Expectations for Kaiden Guhle This Upcoming Season

This upcoming year, Guhle should also play on the first penalty killing unit with the departure of the now-retired David Savard. With that being said, the Alberta native should see his ice time go up slightly from the 21:11 per game that he saw last season. Guhle has steadily seen his ice time increase each year that he’s been in the NHL, and now he is finally expected to play on the first pairing as he looks to be the perfect fit next to Dobson, who will be the team’s #1 right-handed defenseman. This likely means we could see Guhle playing 23-24 minutes a night.

His skating ability, paired with his physical side, should make Guhle the top shutdown defenseman on either team, as he is ready for those prime minutes.

For the offensive side of the game, playing a full season with guys like Dobson or Hutson could help add a few extra points to his 6 goals and 18 points in 55 games last year. If Guhle can stay healthy and play 70+ games next season, he could score around 25-30 points, which would be a career-high. Of course, the key thing here is that he needs to stay healthy after getting injured in each of his three NHL seasons so far.

While some may see Guhle as an injury-prone defenseman, it is actually more of a bad luck situation since none of his injuries have been related to one another throughout his career. Hopefully, the injuries are in the past, and he finally has a healthy season as the physical shutdown defenseman that he has shown many flashes of throughout his career.

We could see Guhle put up a career-high in hits as he’ll be relied on more than ever to play a physical role on defense. He may even need to stick up for his teammates by fighting a few times, especially when Arber Xhekaj is out of the lineup. Hopefully, he can handle the role of being the physical defenseman full-time, as Hutson or Dobson aren’t very physical. Therefore, he will need to bring a lot of physical play to counter his partners. Ideally, he can play a similar role to what former Habs captain Shea Weber brought as the steady physical defenseman that he was from 2016 to 2021.

For this upcoming season, my prediction is that Guhle finishes with over 150 shots blocked and 150+ hits by finally having a healthy season with 80 games played alongside Noah Dobson as his main partner. All this while continuing to develop into a young leader on the backend.

What are your expectations for Kaiden Guhle this upcoming year?