It will be 120 days between the final game of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals and the first game of the 2023-2024 regular season. In that span, we’ve seen a strong group of prospects get drafted, established stars find new homes, and multiple coaching and management changes across the league. Some teams are poised for a deep playoff run while others are looking at a rebuilding period. But where does your favorite team rank going into the regular season? Let’s take a look from the bottom up at each team in the league.
32. San Jose Sharks
Additions: Mackenzie Blackwood, Mike Hoffman, Mikael Granlund
Departures: James Reimer, Erik Karlsson
Sharks management officially triggered a rebuild when they traded reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson in the offseason, and for good reason. This team doesn’t have a lot going for them, so they got out from under the majority of Karlsson’s $11.5M cap hit. But looking at this roster, they don’t have any youth in their lineup, outside of William Eklund and Will Smith (the latter of which Sharks fans will likely be waiting a couple years to see as he attends Boston College) to be excited about. They’re well below average in every part of the game and new head coach Dan Quinn will have his hands full this year. Anything but last in the league is considered meeting expectations for this team.
31. Chicago Blackhawks
Additions: Connor Bedard, Taylor Hall, Corey Perry
Departures: Alex Stalock, Jonathan Toews, Caleb Jones
Winners of the Connor Bedard lottery, Chicago is excited to see exactly what he can do at the NHL level. The only problem? Blackhawks faithful have to look at the other 11 forwards around him. Lukas Reichel has been having a very good training camp alongside Bedard, which could develop into a very good line for Chicago. But there’s not much excitement around this team. In hockey, one player never leads a team to massive success, and Chicago is still a couple years away from finding any
30. Philadelphia Flyers
Additions: Garnet Hathaway, Sean Walker
Departures: Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes, James Van Reimsdyk
Some may think that Philly is ranked a little low and that my Devils bias is taking too much control here. But I was in the arena Monday night for their preseason game against the Devils. Normally I don’t put much stock into preseason but they looked BAD. They lost arguably their top defenseman and two of their best offensive weapons and it showed. Hopefully gaining Sean Couturier back will help a bottom tier team in regards of faceoff and possession metrics. Unless Carter Hart stands on his head, expect to see Philly i the basement of the Metro Division
29. Anaheim Ducks
Additions: Alex Killorn, Leo Carlsson, Radko Gudas
Departures: Kevin Shattenkirk, Maxime Comtois
The Anaheim Ducks are a young, fun team. Unfortunately, fun doesn’t always translate to wins. They have a good young core in Troy Terry, Mason McTavish, Jamie Drysdale, and recently drafted Leo Carlsson. Trevor Zegras just re-signed after a lengthy holdout for another three years to keep the young core in tact. Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek also brought in a strong veteran presence with Stanley Cup experience in Killorn and Gudas. The problem is their defense and special teams has been atrocious. The Ducks gave up the most goals in the league last year and faced over than 300 shots more than any other team. On top of that, both power play and penalty kill ranked 31st of 32 teams in the NHL. Until they fix those issues, fun will not lead to success.
28. Columbus Blue Jackets
Additions: Adam Fantilli, Damon Severson, Ivan Provorov
Departures: None
Of all the teams in the bottom tier of this list, Columbus has done the most to improve their team this offseason. They brought in multiple established blueliners to help stabilize the defense and drafted Adam Fantilli third overall. More importantly, they didn’t go on a shopping spree and signing players to bad contracts. But for as much upside as this team has, they also have just as many questions looming. New head coach Mike Babcock got fired for taking players phones and making them explain personal photos (aka being an awful person). Additionally, the goaltending in Columbus hasn’t been anything to write home about since Sergei Bobrovsky left for free agency years ago. They could end up ranked closer to the 22-24 range soon, or down to 32 just as easily.
