What a strange, strange year 2020 has been. Truly in every way. With the unprecedented health crisis in the Coronavirus, we've seen the pause of the 2019/20 season in March, the return in September with the Bubble Playoffs, to now a 56-game shortened-season starting January 13th, fresh with new division re-alignments! With that being said, it's time to breakdown the 2020/21 season looking at the four new divisions, how I think the standings will be come playoff time, predictions for major trophies/awards and finally a Stanley Cup champion prediction. Enjoy!
North Division:
1. Vancouver Canucks
2. Toronto Maple Leafs
3. Winnipeg Jets
4. Calgary Flames
5. Edmonton Oilers
6. Montreal Canadiens
7. Ottawa Senators
West Division
1. Colorado Avalanche
2. Vegas Golden Knights
3. St. Louis Blues
4. Arizona Coyotes
5. Minnesota Wild
6. Anaheim Ducks
7. Los Angeles Kings
8. San Jose Sharks
Central Division
1. Tampa Bay Lightning
2. Carolina Hurricanes
3. Dallas Stars
4. Columbus Blue Jackets
5. Nashville Predators
6. Chicago Blackhawks
7. Florida Panthers
8. Detroit Red Wings
East Division
1. Philadelphia Flyers
2. New York Islanders
3. Boston Bruins
4. Washington Capitals
5. Pittsburgh Penguins
6. New York Rangers
7. Buffalo Sabres
8. New Jersey Devils
With the new division re-alignments, each team will only face those within their respective division and thus the top 4 seeds in each division will make the playoffs (1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3). This means that the Conference Finals will be made up of the last team standing in each of the four divisions, and they will then re-seed based on regular-season standings (and not traditional Eastern/Western Conference Finals). Here are my Conference Finals predictions:
North Division: Toronto Maple Leafs (#4 seed)
West Division: Colorado Avalanche (#2 seed)
Central Division: Tampa Bay Lightning (#1 seed)
East Division: Philadelphia Flyers (#3 seed)
Conference Finals 1: #1 Tampa Bay Lightning defeat #4 Toronto Maple Leafs (4-2)
Conference Finals 2: #2 Colorado Avalanche defeat #3 Philadelphia Flyers (4-2)
Stanley Cup Finals: #2 Colorado Avalanche defeat #1 Tampa Bay Lightning (4-3)
NHL Awards Predictions:
Hart Memorial Trophy - Nathan MacKinnon (Runner-up Connor McDavid/Sidney Crosby)
Art Ross Trophy - Connor McDavid (Runner-up: Nathan MacKinnon/Patrick Kane)
Rocket Richard Trophy - Alex Ovechkin (Runner-up: Auston Matthews/Nathan MacKinnon)
Vezina Trophy - Andrei Vasilevskiy (Runner-up: Carter Hart/Robin Lehner)
James Norris Memorial Trophy - Victor Hedman (Runner-up: Cale Makar/Alex Pietrangelo)
Calder Memorial Trophy - Kirill Kaprizov (Runner-up: Alexis Lafreniere/Igor Shesterkin)
Lady Byng Trophy - Ryan O'Reilly (Runner-up: Aleksander Barkov/Nathan MacKinnon)
Frank J. Selke Trophy - Ryan O'Reilly (Runner-up: Patrice Bergeron/Sean Couturier)
Mark Messier Leadership Award - Claude Giroux (Runner-up: Steven Stamkos/John Tavares)
Ted Lindsay Award - Connor McDavid (Runner-up: Nathan MacKinnon/Sidney Crosby)
NHL GM of the Year - Joe Sakic (Runner-up: Chuck Fletcher/Kyle Dubas)
Jack Adams Trophy - Rod Brind'Amour (Runner-up: Jared Bednar/Jon Cooper)
Presidents Trophy - Tampa Bay Lightning
Stanley Cup Champions - Colorado Avalanche
Conn Smythe Trophy - Nathan MacKinnon
The 2020/2021 (technically just 2021) NHL season begins January 13th!
Joel Forman - The Forman Faceoff
