It’s worth pointing out that last year’s list ended up having only one playoff team, and that was the tenth-place Wild, so that was a whole lot of wasted optimism. For a few of these teams, we’ll be tip-toeing right up to that line, and maybe barrelling over it. It’s one thing to be flattering, it’s another thing to cross over into condescension and delusion. On the other hand… well, let’s just say this is tougher for some teams than others. We’ll have most of the season to complain about this or criticize that, but not today. I don’t do a lot of that, and it’s a nice change. On the one hand, this is a post that’s all positivity. There are always some mixed feelings around this one. And not just “fringe playoff good” but actually against-all-odds really good.

And that means it’s time for our annual attempt to argue that he’s wrong, and these teams could actually be good. He’s still got a ways to go before he gets to the top contenders, but we now know his model’s bottom ten.

Dom Luszczyszyn’s season previews have been rolling out since last week, as he counts down from the league’s worst projected teams to the best.

Nhl rebuilt in game pictures