27. Montreal Canadiens
Additions: Alex Newhook, Gustav Lindstrom, David Reinbacher
Departures: Paul Byron, Denis Gurianov, Jonathan Drouin
The league’s most storied franchise has a good young core with Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and newly acquired Alex Newhook. Simply put, I just don’t think that Montreal has the talent to compete in a tough Atlantic division. Their bottom six forwards could use a little more depth and they do not have a starting caliber goaltender to steal games for them. They’ve been inconsistent to the point that they’re a Jekyll and Hyde type of team. They could win a game 6-1 and then lose 5-0 the next night. Finding consistency will lead to higher rankings moving forward.
26. Washington Capitals
Additions: Max Paccioretty
Departures: Connor Brown, Connor Sheary
Outside Alex Ovechkin’s chase for Wayne Gretzky’s all time goals record, which will likely happen at some point in the 2024-2025 season, this team needs to start the rebuild ASAP. For a team that likely will be in the bottom third of the league this year, it’s not the depth surprisingly that puts them there. The core they relied on for the last 6 years is, still, the core they rely on. Between ovechkin sitting in his office more looking for goals, Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson’s injury issues, and Evgeny Kuznetsov being just a service label talent, Washington isn’t a team with elite talent anymore. Max Paccioretty, their main offseason acquisition, may never be the player he once was given tearing his Achilles twice less than 6 months apart. As the old adage goes out with the old and in with the new, and the Capitals need to start their rebuild sooner rather than later.
25. St. Louis Blues
Additions: Kevin Hayes, Mackenzie MacEachren
Departures: Thomas Greiss, Logan Brown
It’s ironic that I just finished talking about a team that won a Stanley cup recently, because St. Louis also had recent playoff success and just a few years later this is a shell of that former team. While they were middle of the pack in scoring last season, they finished 27th in goals against. So how did they address this issue? They didn’t. They have the same defensive core as last year and passed up on a badly needed defensive prospect with the 10th and 25th picks in favor of a center, after just trading for Kevin Hayes days prior. I’m not sure what management is doing here and coach Craig Berube could find himself on the hot seat with another poor season incoming.
24. Detroit Red Wings
Additions: Alex Debrincat, J.T. Compher, Shayne Ghostibehere
Departures: Pius Suter, Alex Nedeljkovic, Dominik Kubalik
Steve Yzerman is one of the best GMs in hockey, and it shows through his offseason additions. He traded for high-end goalscorer Alex Debrincat while bringing in loads of talent. The center depth improved bringing and the top 6 rounded out nicely. The question mark will be surrounding how the defense and goaltending melds together with three players new to the team this year and Wallman only having one full season with Detroit under his belt. Goaltending was a huge reason this team wasn’t successful. Even though Ville Husso had a winning record, an .896 save percentage just won’t cut it after putting up a .919 save percentage the year before. Their hopes for a wild card will rest on whether or not the Finnish netminder has a bounce back year.
23. Arizona Coyotes
Additions: Logan Cooley, Alex Kerfoot, Matt Dumba
Departures: Christian Fischer
When I started writing this, I original had Arizona lower. Despite the ownership of this team, the future is bright. In an offseason where established veterans signed on to the club like Matt Dumba, Alex Kerfoot, and Sean Durzi, the league will also see last season’s highest rated prospect Logan Cooley make his NHL debut. The hopes for this team is to put up more than their 2.78 goals per game last year led by a breakout season for Clayton Keller. The struggle is going to be that they reside in a tough Central division where the gap between the top tier and the bottom tier is wider than any other division in hockey.
22. Vancouver Canucks
Additions: Carson Soucy, Teddy Blueger Ian Cole
Departures: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Kyle Burroughs
Vancouver was a team plagued by defensive inconsistencies and inept ownership last year which caused a lot of drama. The one bright spot that you could pull away from all of it was that the offense that went out there was ranked 13th in the league, led by Elias Pettersson eclipsing the 100 point mark. Head coach Rick Tocchet is now entering his first full year after his 20-12-4 record last season and he has some defensive minded players coming in to help keep pucks out of the net. Carson Soucy and Ian Cole will step onto the blue line and upgrade a team that gave up 298 goals, while Teddy Blueger will help sure up Vancouver’s bottom six and powerplay unit. As long as they stay healthy, Vancouver could make a run at a wild card spot out west.
