<p>Somehow, we’re just three days away from the start of a new calendar year. Time truly does fly.</p>



<p>The current National Hockey League season is only halfway through. Nevertheless, the threshold between December of one year and January of the next offers a compelling opportunity to reflect on the past while also ruminating on what is to come.</p>



<p>Here at <em>Daily Faceoff</em>, that means it’s time for some <strong>bold </strong>predictions. There is a time and place for being bland and deliberate, and this column is decidedly not it. We’re going <strong>bold</strong>.</p>



<p>That’s not to say these<strong> </strong>predictions won’t or can’t happen. For our purposes, absurdity is just as useless as insipid pragmatism — just on the opposite extreme. We’re looking for things that very much <em>could </em>happen (with historical precedent) while still being suitably rare, remarkable, or flat-out unlikely.</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="139"></div>



<p>Here are three <strong>bold </strong>predictions for the NHL in 2024, starting with something that hasn’t happened since 1992.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-auston-matthews-scores-50-goals-in-50-games"><strong>Auston Matthews scores 50 goals in 50 games</strong></h2>



<p>Let’s start off with a prediction that should make Toronto Maple Leafs fans everywhere pretty happy. Enjoy it while it lasts …</p>



<p>Auston Matthews might have the hottest hockey stick on the planet right now. The 26-year-old sniper has 28 goals in his first 31 games of the 2023–24 season and has been one of the main driving forces keeping the Leafs afloat despite some less-than-stellar underlying numbers to date. He’s a superstar in every sense of the word.</p>



<p>It’s been more than 30 years since the last time a player joined the NHL’s official “50 goals in 50 games” club. By the league’s definition, a player must score 50 goals in <em>his team</em>‘s first 50 games to qualify. Critically, Matthews has already missed one of Toronto’s first 32 games this year while dealing with a minor illness.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="1" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="156"></div>



<p>Even still, 50 in 50 certainly isn’t out of reach for the Arizona-trained sharpshooter. Matthews has scored on 20.9 percent of his shots through the first three months of the season. That’s over his career average of 16.0 percent, but not egregiously so. It certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility that a player of Matthews’ finishing talent continues operating at, or even above, that clip.</p>



<p>These are <strong>bold </strong>predictions, after all, so we’ll say Matthews scores four times on Feb. 10 for his 47th, 48th, 49th, and 50th goals of the season in Toronto’s 50th game (and his 49th). Toronto’s opponent that night? The Ottawa Senators.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-new-york-rangers-win-the-stanley-cup"><strong>The New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup</strong></h2>



<p>It took 54 years for the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup again after 1940. This time, it’ll take a nice, round 30 years for them to win another.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="2" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="139"></div>



<p>More often than not, in the NHL, it seems as though a team has to wait its turn before it can go the distance and finally win the Stanley Cup. The old cliché about having to “learn how to win” rings surprisingly true when looking at the routes the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Washington Capitals had to take before they won their recent championships. Even the Vegas Golden Knights had to lose before they could reach the top.</p>



<p>Well, the Rangers have been around the block. They’re less than two years removed from an Eastern Conference Final berth and are coming off a big ol’ collapse against the New Jersey Devils last season. Chris Kreider was even on the Rangers team that reached the Stanley Cup Final all the way back in 2014. </p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="3" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="139"></div>



<p>This is a pretty battle-tested group, through and through, with veterans like Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Jacob Trouba, and Blake Wheeler all keenly aware of what it takes to win in this league. They’ve got a stellar goaltending tandem of Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick. And then there’s Adam Fox, who is one of the most impactful players in the entire league when healthy.</p>



<p>These Rangers have very few weaknesses and the goaltending to go far. It’s easy to imagine a guy like Kreider going nuclear at the right time once the games get more difficult. He’d be a savvy Conn Smythe pick if they go far.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-william-nylander-and-steven-stamkos-both-change-teams"><strong>William Nylander and Steven Stamkos both change teams</strong></h2>



<p>Sorry, Leafs fans. We’ve arrived at the third and final <strong>bold </strong>prediction, and it’s a doozy.</p>



<p>William Nylander and Steven Stamkos are by far the two most decorated and intriguing players set to hit the unrestricted free agent market on July 1, 2024. With all due respect to Sam Reinhart, Jake Guentzel, and Jonathan Marchessault, those two guys are just a cut above. They’re both set to command major paydays regardless of whether they test free agency.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="4" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="185"></div>



<p>New Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving has to be feeling a sense of déjà vu. Two seasons ago, he watched Johnny Gaudreau put up 115 points on a contending Flames team that was forced to choose between trading its star player or risk losing him for nothing. They went down the latter pathway and, after 12 playoff games that spring, Gaudreau left Calgary for the greener pastures of, uh, Columbus.</p>



<p>Nylander is currently on pace for 118 points, which would be a career best by a wide margin. He’s going to ask for the moon (as he should) on his next deal. And while the 27-year-old Swede certainly seems happy in Toronto, there’s only so much cap space to go around — especially with Mitch Marner up for renewal in 2025. It’s impossible to say at this point whether Nylander will stay or go, but there’s no denying he’d command a ransom from another team. Well, so be it. He <em>gone</em>.</p><div class="injected-ad" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="5" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="161"></div>



<p>If Nylander does end up leaving Toronto, that might just clear the path for the Markham-born Stamkos to move closer to home. It’d be a fitting outcome eight years after the Leafs made him a serious pitch as a UFA-to-be back in 2016. Two Stanley Cups later, Stamkos could end up being the older (and cheaper) consolation prize for the Leafs if the worst-case scenario with Nylander comes to fruition.</p>



<p>Realistically, it might happen — but probably not. But in the world of <strong>bold </strong>predictions? You better believe it’s going down.</p>



<p>_____</p>



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