With the major off-season events already in the rearview mirror, most of the upward trajectory in the NHL seems to sit with the middle and upper-middle class.
Two wild-card teams — the Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals — made significant improvements. The Boston Bruins, who haven’t been past the second round in five years — added a key centre and important defenceman.
Farther down the standings, the New Jersey Devils missed the playoffs in disappointing fashion last season and — based on their actions in the past four weeks — have no intention of doing so again in 2024-25.
Meanwhile, the top of the table is full of great teams that are, at the very least, treading water. The Florida Panthers, New York Rangers, Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers were final-four clubs in 2024 and — with the possible exception of the Oilers — none of them have made noteworthy adds thus far. By the same token — with the possible exception of Florida losing Brandon Montour or the Stars saying good-bye to rental Chris Tanev — none of them have absorbed a body blow, either.
It all adds up to an off-season power rankings that don’t have a ton of change at the top, but have some risers in the second and third tiers of the league.
So, with about 10 weeks of summer still to come, here’s how the teams stack up.
1. Edmonton Oilers: Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson — and Skinner, in particular — are intriguing adds to the top nine, and keeping deadline acquisition Adam Henrique around on a two-year deal helps there, too. Warren Foegele’s departure will be felt, but Edmonton’s forward group could be appreciably better in October compared to last fall because — in addition to Skinner and Arvidsson landing — Henrique will be there all year, Connor Brown will be healthy from puck drop and Corey Perry — acquired halfway through last season — will be there all year in his fourth-line role. Let’s not forget, this team finished ninth overall and nearly won the Cup after posting just two wins in its first dozen games last year.
2. Dallas Stars: It’s fair to wonder a little about the Stars defence corps, but the additions of Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin to the bottom-two pairs should be enough for now and 22-year-old Thomas Harley is likely going to take another step next season. This team — with that loaded forward group — is still moving toward something great after consecutive trips in the Western Conference final.
3. Florida Panthers: Losing Brandon Montour and, to a lesser degree, Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the back end is a blow. But Nate Schmidt should do just fine on the third pair and Florida’s big business was obviously inking Sam Reinhart to an eight-year deal to prevent him from hitting the open market. (And, don’t forget, they also locked up potential UFA Gus Forsling on an eight-year deal in early March). The real question here is, just how much does this team have left in the tank after consecutive trips to the final, with the second one being a grueling seven-game win that had to take a huge physical and mental toll?
4. New York Rangers: The reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners are hoping a bounce-back season from former Vegas Golden Knight Reilly Smith — who spent last season in Pittsburgh — can help the team pot a few more goals. We’ll see if the speculation around Jacob Trouba turns into the team moving its captain to clear out cap space. The Rangers have some hits coming down the road — Igor Shesterkin needs a new contract before 2025-26, as does budding 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere — but the Blueshirts still have a little room. Could they still chase a goal-scorer such as Nik Ehlers if he’s available from Winnipeg via trade?
5. New Jersey Devils: All signs point to a huge bounce-back year for the Devils. They acquired Jacob Markstrom from Calgary during the playoffs and added Brett Pesce to the right side of the second pair and Brenden Dillon to the left side of the third in free agency. Those two vets are likely to play with two emerging studs in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec. Throw in some new-coach bump with Sheldon Keefe’s arrival and Jersey could contend for the Metro title.
6. Boston Bruins Was last season’s 109-point season going to wind up being Boston’s step-back year? OK, they’ll do well to post that amount this year again, but 12 months ago, we were wondering how the B’s would push on without Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and they did more than fine. Now, their great goalie tandem is gone with Linus Ullmark being shipped to Ottawa, but the suspicion here is Joonas Korpisalo will do just fine in a backup role to Jeremy Swayman — who might enter the year as the Vezina favourite. Slotting Elias Lindholm up the middle and huge Nikita Zadorov on the second pair gives Boston pretty sizable upgrades at both those key positions. The B’s keep it rolling.
7. Colorado Avalanche: In what seemed like the only sensible outcome for both parties, Jonathan Drouin is sticking around on a one-year deal to see if he can fully rekindle his career in Denver, while deadline acquisition Casey Mittelstadt appears to be the No. 2 centre of the future after inking a three-year deal. It’s just easy to wonder if a crease duo of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen will hold the Avs back. There’s also still uncertainty surrounding injured captain Gabriel Landeskog and scoring winger Valeri Nichushkin, who is in Stage 3 of the NHLPA Player Assistance Program and is not eligible to return to the club until late in the fall.