21. Nashville Predators
Additions: Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn, Gustav Nyquist
Departures: Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansson
Nashville had a lot of changes this offseason with big names like Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansson finding new homes in order to open up cap space. With that cap space they brought in former Conn Smythe winner Ryan O’Reilly and veteran defenseman Luke Schenn to a decent roster. I’m a big believer in their defensive core who seem to have one defenseman that can drive offensive play paired with a stay at home defenseman. I think this will be the strength of their team this season. What will hurt them is their lack of center depth. After the aforementioned O’Reilly, they are severely lacking depth down the middle.
20. New York Islanders
Additions: Julien Gauthier
Departures: Zach Parise
A middling team that’s stuck between wanting to contend and should be rebuilding, the New York Islanders are a fascinating team to dive into. It’s the same story as it has been the past few years: this team will go as far as the defense and goaltender Ilya Sorokin will take them. The isles were just one of three teams to have only one player surpass the 55 point mark last season for their team (the others being Columbus and Chicago).
They’re also the only team to have at least 6 defensemen score 20+ points last season. Expect Sorokin to be in the conversation for the Vezina trophy again and, if the Islanders play well, be the frontrunner.
19. Ottawa Senators
Additions: Joonas Korpisalo, Vladimir Tarasenko, Dominik Kubalik
Departures: Cam Talbot, Alex Debrincat
Ottawa is a team that I feel should be better than what they are. And then when you they have a returning Josh Norris, a full season of Jakob Chychrun, and continued development out of budding players like Tim Stützle and Shane Pinto (who is also holding out). However the biggest addition to this team is bringing stability to the crease signing Joonas Korpisalo. Ottawa started seven different goaltenders last year, five of which had less than 5 career games prior to the start of last season. With a goaltender that can play 50-55 games to bring consistency to the lineup, expect Ottawa to fight for a playoff spot.
18. Seattle Kraken
Additions: Kailer Yamamoto, Brian Dumoulin
Departures: Carson Soucy, Ryan Donato, Martin Jones
Seattle made the playoffs in just their second year of existence. They play a physical style of hockey that made teams dread playing them and even took western conference favorites Colorado out of the playoffs last year. But I’m not totally sold that they can do it again. They were able to hide week goaltending play by ensuring they didn’t face many shots, giving up the third fewest in the league. However, they weren’t doing things totally unsustainable either. Jared McCann had a great season, Matty Beneirs won the Calder trophy, and they just played well as a unit. They’re sitting at 17 because I’d need to see them do it again before moving them up, which may not take long.
17. Buffalo Sabres
Additions: Connor Clifton, Erik Johnson
Departures: Vinnie Hinostroza
For the first time in a long time, Buffalo is poised to do some serious damage this year. They ranked third in the NHL in goals last year at 296 goals for, but unfortunately they also gave up 300 goals. At every position you can pick somebody out as a player to watch. Tage Thompson scored 50 goals last year, Rasmus Dahlin cemented his status as a top 15 defenseman in the league, Jack Quinn and Dylan Cozens are two breakout candidates. But it’s going to come down to the rookie goaltender Devon Levi. If the 22 year-old shows just a fraction of what he did in college, Buffalo is a dark horse for a deep playoff run and Levi to steal the Calder Trophy.
