Hey ! I'm doing my preparation for some hockey pools. I'm a habs fan, but I want to know the other teams better. I have some questions :

1. Where will Carolina finish in the ranking?

2. What will most likely be the PP?

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations?

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production?

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play?

Canes should win the Metro, probably finish top 5 in the NHL.

First powerplay will likely be Aho, Teravainen, Svechnikov, Burns and Jarvis until Pacioretty gets back, then he likely replaces Jarvis.

Big breakout year is likely Jarvis or Necas. Possibly Bear, Coghlan, or Kotkaniemi in terms of breakouts.

Pacioretty's production is going to take a hit because he's missing 66% of the year, I'd look for Burns to regress too, perhaps Staal as well.

Goalies... if they're healthy, I'd imagine Freddie gets something like 50 starts and Raanta 32, but it's never that easy and it's likely going to end up with Kochetkov getting game time with Raanta consisting of carbon fibre and Andersen suffering from being overplayed in Toronto.

Anything else, feel free to ask.

1. Canes will battle with NYR for top spot in the Metro this season, conservatively projected for top 10 record in the NHL but could easily make a run at President's Trophy provided goaltending stays healthy, trade deadline moves if any, and when and how good Patches is when he comes back.

2. PP1 will be Aho-Svech-Teuvo-Jarvis-Burns likely. PP2 will be KK-Stastny-Kase-Necas-Bear/Slavin. Rod changes lines up a lot though so wouldn't be surprised to see Jarvis or Svech switching in and out of PP1 and 2 to give some life to the second PP and put a vet like Stastny or Kase on the first line.

3. This is a make or break year for KK, he'll slot in as 2C and see a significant increase in TOI and hopefully correlated to points production. Necas has a 2 year bridge deal signed, so Canes fans are hopeful he'll have a boost in production from a significantly down year last year. He won't drop in production, just a matter of if he plays better and has a significant increase in production like we would expect of him. Jarvis additionally was a top 5 rookie in points/60 last year so he'll take a step forward likely playing top 6 minutes with a year of experience under his belt. He could easily finish the season top 3 in points for the Canes this year.

4. Don't expect points from the Staal line, ever. Staal, Fast, and likely Martinook/Stastny/Kase will be the grinder/energy line. Any points they create are bonus points in my book, so anyone playing on that line I would not expect elite or even average point production.

5. Anderson will likely play 50-55 games, Raanta will play 20ish, and I would expect 3-5 from Kotchetkov and fill in from other random call-ups for the remaining few games. These numbers are all depending on the health of guys that have shown a tendency to get injured.

Others have pointed out the bigger points, but I wanted to put a high light on the two players on the Canes which could drastically outproduce where they are drafted/taken in pools; Kotkaniemi and Necas.

Both players are currently slotted in a top 6 role with Patches out. Both could underperform for sure, but seems to me to be a risk worth taking.

I would expect Jarvis to have 55-65 points, Necas to have 50-55, and Kotkaniemi to have 40-45. Put a +\- 10% on that too. Drury could have a really good year but that is 4th line standards so 30+ points.

Let down year? Statsny. He is likely to be in the 30-35 range as a primary shutdown guy next to Staal and Fast for the majority of the season.

Much like last year Staal and Aho will get the top 5v5 time with Kotkaniemi, like Trocheck, will be 90 seconds or so less per game.

Starts:
Freddie: 45
Raanta: 27
Kochetkov: 10

I guess it’s too late for me to offer advice for your pool, but I would have echoed most of what the previous four contributors said anyway, so I’ll use this as an excuse to comment on what’s been happening so far after the first 8 games.

Overall, the team has not looked as good to me as they did most of last season, when they looked like a well-oiled machine, but they have still found a way to post the league’s third-best points percentage to date. Perhaps that’s because it seems that they’ve played a disproportionate number of weaker teams, but nobody is an easy win, so it’s still a decent result. In any case, they should get better.

The biggest question in my mind going into this season was whether Kotkaniemi could handle the 2C role. If you look at his stats – no goals and 2 assists in 8 games – it looks like the answer is no, but I don’t think he’s looked out of place, and his wingers are scoring. You can’t attribute that to power-play time, as only 2 of Necas’s 11 points have come on the power-play, so his line has been highly effective. The points should come for KK, but even if they don’t, I’d leave him there as long as the line continues to produce.

I’m more disappointed with Aho’s line. Aho has been great, as usual, but Teravainen is still looking for his first goal, and Jarvis has slowed down after a strong start. Teravainen should recover – he’s been too consistent over the years for this to last. I didn’t expect Jarvis to get as many points as the other two, but I wonder if he’s suffering a bit of sophomore regression. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brind’Amour try Noesen in that spot, but I suspect that would be only temporary. I still think that’s where Jarvis belongs.

I’m happy with the bottom 6 forwards so far. Staal and Fast have been pretty much as expected. I didn’t expect Stastny to produce like he did last season because I figured he’d be in more of a shutdown role in Carolina, though Niederreiter got 24 goals playing with Staal and Fast last season, which is where Stastny started. Martinook is there now, and he has been more productive.

Burns has looked a bit erratic at times, but he’s still putting up good offensive numbers, so I guess he’s doing what he was brought in for, but I feel like overall offense from the defense is down, though I haven’t checked the numbers. I was disappointed to see Bear go, because I thought he could contribute more offensively than the three guys who’ve been playing on the third pair, but when you have four guys who all look like they can do the job, and one of them has a cap hit almost as much as the other three combined, that makes him seem like an unnecessary luxury.

The goalies have not been as consistent as they were last season. It may be too much to expect them to have another Jennings Trophy season, but they need to be better.