NHL Winners and Losers from the 1st Month of the 2024-25 Season
It's time for us to cast the hardest judgments on teams and players across the NHL. We're through one month of the season, and we've compiled a list of those who have crushed it and others who are getting crushed.
That's right. It's winners' and losers' time, and fortunately for us, those on each side of the ledger have made it relatively easy to decide who goes where. For every team and player that's raced out to a hot start, we've got just as many that have not.
There have been pleasant surprises that caught us off guard and disappointments we saw coming that we hoped we'd be wrong about. It can be like that in the NHL, but we'll get it all sorted out.
Whether teams are piling up goals or losses, there's a good chance you'll catch them on our list. We're not perfect, although we try to be, so if there's anyone you think deserves adulation or scorn, let us know in the comments.
Winners: Florida Panthers
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Stanley Cup hangover? Never heard of it.
That's what the Florida Panthers are saying after the first month of the season in which they got off to a 7-3-1 start and sit atop the Atlantic Division. Sam Reinhart picked up where he left off last season when he scored 57 goals. He's back on top of the league's scoring list and is scoring goals in every possible situation.
The Panthers won without captain Aleksander Barkov, who missed eight games, thanks to Reinhart, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell scoring and defending like mad. It also helps to have Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad on defense, too.
All the concerns we had for Florida headed into the season about them losing so many players from last season's championship roster are put aside for now after watching them surge ahead at the start of the season. But playing this well and doing so without Barkov for so long and they've yet to get the best work from Sergei Bobrovsky in goal means bad news for the rest of the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference in general.
Losers: Nashville Predators
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Despite being one of the offseason's biggest winners for the moves they made, the Nashville Predators have gotten off to a brutal start.
They added Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchesseault to a forward group headed up by Filip Forsberg, and they've got one of the worst offenses in the league. And even though they added defenseman Brady Skjei to the blue line to play alongside Roman Josi and in front of goalie Juuse Saros, they've given up a lot of goals.
With that kind of mix, it's not going to lead to a lot of wins, and in October they went 3-6-1 and were cozied up at the bottom of the Central Division with the Chicago Blackhawks. That's not the company GM Barry Trotz had in mind after going gangbusters with signings over the summer.
Stamkos and Marchesseault aren't scoring to start the year, and that's enough to get people nervous, especially with other teams in the division getting out to fast starts.
Winners: Winnipeg Jets Flying High
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We might've been guilty of paying more attention to other teams in the Central Division ahead of the season, but leave it to the Winnipeg Jets to demand we pay attention to them.
The Jets went 9-1-0 in October, including winning their first eight games. Their offense is roaring thanks to Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers and Josh Morrissey.
They're running three lines deep with scoring and are getting point production on the blue line beyond Morrissey with Neal Pionk and Colin Miller. Connor Hellebuyck remains outstanding in goal, and backup Eric Comrie has played solidly when called upon.
When everything is clicking, it looks impressive, and that's just what the Jets look like right now. Hot starts are great for any team, but it's even more important for Winnipeg considering it has Dallas, Minnesota, Colorado and Utah in an extremely deep division.
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Losers: Colorado Avalanche Goaltending
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The Colorado Avalanche have some of the best scorers in the NHL with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, and defenseman Cale Makar is having an incredible start to the season piling up points of his own. And yet, there the Avs are buried in the Central Division, and it's all because of goaltending.
Starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev has had a brutal start to his season with a sub-.830 save percentage and a goals-against average over 4.50. Two years ago he had an incredible season and was one of the best goalies in the league, but this year he's given way to backup Justus Annunen.
Annunen is still technically a rookie, but he's done markedly better than Georgiev in the meantime. Still, the numbers aren't top-tier for a goalie on a Stanley Cup contender (.899 save percentage; 2.58 GAA).
Colorado has to get Georgiev and Annunen right because if it doesn't, the Avalanche are going to have to outscore their goaltending all year. That's not always a recipe for success, and certainly not for a championship.
Winner: Kirill Kaprizov
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The Minnesota Wild are off to a hot start, and while there are a few good reasons why that's happening, the biggest one is Kirill Kaprizov.
Kaprizov is among the league's top scorers (tied with Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar for best in the league), and he's scoring at the highest rate of anyone in the NHL at 1.91 points per game.
What's more about Kaprizov is he's a human-highlight reel capable of pulling off some of the most remarkable moves you'll see on a given night. Even more than that, his teammates feed off of his abilities. His great play is spurring the Wild onto a great start to the season, right in the mix near the top of the Central Division behind Winnipeg.
Make no mistake though, if Kaprizov keeps this up and helps the Wild get back to the playoffs, his name will be part of the MVP discussion.
Losers: New York Islanders
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Things are messy on Long Island, and that's putting it nicely.
The Islanders struggled to score goals before Mat Barzal went out 4-6 weeks with an upper-body injury. They've been without Anthony Duclair since he sustained a lower-body injury on Oct. 19 that put him on LTIR.
Their defense is newly injury-ravaged after Adam Pelech was hit in the face by a puck and Mike Reilly hit his head on the ice in a game against Buffalo, and Alexander Romanov has been battling through injuries of his own.
The injuries are brutal, the offense has been non-existent and without any goals, and it doesn't matter how well Ilya Sorokin or Semyon Varlamov play in goal. And to think this was a team that already needed an infusion of skill and offense—now it's a desperate situation and the losses are mounting.
Head coach Patrick Roy has his hands full trying to get the best out of everyone that is healthy, and fans are urging GM Lou Lamoriello to do something, anything, to help the situation.
Winners: Washington Capitals
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When we saw how many moves and additions the Washington Capitals made in the offseason, our biggest question was: How will this work out? After all, the moves were interesting, and they aimed to ensure they weren't going to fight to get into the playoffs.
Even though one of their top free-agent signings has missed time with injury (Matt Roy), the Capitals are thriving. Dylan Strome is off to a huge start (17 points in 11 games), Alex Ovechkin and Connor McMichael each have seven goals, and Tom Wilson has six of his own. With all of those guys going and John Carlson leading the charge from the blue line, the Caps are dangerous.
What's most impressive out of all this is Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson haven't really taken charge in goal as of yet, but Washington is cutting down on shots allowed, which makes everyone happy.
Losers: Boston Bruins
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We know it's a little tough to call the Boston Bruins losers after winning two straight games via shutout, but recent results aren't enough to get them off the hook, either.
The Bruins have looked out of sorts for most of the season, and the spate of ugly losses (8-2 to Carolina and getting shut out 2-0 by the Flyers, for example) have highlighted how off-kilter they are.
A big part of this may have been Jeremy Swayman missing training camp while he and the Bruins figured out that, yes, they do want to be together long-term. Swayman has struggled out of the gate, and that had to be expected.
What's unexpected, however, is the lack of offense. David Pastrnak leads the team with six goals, but seeing Justin Brazeau being next on the list with four followed by Brad Marchand, Mark Kastelic and Cole Koepke with three is really odd. If you don't know some of those guys, that's understandable, but not seeing names like Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha or Elias Lindholm further up the list helps pinpoint why the Bruins are ice skating uphill.
It's a rough start, but if the Bruins' history has told us anything about them, it's that we have to get our shots in now before they inevitably turn things around and get things right. They may have already started doing so with those two straight shutouts.
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