NHL 2024-25 Season Predictions
Folks, we have done it: we have made it to the NHL regular season. Congratulations. The most wonderful time of the year is upon us (sorry, Christmas) and every hockey fan's mood is lifted, at least until they actually see their teams play. Then comes the pain. But hey, we'll take the joy while we can get it. So, this is the second annual NHL season predictions article here on Prism Hockey. In this article, I will predict what I think we’ll see happen in this upcoming NHL season, but we’ll also take a look back at my predictions for last year, and how wrong I was (and believe me, I was really, really, wrong).
Like last season we’ll begin with my predictions on each division’s standings.
Atlantic Division
Florida Panthers
Boston Bruins
Toronto Maple Leafs
Tampa Bay Lightning
Detroit Red Wings
Buffalo Sabres
Ottawa Senators
Montreal Canadiens
Here’s my quick explainer: Florida at the top should be obvious. I like what the Bruins did in the off-season enough to think they could place second. For Toronto, they’re overtime merchants and while their goaltending situation isn’t as dire as it once was, I still don’t trust their blue line even remotely. Tampa is definitely worse than they were a year ago, but I’m not convinced any of the rebuilding teams are ready to overtake them, yet. Detroit has improved their goaltending and defense and should still have a playoff-caliber offense despite losing a few key offense creators. For Buffalo, I always place them higher than they end up going, and this time I’ve given up. I’ll believe they’re a playoff team when they actually do it. I do believe they’re better than the Senators, though, mainly because I do think Tage Thompson will be better this season. When it comes to Ottawa, they have Ullmark and a better offense, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough. Montreal: it’s Montreal. They’re going to be injured all year, and even if they won’t be injured all year, it’s still not a good roster.
Central Division
Dallas Stars
Nashville Predators
Colorado Avalanche
Winnipeg Jets
Utah HC
St. Louis Blues
Minnesota Wild
Chicago Blackhawks
Here’s my quick explainer: Dallas at the top should be obvious. I don’t think any team added enough to knock them off and I don’t think Dallas lost enough talent to knock them off the top. Nashville improved heavily, while Colorado is missing Landeskog (still) and Nichushkin. Nichushkin’s suspension ends mid-November, but that’s not a guarantee he’ll be immediately ready for the season. While it’s looking more and more like Landeskog returns this year, who knows when and how well he’ll play after missing so much time? There’s just too many questions with them. Plus, if they suffer injuries, especially early in the season to any of their remaining top players, that could sink them. I don’t know if I trust them enough, so I’ll put Nashville ahead of them. Winnipeg is Winnipeg and I don’t trust them to repeat last season’s regular season performance. Utah is definitely better than they were last season (as Arizona), but they’re still relying so heavily on young players that I’m not quite ready to say they’re a playoff team. I think they’ll be close, though. St. Louis didn’t meaningfully improve, and neither did Minnesota who will be relying on young players to lead the charge. Chicago still sucks.
Metropolitan Division
New York Rangers
New Jersey Devils
Carolina Hurricanes
Washington Capitals
New York Islanders
Pittsburgh Penguins
Philadelphia Flyers
Columbus Blue Jackets
Here’s my quick explainer: I think the Rangers are still better than anyone else in the division, even with New Jersey’s offseason additions. That said, I do think having an actual starting goaltender will boost the Devils to second in the division. Carolina lost a lot in the offseason, but I still think they’re going to be better than any team that isn’t the Rangers or Devils. I struggle to see the Capitals as having improved enough to knock off the Hurricanes, but I do think they should be a lock for the playoffs. The Islanders are mediocre and probably will miss the playoffs unless Sorokin has a Vezina-winning season, but I still like them more than the Penguins or Flyers. I don’t think the Penguins improved meaningfully and will continue their fall and I also believe the Flyers were punching above their weight last season and will return to reality this season. Columbus could very realistically be the worst team in the league this year.
