RHL GM Prediction Contest Results

Way back in October, five brave RHL GMs and one more that just wanted an easy way to churn out articles set out to predict the 2023-24 NHL season. With July 1st now in the books, we’re going to take a look back and see how they did.

Each GM answered 11 questions in total, listed here below:

1. Name up to five teams that will make the playoffs.

There was just one stinker here that sunk Blix, Led, and yours truly – the New Jersey Devils had high expectations going into the season and finished a full 10 points outside of the playoffs

2. Name up to five teams that will not make the playoffs.

By far the best we all did was on this question. 28 guesses were submitted for this question, with 27 being correct. Blix was the one GM who was down on the Nashville Predators going into the season, and that didn’t pay off for him.

3. Name up to five teams that will finish in the middle 16 of the regular-season standings (i.e. between 9th and 24th).

On the flip side from the previous question, not a single GM scored points on what seemed like it should have been a relatively easy question. Incorrect guesses were placed on the Bruins, Avalanche, Panthers, Rangers, Canucks, and Jets – all top 8 finishers, as well as the Canadiens, Senators, and Kraken, who finished in the bottom 8.

4. Name up to five coaches who will not be fired or otherwise leave their job before July 1, 2024, NOT including any coach who has held their current job for less than one year.

Starting quite early with Mike Babcock before the season even started, 13 NHL head coaches lost their jobs in the past season. Of those 13, one or more GMs had faith in three of them – Don Granato of the underperforming Sabres, Dean Evason of the Capitals after their swift first round exit, and Sheldon Keefe of the Leafs after yet another game 7 loss.

5. Name up to five GMs who will not be fired or otherwise leave their job before July 1, 2024, NOT including any GM who has held their current job for less than two years.

Only four NHL GMs lost their jobs in the last season, but one of those cost 4 of 6 participants their points in this category as Don Waddell left the Carolina Hurricanes to take over the Blue Jackets.

6. Name up to five goaltenders who will start at least 50 games this season.

Seven goalies in total were chosen in this category, and all seven surpassed the 50 start threshold – Georgiev, Vasilevskiy, Hellebuyck, Shesterkin, Sorokin, Oettinger, and Saros were all on the list of 14 goalies to hit that mark this season

7. Name up to five rookies who will finish in the top 10 of Calder balloting.

The awards section was devastating to all of the participants – not one of us earned any points trying to predict the Calder, Norris, or Hart. The one to point the finger at here was Adam Fantilli, who each and every participant expected to earn Calder votes, whereas he only earned a single 4th place vote, falling well short of the 11 total votes collected by the 10th place finisher, Samuel Ersson of the Flyers.

8. Name up to five defensemen who will finish in the top 10 of Norris balloting.

Incorrect guesses here – Charlie McAvoy (13th), Rasmus Dahlin (15th), and Erik Karlsson (no votes)

9. Name up to five players who will finish in the top 15 of Hart Trophy voting.

Only 14 players received at least one Hart vote this year, with the following players having earned guesses and not any votes – Draisaitl, Makar, Jack Hughes, Shesterkin, Jason Robertson, Matthew Tkachuk, Kaprizov, and Sorokin

10. Name up to five players who are currently on an NHL roster who will change teams between puck drop on opening night and the end of the first day of 2024 free agency. This means they must be on a new roster via trade, free agency, waivers or whatever else, but does not include retirement, leaving the league entirely, or being an unsigned free agent.

16 different players were named in this category, with only Doddridge earning points by simply guessing a pair of Anthony’s, with both of them trading teams twice in the timeframe as both Mantha and Duclair were deadline trades as well as signing with new teams on July 1. Of the other 14 named, only 3 changed teams – Elias Lindholm, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Matt Dumba. Of the other 11, 6 are still with their team, 4 remain unsigned, and 1 retired.

We will stop and take a look at the standings to this point before the bonus question, which ended up determining the winner:

1 - Rugged Magikarp – 51 pts

T2 – Doddridge – 45 pts

T2 – LedTasso – 45 pts

T2 – MixtureBill – 45 pts

5 – Rsyzygy – 40 pts

6 – Blix – 15 pts

11. For 15 bonus points, name one and only one player who will finish this season with at least 100 points, and who is not an Edmonton Oiler. Remember, you don’t have to answer the bonus if you don’t want to, and a wrong answer wipes out your entire entry.

Nine players eclipsed the 100 point threshold this year, with two of those being the Oilers you’d expect and thus ineligible to be chosen. Interestingly, three players were named for this question, twice each, but only one of them reached 100 points. Jason Robertson (80) and Matthew Tkachuk (74) both fell a decent amount short despite being healthy the whole season, while Nathan MacKinnon scored 140 points, hitting 100 all the way back on February 29th.

With that, we would like to congratulate Doddridge on winning this year’s prediction contest with a total of 60 points! Yours truly comes just short with 55, and I will forever blame the Canucks for resigning Myers for stealing my victory.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and I look forward to next year’s contest.