It’s time to celebrate! The 2025-26 NHL season is here. No more pre-season games. No more waiting for “the real deal.” No more! Now it counts. 82 regular-season games (per team), followed by four rounds of playoffs. And then, after the grueling journey is complete, a winner will be declared and The Stanley Cup will have another batch of names engraved onto its silver surface. But first, let’s take out our crystal balls and see if we can divine how this season will unfold.
For starters, the “Big” mystery surrounding Connor McDavid’s immediate future is now over. Monday morning, it was announced that Edmonton’s otherworldly captain had finally put pen to paper on a short-term extension. McDavid and the Oilers agreed to a two-year/$25M ($12.5M AAV) extension that received both praise and criticism from all over the hockey world.
The praise is obvious. McDavid is sticking with the team he’s spent his entire career on. He’s giving them a massive discount and he’s proving that he can walk the walk after talking about how important it is to him to win with Edmonton. As for the criticism, as the best player in The NHL, barring none, there are plenty of players and agents around The League who feel it is McDavid’s duty to help reset the salary market and by taking such a team-friendly deal, he is potentially hurting other players.
Now that McDavid has signed, the onus is squarely on the Oilers to do everything in their power, from the Front Office to the coaching staff to the players, to win The Cup; otherwise, when this new deal is up, McDavid will likely walk away from the team and sign elsewhere. Also, with McDavid joining Kirill Kaprizov in signing extensions, that leaves Jack Eichel as the “Big Fish” of next summer’s unrestricted free agent class. However, sources indicate that Eichel is very likely to sign an extension with Vegas, thus further downgrading next July’s crop of free agents.
With that out of the way, let’s go division-by-division and guess what might happen this year.
METROPOLITAN DIVISION
Last season, the Washington Capitals unexpectedly took the division crown and had a resurgent season, fueled by Alex Ovechkin chasing and then surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record. Now that The Great Eight has passed, The Great One and now that he is another year older, the Capitals will need a different spark if they wish to maintain their control over the division.
More likely, however, is that the Carolina Hurricanes win the division on the continued strength of their team defense and tenaciousness. The Hurricanes still haven’t found their superstar scorer to help get them over the hump in the playoffs, but with most of their core intact, this should be another successful regular season for Rod Brind’Amour’s crew. Also, as much as Rangers fans will likely hate this, expect K’Andre Miller to be a key piece of Carolina’s success (just like how Brady Skjei was).
Speaking of the Broadway Blueshirts, they finally got their guy in Head Coach Mike Sullivan. So, GM Chris Drury has no one left to blame if things go sideways. With Igor Shesterkin still manning the pipes and in his prime, New York is sure to receive stellar goaltending. The problem is, outside of their top two lines, they don’t currently project to be much of an offensive threat. Plus, for as much as Vladislav Gavrikov is a positive addition to their D-core, their blue line is still a weakness and not likely to receive much help from the forwards (unless players like Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad suddenly buy into Sullivan’s preferred style of play. But let’s face it, they didn’t buy in with David Quinn, Gerard Gallant or Peter Laviolette, so will the fourth time really be the charm?)
Over on Long Island, the Islanders have a new GM running the show in Mathieu Darche and a shiny new defenseman in Matthew Schaefer, who they drafted with the first overall pick back in June. Mathew Barzal has moved back to Center and Jonathan Drouin was brought in to boost the team’s offense. Head Coach Patrick Roy is okay with winning games 5-4 and will need goalie Ilya Sorokin to return to his Vezina-caliber ways if the team is going to record enough points to return to the playoffs.
The New Jersey Devils have remade their bottom six this year, but the offense will still only go as far as Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier take them. If Hughes is healthy for the whole season, a big IF, then New Jersey certainly has the pieces to not only make the playoffs, but also make a deep run. Goalies Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen are another year older, but as long as the defense remains steady, they should be alright. The X-factor for the Devils will be the play of highly touted prospect Arseny Gritsyuk, who is likely to start in the bottom six, but could move up if his performance demands it.
The Columbus Blue Jackets could very well be the “surprise team” in the Metro this year. After a season in which they far exceeded expectations, while being fueled by the loss of Johnny Gaudreau, the Blue Jackets have a lot of young talent and a nice mix of veterans who can help lead the way. They won’t go wire-to-wire, but when the dust settles, we expect them to clinch a Wild-Card spot.
The Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins bring up the rear in this division. Both are rebuilding and neither has enough talent to win. The biggest storyline to follow here will be the fate of Penguins’ Captain Sidney Crosby. Will he finally approve a trade to a contender? Will he force a trade? Does he fly in the face of conventional thinking and stick it out in Pittsburgh, potentially at the cost of the final few seasons of his career? Nobody, not even Crosby, knows the answer just yet, but it’s a long season for a reason and this topic won’t go away until something either happens or doesn’t happen.
ATLANTIC DIVISION
The back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are wounded. Captain Aleksander Barkov is out for the year after tearing up his knee and requiring surgery. Matthew Tkachuk is out until at least December, more likely January, after his own offseason surgery. The entire core of the team has been locked up long-term. But can they do what no team has done since the Islanders’ Dynasty and win a third straight Cup? It’s foolish to bet against them, but this might be too many obstacles to overcome.
Florida’s cross-state rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, remain a steady presence around The League. No longer the world-beaters they were at the start of the decade, The Lightning are still a formidable team and one who could make noise in the playoffs, if everything breaks their way. They are a playoff team, but how far they go is up in the air and we won’t know the answer until April.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost Mitch Marner, but other than that, they are still a top-heavy, highly talented team who, unless something goes very wrong, will be a playoff team. Whether they go one-and-done, as they have so many times before, or they can actually make a run, is up in the air, but steady is as steady does. Hey, there are worse things they could be.
