It’s time.
With the start of the NHL season just a few days away, you’ve read all the previews and predictions. So, so many predictions, by so many so-called experts, none of whom have any idea what they’re talking about.
Now it’s your turn to be wrong.
Yes, it’s prediction contest time, our annual reminder that an NHL season is basically impossible to project. I give you a series of very easy questions. You decide how confident you want to be, and what the optimal strategy looks like. Then we sit back, enjoy the season and watch it all fall apart.
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No big changes to the rules or format this year, although we’ve swapped out one of the traditional questions. Here’s how this works:
The rules
• The contest features 10 questions, plus an all-or-nothing bonus. For each of the 10 regular questions, you can give at least one answer and as many as five.
• For each of the regular questions, you’ll earn one point for your first right answer, two points for the second (for a total of three) and so on, all the way up to a maximum of 15 points if you run the table with five correct answers.
• HOWEVER, even one wrong answer gives you a zero for the entire question. Going one-for-one and getting one point is better than four-for-five and a zero, so just how confident do you want to be?
• The bonus question is optional, and you can leave it blank. If you choose to answer, you’ll give one and only one response, and earn 15 bonus points if you’re right. But if you’re wrong, you’ll receive a zero for your entire entry. Not just that question — your whole entry is wiped out if you whiff on the bonus.
• The winner is the entry that racks up the most total points.
• Invalid answers are marked wrong. This includes leaving an answer such as “Tkachuk” or “Hughes” without specifying a first name. Pay attention to date cutoffs for the coach and GM questions, and double-check names.
• Any entry that doesn’t follow the formatting rules listed below will probably be ignored. It takes a lot of work to scrape all the information and store it, and if you make life difficult, then we reserve the right to just skip over your entry.
• The deadline for entries is 5:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 7.
The questions
1. Name up to five teams that will make the playoffs.
2. Name up to five teams that will not make the playoffs.
3. Name up to five teams that will finish in the middle 16 of the regular-season standings (i.e., between 9th and 24th).
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4. Name up to five coaches who will not be fired or otherwise leave their jobs before July 1, 2026, not including any of the 11 coaches who were hired after October 1, 2024.
5. Name up to five GMs who will not be fired or otherwise leave their job before July 1, 2026, not including any of the eight GMs who were hired after October 1, 2023.
6. Name up to five goaltenders who will start at least 50 games this season.
7. Name up to five rookies who will finish in the top 10 of Calder Trophy balloting.
8. Name up to five defensemen who will finish in the top 10 of Norris Trophy balloting.
9. Name up to five players who will finish in the top 15 of Hart Trophy voting.
10. Name up to five players from the NHL who will score at least one goal in the Olympics this year. (Shootouts don’t count, because come on.)
Optional bonus question:
For 15 bonus points, name one and only one player who will finish this season with at least 45 goals, and who is not Auston Matthews or Leon Draisaitl.
Remember, you don’t have to answer the bonus if you don’t want to, and a wrong answer wipes out your entire entry (including if it turns out that there are no correct answers).
How to enter
Read this section before you enter the contest. If you don’t follow these rules, your entry may be excluded from the collected data.
• Enter by listing your answers in the comment section below.
• DO NOT cut and paste the questions into your entry. Just list your answers.
• DO NOT list every name in your entry on a new line. One line per question, separated by commas or spaces.
• Important reminder: Be aware of cases where people have the same or similar last names. There are two GMs with the last name Armstrong, multiple good players with names such as Hughes and Tkachuk, etc. We’ll do our best to figure out who you mean in obvious cases — if you list “Nylander” for the bonus, we’ll assume you mean William and not AHLer Alex — but if we’re not sure, you take a zero for that answer.
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• Double-check that you have the right answers for the right question number. (You’d be amazed at how many people mess this up and end up listing Connor McDavid as a Norris candidate or swap the coaches and GMs.)
Ten questions, give or take a bonus. Everything will have been agonizingly easy when we look back in a few months. How easy are they right now?
The comments are open and the contest is on, so let’s see what you’ve got.
(Photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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