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Todd Cordell
I think the Vegas Golden Knights are going to square off against the Nashville Predators for a shot at making it to the Stanley Cup Final.
Vegas was a very strong team analytically last season. They just weren’t as good at scoring goals as they were generating chances. Now that Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty are fully healthy, Mark Stone is around as a full-timer, and top prospect Cody Glass is making the jump, I don’t think that’ll be an issue. Even after trading Erik Haula and Nikita Gusev, the Golden Knights have one of the league’s best forward groups.
The defense – while not loaded with marquee names – is solid and will benefit from Nate Schmidt *not* being suspended for nearly 25% of the season. Led by Marc-Andre Fleury, the goaltending should also be competent.
As for Nashville, there’s a lot to like despite how up and down they were a season ago. Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg, in theory, should be healthier and more productive. Matt Duchene will give the team a much-needed shot in the arm as well.
Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm are more than capable of leading the charge on defense, and Pekka Rinne/Juuse Saros make up one of the league’s best tandems.
I’m not sure the Predators have enough scoring depth to make it all the way, but I think they’ll put up a good fight.
Give me Vegas in 7.
Sean Maloughney
My Western Conference Final is Dallas and Vegas. With the Stars I have them advancing so far on the assumption that Seguin and Benn will have bounce back seasons and a Vezina worthy season from Ben Bishop. Vegas continues to look like the top team in the Pacific and Mark Stone has 50 goal potential.
Let's say Dallas in 6.
James Tanner
The Western Conference Final is going to feature the St. Louis Blues - who will win the west in the regular season. The flukey thing about St. Louis is how bad they were for much of last season, not how good they were. I think people are way, way too low on the Blues for a chance at a repeat. They've got solid defense, several high-end scorers and one of the best overall players in the NHL. They will make it to the Western Final, where they will lose to the NHL's most unlikely team, the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers have two of the five or ten best players on earth, and they will win a lot more games than people think. Obviously some luck will have to be involved for them to get this far, but they're due.
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