Early Bold Predictions for Every NHL Team's 2025-26 Season
Now that we are in August, we are only a little more than a month away from the start of NHL training camps.
Most of the big offseason moves have been made, and rosters are taking shape. We are starting to get a sense of what each of the league's 32 teams might look like and be capable of this season. With that in mind, let's make some early bold predictions for every team in the league.
The predictions could be team-based or focused on individual players, and they could have an objective number or goal in mind, or be more subjective and vibe-based. Either way, let's get into them.
Anaheim Ducks: Cutter Gauthier Scores 30 Goals
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The Ducks spent most of the offseason adding more veteran forwards to their group, including Chris Kreider and Mikael Granlund. But the young players are what are going to make or break the success of the team this season.
Cutter Gauthier is one of the most important young players on the roster, and after a strong rookie campaign that saw him score 20 goals -- and get better as the year went on -- he should be poised for an even bigger breakout season.
Especially if that comes with more ice-time and a bigger role.
Thirty goals are absolutely on the table for him, and that would be a bigger game-changer than anything the new veterans could add.
Boston Bruins: They Miss the Playoffs Again
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After a pretty solid run at the top of the NHL, the Boston Bruins finally took a big step backward during the 2024-25 season and not only missed the playoffs, but also finished with one of the league's worst records.
It was, unfortunately for them, not a fluke.
Injuries on defense certainly played a big role, but this is a team that has too many question marks and too many significant holes.
They lack a top-line center, don't have scoring depth after David Pastrnak, the defense wasn't always great even before the injuries to Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm and they desperately need Jeremy Swayman to bounce back and play like the $8 million per year goalie they are paying him to be.
It's just not a particularly promising situation, and the rest of the Atlantic Division is getting too good for the Bruins to be able to overcome all of those flaws.
Buffalo Sabres: 50 Goals for Tage Thompson
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Thompson has been close to the 50-goal mark twice in his career, scoring 47 goals in 78 games in 2021-22 and then scoring 44 in 76 games this past season.
Given his powerful shot, shot volume and the way the Sabres' offense runs entirely through him, it is not a stretch to think he could get the 50-goal mark at some point in his career.
Why not this season?
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Calgary Flames: MacKenzie Weegar Leads the Team in Scoring
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It's not often that defensemen lead a team in scoring, and it's generally a bad sign for a team's offense. But there is a good chance that Weegar could end up leading the Flames this season. He was third on the team a year ago with 47 points, finishing behind only Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau.
While both players are returning, they are going to be a year older in their 30s and have already shown some signs of slowing down offensively.
Huberdeau hasn't been the same player offensively since arriving in Calgary, while Kadri's production dropped by 10 points from 2023-24 to 2024-25. All of that could open the door for Weegar to be the Flames' top offensive player.
Carolina Hurricanes: It's Their Year to Win the East
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This is might be a broken record.
Maybe we all just keep saying it until it happens.
You might want to see them actually do it before you buy into the hype.
While they have fallen short in the playoffs over the past seven years, they are still an outstanding team and strengthened this offseason with the additions of Nikolaj Ehlers and K'Andre Miller. They not only have an outstanding roster, but they are still loaded with more salary cap space than almost any other contender in the NHL and still have plenty of tradable assets to keep loading up in season.
This is the year they get through to the Stanley Cup Final.
If not this year ... then definitely the year after.
Chicago Blackhawks: They Will Be the Worst Team in Hockey
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The Blackhawks will tell you the rebuild is going according to plan and that this is the year they start to find out about their young prospects.
But that's kind of the problem.
Even if those prospects and young players end up being good players down the line, throwing a bunch of rookies onto the ice together and hoping they sink or swim is going to produce some really bad short-term results.
And that doesn't even get into the fact that a lot of those prospects are going to fail just through the normal attrition rates that prospects' careers.
The bottom line: This has been a lousy team for the past few years, it is still a lousy roster, and the young players are going to struggle. Once you get into that cycle of losing, it is difficult to break.
Colorado Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon Wins His First Scoring Title
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MacKinnon has finished in the top five of the NHL's points race in each of the past three seasons, including back-to-back second-place finishes.
This season he finally climbs over the top of the mountain and claims his first Art Ross Trophy.
