DobberHockey Pre-Season Experts Panel 2015-16

steve laidlaw

2015-10-07

The DobberHockey Experts make their pre-season picks for Art Ross, Stanley Cup, Calder and more…

Welcome to the second annual edition of the DobberHockey Experts Panel, where we make our pre-season picks for the top scorers, best teams and more. Last year was our first go around and we did okay, correctly picking Alexander Ovechkin to win the Rocket Richard trophy and for Erik Karlsson to lead the league in defenseman scoring.

Some of our other picks weren’t so hot. Only a few of us had Jamie Benn even cracking the top 10 in scoring, let alone leading the league, none of us had Aaron Ekblad to win the Calder and we all thought Boston would make the playoffs.

Still, it’s a fun exercise and a good reminder that even the experts whiff on a bunch of their picks. Click here for all of last season’s picks – good and bad – and check out our fresh predictions for this season below.

Top 10 Scorers:

Dobber	Tavares	Crosby	Ovechkin	Seguin	Benn	Malkin	Kessel	Giroux	Stamkos	McDavid
Laidlaw	Crosby	Tavares	Kessel	Johnson	Ovechkin	Giroux	Seguin	Benn	Hall	Malkin
Gooding	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Giroux	Benn	Ovechkin	Malkin	Kessel	Stamkos	Johnson
Daoust	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Giroux	Benn	Ovechkin	Stamkos	Kessel	Malkin	Backstrom
Campkin	Crosby	Ovechkin	Tavares	Kessel	Giroux	Malkin	Seguin	Benn	Hall	Stamkos
Collins	Crosby	Seguin	Tavares	Benn	Ovechkin	Getzlaf	P. Kane	Kessel	Giroux	Hall
Coretti	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Ovechkin	Kessel	P. Kane	Malkin	Stamkos	Tarasenko	Getzlaf
Da Costa	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Benn	P. Kane	Ovechkin	Kessel	Giroux	Backstrom	McDavid
Fragopoulos	Malkin	Tavares	Ovechkin	Seguin	Hall	Stamkos	Crosby	Giroux	Kessel	Benn
Hoos	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Tarasenko	Kessel	Benn	Stamkos	Johnson	Karlsson	Getzlaf
LeBlanc	Crosby	Seguin	Tavares	Ovechkin	Benn	Malkin	Giroux	Tarasenko	Johansen	Kopitar
Libin	Seguin	Crosby	Tavares	Malkin	Benn	Ovechkin	Giroux	Hall	Kessel	McDavid
McMillan	Crosby	Voracek	Tavares	Seguin	Giroux	Johansen	Ovechkin	Benn	Stamkos	Tarasenko
Pudsey	Crosby	Tavares	Giroux	Seguin	Voracek	Ovechkin	Benn	Getzlaf	Stamkos	Malkin
Roos	Tavares	Seguin	Voracek	Johansen	Giroux	Turris	Ovechkin	Benn	Crosby	Kessel
Schmidt	Tavares	Crosby	Seguin	Ovechkin	Giroux	Tarasenko	Malkin	Hall	Stamkos	Benn
Cane	Crosby	Tavares	Ovechkin	Giroux	Backstrom	Stamkos	Kessel	Seguin	Benn	Pavelski
Consensus	Crosby	Tavares	Seguin	Ovechkin	Benn	Giroux	Kessel	Malkin	Stamkos	Hall

In all, 21 players found their way onto the top-10 list for at least one of our writers including one defenseman; Erik Karlsson, and even a surprise appearance by Kyle Turris. Sidney Crosby, John Tavares and Tyler Seguin were on the list for all 17 writers, while Alexander Ovechkin and defending scoring champ Jamie Benn were near unanimous appearing on 16 of 17 lists. Ryan Getzlaf, following a down season went from a near unanimous choice last pre-season to making just four lists this time around. Taylor Hall, following an even worse showing hung onto the last spot on the consensus list grabbing six votes but he is the only member of the consensus to grab less than half the vote, consider him a minority member.

