au-da-cious

Showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks.

de-lu-sion-al

Characterized by holding beliefs or opinions contradicted by reality or rational thought.

pro-phet-ic

            Accurately describing or predicting what will happen in the future.

10.  Martin Necas leads the Carolina Hurricanes in scoring.

Not Svechnikov. Not Trocheck. Not Aho. Young Martin will break out big time in year three.

9. Jakob Chychrun has the most points of any defenseman.

Maybe not embarrassingly audacious since he had a great year last year, but there are probably ten candidates with a stronger supporting cast.

8. New Jersey will have the best power play in the NHL.

Power play coach Mark Recchi will pick the right five of Hughes, Hamilton, Tatar, Hischier, Smith, Bratt, or Sharangovich to man the first unit and the Devils will surprise with an unbelievably potent PP.

7. Patrik Laine scores 50.

John Tortorella would have benched Mario Lemieux to send a message. Laine will be able to find his rhythm now that he is out of the Torts pressure cooker. Relatedly, Pierre Luc-Dubois will continue to refuse to break a sweat in Winnipeg and have Cole Perfetti replace him on the second line.  

6. Erik Karlsson returns to form

Last year was a disaster, the year before a disappointment, but year three in SJ it will come together and those who drafted him late will end up with a top five defenseman.

5. Jakub Vrana finishes in the top 15 in NHL scoring.

Steve Yzerman will again look like a genius for bringing in a guy who just needed an opportunity, and then giving him that opportunity.

4. Mika Zibanejad wins the Rocket Richard trophy.

He was scoring at league leading pace for the last half of the season. He will pick up where he left off.

3.  Evgenii Dadonov scores 30.

Plenty of room for him in the Vegas top six forwards. His time in Ottawa showed he isn't a leader who can carry a line. But in Vegas, he won’t have to.

2. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has a career year.

Quinn Hughes will compliment OEL the same way that Yandle used to years ago when an absolutely terrible Arizona team had a surprisingly good power play.

1. Sergei Bobrovsky wins back the crease in Florida.

Wunderkind Spencer Knight will falter early and Sargent Bob will grab hold of the crease and not let go.

I anticipate 100% reader agreement on these predictions, however, if there are one or two you disagree with, add a comment. There is a fine line between prophetic genius and delusional insanity. Which side of the line do these predictions fall on?