At this time last season, we were asked to make some bold predictions for NHL teams in 2025. We went with three, and it’s now a great time to re-examine those bold predictions and see how we fared. Here we go:
2025 Prediction 1: TheToronto Maple Leafs finally win second-round series but get eliminated in Eastern Conference final
The Rationale: “The meat of this prediction is that, at long last, the Maple Leafs will not only win their first-round series, but they’ll win a second-round series for the first time since 2001-02. That will mean they likely eliminate the Tampa Bay Lightning and the defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers, but we’re not nearly so confident in Toronto’s play in the Eastern Conference final series.”
How’d We Do? Not too shabby. It wasn’t fully correct, but we did have the Leafs winning a playoff round, and we were one game away from being 100 percent accurate on the entire prediction. Toronto was a handful for the Ottawa Senators last season, and they nearly knocked off the back-to-back Cup-champion Panthers.
Small consolation for Leafs fans, but this is what makes the Buds’ current struggles so strange – Toronto’s core is still talented enough for them to be playoff contenders, and Leafs star Mitch Marner’s absence shouldn’t be the sole cause for the Leafs’ struggles.
It may already be too late for Toronto to avoid missing the playoffs this year, and a catastrophic end like that will ensure major trades happen in Leafs Land next summer.
Anyhow, let’s say we get a passing grade for this prediction. Not an A+ result, but not bad at all.
The Rationale: “The Avalanche’s overall lack of depth — especially in goal and at forward — will mean Colorado doesn’t have the talent base needed to go on a deep post-season run unless they only play their top stars.”
How’d We Do? In the words of Christoph Waltz’s character in the ‘Inglorious Basterds’ film: That’s a bingo.
Okay, if you want to quibble about it, the Avs didn’t get steamrolled. And yes, we did write as part of that prediction that Mikko Rantanen would stay in Denver. But we’ll take success as it comes, and we did believe Landeskog would be back in action, only for the Avalanche to lose in the first round. We’re calling that a big win.
2025 Prediction 3: The Pittsburgh Penguins will finally start to tear down their roster, trading Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang after the Penguins fail to make the playoffs for the third straight season.
The Rationale: “The Penguins have been an up-and-down team this season, but though they’re fourth in the Metropolitan Division, they’re outside of a wild-card spot and have a handful of teams below them that aren’t far behind. That means there are plenty of potential reasons why the Penguins could fall down the Metropolitan Division standings and wind up missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
“If and when the Pens miss the playoffs yet again, there will be pressure to drastically change the lineup. While captain Sidney Crosby isn’t going anywhere, trades for Malkin and Letang could finally become realistic enough to happen.”
How’d We Do? On this one, we are going to claim a bit of success in predicting that Pittsburgh would miss the playoffs for the third straight year. But despite another stellar season from Crosby, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas did not make changes to his aging core.
Sure, there were some fringe changes Dubas made this past summer, but the Pens looked like a sinking ship right out of the gate last year – remember that six-game losing streak, or going 7-12-4 to start the season? Dubas chose to run it back with the same group this season.
Now, you might say that the Penguins validated Dubas’ optimism in them by being a better team in the current season, but once there is some separation in the standings, Pittsburgh is going to have a difficult time staying in the playoff mix. As a matter of fact, they’re currently outside of a playoff spot.
We’re going to give ourselves a C+ on this prediction. It could’ve happened and could still happen, so while we’re certainly not giving ourselves an A or B grade on this one, it still got some things right.
So, out of three predictions, we hit a home run with one, we had an RBI single in another one, and we had a line-drive flyout on the third.
The predictions business is fraught with danger, so getting the framework of the predictions right was the key for us, and we didn’t do badly at all in that regard this past year. But who knows – in our next round of predictions, we could miss on all of them.
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