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NHL Teams to Watch

The NHL offseason has been another one for the ages, with several contenders making aggressive moves to strengthen their Stanley Cup hopes. Some teams spend the summer looking to address their core weaknesses, whether it was depth, finding a new goaltender, or adding another scoring threat. Others look to have chosen continuity, placing their hopes on the players returning from the prior season making that leap forward in their progression.

Of course just because you make a lot of moves that look on paper to have been the correct, or smart decision, that does not guarantee success for the next season. Chemistry still has to develop, young players from the draft needs to find their footing in a faster pace league and veteran starts must continue performing at an elite level.

Every organization is coming into this training camp with optimism, but only a handful of teams have what it takes to get through a grueling season and postseason to reach the finals.

These rankings combine last season’s performance, offseason improvements, roster depth, star power, and overall outlook heading into the 2026-27 season. While plenty can change once the season starts with injuries, trades and team just simple not reaching their full potential. This seasons looks like it is going to be another years or surprises for both the teams themselves and the fans.

So, here are the Top 10 Best NHL Teams of the 2025–2026 season.

Honorable Mentions

Washington Capitals

The Capitals are a team that people talk about every year, mostly because you can never bet against a team with Alexander Ovechkin. In his advanced years, he is still a dominant force on the ice and can still lead the team. But most importantly, he makes all of the players around him step up their game.

However, the biggest question going into this season is not if Ovechkin can score another 20 goals, which is all but certain, but whether the team has enough depth to keep pace with the league contenders for an 82-game season. Once player does not make a team, but the Capitals young core has not yet blossomed into adequate companions to Alexander.

If those players can step up and Alexander does what Alexander always does, this team can surprise a lot of people.

New Jersey Devils

Another team that looks poised to take a step forward this upcoming season is the New Jersey Devils. This team’s young core, anchored by their star player Jack Hughes, ended the prior years a solid 42-37-3, good enough for 7th in the Metropolitian Division and 13th in the Eastern Conference. While the ranking may not look good on paper, this team shows a lot of potential heading into the new year.

Last year with players like Hughes but also Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier, they proved to be a team that can overwhelm opponents with speed through the neutral zone and create scoring chances from every line. Mind you all of the players mentioned are below 30 with the Hughes being only 25. This tiems has a lot of upside, and their mild performance was less about a lack of talent and more about injuries and uneven stretches.

The major hit they took this offseason was the lose of their veteran goaltender Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers. This year those responsibilities will fall onto another verteran Jake Allen. If Allen can hold his own in the net and the young players of the team can remain healthy then this time has a lot of promise heading into the new season.

Top 10 NHL Teams 2025–2026 Power Rankings

10. Montreal Canadians

Last year proved to be the year the Canadians had been planning for. After years of taking a step back to rebuild their roster, last year was their breakout season with a 48-24-10 record, going as far as the Eastern Conference finals before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes. Now, they look poised to take that momentum from last year into the new season. They top players Nick Suzuki (101 points, Selke Trophy Winner) and winger Cole Caufield (51 goals, Lady Byng Trophy winner) are looking to build what they started last year. They will also have some additional help with the ream signing forward Ivan Demidov to a massive eight year contract and bringing in Brett Berard through a trade with the Rangers.

Last year was a coming-out party for the Canadians, and they almost made it to the top. This year, they are looking to prove that this was no one-year fluke and that they are a team to be taken seriously.

9. Toronto Maple Leafs

This upcoming year is staking up to be the year of the Canadian teams. While the Maple Leafs missing the playoofs last year, this was the first time they had missed the playoffs since 2016. A team that has been dominant for that long is not going to stay down for too long and this offseason showed they are ready to get this ship back on track.

After missing the playoffs, the front office decided it was time to make major changes. The first change came after their surprise win in the lottery that gave them the number one pick, which they used to select Gavin McKenna. Gavin will look to be the sidekick of undisputed captain of the team, Auston Matthews, who despite issues with injuries was still able to score 27 goals. He will also be working alongside William Nylander and John Tavares, two player who both scored 30+ last season.