16. Calgary Flames
Additions: Jordan Oesterle, Yegor Sharangovich
Departures: Tyler Toffoili, Milan Lucic, Troy Stetcher
Calgary was one of the disappointments of last year with none of their weapons connecting at any level. Star acquisition Jonathan Huberdeau had a very poor first season for the Flames Jakob Markstrom had his worst season as an NHL goalie, players seemingly did not want to play for coach Daryl Sutter. Yet somehow, the Flames finished 2 points out of the playoffs with a whopping 17 OT/Shootout losses. The boys from Alberta do, however, have a lot of upside if things do come together. This was a team that simply couldn’t close out games in the extra period. Under new head coach Ryan Huska, expect to see rookies like Dustin Wolf and Matt Coronato play an important role in this team’s success.
15. Tampa Bay Lightning
Additions: Connor Sheary, Calvin de Haan
Departures: Alex Killorn, Ian Cole,
Tampa Bay is a consistently good team and probably should be ranked in the top 10 on most occasions. However the news of Andrei Vasilevskiy’s back surgery sees Tampa Bay plummet down the power rankings. Vasilevskiy is expected to be out for 8-10 weeks and this hurts Tampa more than it would most teams. He’s been the model of consistency over the last 6 years, finishing no worse than 6th in vezina voting and winning multiple awards. The drop off between him to projected starter Jonas Johansson is so significant that Tampa may severely struggle in the Russian goalie’s absence. They lost longtime Bolt Alex Killorn to free agency as well as defenseman Ian Cole, Bringing in Connor Sheary and Calvin de Haan to replace them. Another team that’s beginning to see their core grow old between Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, and Steven Stamkos, this Tampa Bay team still has a lot of offensive upside.
14. Pittsburgh Penguins
Additions: Erik Karlsson, Ryan Graves, Reilly Smith
Departures: Jeff Petry, Casey Desmith, Jason Zucker
When you look at this team on paper, they look dangerous. They added Erik Karlsson in a blockbuster trade, giving their main core one final push. And then you realize that out of the 18 projected skaters dressing on opening night, 13 of them will be age 30 or older. For as much skill and experience this team has, I worry about their ability to keep up with quicker teams in the league. Additionally, there are not a lot of two way players in this lineup. Will Ryan Graves and Marcus Petterson be able to hold it down for an otherwise lackluster blue line core defensively? This won’t be a run and gun team, so I think this team will need the identity of a methodical team with high possession metrics in order to win games.
13. Los Angeles Kings
Additions: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Cam Talbot,
Departures: Alex Iafallo, Gabe Vilardi, Joonas Korpisalo
The Kings made a splash by trading away significant wing depth for Pierre-Luc Dubois this offseason. They now have one of the best center depths in the league between PLD, Anze Kopitar, and Phillip Danault, as well as a formidable top six forward group. Outside of Danault, I’m not a fan of the bottom six as I think the truth will be an issue that may need to be addressed later on in the season. But as long as LA can improve on their penalty kill numbers, they can make a run at the Pacific division crown.
12. Winnipeg Jets
Additions: Alex Iafallo, Gabe Villardi, Laurent Brossoit
Deletions: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Blake Wheeler
The other team involved in the Kings blockbuster, Winnipeg found themselves some desperately needed depth in that deal. Gabe Villardi is slotted as a first line winger, Alex Iafallo also finds himself in the top 6, with Rasmus Kupari providing depth as a fourth line center. The defense remains unchanged from last year in front of star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Josh Morrissey is coming off the heels of a great season will either take a step forward again and show how much of a game changer he is, or regress after a potential career year. After missing playoffs last year, look for Winnipeg to fire on all cylinders to start the year.
11. Boston Bruins
Additions: Morgan Geekie, James van Riemsdyk
Departures: Patrice Bergeron, David Krecji, Dmitry Orlov
Can a team that won 65 games in the regular season last year really have dropped to 11? Absolutely. They lost a significant amount of that team in free agency, including captain Patrice Bergeron. Playmaking and center depth look to be a real issue for Boston this season. Across the board offensively they’ve taken a massive hit. And if anybody in the league is due for regression, it is goaltender Linus Ullmark. Even if Ullmark puts up a 2.40 GAA and .920 save percentage, they’d be all star caliber numbers but significantly worse than what Boston got out of him last year. Boston has a very good defensive unit in front of their goaltender, but I’m expecting a significant drop off as a team at a whole.
