I’ll get to Philly’s horrendous new mascot in a second… you know what, let’s get it out of the way right now, because that could be the ugliest thing to come out of the Flyers organization next to their goaltending. Gritty is the stuff nightmares are made of. It looks like Youppi’s cousin who’s addicted to Mountain Dew, repeatedly watches the Fast and Furious franchise, and thinks that spoilers make your car go faster.
Alright, I got it out of my system. Let’s talk about actual hockey now, because some major stuff has gone down this past offseason. For starters, Erik Karlsson finally got the hell out of Ottawa and landed with a San Jose Sharks team that, with the addition of Karlsson, could actually make a decent playoff push this season. Real deal James Neal left the Vegas Golden Knights for Calgary of all places, which can only lead me to believe that if he stayed in Vegas, he would’ve developed a major gambling and partying problem.
There are some goaltending question marks that should probably be addressed too. Corey Crawford is still having concussion issues which wouldn’t help Chicago as ever since he’s been out, they’ve royally struggled to find traction. Dallas’ goaltending situation might’ve improved with the addition of former Bruins backup Anton Khudobin. As we’ve seen, Ben Bishop has a tendency to go down with injury from time to time, and Khudobin has the ability plug in a lot of decent minutes, as he showed with Boston over the years. Speaking of Boston, the Jaroslav Halak acquisition raised some eyebrows and rightfully so. The 33 year-old Slovakian’s style definitely mirrors that of Tuukka Rask, which is perhaps what caught the eye of GM Don Sweeney. However, Halak has a history of inconsistency, and definitely needs a blue line that can bail him out from time to time.
Finally, here’s my way-too-early predictions for who’s going to win what. Atlantic Division: Toronto Maple Leafs. Metropolitan Division: Washington Capitals. Central Division: Winnipeg Jets. Pacific Division: Vegas Golden Knights. Stanley Cup Champion: Winnipeg Jets.
Also, Ilya Kovalchuk is back in the NHL with the Kings, and Jaromir Jagr refuses to retire over in Europe. So there’s that.

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