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Todd Cordell
The Colorado Avalanche, a 48-point team in 2016-17, will easily surpass 70 points this season and will not be picking inside the top-2 (unless they win the draft lottery).
Defense is still a concern, and the Matt Duchene cloud hovering over the team is less than ideal, but there's plenty of reason to expect a lot more from the Avs this year.
For one, almost every key player on the roster had a down season and produced much less than they've proven to be capable of.
Nathan MacKinnon led the team in scoring while shooting 6.3%, the lowest total of his career, and tallying 10 fewer points than he did as a rookie. Gabriel Landeskog had 19 fewer points (33) than his previous career low. Tyson Barrie tallied only 38 points after averaging 52 points per 82 games the three seasons prior and Semyon Varlamov, who owns a career .916 save percentage in 348 NHL games, stopped just 89.8% of the shots he faced last season.
I expect each and every one of those players to be more productive in 2017-18, which will earn the Avs several more wins alone.
The team's depth will be a lot better, too, with players like Rene Bourque, Jarome Iginla and Joe Colborne, all of whom contributed *nothing* last season, being replaced by Colin Wilson, Sven Andrighetto, and rookie Tyson Jost on a full-time basis.
Oh, and Erik Johnson, arguably the team's best two-way defender, is probably a good bet to play in more than 46 games this season.
I know a lot of people are down on the Avs, but I expect them to be a whole lot better.
Adam French
Not sure if it's necessarily "bold," but I think Paul Maurice will be fired in mid-December.
The Jets on paper are monsters. They have arguably the best offensive depth in the league (on paper) rivaling the usual suspects like the Penguins, Oilers or Leafs. Wheeler, Laine, Scheifele, Little, Connor, Ehlers and even Perreault form a seriously strong group. If Dano or Petan or Roslovic turn out as well...yikes. That's a playoff level group of forwards. Or should be, as we saw last season, reality can be different than "on paper."
Then the defense. Trouba is quietly becoming a very good top-2 defender. His minutes began going up and I think he's poised for a statement year. Morrissey is also a strong young defender. Myers is a capable top-4 guy. Big Buff while more one dimensional, is still a top-4 guy who can run a PP. Even Enstrom when healthy is a quality defender. This defense again looks better on paper. It SHOULD have been a defense that can make the playoffs. Removing Stuart and replacing him with Kulikov should be a big improvement as well.
Lastly goaltending or the lack thereof. The Jets number one weakness was their goaltending situation, though I would also maintain that it is Paul Maurice's coaching style that also doesn't help them out. It seems like every goalie takes a step back when he gets his hands on them. With Steve Mason and the H's a year older and wiser, you would have to hope they can get better tending. I'm not going to hold my breath though (as seen last year with Calgary).
I think the Jets will come out with a lot of scoring, but not a lot of results. We'll hear rumblings about Trouba wanting out etc. Then Maurice will be fired and, like the Boston Bruins last season, they will go on a tear and make the playoffs.
Jared Crozier
The Colorado Avalanche will be the worst team in the NHL. OK so maybe that isn't such a bold prediction, but they will be worse than they were last season. Which is going to be tough, because they are coming off the worst points percentage season in the shootout era, (48 points in 82 games), but I think they have it in them to set the bar even lower.
Two weeks away from opening night they barely have 4 NHL defensemen on their roster and PTO Jared Cowen could end up being #5. Their best player, Matt Duchene, doesn't want to be there and the management doesn't want him there. Joe Sakic has no choice but to try an hit a home run with a Duchene deal, and the offers aren't getting any better than they were last season. Sakic appears to be to general managing what Wayne Gretzky was to coaching - fantastic player, not so great in chosen post-playing role. And really, it is tough to see him in such a situation, but it is his own doing.
Peter Tessier
Bold predictions in the central are actually not so hard because there's so much that could happen in this division. So I'm going to list of a few that I believe have a real chance of happening.
1. Chicago has a major regression and barely makes the post season
2. Colorado finally makes a trade and gets a major boost from it and are a better team than most predict
3. The Jets finally have league average goaltending
4. The Stars challenge for the top of the division
5. The Blues burn out in the first round the playoffs again.
One final thought, the top 10 in NHL points has more Central Div players than any other division.
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