8. Vegas Golden Knights: I know what you’re thinking: the off-season has seen Vegas lose key pieces up front in Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson, so how can the Knights be this high coming off a wild-card showing and first-round exit? Well, they made monster in-season moves that were also a long play in deadline acquisitions Tomas Hertl (who had lots of term left) and Noah Hanifin (who signed a new deal to stay). Vegas is running back Jack Eichel, Hertl and William Karlsson down the middle, with Hanifin joining Shea Theodore (who missed half last year with injury) and Alex Pietrangelo (who missed nearly 20 games, too) in the top four. Alexander Holtz, the 2020 seventh-overall pick, is also an interesting add to the forward crew. This team won’t be fighting for its playoff life again next spring.
9. Toronto Maple Leafs: The Leafs defence corps is balanced and better with the additions of Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Max Domi wound up being a highly useful top-six forward in Toronto, so having him stick around on a very reasonable four-year deal sure seems like a win for both sides. Also, the off-season started with screams about trading Mitch Marner, but those have quieted somewhat as the outside world begins to fully realize he’s probably going to be in training camp when Craig Berube officially starts his journey as Buds coach.
10. Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks didn’t do anything huge in terms of bringing in outside help, other than the seven-year deal for Jake DeBrusk. The other adds — big D-man Vincent Desharnais, winger Danton Heinen — are nice, low-risk gets. Getting righties Filip Hronek (a potential RFA) and Tyler Myers (UFA) to stick around on new deals was fantastic.
11. Tampa Bay Lightning: Nobody swapped meaningful pieces in and out like Tampa. At the end of the day, even with icon Steven Stamkos and top-four D-man Mikhail Sergachev moving out, I like what Tampa has done. At 29, Jake Guentzel was the top forward available on the market. Adding Ryan McDonagh and J.J. Moser for the back end will help with the loss of Sergachev and prospect Conor Geekie, also acquired from Utah with Moser, has a power-forward profile that could be a serious hit in Florida. Don’t forget, Tampa also had to survive six weeks without starter Andrei Vasilevskiy to begin last year. Give him a long summer, a full camp with a healthy back and he might get back to that .925 form.
12. Carolina Hurricanes: Losing Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei from the defence corps hurts, and the arrival of Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker softens the blow only a bit. It seemed like there might be a long-term match with Jake Guentzel, but that was not to be, either. Carolina is always ultra-competitive, but a small step back seems hard to avoid.
13. Nashville Predators: Remember when we thought Barry Trotz was some boring, defence-first guy who thought hockey was about winning 2-1 games? One year after inking Ryan O’Reilly when he was the top centre on the UFA market, Trotz made what is surely the biggest splash in Preds history — with apologies to the P.K. Subban-Shea Weber one-for-one — by inking Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. He also signed Juuse Saros to an eight-year extension, and with new backup Scott Wedgewood also on the scene, it sure feels like juicy goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov will be flipped for even more help. It’s still going to be tough to jump Dallas and Colorado in the Central Division, but full marks to the Preds for taking a monster cut.
14. Washington Capitals: Nobody was GM-ing harder than Brian MacLellan in the past few weeks. He got creative in the trade that shipped out Darcy Kuemper for Pierre-Luc Dubois, made a no-doubt deal to get Jakob Chychrun from Ottawa and inked an impact, right-shot D-man in Matt Roy. It felt like a miracle when Washington made the post-season this past year; that won’t be the case for the 2025 dance.
15. Winnipeg Jets: It seemed like there was a path to Sean Monahan coming back and now that he’s a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, there’s a huge hole at 2C. Kaapo Kahkonen and Eric Comrie can likely do the job behind Connor Hellebuyck, but it’s hard to imagine either being as good as Laurent Brossoit was this past season and the blue-line also took a ding with Brenden Dillon’s departure. The Jets still have chips to play in potential trade candidates Nik Ehlers and Rutger McGroarty. Right now, though, they’re a worse team than they were a week ago.
16. New York Islanders: After bouncing around a bit the past few years, Anthony Duclair gets a chance to prove he can be a consistent 25-goal man on a four-year deal. The big thing for the Isles, though, will be a full season under coach Patrick Roy and Ilya Sorokin getting back to his Vezina form.
17. Los Angeles Kings: Getting out from under Pierre-Luc Dubois’ contract is a victory of sorts, but that’s still just covering your tracks from last off-season’s mistake. If 34-year-old Darcy Kuemper doesn’t bounce back, the crease problem still isn’t solved and you’re paying him $5.25 million against the cap — for three more years — not to solve it. Warren Foegele is a nice add to the forwards, but Joel Edmundson’s four-year, nearly $16-million pact feels very rich.
