Well I expected a 2nd place in extent but due to more of the Beaufort ice melting out rather than a sharp retreat of the Atlantic edge. Really impressive stuff I must say.
I think those hoping the Beaufort will melt out will probably be disappointed, temperatures actually look more cooler(or normal!) here than the pole and with sea ice recently melted there, I still expect a fast refreeze aslong as weather plays ball locally there. Might be the only positive from this melt season really, if the ice does survive then we may see an arm of more 2nd year ice heading across towards the Chukchi as we head through winter.
I have no idea how long it will take for the Laptev sea to freeze over, bound to be record breaking and with such a sharp retreat in the Atlantic edge, it could be very hard for the Laptev to freeze over until we see the 'doors' of the Atlantic and Pacific waters being closed by 'ice arms' into the ESS and Kara seas respectively.
How low will this year go, I suspect a bit lower with more retreat on the ice in the Laptev, weather conditions look favourable for this.
I didn't see one single post claiming that the beaufort will melt out recently, while some users, including myself, predict that MOST of the current is doomed and that a few larger floes will survive.
If you follow development carefully you can see that beaufort is losing either extent and/or concetration quite rapidly and significantly each single day and I've seen some heavy winds from the east forecasted and that will kill half of that because it's currently between 15 and 20% concentration.
Further you say that Beaufort will be mostly responsible for further losses, which in fact is the same that I'm saying, that there will be significant losses, on the other hand you deny the daily retreat on the laptev and especially atlantic side that currently accounts not only for the bigger part of today's losses, but is forecasted to maintain the pattern and even getting worse with a slight shift towards laptev.
Should the longer term forecasts, which, as we know, are not reliable and rarely come true, materialize, the Russian side of ESS and Laptev will heat up one last time and provide another nasty blow.
Basically what @Oren said recently, it will most probably be an extended season, meathing 2012 around equinox but miss it by a (relatively) small margin.