Ranking Every Division in the NHL for the 2025-26 Season
We're less than one week out from the 2025-26 NHL season, and you know what that means: It's time to start thinking about divisional depth. The Western Conference has long featured two top-heavy divisions in the Pacific and the Central, and the Eastern Conference has given us some more competition in the middle of the pack and tons of bubble playoff teams in the Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions.
How much should we expect to change with these trends heading into the 2025-26 season? Let's take a look at each division's strengths and weaknesses and rank them accordingly to prepare for the first puck drop of the season on Tuesday.
4. Pacific Division
1 of 4
Top Teams and Players: The Oilers, the Golden Knights
Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Leon Draisaitl, Mitch Marner, Macklin Celebrini
Bottom Dwellers: The Sharks, the Kraken, the Flames
Reason for Ranking: Look, it's tough to rank a division featuring the best player in the world and a buzzing Golden Knights team in last. But this is about the strength of the entire division, and the bottom feeders and the middle of the pack really drag the Pacific down overall.
They've got the Sharks, who had the fewest points in the entire league last season, the Kraken, who keep trending down, the Flame,s who are expected to take a big step back after a surprising playoff push last year, and the Ducks who are expected to climb a few more spots at least -- but even then, playoffs aren't expected. Then there's the general uncertainty surrounding the Canucks after losing JT Miller and Pius Suter, as well as the Kings' underwhelming offseason performance.
Things aren't moving in the right direction in the Pacific as a whole.
3. Metropolitan Division
2 of 4
Top Teams and Players: The Hurricanes, the Devils, the Capitals, Jack Hughes, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Igor Shesterkin, Jaccob Slavin, Artemi Panarin, Zach Werenski
Bottom Dwellers: The Penguins, the Flyers
Reason for Ranking: The Metropolitan Division is quite different from the Pacific in that the bottom is less brutal, but the top teams have struggled to make deeper playoff runs.
There are tons of question marks in the Metro headed into this season: Are the Rangers back after missing the playoffs and making all those changes? How much impact will Matthew Schaefer have on the Islanders? Could the Flyers make a huge jump with Trevor Zegras in the mix? As consistent as some of these top teams are, and as decent as the middle-of-the-road Metro teams are, the Metro needs to make more noise where it counts.
2. Atlantic Division
3 of 4
Top Teams and Players: The Panthers, the Lightning, the Leafs
Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Matthew Tkachuk, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Nikita Kucherov, David Pastrnak, Jake Guentzel, Tage Thompson, Dylan Larkin
Bottom Dwellers: The Sabres, the Bruins
Reason for Ranking: The Atlantic Division has long reigned supreme, with years of dominance between the Bruins and Leafs' constant relevancy, the Tampa Bay dynasty, and now the Panthers are going for a dynasty of their own.
Now that the Bruins are slowing down and the Panthers are entering this season extremely banged up, though, the Atlantic is slipping to No. 2 in terms of regular-season strength. The Atlantic still boasts a solid blend of general competitiveness and top heaviness, considering the back-to-back champions reside in this division, but they'll have some early-season growing pains while the Bruins take a step back and the Leafs remain a mystery without Mitch Marner.
No. 1: Central Division
4 of 4
Top Teams and Players: The Jets, the Stars, the Avalanche, the Wild
Connor Hellebuyck, Mikko Rantanen, Kirill Kaprizov, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Jason Robertson, Connor Bedard
Bottom Dwellers: The Blackhawks, the Predators
Reason for Ranking: The Blackhawks might be a true bottom dweller in every sense of the word, but even they -- and most teams in this division -- could take a nice step forward this season.
Things are looking up for the middle of the pack, with the Mammoth returning healthy and with a few additions, and the Blues with some more stability and a red-hot second half to build on. The breadth of star power in the Central is unmatched, with Kaprizov, MacKinnon, Makar, Rantanen, Hellebuyck, and so many more top performers concentrated at the top of this league.
The goaltending is top-notch, too, with Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, Jordan Binnington, Juuse Saros, and Mackenzie Blackwood all in the mix.
