<p>The NHL season starts in mere days. Hope springs eternal…or does it? Certain fan bases have to know their teams have long odds at best to make the playoffs. We spend a lot of the pre-season hyping and building teams up, but now I want you to tear a team down.</p>



<p>My question, Roundtable members:&nbsp;<strong>Which NHL team is your pick to finish with the best draft lottery odds&nbsp;</strong>this season? Who looks hopeless before the opening-night puck has been dropped?</p>



<p><strong>MATT LARKIN:&nbsp;</strong>Woof, do the&nbsp;<strong>San Jose Sharks</strong>&nbsp;ever stink. Imagine this: your team boasts the Norris Trophy winner, the first defenseman in 31 years to reach 100 points in a season, and you still finish with your worst record in 27 years. What happens when you&nbsp;<em>remove&nbsp;</em>Erik Karlsson from the equation? The Sharks have a patchwork roster devoid of needle-moving talent; a shaky goalie duo in Kaapo Kahkonen and Mackenzie Blackwood; and an already-injured captain in Logan Couture. Their best prospect, Will Smith, hasn’t turned pro yet. The Sharks might run away with the best lottery odds for the 2024 NHL Draft.</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="178"></div>



<p><strong>STEVEN ELLIS: </strong>I have to agree with Matt on the&nbsp;<strong>San Jose Sharks</strong>. There’s just nothing to get excited about, especially with Karlsson out of the picture. And that’s by design. They’re building a nice prospect pool and some of the kids might even get a chance sooner rather than later, but I’m not expecting William Eklund to put up 50 points this year. The goaltending? Ouch. Mackenzie Blackwood has a long way to go to prove he’s better than what we saw in New Jersey, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m not even going to bother with the defense.&nbsp;Beyond that? The Philadelphia Flyers are in for an ugly season. Even with some of their veterans returning from injury, this team is doomed. Simple. As. That.</p>



<p><strong>SCOTT MAXWELL: </strong>While the San Jose Sharks are certainly&nbsp;the front runners for the worst team in the league, I’ll be a little bit different and pick the&nbsp;<strong>Montreal Canadiens</strong>. They didn’t really make any additions of note, outside of an Alex Newhook acquisition that has a bit of potential and a Tanner Pearson that does not. Otherwise, it’s a young group still establishing itself in the league with goaltending that’s fine but won’t carry this team to competence playing in a division where the other seven teams could conceivably be competitive and likely beat on the Habs. Along with that, they were a team with the fifth-worst record in a year where they had some good shooting luck, sitting sixth in 5v5 shooting percentage with 9.25%, and led&nbsp;by Nick Suzuki’s 16.1%. It’ll be a young team that’s fun to watch, especially led by Cole Caufield, but they’re still a couple seasons away from taking that next step</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="282"></div>



<p><strong>MIKE GOULD: </strong>I’ll go a little against the grain here and say the&nbsp;<strong>Nashville Predators</strong>, who have all the makings of a lottery team after dumping Mattias Ekholm, Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Tanner Jeannot, and Eeli Tolvanen. The Preds enter the 2023–24 season with arguably the most outmatched forward group in the league, with poor Filip Forsberg having to make do practically all by himself in the top nine. Ryan O’Reilly and Gustav Nyquist are fine players, but they’re pretty clearly here to fill out the roster more so than to push this team toward contention. The defensive group isn’t much better, with Roman Josi seemingly already on an age-related decline and none of the other defenders grading as top-four caliber at this point. Juuse Saros is going to steal a few wins, but it’s hardly a given he even finishes the year in Nashville with his contract set to expire in 2025. New Preds GM Barry Trotz is all-in on remodelling this team, and signing a soon-to-be-30-year-old goaltender to a big-money deal would seem to be at odds with Nashville’s recent moves, especially with relatively little help coming up through the system. This ship won’t be turned around quickly — I think it’s careening toward the ocean floor.</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="212"></div>



<p><strong>FRANK SERAVALLI: </strong>Let’s mix it up a bit. I’m going to say the&nbsp;<strong>Anaheim Ducks</strong>. I’m kinda surprised no one has mentioned them yet. The Ducks were 32nd of 32 teams last year. Yes, they added Alex Killorn – who is hurt to start the year – and Radko Gudas should add some support on the back end. And yes, a healthy Jamie Drysdale will help. But have those moves really gotten them out of the lottery zone? Not for me. Anaheim has a frustrated John Gibson manning the crease, an inexperienced forward group, and a defense corps that is pretty far from NHL level top to bottom. They had 58 points last year and I’m not seeing a big increase coming.&nbsp;</p>



<p>_____</p>



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