Penguins history will return to the Steel City as a free agent. An in-season trade is unlikely with Fleury’s decision to move his family to Chicago, where he’ll become just the third goalie in NHL history to notch 500 wins this season. He’s eight away.
29. Darcy Kuemper will take home the Vezina Trophy, marking the second straight year a Colorado Avalanche netminder is recognized as a finalist for the award. Kuemper was the best goaltender available last offseason. At full health, he’ll prove that.
30. Sheldon Keefe will win the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year for his work keeping the Maple Leafs on the rails after an epic collapse last spring. The Amazon Prime “All or Nothing” series shined a light on Keefe as detailed, tough and one who certainly holds his stars accountable. This is the year Toronto takes a step.
31. But it’ll be the Carolina Hurricanes that oust the Leafs in the Eastern Conference Final, with Frederik Andersen closing the door against his former team. You could call the 2022 Stanley Cup Final the “Paul Maurice Bowl” because …
32. The Winnipeg Jets will end Canada’s Stanley Cup drought at 29 years by hoisting the franchise’s first Cup in history. This grizzled Jets core has knocked on the door before, winning three rounds over the last four playoffs. They’re better suited to win now, bolstered by the additions of Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon on the backend. They’ve got one of the best top-six forward groups in hockey and a perennial Vezina candidate Connor Hellebuyck in net. Why not them?
Game on.