This team will also be well represented in net with a veteran goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, who signed a 3-year contract this offseason after several years and two championships with the Florida Panthers. He gave this team many headaches while at Florida but now he is looking to be the anchor of the team while they drive their way back to the top of the league where they believe they belong.

8. Winnipeg Jets

The Jets are coming off a disappointing season, but do not let their 35-35-12 record confuse you; this is a team with a lot of talent and are looking to show the league what they can do with this talent.

In this offseason, they put a lot of work into free agency to bring over top players to bolster their roster. Notably, they signed players like Stuart Skinner, Mario Ferraro, and Henry Thune. Skinner will serve as the backup to their star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. While Ferraro and Thune will be asked to provide solid defense and good puck handling to set of players like Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor.

But don’t think they only look to boost their team through free agency, they also took full advantage of their draft position, turning down multiple trade offers and selecting Viggo Björck to provide size in the middle of the ice.

Thanks to these acquisitions, the Jets have built depth on their roster and no longer rely on a single line to generate offensive power. Now, they are looking to take those multiple lines and make a run to the playoffs this upcoming season.

7. Vegas Golden Knights

Ever since the Knights came onto the ice in 2017, they have basically been a Stanley Cup contender every year, winning their first in 2022-2023, this prior year was no different. If not for the Caroline Hurricane the Knights look like they were on their way to win their second championship is their second championship in only their fifth year of existence.

With that unfortunate loss in the rearview, the team has its eyes set on the upcoming season. Due to salary cap concerns, changes were needed, and that is the reason they let go of their head coach John Tortorella and made sever trades at this years draft. Regardless, they were able to hang on to their top players Jack Eichel and bring in Pavel Dorofeyev thanks to a trade with the Rangers.

Then, in free agency, they did not turn down the heat, signing Rasmus Andersson and Jeremy Lauzon to long-term contracts. They also added players like Marc Gatcomb and Raphael Lavoie for bench depth.

This team has proven time and time again that it’s not a team to sleep on. After making it to the Stanley Cup Finals, it’s only appropriate to keep them at the top of this list, but some consideration does need to be given to the age of some of the players and how that is likely to affect their durability. What brought them success in the early years was youth and energy, but that may be running out.

6. Dallas Stars

When people think of sports in Dallas, they think of the Cowboys, but now the Dallas Stars are crafting a place for themselves in the city’s sports landscape. Coming off a 50-20-12 season that placed them second in the Cenreal dvision, they unfortunately were not able translate that regular season success into success in the playoffs, being knocked out in the first round.

This offseason was light on blockbuster events for the team due to a tight salary cap. They mostly focused on securing their top talent and shedding some contracts that were constraining their ability to maneuver. The one piece of the puzzle they have yet to lock down is their star player, Jason Robertson. They currently have him on a one year contract but are actively working to secure him into a long-term contract something that has proven to be increasingly difficult.

Aside from him, they have signed Kyle Burroughs to add size to their defensive core and retained Jamie Benn.

Going into this new season they drama will surround Robertson and whether the team is able to sign him to a long-term contract. Otherwise, the team looks set to have another successful season and hopefully move forward in the playoffs beyond the first round.

5. Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning are proving to be a stubborn team. Despite their core consisting of aging veterans, they still compete at the highest level, finishing the year at 50-26-6. This was good enough for second in the Atlantic Division, but they were abruptly kicked out in the first round.

This offseason, they have been looking to add some fresh energy that had made them the talk of the league only a few years ago. They looked to accomplish this by signing John Carlson to a two-year contract, Ilya Mikheyev to a four-year contract, and Jeffrey Viel to a five-year contract.

These players will be joining a team with the reigning Hart Trophy winner, Nikita Kucherov, and his pal Jake Guentzel, who both scored 130 and 88 points, respectively.

This team is built to make a deep playoff run; the only question that remains is whether their experienced team has enough juice to push through the season and several months of playoff hockey.

4. Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers have been the Cinderella story of the league for the last couple of years. For so long, they were an irrelevant team looking to avoid the bottom of the league, but these past few seasons have shown the hockey world they are a force to be reckoned with. The only question that remains is how long can they keep this up before they Stanley Cup chances begin to fade. Having lost back to back Stantley Cup finals to the Florida Panthers and then losing in the first round last season, many are wondering if they have already reached their peak.