He's not only one of the most dominant offensive players in the league, but he is the heartbeat of Colorado's offense and is going to have everything run through him, given the team's questionable depth.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Zach Werenski Tops 80 Points Again
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When Werenski is healthy, he is one of the top offensive defensemen in hockey. He was finally healthy for a full season in 2024-25, and he produced an 82-point campaign and finished as the Norris Trophy runner-up.
It was not a fluke performance.
He will prove that this season when he tops the 80-point mark for the second year in a row.
It's not just about Werenski's own individual ability, but also the fact Columbus does have a strong young offensive core around him. The offseason may have been disappointing in terms of outside additions, but there is still serious talent here.
Dallas Stars: Mikko Rantanen Shows He Can Be the Top Offensive Driver on a Team
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This is a vague, bold production, and one that is subjective and even a little open-ended.
But if there was one concern with Rantanen following his departure from Colorado, it was whether or not he could be the focal point of a team's offense and still put up huge numbers.
When he played in Colorado, he had Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the roster to help take some of the attention and pressure away from him, allowing him to be the No. 2 or 3 option instead of the go-to player.
In Dallas, and with his contract, he is going to have to be the man.
He showed flashes of having that ability in the playoffs, and he is going to prove it for good during the regular season with a 100-point performance where he shows he can be just as productive when other teams are focusing on him.
Detroit Red Wings: Steve Yzerman's Seat Finally Gets Hot
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It probably already should be, but if it's not, it will be when this season ends.
If the Red Wings end up missing the playoffs again -- which seems likely given how slow the offseason has been -- that will be 10 consecutive seasons, with seven of those coming under Yzerman's watch.
Yes, he took over a mess.
Yes, rebuilds take time.
Yes, the Red Wings have been extremely patient while he waits for his players to develop.
But at some point, you have to start having expectations for something better. You can't keep blaming the end of the Ken Holland era anymore. Enough time has passed that Yzerman's team should be ready to be in the playoffs and competing for something. So far, it hasn't been. And it doesn't seem close to doing so. This might be the year where the temperature starts to crank up on him.
Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid Gets His New Deal
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Until pen gets put to paper, there will be plenty of discussion and speculation about what Connor McDavid's future is going to be and what is going through his mind. But it's all going to be for nothing as he will eventually get a new contract extension to keep him in Edmonton for at least some time.
It may not be a max-term deal, which would certainly spark some discussion as to his long-term feelings on the Oilers and the way they have built their team around him, but there is no chance he ends up getting to the unrestricted free agent market.
You can dream about it. It's not happening. He will sign a new deal at some point. Players like this do not get to the open market. They just don't.
Florida Panthers: They Simply Run Out of Steam
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On paper, there is every reason to believe the Panthers are again one of the NHL's best teams, have one of the league's best rosters, and are well-positioned to potentially three-peat and make what would be a fourth consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
But it's not going to happen.
It's not for a lack of talent. It's not for a lack of determination. It's just the simple fact that they have played a ton of hockey over the past four seasons already and with a core group that's getting a little older, all of that is going to take its toll. They will be in the playoffs. They might win a round or even two. But somebody is going to knock them out.
Los Angeles Kings: They Still Don't Get Past the First Round
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The Kings needed to make some changes this offseason after a fourth straight first-round exit against the Edmonton Oilers.
They made changes.
They were not changes for the better.
Ken Holland replaced Rob Blake in the general manager's chair and did not do anything to address the team's mediocre offense, while also making the team's one big strength -- its defense -- significantly worse by letting Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence go, and replacing them with Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci.
That is not going to get them over the hump that is the Oilers or the first round.
Minnesota Wild: They Win a Playoff Round
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This is a significantly better team than they are going to credit for being.
The second half of the 2024-25 season may have been a nightmare, and they may have fizzled out in the first round, but injuries sabotaged that portion of the season.
When healthy, this was a top team in the Western Conference, is returning almost all of that roster, actually has some salary-cap space to work with for the first time in four years, and also has one of the best farm systems in the NHL with talent ready to make an impact at the highest level.
The injuries to Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek were the two big ones, but the defense was also crushed for much of the second half. Keep them healthy, and give them a little help from both outside and inside the organization, and this is a formidable roster.
Montreal Canadiens: Ivan Demidov is the Calder Trophy Winner
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The Canadiens were one of the big breakthrough teams in the NHL during the 2024-25 season, making the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season. Their young core of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson was the biggest driving factor behind that success.
