Take part in the 2024 NHL betting competition that’s so easy it’s almost impossible

The NHL season has technically begun, and today a taste of Europe is served up between the New Jersey Devils and the Buffalo Sabres. But the real debut comes next week, when the other 30 teams experience their first action starting Tuesday. Then we’ll finally find out what the teams will look like in important games after weeks of the so-called experts telling us what to expect.

But first: it’s your turn.

Because if I and all my colleagues are forced to embarrass ourselves with bad predictions, then it’s only fair that you get your chance too. And in these parts, that means taking part in the world’s easiest betting competition.

The concept is simple. I’ll ask you ten questions that should be easy to answer. You decide how confident you feel and how many answers you want to give. Every correct answer means more points, but every wrong answer means you get a zero. But you don’t have to worry about that because the questions here are super simple.

Last year you could have won the competition if you knew the Sharks, Ducks and Blackhawks were bad while the Panthers, Oilers and Avalanche were good. They would have known that Jon Cooper and Jared Bednar would keep their jobs, Connor Bedard would be a top rookie, Cale Makar would have a Norris-worthy season, and Connor McDavid would be in the running for MVP. I mean, who didn’t know all this?

Of course, you also had to know that the Devils wouldn’t make the playoffs, the Capitals would, Jack Hughes and Leon Draisaitl wouldn’t get Hart votes, Adam Fantilli wouldn’t be a Calder contender, and Jay Woodcroft would be fired, or else you would take the risk of getting zeros on a number of questions. This made our simple competition much more difficult than it seemed, and that’s the whole point. And yes, you guys didn’t do great.

We’re keeping the same basic rules and format this year, but please read through quickly, even if you’re a competition veteran. If you’re new, here’s how it works:

The rules

• The competition includes ten questions plus an all-or-nothing bonus, which may or may not have a correct answer. You can give at least one answer to each of the ten regular questions and a maximum of five.
• For each of the regular questions, you can award one point for your first correct answer, two points for the second (three in total), etc., up to a maximum of 15 points if you go through the table with five correct answers.
• HOWEVER, even a wrong answer gives you a zero for the entire question. Playing one against one and getting a point is better than four against five and nothing. So how safe do you want to be?
• The bonus question is optional and you can leave it blank. If you choose an answer, you only give one answer and get 15 bonus points if you are right. However, if you are wrong, you will receive a zero for your entire entry. Not just this question – Your entire entry will be deleted.
• The winner is the entry that achieves the most total points. Note that this does not necessarily mean that you have to get points for every answer. In fact, it would be reasonably easy to play it safe and end up with a “perfect” entry that has no wrong answers but doesn’t earn enough points. To date, the competition has been won every year by participants who received zeros in several categories.
• Any entry that does not follow the formatting rules listed will likely be ignored. It takes a lot of work to collect and store all the information, and if you make life difficult for us, we reserve the right to simply skip your entry.
• Like last year, we count invalid entries as incorrect instead of simply skipping them. This includes leaving a response like “Tkachuk” or “Hughes” or “Armstrong” without providing a first name. Pay attention to date lines and double-check names.
• The deadline for entries is Tuesday, October 8th at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Ready? Let’s do this.

The questions

1. Name up to five teams that will make the playoffs.

2. Name up to five teams that will not make the playoffs.

3. Name up to five teams that finish in the middle 16 of the regular season standings (i.e. between 9th and 24th).

4. Name up to five coaches who will not be fired or otherwise leave their jobs before July 1, 2025, NOT including the 12 coaches hired before October 1, 2023.

5. Name up to five GMs who will not be fired or otherwise leave the job before July 1, 2025, NOT including the 11 GMs hired before October 1, 2022.

6. Name up to five goalkeepers who will start at least 50 games this season.

7. Name up to five newcomers who will make it into the top 10 of the Calder poll.

8. Name up to five defenders who will make it into the top 10 of the Norris poll.

9. Name up to five players who will make the top 15 in the Hart Trophy voting.

10. Name up to five players currently on an NHL roster who will change teams between October 9 and the end of the first day of 2025 free agency (scheduled for July 1). That means they must be added to a new roster via trade, free agency, waivers, or whatever, but does not include retiring, leaving the league entirely, or being an unsigned free agent.

Optional bonus question:
For 15 bonus points, name a single player who will finish with at least 50 goals this season, but who isn’t Auston Matthews.

Remember that you don’t have to answer the bonus if you don’t want to. An incorrect answer will delete your entire entry.

Here’s how to enter

Please read this section before entering the competition. If you do not follow these rules, your entry may be excluded from data collection.

• Participate by listing your answers in the comments section below.
• DO NOT cut and paste the questions into your entry. Just list your answers.
• DO NOT list every name in your entry on a new line. One line per question, please, with answers separated by commas.
• Pay attention to common last names and make sure your entry makes it clear who you mean. Also, double check that you have the correct answers to the correct question number. (You’d be amazed at how many people screw this up and end up listing Connor McDavid as a Norris candidate or swapping coaches and GMs.)
• Finally, this is not a rule, but a suggestion: write down your replies somewhere, because this comment section will be very large and it may be difficult to find your entry when you come back in a few months and wonder how you did.

There you have it. Ten simple questions, give or take an optional bonus. The answers will all be obvious in a few months, but how confident do you feel right now?

Comments are open and the contest is ongoing, so let’s see what you’ve got.

(Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)