18. Detroit Red Wings: Patrick Kane returning on a one-year deal is a good arrangement and Vladimir Tarasenko can still help on any one of the top three lines. The Wings came painfully close to making the playoffs last season and figure to be right down to the wire in the wild-card race again.
19. Philadelphia Flyers: Really, the biggest development of the off-season is Matvei Michkov — the seventh-overall pick in 2023 who most assumed would be a KHLer until at least 2026 — signing an entry-level deal after his contract with SKA St. Petersburg was dissolved. Down the road, the headline from the summer of 2024 might be passing on defenceman Zeev Buium in the draft, but that’s a story for another year!
20. Ottawa Senators: In terms of a single transaction really changing a team’s fortunes, you have to think acquiring 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark has the potential to move the needle for the Sens as much as any one guy for any another squad. The return for Jakob Chychrun felt underwhelming, but Nick Jensen is a righty who can capably line up beside Thomas Chabot or Jake Sanderson. New goalie, new coach (Travis Green), positively ferocious need for different results.
21. Buffalo Sabres: Lindy Ruff returns to coach a team that looks a lot like the one that disappointed last season. This basically comes down to whether or not Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen can carry the load for an entire year and the likes of Tage Thompson can have big bounce-back seasons. If not, it’s hard to imagine GM Kevyn Adams will be the one managing the roster next summer.
22. Minnesota Wild: Jake Middleton got a nice four-year extension and Yakov Trenin comes in on the same term to provide some sandpaper. Decent moves, but not enough to push the Wild back into the post-season.
23. Montreal Canadiens: The Juraj Slafkovsky extension was a slam-dunk move for the Habs, who can very reasonably hope that — by the time it kicks in in 2025 — the big Slovakian will be the kind of power forward you’d be thrilled to devote a $7.6-million cap hit to. Also, remember that the Canadiens played 80 games last season without second-line centre Kirby Dach.
24. St. Louis Blues: Settling the Pavel Buchnevich situation was a positive, as he’s now a Blue — instead of a trade candidate — for most of the next decade. The Blues do feel like a ‘tweener team, though, not quite good enough to squeeze into the playoffs, not bad enough to add premier talent in the draft.
25. Seattle Kraken: They paid for it, but seven-year deals for Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson address needs. Montour can showcase his outrageous fitness level by playing huge minutes on the back end, while Stephenson can help shepherd young centres Matty Beniers, Shane Wright and — eventually — 2024 eighth-overall pick Berkly Catton.
26. Utah Hockey Club: Remember, the Arizona Coyotes were in the thick of the playoff chase in the middle of the winter before the bottom fell out on a team and franchise that had uncertainty — and negativity — swirling all around it. There’s a decent foundation here and the addition of Mikhail Sergachev on the back end is a big one.
27. Columbus Blue Jackets: Surely, the Jackets are hoping they added two players when they inked Sean Monahan. The first, obviously, being Monahan himself and the second being the Johnny Gaudreau they thought they were getting two years ago in free agency if he can rediscover his old, productive self beside his former Calgary running mate.
28. Anaheim Ducks: Could we still see a John Gibson trade that clears the way for Lukas Dostal to take over the crease? Anaheim’s big bet was on Becket Sennecke at third overall in the draft. He’s super-skilled and grown from five-foot-10 to nearly six-foot-four during his time in the OHL.
29. Pittsburgh Penguins: Every day that goes by where we don’t get a Sidney Crosby extension, quiet murmurs will get a little louder. This roster is brittle enough that a real tumble down the standings is in play.
30. Calgary Flames: The rebuild is on, with the Flames making minor adds while sending the likes of Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane out the door. Will they weaponize their cap space this summer and add additional draft and prospect capital?
31. Chicago Blackhawks: Laurent Brossoit sure looks ready to share a crease with Petr Mrazek, while the laundry list of vets GM Kyle Davidson inked — Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, T.J. Brodie, Alec Martinez, among others — will all help provide a nice support system for Connor Bedard. It will take some time to know for sure, but the Hawks may well have added a critical long-term piece to the rebuild in right-shooting defenceman Artyom Levshunov at No. 2 in the draft.
32. San Jose Sharks: The story of the off-season is drafting rebuild centrepiece Macklin Celebrini first overall. Don’t sleep on smooth, big defenceman Sam Dickinson at 11th, either. Sharks GM Mike Grier also took a similar approach to Davidson’s in Chicago, bringing aboard experienced vets Tyler Toffoli and Barclay Goodrow to raise the floor around his new franchise gem.
