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If you’re in a keeper league, chances are the biggest offensive contributors, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield will already be off the boards, but in a brand-new league, they could be interesting picks. Pool Pro (PP) believes Suzuki should be good for 67 points, Hockey le Magazine (HM) sees him notching 68 and The Hockey News (THN) lands on 68 as well. As for Caufield the same 3 outlets predict a big jump in production with 58 for PP and HM while THN is forecasting 62 points output.
Aside from Suzuki and Caufield, it gets harder to venture a prediction. Jonathan Drouin can never seem to stay healthy, Mike Hoffman just had his worst season, Slafkovsky is very young and there’ no guarantee he’ll stay with the big club all year, Josh Anderson and Christian Dvorak barely got to 30 points last season and Brendan Gallagher had another injury plagued season.
THN seems to be very big on the big Slovak, projecting Slavkosky to get 54 points on the season, PP has a more prudent prevision going for 22 points while HM has him at 30. While he may not be a big producer this season, it could be worth picking him up in a keeper league and banking on the future in that way, otherwise, way for the later rounds to consider him.
As for the Habs brand new center, the consensus seems to be that he’ll get you around 40 points, THN predicts 46, PP 43 and HM has him at 41. Currently, his highest total was 26 points in 70 games and to be honest, I’d be weary of gambling on him, let Kent Hughes do that.
If you believe in a Mike Hoffman redemption year, THN sees him approaching 50 points with 49, PP gives him 42 and HM 43. As for newcomer Dadonov, THN expects 41 points from him, HM38 and PP 45. It’s nothing new really, but outside of the Habs’ dynamic duo, you shouldn’t look to your favorite for anything but depth scoring in later rounds.
What was once a forte for the Habs, the goaltending is now a big no-no, no matter how hard Jake Allen and Samuel Montembeault try, with that team and a young defensive corps, they’ll give a lot of goals, lose a lot of game and more likely than not have subpar save percentages.
On the blue line, gone is Alexander Romanov and his 227 hits and veterans Savard and Edmundson are hardly offensive threats. THN sees newly acquired Michael Matheson putting up 46 points while PP has a more realistic expectation of 29 big ones and HM 37. In other words, everyone believe he’ll get more ice-time in Montreal and will be relied on for more offense, but will he be able to deliver? Who knows. Thus far, his best offensive season was a 27 points effort which he got twice in Florida.
A bit of a wild card could be Sean Monahan, if indeed his hips are now A-OK, perhaps he’ll manage to turn back the clock and become an offensive threat again, but that’s a big if. Still, he could be an interesting sleeper pick in later rounds.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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