That core has another key member joining it this season in Ivan Demidov. Technically, he joined them late last season in the playoffs, but we only saw brief glimpses of him on the ice.
Now that he is entering his first full season in the NHL, he is already one of the top favorites to win the Calder Trophy this season, and he should have a great chance to take it. Not only because of his talent, but also because he is going to be put into a good situation with an improving young team that has a lot of offensive talent around him.
If he does win it, that would be back-to-back rookies of the year for Montreal after Hutson's win a year ago.
Nashville Predators: Barry Trotz Gets Fired
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Yeah, let's get really bold with this one.
Trotz is a giant in the Predators' organization, given his role with the franchise from the very beginning, but his run as general manager is not working as anybody had hoped.
His wildly aggressive dip into the free agency pool a year ago was a gigantic failure, while there does not appear to be any coherent plan here for how the roster is being built.
It's an old roster, there are a lot of expensive contracts, and worst of all, it's not even a particularly good roster at this point.
Maybe everybody has a bounce-back season at the same time and they find a way to get back into the playoffs. But it seems more likely that all of the mid-30s players continue to decline and the team misses the playoffs ... again. Given the expectations, that would be a nightmare scenario for both Trotz and the Predators.
New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes Has a Top-10 Scoring Season
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Hughes has the talent to be one of the NHL's top scorers every season, and he certainly has the production when he is healthy. But that second point is always the biggest obstacle he faces, and it was once again during the 2024-25 season when he suffered a season-ending injury late in the year that helped derail the Devils' chances.
At some point, though, he is going to stay healthy and play a full season for the Devils.
Why can't it be this season?
And if it is, he is right in the prime part of his career, where his offensive production should be at its absolute peak.
Keep him on the ice and he contends for a scoring title and finishes in the top-10 in scoring.
New York Islanders: Patrick Roy Gets Fired
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This isn't necessarily a commentary on Roy's ability as a coach; it's just simple logistics.
This is not a particularly good roster at the moment, and this offseason they traded one of their top players -- Noah Dobson -- to Montreal for no immediate NHL help.
The offense is bad, the defense is worse, and everything will come down to how far Ilya Sorokin can carry them. To be fair, he might be capable of carrying them far. But it's going to take a pretty superhuman performance to do that.
Add in the fact the Islanders have a new general manager in Mathieu Darche who is eventually going to want to bring in his own coach and all of the pieces add up for a coaching change at some point during the season.
New York Rangers: They Miss the Playoffs Again
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The Rangers certainly had an active offseason, sending away Chris Kreider and K'Andre Miller from last year's team, signing Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency and replacing Peter Laviolette with Mike Sullivan behind the bench.
There are some good moves there.
Gavrikov's contract may not age gracefully, but he's a good player now and solves a big need next to Adam Fox on the first pairing.
Sullivan is a two-time Stanley Cup winning coach and brings a lot of credibility behind the bench, as well as a much-needed new voice and new approach.
But a lot of the problems that existed here before are still present.
The defensive depth is still not good after the first pairing, and Miller might end up being a bigger loss than they anticipate. Is Gavrikov the better player right now? Probably. Most likely. But do you know what would have been an even better situation? Having both Gavrikov AND Miller on the roster.
They may have needed a change in leadership with Kreider, but he's still a pretty good player at forward that they didn't replace.
Their 5-on-5 play might still struggle.
For all of Sullivan's accomplishments in his career, he hasn't won a playoff series since 2017 despite having Sidney Crosby all of that time.
There are still concerns here.
Like their cross-town rivals, it's all going to come down to how far their goalie (Igor Shesterkin) can take them and how many flaws he can mask. He's pretty good at it. And the Rangers are used to that sort of approach. But it hasn't worked.
Ottawa Senators: They have an Erik Karlsson reunion
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This is just a hunch, a guess, and sticking with the mindset of "bold predictions."
The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to trade Karlsson at some point as part of their rebuild, and the Senators seem like a pretty logical fit.
They need an impactful right-shot defenseman. Karlsson and Ottawa have an obvious history together, with his best seasons in the NHL coming here, and the Senators are a rapidly improving team that finally got back into the playoffs this past season, something that could be appealing to Karlsson.
