Looking Back On Some Of Our Predictions For This Season…

Let's have some fun here at our own expense. This season, Vegas Hockey Now put together several prediction pieces. Now that the 2022-23 regular season is over let's take a look at our picks to see which ones came true and which ones didn't.

8/29/2022– Rookie Breakout Candidates for the Golden Knights.

In this article, we detailed five Golden Knights rookies that we thought had the best chances of making an impact in 2022-23. The five players we mentioned were Brendan Brisson, Paul Cotter, Kaedan Korczak, Pavel Dorofeyev, and Ivan Morozov.

Three of these players, Cotter, Korczak, and Dorofeyev played this season and are all on the active roster. We falsely predicted that Brisson, the Golden Knight's first-rounder in 2021, would play some games this season. Our analysis of Cotter, Dorofeyev, and Korczak was pretty accurate, as players looking for opportunities that eventually got them with injuries.

We failed to mention Brayden Pachal and Jiri Patera, who also got into games this season.

8/30/2022– Predicting the Golden Knights Line Combinations

This one is fun to look back on, as so much has changed. Our initial lineup predictions were…

Chandler Stephenson- Jack Eichel- Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson- Reilly Smith

Paul Cotter- Nicolas Roy- Phil Kessel

William Carrier- Brett Howden- Keegan Kolesar

Nicolas Hague- Alex Pietrangelo

Alec Martinez- Shea Theodore

Brayden McNabb- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson/Adin Hill

Spares- Michael Amadio, Ben Hutton, Jake Leschyshyn, Jonas Rondbjerg

IR*- Nolan Patrick, Laurent Brossoit LTIR- Shea Weber- Robin Lehner

Potentially Ready Prospects: Brendan Brisson, Kaedan Korczak

For the most part, we nailed down who would be on the active roster, having both Paul Cotter and Jake Leschyshyn make the team out of training camp. The defensive pairings were wrong, but the personnel was not. Obviously, a lot changed over the season with injuries, players coming out, and new players coming in. We're giving ourselves a pass on this one. Here are our current predictions for the playoff line combinations.

10/2/2022- Vegas Golden Knights NHL Award Predictions for 2022-23.

In this piece, we went over every major NHL Award and gave our, at the time, thoughts on the chances specific Golden Knights players had at winning each award. We failed to mention Logan Thompson as a Calder Candidate, for some reason, bet on Mark Stone to make a full recovery, which he did… until he didn't… and we had some high expectations for Bruce Cassidy, Shea Theodore, and Alex Pietrangelo.

Phil Kessel winning the Masterton Trophy for his dedication to hockey looks like the best shot a VGK player has at winning an individual player award.

10/10/2022– Bold Golden Knights and NHL Predictions For the 2022-23 Season

Oh boy, this one looks bad in hindsight. Here were our predictions- 

• Jack Eichel hits 100 points (had 66).
• Mark Stone gets Selke Nomination (whoops).
• Cassidy wins the Jack Adams (could still happen, but Jim Montgomery coached the Bruins to 65 wins).
• Brett Howden scores 15+ goals (had 6).
• Goaltending will struggle (in a way, we were right)
• Injuries will continue, but depth will step up (the theme of the season).
• Phil Kessel finds a home (this was mostly about him rebounding and potentially re-signing. The Jury's still out on this one).
• Golden Knights make the playoffs and lose in round one (We'll see ;})

1/2/2023– 5 Bold Golden Knights Predictions For 2023.

Finally, at the start of 2023, we refreshed some of our predictions with a new calendar year upon us.

• Golden Knights make the playoffs and lose in round one (We'll see 😉 pt. 2)
• Depth Scoring Struggles/A Trade is Made. (This one was correct all around, as Ivan Barbashev and Teddy Blueger were brought in).
• Phil Kessel is Scratched/Traded. (This one is purely incorrect, as Kessel put together another 82-game season, and the streak lives on).
• Laurent Brossoit Wins His Job Back. (It wasn't as straightforward as we predicted it to be, but Brossoit is now back in the NHL).
• Daniil Miromanov Gets a Permanent Roster Spot. (Another miss. But this one had some merit as Miromanov was playing great before he got injured, other defensemen got healthy, and he was sent back to the AHL, where he got injured again).

Predictions are fun to look back on because it shows the complete chaos and unexpected nature of hockey and the NHL. What were some incorrect predictions you had this season? What are you predicting for the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs?