The NHL season officially began last Friday in Europe, but for North American fans, the 2024-25 campaign gets underway today. The NHL schedule makers really wanted to get to me this year, after my year-long rant about how poor the schedule was last season, by starting the first game at 1:30 Pacific Time between the St. Louis Blues and Seattle Kraken. A strange way to start, but at least hockey is back.

The Pacific Division is going to be top-heavy again; however, the lower-end teams should make more of a competitive push. San Jose and Anaheim’s rebuilds are coming along nicely, and the Seattle Kraken spent big this summer. At the top, the Vegas Golden Knights will want to climb their way back up the standings after a disappointing wildcard finish last season. Edmonton, Vancouver, and Los Angeles will look to fend off the Golden Knights and remain in the top three divisional spots, avoiding the wildcard.

Bold predictions are thrown around like candy in anticipation of the season. This begs the question: Are they even bold if everyone has the same one? The predictions below aren’t considered bold but rather a more realistic projection of what could happen.

The Anaheim Ducks are joining that bundle of teams you expect to be better but still won’t make the playoffs. The Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres have been the presidents of this group for a while, and now they’ve added a new member. The easiest prediction is that Lukas Dostal starts more games than John Gibson, which should come true. However, let’s go in a different direction: Anaheim will have a 40-goal scorer for the first time since Corey Perry in the 2013-14 season. Troy Terry is the best guess as to who could do it, considering he scored 37 in 2021-22. Perhaps Frank Vatrano can build off his 37-goal season last year and become one of the elite scorers in the NHL. The younger players, like Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson, and Cutter Gauthier, aren’t quite there yet, but they have enough playmaking ability to help out Terry or Vatrano.

It’s going to be a tough year for the Calgary Flames. They still have a few quality veterans, like Nazem Kadri, Rasmus Andersson, and MacKenzie Weegar, who could make Team Canada’s roster; however, the rest are younger players looking to establish themselves as everyday NHLers. As the season goes on, things could get bleak in Calgary, so it’s fair to predict they will finish last in the Pacific Division. Once the trade deadline passes, players like Andrei Kuzmenko, Anthony Mantha, and Dan Vladar could all be moved.

Connor McDavid will score his 1,000th career point against the Detroit Red Wings on October 27. He’s 18 points away, and the Detroit game is the ninth of the season, so averaging two points a game wouldn’t be unusual for him. Last season, it took McDavid 17 games to score 18 points, but that was during a rough start for Edmonton. In 2022-23, it took him just nine games to reach 18 points. McDavid needs to start strong to hit the 1,000-point mark by the Detroit game, but you can never doubt what he’s capable of.

The Colorado Avalanche are labelled as the “wildcard” team heading into the season due to uncertainty around Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog. However, the LA Kings should be in that conversation, too. They have such a boom-or-bust team that it’s hard to get a strong read on them. Can Darcy Kuemper bounce back? Can Jordan Spence and Brandt Clarke take the next step without Drew Doughty? Can Quinton Byfield become a more consistent scorer? If these questions are answered positively, the Kings could sneak into third place in the division and eliminate the Golden Knights in the first round. Otherwise, they’re in trouble.

Watching the San Jose Sharks last season was unbearable at times, especially when they beat the Oilers — for different reasons. Things should improve this year, so you won’t mind catching them on TV for the 8:30 puck drop. They’ve added exciting players, including Macklin Celebrini, the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Concerns he might miss the start of the season were put to rest yesterday. Celebrini is a special player, and my prediction is that he will score 70 points, similar to Auston Matthews in his rookie year. San Jose has done well putting talent around him, with summer additions like Tyler Toffoli and Alex Wennberg.

The Seattle Kraken will miss the playoffs for the second straight year. Despite adding big free agents Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour, it doesn’t seem like they have enough to compete in the top-heavy Pacific Division. They have many good players, but nobody to push them over the edge. If Shane Wright takes the next step toward stardom, they might have a chance, but that seems unlikely at this stage. Goaltending is another big question mark. The Kraken are a good, competitive team, but they’re stuck in the middle.

The Vancouver Canucks took a huge step last season, returning to the playoffs and pushing the Oilers to Game 7. Typically, in the NHL, teams that make such a leap regress slightly the following year. The Oilers did in 2017, and the New Jersey Devils last season. Injuries played a role in the Devils’ struggles in 2024, and Vancouver is already dealing with that, with Thatcher Demko out for the next few weeks. The Canucks’ management added Jake DeBrusk, Daniel Sprong, and Danton Heinen to their forward group, but the blueline still has questionable spots. Vancouver will make the playoffs, but as a wildcard team, finishing fourth in the Pacific Division.

The Vegas Golden Knights could pull off a surprising move, like putting Mark Stone on LTIR and acquiring Dylan Larkin from Detroit. While that’s not the official prediction, don’t be shocked if something wild happens. The actual prediction is that Jack Eichel will reach the 90-point mark for the first time in his career. Eichel has been scoring at over a point-per-game rate for the last two seasons, and if he stays healthy for at least 75 games, he’s more than capable of hitting 90 points. Mark Stone’s comments about focusing more on the regular season suggest the Golden Knights’ stars won’t be sidelined as often, which bodes well for Eichel’s scoring chances.