He was a central part of their last contending team, his trade helped kickstart the rebuild and brought them Tim Stutzle, and now he could come back and help finish the job. It would be a great full-circle moment for everybody.
Philadelphia Flyers: Matvei Michkov Scores 35 Goals
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It's hard to get a read on what type of team the Flyers can be this season.
Their defensive play was outstanding the past two years under John Tortorella, but they lacked high-end offensive talent and competent goaltending.
They still lack the goaltending (and it may have gotten worse this offseason), they hired a coach in Rick Tocchett whose teams don't generally score a lot, and we don't know what the defensive structure will look like post-Tortorella.
But the one big positive here is the continued presence of Matvei Michkov.
He is the cornerstone that this whole rebuild should be built on, and he had a promising rookie season that saw him score 26 goals with 63 points despite playing in a system not suited for him and for a coach he didn't seem to have a great relationship with.
The sky is the limit for him offensively, and a big step forward seems likely for him. How big a step? At least 35 goals in year two.
Pittsburgh Penguins: They Win the Gavin McKenna Lottery
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Come on. You know it is going to happen. Look into your heart. Use the logical side of your brain. This is how this story plays out.
The Pittsburgh Penguins always seem to have a knack for perfectly timing their rebuilds and bad seasons around the presence of a franchise-changing prospect.
It happened with Mario Lemieux, who passed the torch on to Sidney Crosby, and it is going to happen again with Crosby getting to pass the torch on to Gavin McKenna.
The Penguins seem to be the only team in the NHL this season that isn't actively trying to get better for this season, they have missed the playoffs three years in a row, and are likely to make the roster worse before the season begins -- and during it -- with potential trades of Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust and/or Rickard Rakell.
They may not trade all of them.
They may not go with a full-scale, tear it all down to the ground, rebuild where everything must go.
But some of them are going to go, and while the forwards look solid at this point, the defense and goaltending are so bad that there is no way this team is any good this season. It is the perfect year for the lottery balls to go their way.
San Jose Sharks: Macklin Celebrini Reaches 90 Points
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There was a pretty strong belief that Macklin Celebrini was going to be a star player for the Sharks when they picked him No. 1 overall.
I am not sure anybody knew exactly just how good he would be, and how quickly he would be that good.
While his 63 points in 70 games were impressive enough for an 18-year-old rookie, it was his overall game and tenacious play that stood out. He's arguably the best young player in the NHL right now and is only going to keep getting better.
He has potential scoring champion ability, and he is going to take the next step in that path this season by going all the way up to 90 points as a 19-year-old.
It's a high expectation, yes. It's definitely bold. It's also realistic.
Seattle Kraken: Kaapo Kakko Breaks Out Offensively
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In what might turn out to be a damning indictment of the New York Rangers' ability to develop offensive talent at forward, Kaapo Kakko's first full season with the Seattle Kraken is going to result in a career year for him and a breakout season offensively.
We already saw glimpses of that ability following his trade to Seattle last year.
He ended up finishing the season with 10 goals and 30 total points in 49 games, coming out to a 50-point pace over 82 games.
During his time with the Rangers he only scored at a 32-point pace per 82 games.
The talent is there. The play away from the puck has been there. He just needs the opportunity and coaching to break through. The fresh start in Seattle might be exactly what he needed.
St. Louis Blues: They Return to the Playoffs and Advance
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The biggest thing for the Blues in 2024-25 was their ability to get back to playing St. Louis Blues-style hockey.
After years of a stagnant, poor defense, they finally made some significant changes to the personnel by adding Philip Broberg and Cam Fowler, and then made the smart, aggressive move to hire Jim Montgomery as soon as he became available.
The result was a team that was one of the best defensive teams in the NHL during 5-on-5 play (at least in terms of preventing expected goals and scoring chances) and went into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in hockey. It did not produce a playoff series win, but the foundation is there for this season.
As long as they do not do something overly silly like trade Jordan Kyrou, they should have enough offense to get back into the playoffs and build on the progress they started a year ago.
Tampa Bay Lightning: They Win the Atlantic Division
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I know they play in a division with the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions, have some depth concerns and have not really done much in the playoffs the past few years.
But there is still a ton of high-end talent here that is still playing at an extremely high level.
Montreal and Ottawa are better teams than they have been, but they are not ready to contend for the division.
Toronto is worse.
