Nuge w/ 97 to start will be huge for 97
2) McDavid was on a rehabbed knee all year and looked slower/tired by the last couple months. Fresh and healthy this year
3) Drai having his own line with reasonably good player in Yamamoto and Kahun gives EDM a good 2nd line. (2/
4) I project 97’s line at 55% GF and Drais at 52% GF. There ‘s ~32 5v5 minutes per game won
5) Turris wasn’t good last 2 years in NSH, but I can’t come up with any way of seeing him replicate Sheahan’s 31%(!!!!) GF% last year. JP could be good help there (3/
Turris' line penciled in at 45% GF
6) Wingers like Ennis, Neal and Chiasson will be fine if not above their level and penciled in on 4th line, they’ll be good. I got the 4th line being close to 50% GF (4/
7) EDM won’t miss Klefbom as much as feared. Jones looks like the real deal. Klef’s Achilles’ heel has been defensive and I don’t think Jones is a down grade there much if at all with quicker feet. (5/
8) 7th and 8th Dmen (Russell-Bouchard) don’t scare me at all if they get pressed to play 3rd pair. 2nd pair is a different story, but D-depth is good (6/
9) Koskinen is criminally under rated. Top 15 goalie by many metrics last year. Back up goalie however…….and CAR poaching Forsberg hurts a bit too (7/
10) PP will still be all world. Won’t shoot 20% again (probably) but good PPs are good PPs for years (see WSH, TBY, and EDM since Gulutzan started coaching it 2 years ago) if players and coach don’t change and they haven’t. (8/
11) PK SV% will regress, but not as much as assumed. Players had said they played a similar system to SJS where they try to force shots from certain areas. SJS had worst 5v5 SV and best PK SV% in the league last year.. (9/
EDM was tied with SJS at .906. Teams will scheme around it and it will regress, but I don’t have it going down to league average of .865. .875 may be fair to assume. We’ll see. *crosses fingers* (10/
12) So I have EDM having a better 5v5 GF% than last year. Was 47.3% last year, I got them ~51.5% this year. I also have them with a very good (if not the best) Special Teams goal differential in the league again. (11/
Goal differential drives wins and they’ll have a better goal differential per game than last year when they had the best points percentage of all Canadian teams
I have them 1st/2nd/3rd in North Division.
Might miss if too many key injuries (like Koskinen/97/29)
(12/
Here hoping that the Good Gords are willing and the creek don't rise.
GOILERS!!!
*clapclap* (13/13)