S91 Standings Predictions

[jacobcarson877 2,435]

S91 is about to be one for the ages. There’s going to be some major shakeup throughout the league, with a ton of new teams and player pushing for standings points and awards looks. Of course, we all know that Simon does whatever he wants to (Praise be to Simon), but I’m hoping to take a way too early look at the teams and try to pinpoint what I think will happen this season.

Calgary moved a bunch of assets to skip the boring part of the rebuild, the rebuilding part. I project them to be a pretty low event team, being near the bottom of scoring amongst playoff teams, but also not allowing many goals. Could end up with a goal differential from like -10 to +10. They will need new addition Randy Bobandy to be a playmaking machine to take advantage of new wingers Oreo McFleury and Sadie St-Louis. Merome Dilson will also need to step into his own as an elite starter.

Expected Finish: 4rd in NA

The Stars stand head and shoulders above the rest of the NA Conference. I expect this to be a 100+ point team, really wreaking havoc on the rest of their local rivals. I expect Todd Cooke won’t take too much of a step back, and Larry Abass Jr will be a huge addition to their offense. The questions lie on defense, but while I imagine they won’t score a ton, Art Vandelay and co. should be well primed to take on any opponent.
 

Expected Finish: 1st in NA

 

Seattle has tapped out for the first time in a while, and while I don’t imagine this will last long, as they are probably closer to a wild card spot than some would expect, as is, they are probably out of the picture. Clueless Wallob will probably steal them more games than they’d like, and Svatopluk Puk may have a pretty incredible solo effort. This team is intentionally bad.

Expected Finish: 6th in NA

 

This team looks nothing like it did before. At one point their roster was 3 players. With the Brandt Fuhr era coming to a close, Frank wanted to find a replacement, and with teams like London and Los Angeles competing, and a lot of others indecisive on their position, Frank took the initiative to send the offseason into motion. Sending out as many players as possible and raking in a ton of draft capital, this team is begging to lose. Analfist will likely be a standout scorer, with some rookies putting up inflated numbers as well.

 

Expected Finish: 7th in NA

 

This team will probably be much farther up the standings than they would have hoped. Unfortunately for them, they’re just not that bad. I imagine this team will accidentally be around .500% on some nice performances from Scotty Sundin, and maybe a few glimpses of magic from Artyomov. Don’t expect a huge playoff push, but they may struggle to get a lottery pick with this lineup.

 

Expected Finish: 5th in NA

 

I suppose what we learned from last season was that we know absolutely nothing about anything. You don’t need SC or PA to get points, and sometimes, players just click with each other. This roster is mostly the same, minus a few depth options, replacing them with a few more. Newcomer The Frenchman is the major add here, and should make a deadly duo up the middle with Jason. Geoff Bezos gets the majority of the starts this season, and may struggle to put up numbers like the big guns. Nonetheless, this team should outscore any of its shortcomings.

Expected Finish: 3nd in NA

 

In case you hadn’t heard, New York is rebuilding. I know, you hadn’t heard anything else for the last… few… seasons. But this time, they’re doing it with intent. This is the only team I have ever seen without a goaltender on their roster. They even tried to lure one out of retirement. Any wins are going to be a surprise for this squad, even with Francesco Mancini and Jasper Davis trying to showcase their offensive prowess.
 

Expected Finish: 8th in NA

This is the team that probably has the most room to move around. I think if Jimi Jaks, Mac Atlas and Tomas Sogaard show up like we know they can, and Joel Castle is a top 8 goaltender, this team could be North America’s only hope against Los Angeles. Otherwise, they could be in the play-in round. I expect they will be better than that, and as such I place them in the only spot that makes sense to me.

Expected Finish: 2nd in NA

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In my mind, Davos is the team to beat this season. Alex once again threw us through a loop after appearing to be going into a rebuild, and coming out with a whole new look destruction machine. Yes, Jake Thunder will likely take a bit of a step back, but Jokinen should be primed to make up for it. Davos adds Leandro Goncalves and Dogwood Maple, who both have 100+ point potential. Lachlan Summers is a perennial MVP candidate and only gets better when the going gets tough.

 

Expected Finish: 1st in EU
 

What can I say about this team? On paper they should be as good as anyone, but much like Toronto, this projection relies so much on players meeting unproven expectations, except now, there should be teams biting at their tails. Landon Wolanin and Daryl Dixon could be the best duo in the league. Fuukka Rask has as good of a chance as anyone to be the best goaltender in the league. Bouchard has been the best defenseman before and might be again. But who really knows considering the lackluster performances of recent seasons?

Expected Finish: 4th in EU


I know, I know, here I am talking about being unproven and then gassing up one of the most historically mid franchises in the history of the league. This team is taking an approach that isn’t often taken, and will either pay off really well, or pretty well. This team can take some risks knowing that they have Jesse Teno to protect them. Molly the Cat, Leonard Triller and new arrival Wann Kerr need to show up, and deal serious damage to other teams. They will be the driving force of this team’s goal differential, and will be responsible for this team’s finishing position. Rookie Sjin and veteran Ivan Retoslav will need to grow at a massive rate in order to keep their unit from being a net minus.

