The Washington Capitals have a new Stanley Cup-winning coach and one of the deepest rosters in the NHL.
One believer in the Caps next season is Peter Tanner’s MoneyPuck.com simulator, which published its opening odds for the 2020-21 season on Tuesday.
Using its updated statistics, MoneyPuck found that the Capitals have a 69.4 percent (nice!) chance to make the postseason and a 5.2 percent chance to win it all during Peter Laviolette’s first season in DC. The Capitals’ odds of regaining the Stanley Cup trail only the Tampa Bay Lightning, who open the season with a 5.6 percent chance to repeat.
Hockey is back. https://t.co/Xm8baqGqGI pic.twitter.com/i4p8u69SlI
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) December 29, 2020
During the offseason, the Capitals re-signed Brenden Dillon and made several new additions to their defense including Justin Schultz, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Paul LaDue. The team also signed two-time Stanley Cup-winning forward, Conor Sheary, to a bargain basement contract who, according to Brian MacLellan, will play in the team’s middle six.
The Capitals, however, have lost three depth players to injury already: Henrik Lundqvist (heart condition), Michal Kempny (torn Achilles), and Beck Malenstyn (torn Achilles).
The Caps will play seven teams eight times in a stacked East Division next season. Those 56 hard-fought games could set up a team from the East to run the table with such a difficult schedule.
The puck drops in two weeks. We’ll begin to see then how much this model tracks.
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