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Don Cherry Reveals His Darkhorse Pick for the Stanley Cup Playoffs

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Tyler Ball
October 20, 2024  (9:27 PM)
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Don Cherry doing his famous segment Coach's Corner during Hockey Night in Canada.
Photo credit: Sportsnet

Don Cherry is back once again and this time he has made a bold prediction about which unexpected team will end up making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Don Cherry has been in and out of the hockey community over the last several years. After his controversial exit from Hockey Night in Canada many did not expect to see Don Cherry discussing hockey again.

Earlier this month that all changed when Cherry announced he would be returning to do the Don Cherry Podcast throughout the 2024-25 NHL season. During his first episode, Don Cherry discussed the Toronto Maple Leafs Cherry ripped into the Maple Leafs for their choice of Auston Matthews as the team's captain.

Today he started a new discussion and this time he decided to try and predict the future. Don Cherry spoke about the Stanley Cup Playoffs and decided to pick one team that he believed could shock a lot of people. Without hesitation, Don Cherry believes the newest franchise in the NHL the Utah Hockey Club will have the most surprising improvement from last season and even make the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Utah, said Cherry without any hesitation on his most recent podcast. I think [they] will be the biggest surprise. They are in a new town and the whole... and I think they'll be the surprise of the year."


Don Cherry believes in their young core and the skilled players they have working well there including new captain Clayton Keller. However, as much as Don Cherry believes the Utah Hockey Club is a playoff-caliber team he doesn't believe they are quite at championship caliber yet.

Oh I don't think they'll make a run for it but... make the playoffs, that's about it, added Cherry.


So far this season the Utah Hockey Club is 4-1-1 and third in the Central Division. The team is led in points by Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz who have 8 and 7 points respectively. Young talents Logan Cooley, Barrett Hayton, and Dylan Guenther are all stepping up as well after taking major steps forward this summer.

The Utah Hockey Club has done well particularly offensively in their first 6 games but will need their goaltending to improve to really take that next step. Their current starter Connor Ingram has had good seasons in the past and needs to get back to higher levels of play.

As the season continues on it will be fun to watch the Utah Hockey Club grow and to see if they can keep up their excellent run of play. if they find consistency then Don Cherry's reemergence as an analyst could be off to a good start with this prediction.

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Don Cherry Reveals His Darkhorse Pick for the Stanley Cup Playoffs

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