10. Minnesota Wild
Additions: Patrick Maroon
Departures: Matt Dumba, Ryan Reaves, John Klingberg
Minnesota kicks off my top 10 in the power rankings. Simply put: they are another team that has had great regular season success with nothing to show for it. Over the last eight years the Wild have made seven playoff appearances with no playoff series wins. Kirill Kaprizov is an elite goal scorer, their defense has been consistent throughout the last few years, and Filip Gustavsson looks to build on an impressive first year in Minnesota. I expect them to be around the 100 point mark this season, but everything changes once April arrives.
9. Florida Panthers
Additions: Evan Rodrigues, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niko Mikkola
Departures: Radko Gudas, Marc Staal
Last year’s Prince of Wales trophy winners enter this year with lofty expectations. After taking the majority of last season to finally get things going, Florida went on one of the most improbable playoff runs in the last 20 years and managed to keep the majority of the team together. Matthew Tkachuk cemented himself as a top 10 player in the league last season and looks to carry momentum this year. The Panthers did lose a big physical presence in Radko Gudas, so it will be interesting to see if teams get more physical with them seeing how effective Vegas was when playing a physical game in the finals. They have the talent to make another playoff push, but only time will tell.
8. New York Rangers
Additions: Blake Wheeler, Jonathan Quick, Erik Gustafsson
Departures: Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, Tyler Motte
The Rangers are a perennial playoff team and one that most people think could make a deep playoff run. For as much talent as they have, it has to translate into wins. I think this is the final year for both Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere to show their value, and the rangers desperately need them to take steps forward. Igor Shesterkin is a top 3 goaltender on the planet and gives the blue shirts a chance to win every night. My concern comes with the lack of speed of this team. They brought in Blake Wheeler who, although is a much needed improvement as a forward with good defensive awareness, is 37 years old and dealt with injuries the past two seasons. Additionally, seeing Jonathan Quick signed with the team he supported growing up is heartwarming, but he has been pretty brutal the past couple of years. New York will be a contending team that need the young guys to pick up production.
7. Toronto Maple Leafs
Additions: Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, John Klingberg
Departures: Luke Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, Alex Kerfoot
After getting the playoff monkey off their back, Toronto now gets ready to make a deeper run than surpassing the first round. And this appears to be THE year to get the core four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Morgan Reilly a cup as somebody likely leaves after this season for cap reasons. They brought in players like Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to blister that top 9 forward group as Matthew Knies will begin his rookie campaign for Toronto after a successful taste of playoff hockey. If there is any weakness in this team, it’s goaltending. I don’t know which Direction. the Leafs will go if it is going to be Ilya Samsonov, or Joseph Woll. If the leafs can get good goaltending, they could be in line to win their second division title since 2000.
6. Edmonton Oilers
Additions: Connor Brown
Departures: Slater Koekkoek, Nick Bjugstad
Edmonton is a dangerously good offensive team. Toting two of the best players in the world in McDavid and Draisitl, and four 100 point scorers last year, they are more than happy to get into a high scoring game. They outscored the rest of the league by 20 goals and averaging nearly four goals per game. They have a lethal offense and power play, but the strategy of scoring 4 or 5 goals a game almost never works in the playoffs. I think Edmonton’s defense has a lot of work to do in order to have a higher end unit.
Darnell Nurse needs to show more consistency, and the bottom pair is nothing to write home about. Even Bouchard could be the breakout candidate this year in that defensive core, and look for Edmonton to make a run in the playoffs.
