While it’s much too early to hand out final verdicts, I thought it would be fun to check in on the early returns for some of the offseason’s more significant moves. First up, the trade that sent Pavel Buchnevich to St Louis and Sammy Blais to the Rangers.
Analysis
Regular Season Report Card: Nashville Predators (14 GP)
The Nashville Predators were certainly not a consensus pick as a favorite in the Central Division this season. Yet the Preds are hanging with the division leaders and seem intent on making some noise. Let’s take a look at their early season results to see how they’ve done it and assess whether it’s sustainable.
Regular Season Report Card: St Louis Blues (11 GP)
The St Louis Blues came out of the gate strong, stringing together 5 wins to start the 21/22 season. They have cooled since then, but have quietly climbed atop the Central Division full season projections with their solid start. Let’s take a look at their early season results.
NHL Regular Season Brief: Nov 10
Since last week’s update, we’ve seen a number of season opening streaks come to an end. The Carolina Hurricanes were handed their first loss by the Florida Panthers, the Panthers picked up their first regulation loss against the New York Rangers, and the Coyotes finally found the win column against the Seattle Kraken. The Dallas Stars now have the only active season opening streak, as they are the only team without a regulation win. Let’s recap how each division has fared over the past week.
Regular Season Report Card: Tampa Bay Lightning (11 GP)
three-peat? Let’s take a look at their early season results to see how their season is shaping up.
Regular Season Report Card: Florida Panthers (11 GP)
e the last remaining team without a regulation loss in the 21/22 season after they downed the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Are the Panthers the new beast of the east? Let’s take a look at their early season results and compare to my full season projections.
Regular Season Report Card: Vancouver Canucks (11 GP)
With star RFAs Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes re-signing just in time to join the Vancouver Canucks for the start of the regular season and a blockbuster offseason trade bringin Conor Garland and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Vancouver, the Canucks started the 21/22 season looking to return to the playoffs after a disappointing 20/21 campaign. Let’s take a look at their early season results and compare to my full season projections.
Regular Season Report Card: Seattle Kraken (11 GP)
As the Seattle Kraken kicked off their inaugural season, they looked like a defensively minded team with good depth. Many analytics models had them projected as one of the stronger teams in the Pacific Division. Let’s take a look at their early season results and see how they compare with full season projections.
Regular Season Report Card: New York Islanders (8 GP)
The Islanders are off to a 4-2-2 start to the 2021-2022 campaign. It leaves with a 0.625 point percentage through 8 games played, which is a good pace if they can sustain it. It’s also come entirely on the road as the Isles start the season with a 13 game road trip waiting for their new arena to open later this month. The only reason they don’t get full marks here is the relative strength of the Metropolitan Division. Despite their good start, they sit 6th in the division due to even better starts by some of their main competition.
Regular Season Report Card: New York Rangers (10 GP)
Many were skeptical of the New York Rangers offseason moves that saw them move out skilled players in favor of becoming ‘tougher’ to play against. If early season results are any indication, the Rangers are proving the skeptics wrong. Let’s take a deeper look at the Rangers early season to see if their success looks sustainable.