 

Expected Finish: 3rd in EU


To finish this division of death, is a team that I unfortunately think will be buried under the absolute monsters above them. They absolutely have the scoring talent to push for a wildcard spot, but it will be entirely on Ash Sparks to give them the chance to get there. New addition Bogatyrev should mesh well with Henry Eagles, but I worry about a potential step back from Skor McFleury. This team has a lot of young talent, which ideally means a lot of growth, but right here, right now, this team is barely out of the picture.

Expected Finish: 6th in EU

 

While we all know this team is primed to win a championship now, with Eric Queefson in their defensive rotation, I can’t imagine they will bring all that much to the table as a team in the regular season. Again, very much with intent, but there could be some outstanding opportunities for someone like Left Alone or Jeff Lewis to take a step forward. This team will try to do what it can to learn how their player mesh and mingle, and should soon be back to their winning ways.

Expected Finish: 7th in EU
 

So Prague is an interesting one. Unlike London and Helsinki, we know what this team can be. Not much has changed since they won, but something just feels wrong. Not majorly, but I think this team is just a half-step backwards from where they were a few weeks ago. Kauppi and Jameson should light the league up as usual, and Murdock will be pushing for some Top Goaltender recognition. But outside of that, I just can’t imagine anyone else stepping up. All this to say that I think Prague is a top team, but not the top team.

Expected Finish: 2nd in EU

 

Well first off, as I’m looking at this, Riga is over the cap, very close to the start of the season again. Not sure what the plan is there, but for now we look at what exists. They have 3 lines of forwards, mostly in the 2-3.5M range. They have their usual 2 rearguards in Marino and Kowalski, and Henry Tucker Jr, who is always underrated. AK92 Wit da Hoodie should have a major breakout season, and Sock Monkey could take a major step forward with more minutes. Riga, Malmo and Helsinki should be pretty close, but I think Riga fits somewhere in between them.

Expected Finish: 5th in EU
 

Is anyone there? Warsaw has been rebuilding for a few seasons now, and while teams like Moscow and New York have players to show for it, Warsaw does not. With nothing more than a few extra seconds to show for their efforts, there is still a long way to go before this franchise is back in contention. I don’t really see any players that I imagine will surpass point-per-game, but look for this team to get some great shot blocking stats.

Expected Finish: 8th in EU


All in all, here are my Projected League Standings

DAV (~110 points)
LAS (~110 points)
PRG (~95-105 points)

LDN(~95-105 points)
TOR (~80-100 points)*
HSK (~90-100 points)
RIG (~80-100 points)*

DCD (~85-90 points)
CGY (~80-90 points)

MAL (~70-90 points)*

CHI (~60-70 points)
VAN (~40-50 points)
SEA (~40-60 points)*
MOS (~40-50 points)
NYA (~35-45 points)
WAR (~35-45 points)

* indicates major swing potential

[Lemorse7 966]

30 minutes ago, jacobcarson877 said:

, as I’m looking at this, Riga is over the cap, very close to the start of the season again. Not sure what the plan is there, but for now we look at what exists. They have 3 lines of forwards, mostly in the 2-3.5M range. They have their usual 2 rearguards in Marino and Kowalski, and Henry Tucker Jr, who is always underrated. AK92 Wit da Hoodie should have a major breakout season, and Sock Monkey could take a major step forward with more minutes. Riga, Malmo and Helsinki should be pretty close, but I think Riga fits somewhere in between them.

fake news 

[eagle_3450 278]

Thanks for giving Ivan the net minus credit he deserves! How the hell do you win a continental cup and be 3rd in the league for playoff scoring in the same season that you were a MINUS 11

[jacobcarson877 2,435]

2 hours ago, jacobcarson877 said:

Well first off, as I’m looking at this, Riga is over the cap, very close to the start of the season again. Not sure what the plan is there, but for now we look at what exists.

I now know the plan!

[leandrofg 1,126]

Don’t know what it is about this article… I like it.

Edited October 27, 2023 by leandrofg

[Banackock 7,980]

Cool!

[ROOKIE745 599]

Review: A standings prediction is always fun and I think you did well on it! I think you give a enough info on each team for their placement to be understandable without over bloating it, It's well separated and easy to read. I mainly wish that you flared it up a bit more, use some colored text or make use of bold, italics, and underlines. The only other things that irks me a bit is the placement of the "expected finish" line, I think placing it under the team logo would have made much more sense as placing it after the info makes it seem like it could be for the team above or below, it doesn't matter when your at the start or even but in the middle of it I think it can get a little confusing. A good piece overall 6.5/10 

[Frank 5,056]

[JCarson 701]

Article Review: Even with this article being well written and organized I found it lacking and objective analysis.  We will obviously see by the end of the season if this writer can subjectively analyze a team and rank it among the others in the league.  Is their bias, do they have some link to Simon, who knows.  

 

I  give this article a 7/10 for now, if they are right then that will increase, if they are wrong then they can be allowed to hold their opinion.