With the first games only one week away, any thoughts on the 21/22 season? Any favourites to win the playoffs? Any predictions about how Ajoie will do, and who will be the 14th team next year?
My personal guess is that Zug is gonna do it all again. I think they will stay the top contender for some years. They lost Hofmann but made good reinforcements on the defensive side.
Zurich could challenge them and I think Lugano and Lausanne have good enough rosters to compete as well. Will be interesting to see McSorley with HC Lugano.
I would say Zug wins the regular Season. Despite loosing Hofmann they are very deep up front and got another great forward in Herzog who will probably mitigate Hofmanns departure. The also have clearly the best goaltending tandem unless Genoni starts to decline. I am not as excited about their depth on defense, but the two new Swedes should help there eating the most important minutes and make up for loosing Alatalo and Diaz.
The "Z" will probably be their first pursuer but they are a bit more reliant on their star players than Zug.
Bern has made some quality upgrades on offense and might ad another quality import in Kahun but they are still to weak to play for the title after the short-lived Neubaur/Schelling rebuilding adventure. Goaltending is also average at best unless Wüthrich can make a major developmental jump.
Lausanne has good all around depth but they had a lot of roster turnover and lost most of their game breaking talent, I don't see them going all the way this year.
Lugano and Biel are probably the darkhorses for the title even though I am not sold on Biels goalies. Lugano infused a lot of quality into their lineup but they don't have the same forward depth as some of the other top teams. Overall I also don't agree with the reputation McSorley has with the swiss media and fanbase, I think he is a decent coach but I don't see him on the same level as the likes of Grönborg or Tanges at this point.
So overall my rating for the playoffs would be:
1. Zug
2. Lions
3. Lugano
4 Biel