Assuming el nino is not heavily east biased, extra tropical influences on the polar domain will also be of the utmost importance. If we can muster up some intense episodes of blocking like we did this past season, then we should be okay. 1972-1973 was void of that, and 1957-1958 was defintely not....so again, this tells me that the character of el nino, as depicted on the Canadian, is not prohibitive to the development of high latitude blocking during the ensuing cold season.