Only four players were chosen as league-leaders: Crosby, Tavares, Seguin and even Evgeni Malkin grabbed one top vote. Crosby remains the king and given Phil Kessel popping up on the majority of the writers’ lists shows that fireworks between those two are expected.

If you can count on one thing, it’s that this list will be wrong but if nothing else it should tell you where popular opinion is at.

Top Five Defensemen:

Dobber	Karlsson	Subban	Josi	Yandle	Burns
Laidlaw	Karlsson	Letang	Shattenkirk	Subban	Hedman
Gooding	Karlsson	Subban	Burns	Giordano	Letang
Daoust	Karlsson	Subban	Shattenkirk	Burns	Byfuglien
Campkin	Karlsson	Byfuglien	Subban	Hedman	Carlson
Collins	Karlsson	Subban	Shattenkirk	Carlson	Letang
Coretti	Karlsson	Letang	Subban	Burns	Shattenkirk
Da Costa	Karlsson	Giordano	Shattenkirk	Subban	Letang
Fragopoulos	Karlsson	Subban	Hedman	Burns	Doughty
Hoos	Karlsson	Subban	Letang	Carlson	Hedman
LeBlanc	Karlsson	Subban	Giordano	Hedman	Shattenkirk
Libin	Letang	Karlsson	Josi	Subban	Burns
McMillan	Karlsson	Giordano	Burns	Shattenkirk	Subban
Pudsey	Karlsson	Shattenkirk	Subban	Burns	Doughty
Roos	Karlsson	Shattenkirk	Josi	Subban	Burns
Schmidt	Karlsson	Subban	Burns	Giordano	Barrie
Cane	Karlsson	Burns	Yandle	Subban	Keith
Consensus	Karlsson	Subban	Burns	Shattenkirk	Letang

It should come as no surprise to see Karlsson as a unanimous pick, he very nearly was the top choice on every list, with just one holdout leaving him second behind Kris Letang. I suppose Doran Libin is counting on a healthy year from the Penguins’ defenseman. Letang appeared on just seven lists making him our shakiest consensus choice but that makes sense given his checkered injury past. PK Subban also made it onto everyone’s list though his positioning varied a lot more. In all, 14 different defensemen made it onto at least one list.

Top Five Goalies (Wins + Shutouts):

Dobber	Price	Holtby	Halak	Fleury	Rinne
Laidlaw	Holtby	Price	Bishop	Fleury	Bobrovsky
Gooding	Price	Holtby	Bishop	Fleury	Lundqvist
Daoust	Price	Lundqvist	Rinne	Bishop	Holtby
Campkin	Price	Holtby	Dubnyk	Fleury	Halak
Collins	Price	Bishop	Holtby	Fleury	Rinne
Coretti	Price	Holtby	Dubnyk	Quick	Bobrovsky
Da Costa	Price	Holtby	Bishop	Fleury	Rinne
Fragopoulos	Price	Quick	Holtby	Fleury	Rinne
Hoos	Price	Bishop	Holtby	Rinne	Fleury
LeBlanc	Holtby	Price	Fleury	Rinne	Quick
Libin	Holtby	Lundqvist	Dubnyk	Fleury	Price
McMillan	Holtby	Price	Andersen	Lundqvist	Bobrovsky
Pudsey	Holtby	Price	Fleury	Rinne	Dubnyk
Roos	Price	Holtby	Bishop	Dubnyk	Fleury
Schmidt	Price	Rask	Bobrovsky	Lundqvist	Holtby
Cane	Bishop	Lundqvist	Holtby	Fleury	Rask
Consensus	Price	Holtby	Fleury	Bishop	Rinne

Much less variance among the goalie selections with only 11 in total receiving votes and none receiving just one vote. Surprisingly, the consensus top pick, Carey Price, didn’t even make it onto all of the lists falling short by one but he holds the top spot because of all the first place votes. The only goalie to receive unanimous approval was Braden Holtby, which is a massive turnaround from where he was two years ago. Fleury never received higher than a third place vote but was near unanimous appearing on 13 lists. Tending goal for the Penguins has its perks.