Florida knows it doesn't need to win the division to have success in the playoffs, and there is still the potential burnout factor from so many deep playoff runs in a row.
Buffalo and Detroit .... no.
The Lightning led the NHL in goals scored a year ago, were fourth in goals against and still have All-Star level talent at forward, defense and in goal.
I don't know if it will result in playoff success, but the bold prediction here is that they win the Atlantic during the regular season.
Toronto Maple Leafs: They're a Worse Team Than a Year Ago
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The Maple Leafs needed to do something to change up their core, and by allowing Mitch Marner to walk in free agency (well, trading his free-agent rights at least), they at least did the bare minimum on that.
But just getting rid of one of their big four wasn't going to be enough to change the culture and play of a team that has disappointment in its DNA.
The follow-up moves with the freed up salary cap space needed to be home runs.
And they simply haven't been.
Nicolas Roy, Mattias Maccelli and Dakota Joshua, along with retaining John Tavares as part of that core, are not going to be the missing pieces to get Toronto where it needs to go.
This is a worse roster on paper, and it's going to be a worse roster on the ice.
Utah Mammoth: They Make the Playoffs
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It's not hard to be a little excited about what's happening with the Mammoth.
Their defensive upgrades a year ago with Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino coming in were a big statement by ownership that they intend to build a winning team, and they made an equally big move at forward this offseason to bring in JJ Peterka in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres.
He joins a promising young forward group that already has Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, with the latter two on the verge of breaking out in a big way offensively. They also still have more than $6 million in salary-cap space and some serious draft pick capital this season to make more additions to the roster, where they still might be needed.
Every year, there is a new team that gets into the playoffs that didn't make it the year before, and this might be the team in the Western Conference.
Vancouver Canucks: Elias Pettersson Rediscovers His Game
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Everything involving the Canucks in both the short-term and long-term revolves around the play of Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.
They need to figure out a way to get Hughes signed.
They need to figure out a way to get Pettersson to become the 100-point scorer everybody knows he can be.
Getting Hughes signed is going to be a challenge when it comes time for that, and Jim Rutherford has already started planting the seeds for them struggling to do so, but there is still a chance they can fix Pettersson.
And that is a must if they are going to compete for anything.
With the J.T. Miller mess no longer an issue and with a new head coach coming in, it is a great opportunity for Pettersson to start fresh with a clean slate.
The talent is there; he's shown he can be a top-tier scorer before, and he is still in a prime age offensively. It will all come together again for him. He has a 90-point season (at least) ahead for him.
Vegas Golden Knights: They win the Stanley Cup
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Vegas and Mitch Marner is going to be a perfect marriage.
The Golden Knights needed an elite scoring winger. Marner is exactly that.
Marner needed to go to a place where he wasn't always under the microscope and the person taking all of the blame every time something went wrong. He won't have to deal with that in Vegas. Not because there isn't pressure here, or because a big contract doesn't carry expectations, but because this isn't his team. This is Jack Eichel's team. This is William Karlsson and Shea Theodore's team. This is also a team that has found success recently and cultivated a winning culture.
That is going to continue this season with another championship.
Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin Scores 45 Goals
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Only one player in NHL history has ever scored more than 40 goals in a season after their 40th birthday. Gordie Howe did so by scoring 44 goals as a 40-year-old during the 1968-69 season.
That is another goal-scoring record that Ovechkin is going to take, because he has a 45-goal season ahead for him in his age-40 season.
The most staggering thing about his 2024-25 season isn't just the fact that he scored 44 goals at the age of 39.
It's that he did so while missing 17 games due to a broken leg.
If he can score at least 45 goals this season, that would put him at 942 for his career. At that point, you start discussing whether or not he tries to play enough to get to 1,000 goals.
Winnipeg Jets: Connor Hellebuyck Wins Another Vezina
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Connor Hellebuyck already has three Vezina Trophies in his career, including each of the past two. He is going to add a fourth (and third in a row) to his trophy case. He is one of the few goalies in the NHL that you can count on every year to post big numbers, he will get the bulk of the playing time and rack up big win totals and he will get the Jets back into the playoffs.
That is the good news.
The only question that Jets fans will have is whether or not he can carry that regular-season performance over to the playoffs.
He has not done that in recent years.
A better backup goalie that can take some of the workload off of him might be helpful, but that has not happened yet this offseason.
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