5. New Jersey Devils
Additions: Tyler Toffoili, Colin Miller
Departures: Yegor Sharangovich, Ryan Graves, Damon Severson
The New Jersey Devils crack my top 5 as GM Tom Fitzgerald continued to make this team better in the offseason. After a season most didn’t expect, they traded Yegor
Sharangovich to acquire thirty goal scorer Tyler Toffoili, and a late round pick to acquire
Colin Miller, two veteran presences for a team that lost two important veterans in
Damon Severson and Ryan Graves. Those two will be missed on the backend as they both are up valuable minutes with a good defensive awareness. Luke Hughes looks to make a big impact filling those shoes, but the youth o the backend has led to mistakes in the past. The real question will be how will the Devils tandem of Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanacek perform. New Jersey went from bottom of the league in most goaltending categories the two years prior to finishing well above league average in goaltending stats last season. If this tandem holds up, I think the Devils will eclipse 100 points once again
4. Vegas Golden Knights
Additions: None
Departures: Reilly Smith, Teddy Blueger, Laurent Brossoit
The reigning Stanley Cup champions return the majority of their core and all of their defense from last year’s playoff run. Jack Eichel looked like the superstar we all remembered from Buffalo while Adin Hill came out of seemingly nowhere to win the starting job for Vegas. But this team’s strength is it’s depth, as they can get scoring and production from every level and a forward group that plays a great 200 foot game. They didn’t bring anybody in to crack the roster. But then again is if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. They’ll have a target on their back all season, but still expect this team to finish near the top of the Pacific division.
3. Dallas Stars
Additions: Matt Duchene, Sam Steel
Departures: Colin Miller, Max Doni
The Central Division is going to be the one to watch this year as I think there are four teams that can represent the western conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. Of those four teams, Dallas is the one that looks most capable of doing it. They made it to the Western Conference finals last year, they bring back all six of their defensive core, and bring in veteran Matt Duchene looking for a bounce back season. Dallas ranked 8th or better in goals for, goals against, power play %, and penalty kill % last season with no signs of that slowing down this year. But what is scariest about what they did was they didn’t do anything unsustainable in the year. Jason Robesrtson had 46 goals and 109 points, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he put up 45 goals and 100 points again this season. Jake Oettinger put up a 2.37/.919 slash line which is great, but not unbelievable to think he can’t do that again. Top to bottom the Stars are a consistent team that is prepared to make another statement this season.
2. Colorado Avalanche
Additions: Ryan Johansson, Ross Colton, Miles Wood
Departures: Alex Newhook, J.T. Compher, Erik Johnson
Colorado very easily could have been at the top of the power rankings. They bring in veteran Ryan Johansson to secure the second line center position, as well as bringing in depth pieces Miles Wood and Ross Colton. However, they did lose Alex Newhook in a trade to Montreal, as well as J.T. Compher after a career year and Erik Johnson to free agency. When you look at this team from top to bottom, especially the defense, it’s hard not to be excited for the season to come. Cale Makar is far and away the best defenseman in hockey and I think the Avalanche defense as a whole is the best in the league. Alexander Georgie’s has proven to be a starting caliber goaltender in the NHL, and superstar Nathan Mackinnon leads the charge up front. There’s nothing that this team can’t achieve as they are one of the betting favorites to win it all.
1. Carolina Hurricanes
Additions: Dmitry Orlov, Tony DeAngelo, Michael Bunting
Departures: Calvin de Haan, Shayne Ghostisbehere, Max Paccioretty
Carolina takes the top spot in my inaugural power rankings as they somehow look better on paper than last season. They brought back the main core of their team only losing rentals, and then upgrading upon the rentals they lost. Dmitry Orlov was a hot commodity in the free agent market and the Hurricanes not only grabbed him, but also grabbed former Hurricane Tony DeAngelot after he was bought out. They’ve had young players like Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas step up and they get back a healthy Andrei Svechnikov back. They have elite defensive core, a deep forward group, and three goaltenders who could feasibly be a starter. I have coach Rod Brind’Amour as my preseason prediction for the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year, and Carolina is a the team in the Eastern Conference in everybody’s radar.
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