Experts Panel: 2024-25 Season Predictions
Ian Gooding
2024-10-06
With the puck about to drop on the 2024-25 season, our writers weigh in on their predictions for both player and team awards and accomplishments.
Brief observations:
The Edmonton Oilers are all over both our player and team picks for the second consecutive season. From a player standpoint, Connor McDavid is the favorite for both the Hart Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy. As a team, the Oilers were unanimously picked to win the Pacific Division, while they were also the most popular choice to win the Stanley Cup. After losing in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to Florida, the Oilers will be on a mission. The Metropolitan Division race was the toughest to call with the Rangers edging out the Devils with a few votes for the Hurricanes sprinkled in.
Aside from Auston Matthews for the Rocket Richard, the other award winners were divided. On top of that, the player to rebound and disappoint choices are usually even more varied that the award choices. There was a three-way tie between J.T. Miller, Sam Reinhart, and Steven Stamkos as the player most likely to disappoint, with numerous other choices mentioned. Several writers believe that Tage Thompson is the player most likely to bounce back after his points-per-game total fell from 1.21 PTS/GP to 0.79 PTS/GP – from 94 points in 78 games to 56 points in 71 games.
Agree? Disagree? Comments?
About the panel:
Dobber launched this website in 2005 after he was the fantasy hockey columnist for The Hockey News website, The Fantasy Sports Network, and a contributor to The Forecaster. DobberHockey has since grown into the Dobber Sports Network and has work can be found across the internet.
Ian Gooding is the managing editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat, also providing monthly Top 100 Roto Rankings. He has also contributed to many other sites, including Sportsnet, Today's Slapshot, Kukla's Korner, and fantasyhockey.com.
Mike Clifford is an associate editor of DobberHockey, writing the Ramblings multiple times per week. He also covers DFS for Stokastic and writes for EP Rinkside.
Alex MacLean is an associate editor and writes the Ramblings once a week. He was previously the author of the Capped column and also contributes salary cap league rankings.
Brennan DeSouza is the latest writer to join the editing team, as he now also writes the Ramblings once a week. He had previously covered Injury Ward, Eastern Edge, and Lining Up.
Mario Prata is the manager of special projects and marketing for Dobber Sports. He is also a co-founder of the famous The Sports Forecaster magazine.
Eric Daoust manages our valued Frozen Pool section.
Rick Roos authors the weekly Roos Let Loose column every Wednesday, covering a variety of topics. He is the former Cage Match writer for Dobber Hockey.
Flip Livingstone started as the Saturday game picks writer and is now taking on Eastern Edge and the Top 10 list as well. He is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC.
Michael Amato is the Goalie Post editor who provides the latest starting goalie information and writes the Goalie Ramblings. He also covers fantasy hockey for Sportsnet and is the co-host of the Sleepers & Keepers podcast for The Hockey News.
Grant Campbell keeps an eye on everything Western Conference in the Wild West column every Monday.
Chris Kane writes the Frozen Tools Forensics column on Fridays, emphasizing what he finds on Frozen Tools.
Andrew Santillo checks out what’s coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday, as well as salary cap column Capped on Thursdays. He has also contributed to Goalie Post.
Puneet Sharma writes the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday. He also writes for Dobber Prospects.
Peter Ryell provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up.
Brad Hayward provides tons of tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.
Ryan Brudner shares his expertise of multicategory leagues in the Geek of the Week column every Sunday. He has also contributed to GoaliePost.
Blake Creamer brings his medical knowledge and sense of humor to Injury Ward every Wednesday. He also hosts the Apples & Ginos Fantasy Hockey Podcast.
Stas Pupkov dives deep into advanced stats with Analytics Advantage.
TJ Branson is the host of the Five Hole Fantasy Hockey podcast.