Trevor: The biggest good surprise of the year will be Mika Zibanejad out-producing Kyle Turris (while Turris keeps his regular pace). The biggest bad surprise will be Andrew Hammond posting a SV% between .900 and .905 (if we can call that a surprise at all).
Ary: I don’t know about *biggest* good surprise, but I think that Zibanejad and Lazar have the potential to grow a lot this year. If it works out for him, Ceci becoming a bonafide T4 D will have the biggest impact on the team. The biggest bad surprise is likely going to be an injury to a top-six forward, leaving many of Ottawa’s players to play *above* their capacity (like Michalek, MacArthur, Chiasson, etc.)
Peter: Milan Michalek will score 24 goals and everyone will be wondering where the hell that came from. Bad surprise may be a slight dropoff for Mike Hoffman, but everyone will blame Dave Cameron for (in their minds) not playing him with ideal linemates.
Richard: Biggest good surprise: Alex Chiasson, things are going to be better for him this year, especially playing away from Legwand and Neil. Biggest bad surprise- Pageau Lazar looking more like mortals and having less fun without a certain someone on their line/Condra crushing it Tampa and making us all look almost as bad as we feel.
Ross: For biggest good surprise, I'm gonna go with Cody Ceci. I think he'll hit 45 points and everyone will wonder where that came from. As for biggest bad surprise, I'll pick Matt O'Connor. I think he'll turn out to be a perfectly average AHL goalie, and show no signs of ever being an NHL-level goalie.
Callum: The biggest good surprise will be Alex Chiasson. I know I’ve been hard on him in the past, but the guy missed what felt like 50 wide open nets last year. If some of those start going in, maybe we’ll see a bit of offensive contribution from Jason- err, I mean, Alex.
The biggest bad surprise of the year might be Dave Cameron. I think he might succumb to the pressure of upper management when playing Cowen and Phillips when both are healthy. The fourth line is also a big concern.
Michaela: I think Cody Ceci will make a huge improvement on last season. It might be silent, but he will make an impact on this team. Is it a surprise if no one notices? Anyway... Andrew Hammond will be the biggest bad surprise. Maybe it's our history with goalie let-downs, but I can't see him replicating the success of last year's run. No matter what, he's going to seem like a disappointment to fans simply by comparison.
Ian: Zibanejad will be a nice surprise, putting up a quality 25-25-50+ season. Meanwhile, Hoffman will be a slight letdown this year as he won't be able to keep up his remarkable goal scoring pace from last year and he'll continue to be saddled with 3rd/4th line minutes.
B_T: Can I say Hammond to both? I think he'll put up solid but not spectacular back-up numbers - low enough to surprise the people who are going off his success last season, and high enough to surprise the people going off his AHL numbers.
Adnan: The biggest good surprise of the year will be Mika Zibanejad establishing himself as the #1 centre and the biggest bad surprise will be Mark Stone simply due to how high the expectations will be.