Speaking of being steady, the Buffalo Sabres are steady and consistent as one of the worst teams in The League over the last 15 years. This year, even though Tage Thompson is a star and Rasmus Dahlin is an excellent defenseman, the Sabres are still going nowhere, fast.
Another team going nowhere is the Boston Bruins, who, after years of being a perennial Cup contender, have finally hit the downside of their competitive curve. We all know sports are cyclical and the Bruins are very clearly a downward arrow-facing team.
On the flip side, it looks like the Montreal Canadiens finally have their arrow pointing upward. They were the number two Wild Card in the East last year and could very well repeat that performance, or maybe even move up to the top Wild Card spot.
That leaves the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators as the “mushy middle” teams in this division. Sure, Ottawa was the top Wild Card in the East last year, but there was something about their performance that seemed “unsustainable.” Could we be wrong? Sure. But if Montreal passes them and Columbus does what we think, then Ottawa will narrowly miss out on the dance this year.
CENTRAL DIVISION
First things first. The Winnipeg Jets are not winning The Presidents’ Trophy again. They’re not coming in first place. Sure, Connor Hellebuyck is still The League’s measuring stick for goaltenders and Winnipeg’s offense is solid, as is their defense, but there’s regression coming here. They’ll be a playoff team, but not a true Cup contender.
There are two beasts in The Central and they are the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. Both teams are stacked with talent. Each has a scary good offense and a defense that, when healthy and right, is one of The League’s best. Dallas has the edge in net thanks to Jake Oettinger. The differences are so razor-thin that you can’t go wrong picking between these two to lead the division.
The Utah Mammoth are an interesting team. They have plenty of young talent and an excited fanbase to drive them, as well as a motivated Owner. Lucky for them, there’s no clear-cut fourth-best team in the Central, so they could very well make the leap and potentially even be a Wild Card team. The problem is, there are several “mushy middle” teams in the Central, so there’s no guarantee that Utah can emerge from the pack to claim the division’s number four spot.
The Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators are those aforementioned “mushy middle” teams. All three have their pros and cons. Minnesota has Kaprizov, now and for a very long time to come. St. Louis always seems to get hot at the right time. And Nashville can’t possibly be as bad as they were last year. Whether any of that adds up to being a Wild Card team or not is up for debate, but we think they just miss out.
That just leaves the still-rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks as the division’s cellar-dwellers. At some point in the future, the Blackhawks will be a good team again, but for right now, they are a mess. Connor Bedard is likely already contemplating how long until he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
PACIFIC DIVISION
Remember how we mentioned that the Toronto Maple Leafs lost Mitch Marner? Well, he went to the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade that just seems unfair. Vegas has been one of The League’s best teams for several years now and they added one of the most dynamic two-way players in the game, who, by the way, will finally be free from the pressures of playing for his hometown team. Eichel is likely to sign an extension soon and the Golden Knights continue with business as usual.
The Oilers can finally breathe easy after getting McDavid to sign an extension. Sure, it’s a short one, but that’s a matter for another day. Edmonton has lost plenty of its depth over the last two years, but remains a dynamic offensive team. They likely won’t make it back to The Cup Final this year, but they will be a force to be reckoned with deep into the playoffs.
Can the Los Angeles Kings finally get over the hump and beat the Oilers in the first round? At some point, the pendulum has to swing their way, right? Well, that time hasn’t yet come. Los Angeles is stuck in a rut and will likely have some very tough decisions to make in the next couple of years.
The Calgary Flames are not a scary team, but they have a quiet consistency about them that makes us confident, somewhat, that they can grab a Wild Card spot as the number four team in the Pacific Division.
What we’re about to say is likely going to piss off a large chunk of British Columbia, but we see the Vancouver Canucks taking a nosedive down the standings. There have been too many issues, both on and off the ice, over the past few years for this team. Sure, they shipped J.T. Miller to New York. But plenty of festering issues remain. Quinn Hughes is surely counting down the days until he leaves, even if he won’t admit it publicly, even though his GM basically already did.
The Seattle Kraken will be the only team in the Pacific Division who are worse than the Canucks, but for a very different reason. The Kraken just don’t seem to have the talent, reminding everyone that Vegas was an outlier as an expansion franchise, not a new normal.
That leaves the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks, who should both take some positive steps forward, but are still nowhere near playoff contention. Let the young kids continue to get NHL experience and hope that it pays off sooner rather than later.
PREDICTED STANDINGS
Metropolitan Division
1) Hurricanes
2) Devils
3) Capitals
4) Blue Jackets
5) Rangers
6) Islanders
7) Flyers
8) Penguins
Atlantic Division
1) Maple Leafs
2) Lightning
3) Panthers
4) Canadiens
5) Senators
6) Red Wings
7) Bruins
8) Sabres
Central Division
1) Avalanche
2) Stars
3) Jets
4) Mammoth
5) Wild
6) Blues
7) Predators
8) Blackhawks
Pacific Division
1) Golden Knights
2) Oilers
3) Kings
4) Flames
5) Ducks
6) Sharks
7) Canucks
8) Kraken
PLAYOFFS
We get a Colorado-Vegas Western Conference Final, with the Golden Knights winning in seven.
We get a Lightning-Carolina Eastern Conference Final with the Hurricanes winning in six.
STANLEY CUP FINAL
A Carolina-Vegas matchup with the Golden Knights taking home their second Stanley Cup championship in a hard-fought six-game series.
Okay, enough predictions, it’s time for puck drop!
