The Puck Stops Here

We haven't got much idea what rosters will look like next year. We haven't even seen the new CBA in print. And I am ready to predict that the New Jersey Devils will have a very good chance at winning the next Stanley Cup

How can anyone make a prediction at this point?

If we accept the premise that the new CBA is very important to building teams in the NHL and we accept that a large part of a team's success next season will come from the choices that they make this summer when they rebuild their roster with free agents and try to make it under the salary cap, then New Jersey has a big advantage. Lou Lamoreillo, their GM, was the only GM involved in the CBA negotiations. He actually knows what is going to be in the CBA. Other GMs are getting a crash course in the CBA. New Jersey already has a pretty good roster and given that their GM probably has a better idea then any other what to do under the new set of rules, I think the Devils have a very good chance at winning next year's cup.

Will that be the reason the Stanley Cup is won? Is this prediction really that ridiculous?