The 2021-22 NHL season begins in less than three weeks with the first two games taking place on Tuesday, October 12th. On that day, the Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Later that night, the Seattle Kraken will make their highly-anticipated debut as the NHL’s 32nd team when they travel to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights.
Today, I’m going to give my regular season predictions, along with who I think will finish in the top 10 for goals and points, who will win the awards at the end of the season, as well as identifying two players on each team who will be an x-factor and a breakout candidate. Let’s jump right into it, starting with the regular season standings.
As a reminder, the top three in each division qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as two wild card teams per conference.
Regular season standings prediction
Italics – playoff spot; Italics+* – wildcard spot.
Atlantic
| Place | Team | GP | W | L | OT/SOL | PTS |
| 1st | Tampa Bay Lightning | 82 | 53 | 21 | 8 | 112 |
| 2nd | Florida Panthers | 82 | 50 | 27 | 5 | 105 |
| 3rd | Toronto Maple Leafs | 82 | 47 | 29 | 6 | 100 |
| 4th | Montreal Canadiens | 82 | 43 | 34 | 5 | 91 |
| 5th | Boston Bruins | 82 | 41 | 36 | 5 | 87 |
| 6th | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 36 | 39 | 7 | 79 |
| 7th | Detroit Red Wings | 82 | 34 | 41 | 6 | 74 |
| 8th | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 28 | 50 | 4 | 60 |
Metropolitan
| Place | Team | GP | W | L | OT/SOL | PTS |
| 1th | Carolina Hurricanes | 82 | 52 | 23 | 7 | 111 |
| 2th | Washington Capitals | 82 | 49 | 23 | 10 | 108 |
| 3th | Philadelphia Flyers | 82 | 46 | 30 | 6 | 98 |
| 4th* | New York Islanders | 82 | 44 | 30 | 8 | 96 |
| 5th | New York Rangers | 82 | 41 | 32 | 9 | 91 |
| 6th | Pittsburgh Penguins | 82 | 40 | 36 | 6 | 86 |
| 7th | New Jersey Devils | 82 | 35 | 40 | 7 | 77 |
| 8th | Columbus Blue Jackets | 82 | 29 | 44 | 9 | 67 |
Central
| Place | Team | GP | W | L | OT/SOL | PTS |
| 1th | Colorado Avalanche | 82 | 54 | 22 | 6 | 114 |
| 2th | Winnipeg Jets | 82 | 50 | 28 | 4 | 104 |
| 3th | Minnesota Wild | 82 | 47 | 28 | 7 | 101 |
| 4th* | Chicago Blackhawks | 82 | 44 | 32 | 6 | 94 |
| 5th | St. Louis Blues | 82 | 42 | 35 | 5 | 89 |
| 6th | Dallas Stars | 82 | 39 | 34 | 9 | 87 |
| 7th | Nashville Predators | 82 | 36 | 36 | 10 | 82 |
| 8th | Arizona Coyotes | 82 | 30 | 45 | 7 | 67 |
Pacific
| Place | Team | GP | W | L | OT/SOL | PTS |
| 1th | Vegas Golden Knights | 82 | 51 | 23 | 8 | 110 |
| 2th | Edmonton Oilers | 82 | 48 | 29 | 5 | 101 |
| 3th | Calgary Flames | 82 | 46 | 30 | 6 | 98 |
| 4th* | Seattle Kraken | 82 | 45 | 33 | 4 | 94 |
| 5th | Vancouver Canucks | 82 | 43 | 32 | 7 | 93 |
| 6th | Los Angeles Kings | 82 | 40 | 35 | 7 | 87 |
| 7th | Anaheim Ducks | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 77 |
| 8th | San Jose Sharks | 82 | 29 | 49 | 4 | 62 |
Top 10 goals
- 1) Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) – 58.
- 2) David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) – 55.
- 3) Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) – 52.
- 4) Alex DeBrincat (Chicago Blackhawks) – 48.
- 5) Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets) – 47.
- 6) Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) – 46.
- 7) Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche) – 44.
- T8) Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers) – 42.
- T8) Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota Wild) – 42.
- 10) Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) – 41.
Top 10 points
- 1) Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) – 135.
- 2) Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) – 126.
- 3) Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) – 123.
- 4) David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) – 115.
- 5) Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) – 112.
- 6) Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) – 108.
- 7) Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks) – 103.
- 8) Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) – 101.
- 9) Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche) – 98.
- 10) Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers) – 95.
Awards
- Art Ross: Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)
- Rocket Richard: Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs)
- Hart: Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)
- Ted Lindsay: Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers)
- Calder: Cole Caufield (Montreal Canadiens)
- Selke: Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers)
- Lady Byng: Ryan O’Reilly (St. Louis Blues)
- Norris: Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche)
- Vezina: Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning)
| Team | X-Factor | Breakout Player |
| Anaheim Ducks | John Gibson | Isac Lundestrom |
| Arizona Coyotes | Jakob Chychrun | Barrett Hayton |
| Boston Bruins | Patrice Bergeron | Jack Studnicka |
| Buffalo Sabres | Rasmus Dahlin | Dylan Cozens |
| Calgary Flames | Johnny Gaudreau | Dillon Dube |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Sebastian Aho | Jake Bean |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Patrick Kane | Kirby Dach |
| Colorado Avalanche | Mikko Rantanen | Tyson Jost |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Patrik Laine | Jack Roslovic |
| Dallas Stars | Tyler Seguin | Radek Faksa |
| Detroit Red Wings | Alex Nedeljkovic | Filip Zadina |
| Edmonton Oilers | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Kailer Yamamoto |
| Florida Panthers | Jonathan Huberdeau | Grigori Denisenko |
| Los Angeles Kings | Viktor Arvidsson | Quinton Byfield |
| Minnesota Wild | Jonas Brodin | Nico Sturm |
| Montreal Canadiens | Nick Suzuki | Josh Anderson |
| Nashville Predators | Filip Forsberg | Dante Fabbro |
| New Jersey Devils | Nico Hischier | Jack Hughes |
| New York Islanders | Anthony Beauvillier | Michael Dal Colle |
| New York Rangers | Mika Zibanejad | Alexis Lafreniere |
| Ottawa Senators | Connor Brown | Tim Stutzle |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Kevin Hayes | Oskar Lindblom |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Jake Guentzel | Teddy Blueger |
| San Jose Sharks | Kevin Lebanc | Rudolfs Balcers |
| Seattle Kraken | Jordan Eberle | Mason Appleton |
| St. Louis Blues | Jordan Binnington | Klim Kostin |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Brayden Point | Mathieu Joseph |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | William Nylander | Pierre Engvall |
| Vancouver Canucks | Bo Horvat | Nils Hoglander |
| Vegas Golden Knights | William Karlsson | Nolan Patrick |
| Washington Capitals | Anthony Mantha | Daniel Sprong |
| Winnipeg Jets | Nikolaj Ehlers | Ville Heinola |
Thanks to everyone who has been reading. I appreciate it.
-Cooper.