Individual Awards:

	Calder	Richard	Sleeper
Dobber	McDavid	Ovechkin	Galchenyuk
Laidlaw	McDavid	Ovechkin	Strome
Gooding	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
Daoust	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
Campkin	McDavid	Ovechkin 📢 advertisement:	Scheifele
Collins	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
Coretti	Eichel	Ovechkin	Nyquist
Da Costa	McDavid	Ovechkin	Strome
Fragopoulos	McDavid	Ovechkin	Scheifele
Hoos	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
LeBlanc	McDavid	Ovechkin	Nyquist
Libin	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
McMillan	McDavid	Ovechkin	E. Kane
Pudsey	McDavid	Ovechkin	Saad
Roos	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau
Schmidt	McDavid	Ovechkin	Nyquist
Cane	McDavid	Ovechkin	Nyquist
Consensus	McDavid	Ovechkin	Huberdeau

Ovechkin was a unanimous choice for the Rocket Richard trophy so naturally he won’t win it this season. Connor McDavid was nearly unanimous for the Calder if not for Jonathan Coretti choosing Jack Eichel.

This season the standard for the top sleeper pick were: player who hasn’t yet hit 55 points who may break 70 this season. A popular refrain was that there would be no such player. There probably will be, just no one has any idea who it might be. Seven different players were named with Jonathan Huberdeau the most popular choice but Gustav Nyquist was not far behind. Given the fireworks he has displayed alongside Ryan Johansen it was surprising to see Brandon Saad only pop up on one list. For my money, Ryan Strome is the best bet to go supernova but what do I know?

Eastern Conference Playoffs:

Dobber	NY Rangers	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	Washington	NY Islanders	Montreal	Ottawa	Columbus
Laidlaw	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	Washington	NY Islanders	Detroit	Montreal	Columbus	NY Rangers
Gooding	Washington	Tampa Bay	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Montreal	Columbus	Ottawa
Daoust	Tampa Bay	NY Rangers	Washington	Montreal	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Detroit	Columbus
Campkin	Pittsburgh	Tampa Bay	Washington	Columbus	NY Islanders	NY Rangers	Montreal	Florida
Collins	Tampa Bay	Washington	Montreal	Florida	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Columbus
Coretti	Pittsburgh	Tampa Bay	NY Rangers	Montreal	Washington	NY Islanders	Columbus	Philadelphia
Da Costa	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	Montreal	Detroit	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Washington	Columbus
Fragopoulos	Montreal	Pittsburgh	Tampa Bay	Florida	Washington	NY Islanders	Columbus	Philadelphia
Hoos	Tampa Bay	NY Islanders	Washington	Pittsburgh	Montreal	Columbus	NY Rangers	Detroit
LeBlanc	Tampa Bay	Washington	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Columbus	Montreal	Florida
Libin	Tampa Bay	Washington	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Montreal	Detroit	Columbus
McMillan	Washington	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	NY Islanders	Montreal	NY Rangers	Florida	Boston
Pudsey	Tampa Bay	Washington	Montreal	Ottawa	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Columbus
Roos	Tampa Bay	Washington	NY Rangers	Columbus	NY Islanders	Pittsburgh	Montreal	Ottawa
Schmidt	Montreal	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	Detroit	Columbus	Florida
Cane	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh	Ottawa	Montreal	Boston	NY Rangers	NY Islanders	Washington
Consensus	Tampa Bay	Washington	Pittsburgh	Montreal	NY Islanders	NY Rangers	Columbus	Detroit

Tampa Bay and Washington were the two most popular division winners selected but Washington wasn’t even a unanimous choice to make the playoffs falling one short. Teams receiving all 17 votes to make it in included: Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Montreal and the Islanders. The Rangers joined Washington in falling one vote short of unanimity.

