With the puck about to drop on the 2025-26 season, our writers weigh in on their predictions for both player and team awards and accomplishments. 

Brief observations:

There were no unanimous picks among the panel, but the closest to 100% were the following:

• Newly re-signed Connor McDavid for the Art Ross Trophy
• Ivan Demidov for the Calder Trophy
• Vegas for the Pacific Division regular-season title
• Carolina for the Metropolitan Division regular-season title

The Stanley Cup vote was more divided. Dallas slightly edged out Edmonton as the favorite to win the Stanley Cup, while Tampa Bay received a few more votes than Carolina to be the runner-up. The cup winner picks were heavily weighted toward the Western Conference.

Numerous players are listed as players to rebound and players to disappoint, if you are looking for some ideas on undervalued players to trade for or potential busts to trade. Players receiving multiple votes in these categories include the following:

Players to rebound

• Elias Pettersson
• Auston Matthews
• Trevor Zegras

Players to disappoint

• Brandon Hagel
• Dougie Hamilton

Agree? Disagree? Comments? 

About the panel:

Dobber (Darryl Dobbs) 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 his 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 several 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 has written 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.

Puneet Sharma is the latest writer to become an associate editor, as he now also writes the Ramblings once a week. He had previously covered The Journey and has been a senior writer and associate editor for DobberProspects.

Mario Prata is the managing editor of Dobber Sports Publications. He is also 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 is our Saturday game picks writer and is also the co-host of the Locked On Fantasy Hockey Podcast. 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 writes the salary cap column Capped on Thursdays and covers DFS during the week. He started out with the Looking Ahead column and has also contributed to Goalie Post.

Eli Feldman authors the ever-popular Top 10 column while observing the Eastern Conference in Eastern Edge. He had previously covered Lining Up.

Ryan Brudner writes a weekly column on NHL betting. He has also authored the Geek of the Week and contributed to GoaliePost.

Stas Pupkov dives deep into advanced stats with Analytics Advantage.

Logan Clarkson provides the latest in injuries with Injury Ward, which will now appear twice a week. He had previously written for GoaliePost.

Victor Nuño shares his expertise in prospects with The Journey every Saturday. Victor wears many hats, including serving as an editor at DobberProspects as well as the co-host of the Fantasy Hockey Life Podcast.

Lucas Main provides you with what you need to know about line combinations in Lining Up. Lucas has also written for DobberProspects and GoaliePost.

Caleb Desjardins checks out what’s coming down the pipe schedule-wise with the Looking Ahead column every Friday. He also writes about the Montreal Canadiens for the Last Word on Hockey.

Chad Simpson digs into multicategory leagues with the Geek of the Week every Sunday. He also has experience writing about multiple fantasy sports.