Pacific Division
Edmonton Oilers
Vancouver Canucks
Vegas Golden Knights
Los Angeles Kings
Seattle Kraken
Calgary Flames
Anaheim Ducks
San Jose Sharks
Here’s my quick explainer: The Oilers are good. That’s the explanation. Also, I think Vancouver Vancouver is easily the second-best in the division in my view, I don’t see any of the other teams as having improved enough to knock them off this year. For those wondering why I don’t have them being the top team this year, they had one of the easiest schedules in the league last year, while Edmonton had a (slightly) tougher one. This year Edmonton is looking, currently, to have the easiest schedule in the league. Vegas lost a lot of talent, but I still think they’re the third-best in the division, and that says more about how little I trust the Kings than it does how much I trust the Golden Knights. The Kings are mediocre and I see them as remaining mediocre. Mind you, I think the Golden Knights will be mediocre as well. There’s going to be a large gap between the Oilers and Canucks and the rest of the division. I think the Kraken will be better, but I’m not sure it’ll be enough to dethrone the Kings. Calgary lost their starting goaltender and didn’t meaningfully improve in the offseason. Anaheim and San Jose still suck and I could see either of these two teams being the worst in the division, but if they remain healthy, I like the Ducks just slightly more. Slightly. Mainly because the Ducks have an actual top-six.
Now, let’s make some random predictions. First, though, let’s see my predictions from last season:
The Carolina Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup (defeating the Golden Knights in the Final).
Connor Bedard only gets 45 points this season. He’s an undersized winger coming onto a team that will provide him zero help. He’s not going to be that great off the bat.
The Calder Trophy race will be between Logan Cooley of the Coyotes and Adam Fantilli of the Blue Jackets.
The Philadelphia Flyers will win the Eiserman sweepstakes in the draft lottery, with the Blackhawks getting the second pick, and the Sharks getting the third pick.
The Capitals make a serious push for the playoffs.
Yeah. I’m going to go hide in shame after I publish this article. These were bad. Like, really, really bad. Neither Carolina nor Vegas made the Cup Final, which, to be fair, we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. I have literally never predicted correctly any team to make the Final. That’s right, not only have I never correctly predicted the winner before the season, but I’ve never even correctly predicted the loser before the season. No team I’ve ever selected to make the Cup Final has done so. So, this was always going to be a bad prediction. Also, sorry to the fanbases of the teams I will select in this article.
Moving on to the next predictions, my Bedard prediction, looking back, wasn’t a bold prediction or hot take. It was just a downright stupid one and I’ve been kicking myself for this one since last November. Meanwhile, I didn’t hear anyone bring up Cooley or Fantilli for the Calder Trophy, and in the end, I was advocating for Voronkov to be a top-three candidate in Calder Trophy voting (and I still maintain he should’ve been). So, Fantilli isn’t even the Blue Jackets rookie I think should’ve gotten Calder votes at the end of the season.
Then, we got to…yeah. I’m not even talking about this. Every single part of this prediction is wrong except for the Blackhawks getting the second pick, and frankly, I don’t want to dissect this. This is the most embarrassing one because this was the one I was most confident in.
But, to finish it all off: I GOT ONE RIGHT!!!! YAY!!!! Not only did the Capitals make a serious playoff push, they made the playoffs! Oh, wait a second, they’re the reason the Red Wings didn’t make the playoffs, so maybe I would’ve preferred getting this wrong.
Anyway, on to predictions for this season:
The New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup, beating the Edmonton Oilers in six games.
Sorry to both fanbases. Actually, no, only sorry to Rangers fans, I love so many of you. Please don’t hate me for cursing your team. Somebody’s team had to be cursed, it just happened to be yours this time. Meanwhile, Oilers fans have sent me the most death threats of any fanbase, so, maybe you deserve to miss the Cup Final this year.
I’m not saying they will be this bad, but I do think it’s highly realistic that the Blue Jackets are 92-93 Sharks and Sens bad this year.
Why? First off, they suck. This roster is terrible. Even if Gaudreau hadn’t been killed, they still probably would’ve been a bottom-six team in the league. Without him? They’re arguably the worst and if they have serious injury issues again this year, as per usual, I think they could be that bad. This team sucks. All it’s going to take for them to be historically bad is one or two players with a pulse going down for an extended period of time.
The Blue Jackets will be the worst team in the league and for the first time in franchise history will be awarded the first overall pick. The Sharks will pick second while the Canadiens pick third.
Matvei Michkov remains on Tortorella’s good side all season and doesn’t get benched.
This is without a doubt the stupidest prediction I’m making in this article. I’ll make it anyway on the 0.1% chance it happens so I look like a genius if it does happen.
Logan Cooley, Leo Carlsson, and Adam Fantilli all avoid having sophomore slumps and take a step forward in their development this season.
The Winnipeg Jets make it to the second round of the playoffs this season.
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