The front office, however, is doing everything in its power to make sure that is not the case. They brought in a new coach, Mike Babcock, and made several blockbuster trades that turned heads. The first was the trade of longtime alternate captain Darnell Nurse to the San Jose Sharks for two defensemen. Then he traded for goaltender Devon Levi from the Buffalo Sabres.

With the cap space from the Nurse trade, the team went all in during free agency, signing defenseman Ryan Shea and Frederik Andersen, who was on the recent Stanley Cup-winning Carolina Hurricanes.

Now that they have their team assembled, anchored by arguably the best player in the league, Connor McDavid, and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers are looking to get back to the Stanley Cup Finals and this time win it all.

3. Colorado Avalanche

Colorado has been making a name for itself the past couple of seasons, setting the standard for speed, skill, and offensive creativity. Thanks to these characteristics, they have been able to dictate the pace of the game, making them a nightmare matchup for any opponent, and this is how they were able to claim a 55-16-11 (121 points) season winning the Central Division and the Presidents Trophy.

They were poised to reach the Stanley Cup Finals until they were shockingly swept by the Golden Knights in the Western Conference Finals.

Now, going into the new season, they are hoping their star player Nathan Mackinnon (127 points) can continue to produce alongside their other star Martin Nečas, who himself had a breakout season where he scored 100 points.

This team is dominant in so many ways that it is almost impossible to bet against them. Their transition game, defensive group, and forward group all put the team on the backpedal. But one or two good seasons does not guarantee anything in this league. Teams fall off, injuries mount, back office disfunction affects onfield ice performance. The Avalanche are a Stanley Cup contender no doubt which is why they are number three but they willl need to replicate last years performance this year and that is not always a guarantee.

2. Florida Panthers

If you look at the Florida Panthers’ record last year of 40-38-4, you may be wondering why they are number two on this list. A fair critique, but this record needs some context. The Panthers suffered injuried to several of their top players, including Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Seth Jones, Dmitry Kulikov, the list goes on. These injuries would be difficult for any team to overcome even a defending champion, Barkov and Tkachuk alone were among the top three best players on the team. But the expectation is that these players will be back for the upcoming season and prepared to show why they were back-to-back champions.

The front office also understood that no team should remain stagnant. They brought in Tkachuk’s brother onto the team, a star player in his own right. They replaced Sergei Bobrovsky with the veteran Jacob Markström and list continues with the signing of Lars Eller, Alexande Petrovic and Radko Gudas who after a few years away has reunited with his old team.

This team is already big on scoring power with Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, and Carter Verhaeghe. Now with a healthy Barkov and the Tkachuk brothers, they are clearly one of the most versatile, creative, speedy teams in the league. With the return of Gudas and Seth Jones, they are also not lacking on the defensive front.

This team is coming off an injury-riddled season, as evidenced by their record, but with a healthy roster and the monster acquisitions this offseason, they are prepared to get back to the championship-level hockey the league has expected from them over the last five years.

1. Carolina Hurricanes

It would be hard to bet against the reigning Stanley Cup winners. The Hurricanes did not win the championship by accident; they won thanks to the relentless forechecking, disciplined defensive play, and offensive depth that wore down opponents every game. The team has very few flaws to speak of, they do not make a lot of mistakes, every line is dangerous and their defensemen are true generals of the ice.

Their offseason has been light on major moves, mostly focusing on consolidating their team for years to come. For example, the massive 8-year contract they handed to Logan Stankoven, who not only had an incredible regular season but also scored 11 postseason goals. But the fun did not end their, then they signs Nicolas Deslarurier to an extension after a late season trade to acquire him. Next cam Taylor Hall and Alexander Nikiishin.

Going into this season, the Hurricanes look to repeat the strategy that won them the championship this year: excellent defensive play, disciplined puck control, an aggressive forecheck, and, most importantly, outscoring their opponents.

It’s hard to repeat, but this team is looking to show the world what they can do, and with almost the same time coming back this season, there’s very little in their way.

How would you rank the best NHL Teams so far into the 2025-2026 season? Rank below to be added in the NHL Power Rankings.