Fortune favors the bold, or so the saying goes.

Even conservatively handicapping a sport as unpredictable as hockey – where seemingly every season, there are two or three jaw-dropping surprises in the standings based on the bounces of a frozen vulcanized rubber disk – can leave you looking foolish.

We’re throwing conservative selections out the window. Go bold or go home.

NHL

Inside the NHL's secret arms race for competitive advantage

With that, enjoy our annual tradition of public embarrassment with 32 bold predictions for the 2022-23 NHL season:

 

1. Move over MacKinnon. On July 1, the first day eligible, Auston Matthews will sign the NHL’s first-ever max contract to stay with the Toronto Maple Leafs: eight years x $16.7 million. That rounds up to $134 million, with a little flair for his jersey number. Brad Richards (2006) is the only player to sign for the maximum 20 percent of the salary cap, but it was only a five-year deal, not the maximum term.

 

2. It’s Showtime on Broadway. Patrick Kane will be traded to the New York Rangers and sign a long-term extension. He’ll be reunited with Artemi Panarin to chase a fourth career Stanley Cup.

 

3. Kane will have a twinge of doubt about his decision to leave when the Chicago Blackhawks win the 2023 Draft Lottery and earn the right to select generational talent Connor Bedard. Yes, this year, it is #SuckHardForBedard.

 

4. Four straight trips to Final? Anything is possible for Tampa Bay Lightning, who will win the Atlantic Division. Some are predicting a drop-off. I don’t see it, not with a Core Four that includes Andrei Vasilevskiy, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov.

 

5. Five players will be 50-goal scorers in 2022-23: Auston Matthews, Leon Draisaitl, Kirill Kaprizov, Kyle Connor and Connor McDavid – who will hit the mark for the first time in his career. Alex Ovechkin and Chris Kreider will fall short.

 

6. “Dollar Bill” Kirill Kaprizov will win the Hart Trophy with an electrifying season, becoming the first Hart winner in Minnesota Wild franchise history. Kaprizov, 25, finished seventh in Hart voting last season after a 47-goal and 108-point campaign.

 

7. Bruce There It Was. Vancouver Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau will be the first coaching casualty of the season. Still can’t shake the apparent friction that existed between Boudreau and the front office last spring when he asked for and did not receive an extension. The Canucks’ stars haven’t impressed in the preseason and that might mean a slow start.

 

8. The Great Eight, Alex Ovechkin, will fall short of a record-setting 10th 50-goal season. Ovechkin will end up with 45 goals, passing Gordie Howe for second all-time to give him 825 for his career – 69 short of tying Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals mark. Nice.

 

9. Western New York kid Alex Tuch will be named the next captain of the Buffalo Sabres. Tuch gave the Sabres a much-needed shot in the arm last year, and if Peyton Krebs can take the next step, then GM Kevyn Adams will have made the best of a tough trade situation with Jack Eichel.