The Cannon staff predicts the 2023-24 NHL season

The 2023-24 NHL season officially began last night, and tomorrow will be the start for the Columbus Blue Jackets. As is our annual tradition, the staff of The Cannon have put our predictions in writing for posterity.

Previously on

First, let’s look at the best and worst from last season’s predictions:

Best: Josh was the only one to pick one of the actual Cup finalists into the conference finals, in Florida. We all thought they’d make the playoffs but none figured they’d barely sneak in. Connor McDavid was a unanimous Hart pick, but that was an easy one. Ditto for 3 of us picking Matty Beniers to win the Calder. MrSwift13 was the only one to predict that the Blue Jackets would finish under 80.5 points.

Worst: I thought Vegas would stay down for another year. Oof. None of us saw Boston being as good as they were. 3 picked Calgary reaching the Western Conference finals, when they actually missed the playoffs entirely.

2023-24 Observations

Metro: Carolina and New Jersey are the locks for 1-2. Pittsburgh is the most interesting team in the Metro, for me. New president/GM Kyle Dubas made a great trade that shed some bad contracts and brought in reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. Is this enough to get the Penguins back to the playoffs for one last Cup run with this core? It’s certainly possible they can get back to the playoffs, but I don’t think this team has the depth to make a deep run. I think Karlsson will regress, and it’s only a matter of time before Crosby/Malkin/Letang slow down as well. The rest of the East is getting better…and younger.

Atlantic: Toronto is the pick to win the Atlantic. Surely this won’t backfire! Boston is the team to watch in this division. With the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Kreijci, they will certainly be worse. But after setting a points record last year, it would require a huge drop to miss the playoffs altogether, and most projections still have them in. I’m not so certain. Their defense and goaltending is great, but they’re weak down the middle and I don’t think they have enough firepower outside of David Pastrnak.

Will one of Buffalo/Ottawa/Detroit break into the postseason? I’m saying two of them will.

Central: Here we have full agreement on the top 3 teams, but I’m more a fan of Dallas to win it than Colorado. Winnipeg/St. Louis/Nashville are all teams that won’t surprise me if they are better, but I don’t trust any of them fully yet.

Pacific: There’s a lot of Edmonton hype this preseason, but I don’t fully buy it. I can’t justify putting Los Angeles above them or Vegas, but I do think the Kings can be very good, if the Copley/Talbot goalie tandem does no harm.

Playoffs: Carolina, New Jersey, Colorado, or Dallas. Your Cup winner will come from the Metro or Central.

Awards: I like MrSwift’s pick of Ekholm for Norris. If Edmonton takes a leap this season, it will be because of his impact on the blue line. The rest of us picked from among the last 3 Norris winners. For the Calder, I am surprised that only 1 picked Bedard, but I stand by my Fantilli homer pick.

Over/under: The number I found for Columbus was 74.5, which is 6 points lower than last year’s target. I think this team will make up a lot of ground from last year’s 59 points simply by being healthy. I also think they can get well into the 80s if things go mostly right. That being said, I expect enough bumps on the road (and players I don’t like playing more than they should) that a finish right below the over/under, at 74 points, feels very plausible.

The Picks

Here are our predictions. Share yours in the comments!