Columbus is this season’s favourite to leap into the playoff picture receiving a shocking 15 of 17 votes. Not much consensus for the final playoff spot with Detroit receiving six votes to narrowly edge Florida (six) and Ottawa (five). Let’s get real people; the Red Wings’ playoff streak isn’t ending this season.

Also receiving votes were Philadelphia and Boston with two apiece. Four teams received no votes including Toronto, Carolina, New Jersey and Buffalo. If last year is any indication, one of these teams will jump into a playoff spot, like Ottawa did after receiving no votes. Buffalo is the only team that even remotely seems plausible.

Western Conference Playoffs:

Dobber	Anaheim	Dallas	Minnesota	Chicago	St. Louis	Winnipeg	Calgary	Edmonton
Laidlaw	St. Louis	Calgary	Winnipeg	Nashville	Los Angeles	Anaheim	Dallas	Minnesota
Gooding	Anaheim	St. Louis	Nashville	Minnesota	Chicago	Dallas	Los Angeles	Calgary
Daoust	Anaheim	Minnesota	Nashville	St. Louis	Chicago	Los Angeles	Winnipeg	Calgary
Campkin	Minnesota	Los Angeles	Chicago	Anaheim	St. Louis	Dallas	Winnipeg	San Jose
Collins	Anaheim	St. Louis	Chicago	Los Angeles	San Jose	Dallas	Colorado	Minnesota
Coretti	Anaheim	Minnesota	St. Louis	Nashville	Chicago	Los Angeles	Dallas	San Jose
Da Costa	St. Louis	Anaheim	Nashville	Minnesota	Dallas	Calgary	Los Angeles	Chicago
Fragopoulos	St. Louis	Los Angeles	Nashville	Minnesota	Winnipeg	Anaheim	Calgary	San Jose
Hoos	St. Louis	Anaheim	Dallas	Chicago	Minnesota	Calgary	Winnipeg	Edmonton
LeBlanc	Anaheim	Minnesota	Calgary	Los Angeles	Winnipeg	St. Louis	Dallas	Chicago
Libin	St. Louis	Los Angeles	Dallas	Chicago	Anaheim	San Jose	Minnesota	Nashville
McMillan	Anaheim	Chicago	Dallas	Los Angeles	Minnesota	Nashville	St. Louis	San Jose
Pudsey	Anaheim	St. Louis	Chicago	Los Angeles	Minnesota	Dallas	Calgary	Nashville
Roos	St. Louis	Anaheim	Chicago	Dallas	Minnesota	Winnipeg	Calgary	Los Angeles
Schmidt	Anaheim	Chicago	St. Louis	Los Angeles	Minnesota	Dallas	Calgary	San Jose
Cane	San Jose	Chicago	Dallas	St. Louis	Winnipeg	Anaheim	Los Angeles	Calgary
Consensus	St. Louis	Anaheim	Minnesota	Chicago	Dallas	Los Angeles	Calgary	Nashville

Anaheim and St. Louis were the most popular choices to win their respective divisions and both were unanimous choices to make the post-season. They were the only unanimous choices in the West with even the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks being left off a couple of lists. Minnesota was left off just one list while Dallas and Los Angeles – the two most popular choices to rejoin the playoff picture – tied Chicago with 15 votes, while Calgary pulled in a dozen.

Like the East, the final spot in the West was indecisive with Nashville’s nine votes narrowly edging Winnipeg (nine) and San Jose (eight). With Dallas a near unanimous choice to rise in the Central it seems that one of Winnipeg or Nashville will suffer the consequences, which one is anyone’s guess.

One thing that was conclusive: Vancouver will fall out of the playoff picture. Even Edmonton and Colorado drew a vote or two but not Vancouver. They joined Arizona as the only Western teams not receiving a vote.

