6 NHL Teams That Must Blow It Up If They Can't Win the Stanley Cup in 2026
Pressure is a heck of a thing in the NHL.
Pressure is also different from team to team. While some clubs aim to improve and potentially reach the playoffs, others bear the weight of the world on their shoulders to win the Stanley Cup, and the clock is always ticking at various volume levels.
Even though the Florida Panthers have made reaching the Stanley Cup Final look like child's play the past couple of years and somehow made winning it look a lot easier last season, it's not simple.
And for a handful of teams that have been trying to reach the Final and win one at long last, there's a difficult conversation to be had after every season in which they don’t manage it, which becomes increasingly challenging over time.
It's those teams we are going to focus on today.
We've picked out a few outstanding teams in the league who might have to give their group a shake and blow things up in their own way to make the best out of losing again and again.
Toronto Maple Leafs
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We’re not trying to kick a fanbase while it's down here, but if the Toronto Maple Leafs fall short in the postseason again…what more is there to do?
They were forced to part ways with Mitch Marner this summer when it became clear he wasn't willing to re-sign with his hometown team. Losing a top-10 player in the league is hard, but at least Toronto still has Auston Matthews, William Nylander while re-signing John Tavares and extending Matthew Knies.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of questions to be addressed. Is their defense, being another year older, going to be able to hang? Can Morgan Rielly be the No. 1 guy they need him to be back there? Can Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz stay healthy enough in goal to again buoy the team?
Many of the moves GM Brad Treliving made this summer pointed towards Toronto being a more physical, nastier team to play against to keep pace with the likes of Florida, but also Ottawa and Montréal as well.
If it doesn't pay off, next summer will be another one when the fans will be left wondering if anything they do will ever be the right thing. You're not blowing up a team with Matthews on it, but a massive retooling that makes you think it's a blow-up wouldn't be out of the question.
New York Rangers
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If it already feels like the Rangers started blowing things up last year and decided to keep it up this summer, you're not wrong, but if you think owner James Dolan is just going to sit quietly through a bad season, you're wrong.
It may not look like it, but the Rangers want to win a Stanley Cup ASAP. Trading away Chris Kreider and K'Andre Miller this summer probably doesn't make it look like they are, but reallocating their money spent to bring in J.T. Miller last season and signing Vladislav Gavrikov this summer means they are going about it differently with a new coach at the helm in Mike Sullivan.
Sullivan is a great coach, and he still has a strong array of talent to work with. Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Alexis Lafrenière and Vincent Trocheck are all outstanding players. Having Igor Shesterkin in goal means the Rangers will always have a chance, especially if they reach the playoffs.
That said, with Panarin heading to free agency next summer, another season without the Cup (or especially without the playoffs) could—and should—lead to necessary major changes for the Blueshirts.
Los Angeles Kings
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The Kings are a really good team that has had an Oilers-shaped mountain to climb in the playoffs each of the past four years, but they haven’t found the path to doing so. After losing to them last season, it led to Rob Blake leaving as GM and Ken Holland taking over.
Holland knows the Kings have a lot of older top players with Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty and made their defense corps more veteran by signing Cody Ceci (31) and Brian Dumoulin (33) to multi-year deals.
Even though L.A. has a host of outstanding younger players like Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clark, Alex Laferriere and Alex Turcotte, the passing of the torch hasn't happened.
If the Kings' age catches up with them this season, or the Oilers happen to take them out of the playoffs for a fifth straight season, you have to wonder if the time to part ways with more of their older players might be best for their long-term outlook.
It's amazing seeing Kopitar, Doughty and Darcy Kuemper play as well as they do, but time is undefeated, and the Kings have to be actively thinking about beating the clock.
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Washington Capitals
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There were two ways to look at how the Capitals approached free agency a year ago.
Some took it as a desperate set of signings meant to try to keep playoff hopes alive and ensure Alex Ovechkin had some guys who could help him out to sneak back into the postseason.
Others saw it as a great way to seize the momentum they gained by making the playoffs a couple of years ago, somewhat unexpectedly. Adding Jakob Chychrun was also a way to help John Carlson on the blue line.
Every move they made worked, and they were the best team in the Eastern Conference in the regular season. Ovechkin will play as long as he wants to in D.C. and having a coach like Spencer Carbery helps make things a lot easier. But the plan for life after Ovechkin needs to be ready.
If the Capitals don't repeat their success and take it a step further to win the Stanley Cup, figuring out how to play things is a much tougher thing to do than hoping running it back works.
Dallas Stars
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The Stars are going to be a fascinating team to study this season, and they're on the precipice of making at least one major change if speculation is to be believed.
Dallas fired Pete DeBoer after last season, one in which the Stars lost in the Western Conference Final for the third straight season. They brought back Glen Gulutzan, who last coached the team for two seasons from 2011 to 2013.
New coaches for Cup-contending teams are always a curious thing, but if a new (old) voice is what gets Dallas back to the Cup Final, then that's just what it's looking for.
The odd thing for Dallas, though, is the situation surrounding Jason Robertson. The Stars' elite scoring forward is set to be an RFA next summer, but he can be an unrestricted free agent in two years. That means he's got a big contract on the horizon, whether it comes from the Stars or not. And after Dallas got Mikko Rantanen inked to a massive extension worth $12 million a year, the Stars have a ton of money already tied up in a few of their other key players.
If Dallas falls short in the postseason again and it's eager to keep some freedom under the salary cap, parting ways with Robertson would be a massive moment.
Even if they re-sign Robertson and it leads to other big-money guys getting moved, the Stars won’t be blowing it up, per se, but they won't be the same.
Edmonton Oilers
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You were probably expecting to see the Oilers show up here, weren't you?
They are very clearly in a "win-now" window, and they came as close as a team can two seasons ago without winning the Stanley Cup. Their seven-game series loss to Florida in 2024 was a heartbreaker after they fought back from being down 3-0.
This summer was painful again, just not as much of a punch in the gut when they lost in five games to the Panthers. If anything, though, it showed the cracks and weaknesses in their roster that are difficult to get around when dealing with an opponent as cutthroat as Florida.
Even though they've been able to pound through the Western Conference playoffs each of the past two seasons, it's not an easy road. Beating the Kings and Stars isn’t a walk in the park and dealing with Vancouver and Vegas isn’t fun, either.
Now they're headed into a season in which Connor McDavid's future in Edmonton will be the question, and if the Oilers fall short of winning the Cup and he doesn't sign an extension…blowing it up might be the easiest decision to make.
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