At the beginning of every year, we get to have the fun of predicting what’s to come. On the other hand, at the end of every year, many of us get to laugh at how wrong we were, and a few lucky ones get to brag. This season was no different, and back in October we polled some of the DBTB writers to give us their predictions on Jack Eichel’s final stat line, the Sabres point total, and where they would finish in the East.
As you can see from the chart below, well…we didn’t do too bad.
| Name | Eichel Points | Sabres Points | Place in East |
| Ryan Evans | 20-35-55 | 80 | 10-12 |
| Zach Zielonka | 15-25-40 | 82 | 12 |
| Terry Van Delinder | 21-38-59 | 88 | 10 |
| Calvin | 16-28-44 | 77 | 13 |
| Andy Boron | 23-39-62 | 84 | 11 |
| Actual totals: | 24-32-56 | 81 | 14 |
It’s nice to see that we all predicted a big jump in points for the Sabres and the team delivered, scoring 27 more points this year than in 2014-15. It seemed like most of us expected the East to be a bit worse than it ended up being, but surprises like Carolina and Philadelphia skewed things a bit. Still, the Sabres were just one point out of 13th place and three out of 12th, so we were pretty close.
The Eichel stat line had a bit more discrepancy, but those who went high were rewarded with the rookie’s fantastic year. I’m not sure any of us predicted him to lead the team in goals this season, but with the skill he showed this year, I’m already excited about next year’s prediction.
Many of you made predictions in the comments, so feel free to let us know how close – or far away – you were this season.