With the 2023-2024 NHL regular season just hours away from dropping the puck, WIIM is back with its annual Bold Predictions!
Sara (helmerroids)
Team prediction
The Red Wings do not have any game end with a score of 7-2. Win or lose.
Player Prediction: Michael Rasmussen 20+ goals, 70+ penalty minutes, and a 1 game suspension.
NHL prediction
The Penguins are outside a playoff spot, fire Mike Sullivan, and make the playoffs. They are swept in the first round and it is very funny.
Mike M
Team Prediction
The Red Wings finish the regular season as the 5th seed in the Atlantic (ahead of Ottawa and Buffalo). This team is absolutely better than they were to start last season, and I think they’ll only get better as the season goes on and the new guys continue to gel. As I’ve pointed out previously, Ottawa barely has enough guys signed to ice a full team – if they don’t sell pieces and make the team worse to get deeper, then injuries will take care of that for them. As for Buffalo, I’m just not convinced they’ve stopped the bleeding defensively. It’s still going to be a tough year to crack the top-4 in the division, but right now I’m believing in the Red Wings Hype.
NHL Prediction
The Atlantic will send 5 teams to the playoffs. With the bottom teams (except Montreal) on the rise and the top teams mostly getting worse or expected to regress, the division is going to feel the squeeze this season. The Metro could absolutely go feast-or-famine this year, and I think that probability is strong enough today to call it. My 2nd prediction is obviously not factoring into this in any way, shape, or form.
Riley M
Team Prediction
Daniel Sprong leads the Red Wings in goals. Sprong had a career high 21 goals last season while averaging just 11:25 minutes per game in Seattle. I expect both his minutes and goals to shoot up in Detroit as he will finish the year with a team leading 35 goals and double digits on the power play.
NHL Prediction
Someone in the NHL scores 70 goals this season. No one has scored 70+ goals in an NHL season since Alexander Mogilny and Teemu Selanne each scored 76 in 1992-93. Last season saw two players score 60 in Connor McDavid (64) and David Pastrnak (61) and with individual scoring continuously on the rise, someone is going to hit 70 soon and I say it’s this season.
Kyle K
The Red Wings finish ahead of the Lightning in the Atlantic Division
Is it really that bold? The teams finished 18 points apart last season, which is certainly a significant gulf. Tampa Bay has had some notable departures over the past few offseasons and received some bad news lately in losing Andrei Vasilevskiy for two months due to back surgery, as well as having captain Steven Stamkos publicly air his grievances over having not yet received a contract extension. The Vasilevskiy news leaves them with the most unproven goaltending in the league: a tandem of Jonas Johansson and Matt Tomkins. While Vegas basically proved anyone can win with the right team in front of them, I am quite confident there will be a noticeable difference between these two and the best goalie of the last decade in net (Johansson stopped 96-of-98 shots in preseason, so maybe their goalie scout is a miracle worker). And the Stamkos news — how does that sit with the rest of the dressing room? How does it look that recent additions like Nick Paul and Brandon Hagel get eight-year extensions, but not the captain of their back-to-back Stanley Cup teams? It makes sense from a purely business perspective — Stamkos is nearly 34 and has had his share of injuries — but how do the rest of the Lightning’s stars respond to their captain potentially exiting the organization (namely Victor Hedman, who will be in the same boat, at the same age, after this season)? A lot needs to go right for Detroit to pass Tampa Bay, but there are finally some cracks showing in the Lightning machine, and the Red Wings could be well-positioned to capitalize.
Kyle M
Red Wings Prediction
Dylan Larkin will score 40 goals… I’m serious. The captain will reach the milestone thanks to newcomer Alex DeBrincat. I think we may underestimate how good of a playmaker the ‘Cat’ can be. Book it.
NHL Prediction
Thought about it and figured, ‘fuckitwhynot’ — Connor Bedard won’t win the Calder Trophy. Who will? I don’t know. Marco Kasper.
What are your boldest predictions? Sound off in the comment section!
