And with that, the regular season has ended. I hope everyone was able to take down their fantasy hockey championship! I’m going to have a few more posts in April before I call things for the summer. Today, I’m going to look at my ten bold predictions to see how I did. Some of these made me look like a genius, and well, I probably shouldn’t talk about some of these. Anyways, let’s get to it!
1) Brandon Hagel gets 90 points.
And we start off with a winner! Part of what I wrote turned out to be wrong, mostly that I didn’t see Hagel getting much of an increase from the 19:15 he averaged per game in 2023-24, but he pushed towards 21 minutes. He also wasn’t permanently on PP1 like I thought, which I still don’t understand. Having said that, my last sentence was ” I think he gets around 35 goals and around 55 assists with elite PIM to boot.” Guess what Hagel finished with. 35 goals and 55 assists! I really don’t think I can do any better this ever. Put it in the Louvre! Hagel shockingly finished as a top five forward and while he won’t be ranked there next season, he’ll definitely be in my Top 50.
2) Matvei Michkov scores 30 goals.
With a big finish on Thursday, Michkov came up just short, scoring 26 goals. Yes, he has defensive warts, but he all the makings of a fantasy superstar as soon as next season. Once Torts was fired, Michkov really took off, especially in the shots department. He also chipped in almost 50 PIM, which doesn’t hurt. Next season, I’m expecting 80+ points and 250+ shots. Even though I got this wrong, I feel justified in being all in on Michkov long term.
3) Vegas will have multiple months where Eichel is their only holdable forward in 12’ers.
I probably should stop doing predictions like this because it is hard to gauge. This comes up short because of Stone, who was very good in his 66 games. Hertl and Dorofeyev also had stretches of being a hold. I didn’t own any Vegas forwards this season, and I don’t think I was hurt by it except for Eichel.
4) Joonas Korpisalo is a top 15 goalie despite Swayman signing a long term extension.
Oh boy. Korpisalo was awful, Swayman was awful, the Bruins were awful. For as good as my Hagel prediction was, this was almost as bad. Korpisalo finished outside of the top 50 goalies.
5) For the first time in NHL history, two defensemen have 100+ points in the same season.
Last year, I predicted Makar for 30 goals. Why didn’t I do that again? Makar ended up with 92 points, playing at a 95 point pace over 82 games. Quinn Hughes played at a 92 point pace, but missed 14 games. Otherwise, Werenski was at a point per game and Dahlin wasn’t much behind, but this didn’t have a chance.
6) For the first time since 95-96, at least six players will score 50+ goals, two of which will be players who haven’t scored 50 before.
Woof. We only had one 50 goal scorer in Draisaitl. Ovechkin and Tage might have done it if they played 82 games, but regardless, this did not come close. It is crazy that only eight players even got to 40.
7) Brandt Clarke and Erik Gustafsson, both going outside of the top 50 defensemen in drafts, are both top 30 defensemen and holds for the entire season.
Oh boy. Let’s start with Gustafsson. Never had a prayer in Detroit. The good news is it was clear right away that it was easy to cut bait with Gustafsson within two weeks of the start of the season. Clarke will finish right around the 30th overall defenseman, which just shows you how bad the middle class of defensemen were this year. I still am a huge believer in Clarke and think it is ludicrous that Hiller feels the need to play Doughty on PP1. Clarke is so much better than him offensively, especially as a QB. I firmly believe that Clarke has massive offensive potential and could put up 50 assists as soon as next season if the Kings let him cook. However, I’m not expecting that and I need to remember what I would do vs. what will happen when I do my rankings next year.
8) Only three teams in the Metro (Rangers, Hurricanes, Devils) make the playoffs.
Well, I was partially right. My second sentence was “that means at least one of Detroit, Buffalo, and Ottawa make the playoffs (sorry, Montreal). Well, Ottawa, congrats on snapping their playoff drought. The only apology is from me to Montreal. I was right about the Islanders dropping hard, but completely whiffed on the Rangers (everyone did) and the Capitals. This division is rough and it’s a near-certainty that whoever makes it through will be the worst team in the final four.
9) We get at least two new playoff teams in the West as well, one of which will be Utah.
So we did get two new playoff teams, but Utah is not one of them. Also, the teams that I suspected of being in danger turned out to make the playoffs with ease. Nashville collapsed and the Canucks couldn’t overcome their issues, both injuries and turmoil. The Wild were an easy playoff team in terms of their play when healthy, still sneaking in despite a pile of injuries. We also saw a huge run from the Blues which I didn’t expect, although the coaching change was definitely a good one. One bold prediction for the summer: Utah makes a massive signing, be it Marner or someone else.
10) Alex Ovechkin becomes the goal scoring king, scoring 42+ goals to pass Gretzky.
We finish off with another correct call. Ovechkin was given about under a 30% chance in the betting market to get to 42 goals, and it was only close because of injury. That was one of the most enjoyable chases that I can remember, as the Great Eight became the goal scoring king. I can’t wait to see what he does in the playoffs, and we presumably will have his farewell tour next season.
For the record, my first round picks are: Toronto in six, Tampa Bay in six, Washington in six, Carolina in five, Winnipeg in five, Colorado in six, Vegas in seven, and Los Angeles in seven. I flipped my Kings pick once it was confirmed that Ekholm was out for the first round. Also, who knows if and when Heiskanen will be back, and I think Dallas is in rough shape without him. I think Dallas and Colorado are the two best teams in the league, and the Florida teams are the two best teams in the East. Great playoff format.
That’s all for now guys. I’ll be back two times next week, looking at my preseason rankings and where I went right and where I went wrong. If there’s anything you want me to cover before I call it a season, please let me know in the comments section below. Any other suggestions, comments, or questions, ask those as well. Thanks for reading, take care!
