Central Division Predictions

[Carbooja]

Late to the party.
Can the Jets and Wild stay on top of the central?
Are the Preds overrated?
Are the Avs overrated?
Still expect the Stars to eventually dominate.

Stars and Utah are where they I thought they would be.
The Blues have been a pleasant surprise.
Avs will turn it around, they're just too experienced to be where they are.
Preds look like they have some chemistry problem, perfect example why addition sometimes means subtraction, look at Winnipeg, they did the opposite.
Speaking of the Jets, they'll will come back down a bit, expect the Central to be murder this year. It'll be musical chairs whoever finishes at the top between Winnipeg, Dallas and Minnesota.

 

[57special]

Dallas will be good
Utah a work in progress...might make the playoffs, but they just had another injury last night?
WPG- who knows? I've been calling for them to be a Cup contender since they had Buff. Certainly a deep team, with goaltending.
Blues are usually ok, but i just don't think they have the horses this year.
Avs are like the Leafs or Oilers in previous years. Great top end talent, but no depth, defense, and question marks in goal. Landesog and Nichushkin are big misses for them.
Nashville- don't have a clue. They usually play well, and hard, but have to incorporate new players. They'll be fighting for a playoff spot.
MN - they look good, not great, with Boldy and Faber looking like legit top line players, Rossi looking vg to augment Kaprizov, Zucc, JEE. Ok forward and defensive depth, with guys like Middleton playing well. Gustavsson has looked excellent. If Spurgeon comes back and can be even 80% of what he was they'll be a handful. Goaltending sand defense solves a lot of problems.

DAL
WPG
MN/Avs
NSH/UTA
STL
CHI

 

[Jixer19]

Dallas will be good
Utah a work in progress...might make the playoffs, but they just had another injury last night?
WPG- who knows? I've been calling for them to be a Cup contender since they had Buff. Certainly a deep team, with goaltending.
Blues are usually ok, but i just don't think they have the horses this year.
Avs are like the Leafs or Oilers in previous years. Great top end talent, but no depth, defense, and question marks in goal. Landesog and Nichushkin are big misses for them.
Nashville- don't have a clue. They usually play well, and hard, but have to incorporate new players. They'll be fighting for a playoff spot.
MN - they look good, not great, with Boldy and Faber looking like legit top line players, Rossi looking vg to augment Kaprizov, Zucc, JEE. Ok forward and defensive depth, with guys like Middleton playing well. Gustavsson has looked excellent. If Spurgeon comes back and can be even 80% of what he was they'll be a handful. Goaltending sand defense solves a lot of problems.

DAL
WPG
MN/Avs
NSH/UTA
STL
CHI

With all the injuries on the Avs, depth takes a hit for sure, but to say Avs have no defense? Huh? You lost me right there

 

[a mangy Meowth]

With all the injuries on the Avs, depth takes a hit for sure, but to say Avs have no defense? Huh? You lost me right there

Poster in question has a lengthy history of inaccurate takes on the Avs lol. I'd just disregard

 

[57special]

CO is 3rd to last in the league in letting in GA. 5th from last in PK. If that isn't poor defense, what do you call it? Seems a pretty obvious observation, to me.

 

[Dr Pepper]

CO is 3rd to last in the league in letting in GA. 5th from last in PK. If that isn't poor defense, what do you call it? Seems a pretty obvious observation, to me.

Really, really shitty goaltending from Georgiev.

They've won the last three with Annunen in net.

 

[Avs44]

CO is 3rd to last in the league in letting in GA. 5th from last in PK. If that isn't poor defense, what do you call it? Seems a pretty obvious observation, to me.

You call it horrific goaltending. Georgiev, who started the first five games of the season, before finally getting replaced by Annunen, is sporting a .810 save percentage. To kick off the year in style, he let in 8 goals on 25 shots across two games, and has also been pulled several times. The Avs' defense is allowing 25.6 shots against per game, which is second fewest per game in the league.

That's not to say the roster doesn't have some huge holes -- including missing Nuke, Landeskog, Lehkonen, and Drouin right now -- but the goaltending mess gutted everything to start the year. Fingers crossed Annunen actually holds it together and we can find a way to sneak Georgiev onto a SpaceX launch.

 

[PocketNines]

Dallas is the best overall team, Winnipeg could win the division also, those are the two best teams.

Colorado will worm their way back in it

Minnesota, Nashville, Blues and Utah each have reasons ranging from impact additions to new excited town momentum to suggest they will be competitive. That group of teams is genuinely interesting because they haven't set their level yet

Chicago is the easiest pick, it's great

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Late to the party.
Can the Jets and Wild stay on top of the central?
Are the Preds overrated?
Are the Avs overrated?
Still expect the Stars to eventually dominate.

Wild will fall back at least a bit. Kaprizov, Boldy and Gustavsson are out of their minds at the start. Our 3rd and 4th lines need to start doing stuff.

 

[Johnny HFBOARDS]

Jets Minny and the rest

 

[Mike Liut]

Blues look like a playoff team, just not sure they can overcome losing their best player for 2 months.

 

[tucker3434]

CO is 3rd to last in the league in letting in GA. 5th from last in PK. If that isn't poor defense, what do you call it? Seems a pretty obvious observation, to me.

NHL Stats

The official source for NHL Stats including skaters, goalies, teams stats and more.

www.nhl.com

Here are the stats. You don’t even have to look hard. 2nd best in shots against per game. And here are Georgiev’s numbers:

Alexandar Georgiev Stats And News

Get all the latest stats, news, videos, and more on Alexandar Georgiev.

www.nhl.com

And the fancy ones:

NHL Goalie Advanced Stats 2024-2025

NHL Goalie Analytics, Goals Saved Above Expected

moneypuck.com

Worst goals above expected in the league and he’s doubling up #2.

You work it out.