Discovering hope for NHL’s 10 most hopeless groups: Do you imagine in miracles? – The Athletic

Yearly, on the very begin of a season, I prefer to take the ten most hopeless groups within the NHL and check out to determine if there’s any likelihood we may all be improper and so they’ll really be good. That’s “good,” versus simply “not horrible,” as a result of even an terrible workforce can have a goalie go on a heater for just a few months and drag them into the perimeter of the playoff race. I needed to determine which workforce goes to be the 2018-19 Islanders or 2017-18 Golden Knights, the underdog anticipated to complete lifeless final who as a substitute turns into a Cup contender.

It’s type of a bizarre season to be doing this, for 2 causes.

First, it’s been some time since we’ve actually seen considered one of these hopeless groups break by way of. That Islanders turnaround was 4 years in the past now, however you may argue it’s nonetheless the newest instance. The Habs’ run within the 2021 playoffs was sudden, and final 12 months’s collapse made it really feel miraculous, however they went into that season with decent expectations. We’re searching for groups which are already being written off earlier than they’ve even performed a sport, however might be professional contenders. Final 12 months’s checklist did have two playoff teams, the Predators and Kings, however neither received a spherical, so your contender mileage could differ.

That leads us to our second downside: With the highest of the 2023 draft looming, lots of groups positive appear to need to be hopeless this 12 months.