With the puck about to drop on the 2022-23 season, our writers weigh in on their predictions for both player and team awards and accomplishments. 

Brief observations:

Some of the experts made some out-of-the-box picks for award winners, but the majority seemed to play it safe. As you might expect, Connor McDavid is projected for both the Art Ross and Hart yet again. Ditto for Auston Matthews for the Rocket Richard and Cale Makar for the Norris. The panel also likes Igor Shesterkin to win the Vezina Trophy for the second consecutive season.

The panel provided a wide range of players to both rebound and disappoint. Dougie Hamilton was picked by 5 of the 22 panelists to rebound, with Jack Eichel a close second from 4 of the 22 panelists. Interestingly enough, Eichel was picked by two other panelists as a player to disappoint, so opinions on his projected performance seem mixed. Co-leaders to disappoint Alexandar Georgiev and Chris Kreider each received three votes.

The winners for each division shouldn't be considered a huge surprise. However, one team was picked more often than the others to appear in the Stanley Cup Final, and it may not be who you think. A total of 9 of the 22 panelists believe the Calgary Flames will appear in the Stanley Cup Final, four of which pick them to win it all. Perhaps the major offseason moves will put the Flames over the top. Colorado, who received the same number of votes as Calgary to win the cup, is still the Odds Shark favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

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, including on Sportsnet.

Ian Gooding is the managing editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat. 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 and contributor for Rotowire and other fantasy hockey ventures.

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.

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.

Tom Collins writes the weekly Top 10 column that can be found here every Monday.

Rick Roos authors the weekly Roos Let Loose column every Wednesday. He is the former Cage Match writer for Dobber Hockey.

Michael Amato is the Goalie Post editor who provides the latest starting goalie information and writes the Goalie Ramblings.

Grant Campbell writes the weekly Wild West column every Monday.

Brennan DeSouza does double duty, as he writes the weekly Eastern Edge column every Tuesday and gives us the latest injury information every Wednesday.

Chris Kane writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

Ben Gehrels pens the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday. He is also an editor at Dobber Prospects.

Scott Royce gives you the fantasy hockey Geek of the Week every Sunday.

Andrew Santillo checks out what's coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Jamie Molloy authors the salary cap column Capped, which can be found here every Thursday.

Peter Ryell provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up.

Steve Dotzel provides tons of tips to help you win your daily fantasy leagues on Saturdays.

Brad Hayward also picks DFS players on Tuesdays.

Flip Livingstone is our Saturday game picks author. He is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC.

Vlad Zorila also makes game picks on Saturdays.

Will McLean, Shawn Wilken, and Brandon Little are bets/props writers.