With the hockey season just weeks away, we've polled our expert pucksters on how everything should shake out over the course of the 2017-18 campaign. Interestingly, everyone picked a different Stanley Cup champion, and only yours truly appears to be bullish on 2017 Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher right out of the gate. The criteria for making the picks was loosely defined (by design), but here's hoping it will help you get a basic idea of who to look out for or even avoid in drafts. Hint: None of us seem to like Jeff Carter this year. Agree? Disagree? Let's hear your take!
| Mike Gay | Kyle Riley | Tim Schuler | AJ Scholz | Jordan Buckley | Doug Greenberg | Joe Mahoney | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rising in September | Alex Wennberg | Alex Wennberg | David Pastrnak | Matt Murray | Ryan Strome | Artemi Panarin | Johnny Gaudreau |
| Falling in September | Brock Boeser | Andreas Athanasiou | Jeff Carter | Connor Hellebuyck | Brandon Dubinsky | Joe Thornton | Mike Smith |
| 2 Players I Want on My Teams | Leon Draisaitl, Justin Schultz | Jack Eichel, Brady Skjei | Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews | Patrick Marleau, Mark Scheifele | Jamie Benn, Aleksander Barkov | Brad Marchand, Jeff Skinner | Leon Draisaitl, Erik Karlsson |
| 2 Top-50 Players to Avoid | Nazem Kadri, Steven Stamkos | Pekka Rinne, Henrik Lundqvist | Jamie Benn, Jeff Carter | Jeff Carter, Wayne Simmonds | Corey Perry, Anze Kopitar | Claude Giroux, Eric Staal | Pekka Rinne, Corey Perry |
| Forward I'm Optimistic About | Mitch Marner | John Tavares | Jakob Silfverberg | Leon Draisaitl | Jordan Eberle | Ryan Johansen | Nik Ehlers |
| Forward I'm Pessimistic About | Alexander Ovechkin | Viktor Arvidsson | Eric Staal | Mike Hoffman | Artemi Panarin | Jeff Carter | Eric Staal |
| Defenseman I'm Optimistic About | Anthony DeAngelo | Mark Giordano | Zach Werenski | Dustin Byfuglien | John Carlson | Dougie Hamilton | Matt Dumba |
| Defenseman I'm Pessimistic About | Shayne Gostisbehere | Andrej Sekera | Mark Giordano | Dougie Hamilton | Justin Schultz | Victor Hedman | Kevin Shattenkirk |
| Goalie I'm Optimistic About | Matt Murray | Corey Crawford | Craig Anderson | Marc-Andre Fleury | Ben Bishop | Andrei Vasilevskiy | Craig Anderson |
| Goalie I'm Pessimistic About | Ben Bishop | Henrik Lundqvist | Marc-Andre Fleury | Mike Smith | Brian Elliott | Pekka Rinne | Corey Crawford |
| Draft Crosby or McDavid first overall? | McDavid | McDavid | McDavid | McDavid | Crosby | McDavid | Crosby |
| Select Will Butcher in top half of drafts? | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Outside Top-100 to Finish Top-25 | Jonathan Drouin | Jordan Eberle | Zach Werenski | James Neal | Nathan MacKinnon | Jonathan Drouin | Aleksander Barkov |
| Top-15 to Finish Outside Top-40 | Sergei Bobrovsky | Cam Talbot | Jamie Benn | Nikita Kucherov | Matt Murray | Joe Pavelski | Carey Price |
| 2017 Fantasy MVP | Connor McDavid | Patrick Kane | Auston Matthews | Connor McDavid | Nikita Kucherov | Connor McDavid | Sidney Crosby |
| Stanley Cup | Edmonton over Columbus | Chicago over Columbus | Washington over St. Louis | Pittsburgh over Edmonton | St. Louis over New York Rangers | Edmonton over Pittsburgh | Anaheim over Pittsburgh |