Team Awards:

	President’s Trophy	Stanley Cup
Dobber	Anaheim	Tampa Bay
Laidlaw	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
Gooding	Washington	Tampa Bay
Daoust	Anaheim	Minnesota
Campkin	Pittsburgh	Washington
Collins	Anaheim	Washington
Coretti	Pittsburgh	NY Rangers
Da Costa	Pittsburgh	St. Louis
Fragopoulos	Montreal	Anaheim
Hoos	Tampa Bay	Tampa Bay
LeBlanc	Tampa Bay	NY Rangers
Libin	Tampa Bay	Washington
McMillan	Anaheim	Anaheim
Pudsey	Anaheim	Anaheim
Roos	Washington	St. Louis
Schmidt	Montreal	Montreal
Cane	Tampa Bay	Pittsburgh
Consensus	Tampa Bay/Anaheim	Tampa Bay

It’s a bit of an indictment of the playoff system that more teams received Stanley Cup votes (eight) than received President’s Trophy votes (five). Anaheim and Tampa Bay tied with five votes apiece for the regular season crown and were also the most popular choices to win the Cup. Washington tied Anaheim for second on the Cup list with three votes, more than they received for the President’s Trophy, I guess that’s the Justin Williams factor at play. Oddly enough, neither of the Blackhawks or Kings, who have split the past four Cups was anywhere to be found on these lists. But perhaps take this with a grain of salt, last season’s President’s Trophy winner, the New York Rangers, didn’t receive a single vote from the panel. Hopefully we do better this time around!

Rick Roos 2015-10-07 at 16:41Log in to Reply

I had to pick Turris after saying in my 10 Fearless Forecasts column that either him or Monahan would be among the top five scoring centers.

Am I the only one seeing 7 of the top 10 scorers?
Marcus Lepkowski 2015-10-07 at 17:27Log in to Reply

What? no Toronto in the playoffs? ;-)

sucks being a Leafs fan, but I'm hoping it will be worth the wait.
D 2015-10-07 at 18:24Log in to Reply

I only see 7 as well
Eric Daoust 2015-10-07 at 18:58Log in to Reply

The table needs to be narrower. The last three are behind the stuff on the right side.
Rick Roos 2015-10-07 at 19:13Log in to Reply

In case the tables for top 10 can't be fixed, here are the final three selections for each writer:

Dobber = Giroux, Stamkos, McDavid

Laidlaw = Benn, Hall, Malkin

Gooding = Kessel, Stamkos, Johnson

Daoust = Kessel, Malkin, Backstrom

Campkin = Benn, Hall, Stamkos

Coretti = Stamkos, Tarasenko, Getzlaf

Da Costa = Giroux, Backstrom, McDavid

Fragopoulos = Grioux, Kessel, Benn

Hoos = Johnson, Karlsson, Getzlaf

LeBlanc = Tarasenko, Johansen, Kopitar

Libin = Hall, Kessel, McDavid

McMillan – Benn, Stamkos, Tarasenko

Pudsey = Getzlaf, Stamkos, Malkin

Roos = Benn, Crosby, Kessel

Schmidt = Hall, Stamkos, Benn

Cane = Seguin, Benn, Pavelski
- Tom Collins 2015-10-07 at 19:56Log in to Reply
  
  My final three were Kessel, Giroux and Hall.
  - Rick Roos 2015-10-07 at 20:34Log in to Reply
    
    Oops – sorry Tom. Must've missed you along the way. I was going from one window to another.
isle b. 2015-10-07 at 19:53Log in to Reply

If the Oilers are making the playoffs, then McDavid should be a lot closer to Art Ross territory, Hall should crack the top 10 and maybe Schultz should crack the top 5 D and evrn a Yak/Purcell/Lander/Pouliot appearance in the sleeper category because it is going to take an awful lot of scoring to overcome that defense and goaltending.
Mark 2015-10-08 at 03:48Log in to Reply

So Cane thinks that Rask would out point Price, yet he has the Habs as 4th in the East…Condon must be winning lots of games this year! That seems to be the only terrible prediction, even worse than the Turris pick. I wouldn't be surprised to see Rask with less than 30 wins this season. That defense is maybe even worse than Edmonton's now, lol.