-(1).jpg?w=1280 "Bleacher Report")
NHL Power Rankings for the End of the 2025-26 Regular Season
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In the case of the NHL in 2025-26, that holds true once again.
The arrival of six new teams to the postseason this spring is the second-highest total in league history, with Anaheim, Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Utah entering the fray after missing out last year.
It's the ninth time in 11 seasons that at least five teams have risen from the have-nots to the haves, and the gate-crashing Mammoth are riding the biggest pre-playoff wave when it comes to B/R's NHL Power Rankings for the week.
Utah climbed a co-league-high six spots from 19th to 13th in the season's final collection, joining the Vegas Golden Knights, who spiked from 18th to 12th. On the flip side, both the Columbus Blue Jackets (10th to 19th) and the New York Islanders (11th to 20th) dropped nine spots after missing the playoff field.
Anaheim took the biggest dip, from 12th to 17th, among playoff entrants.
Thirty-two points were awarded for a first-place pick in this week's voting, all the way down to a single point for a No. 32 selection. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
32. Vancouver Canucks
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Previous Ranking: 32
Overall Record: 25-48-8
Now that a lost 2025-26 season—in which they were the only team not to amass more than 60 points—is behind them, the next order of business is continuing the rebuild for the Canucks after two straight playoff misses.
That'll begin with the draft lottery on May 5, which Vancouver will enter with the best statistical chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the subsequent selection frenzy scheduled for late June in Buffalo.
Penn State's Gavin McKenna, who produced 51 points in 35 games with the Nittany Lions this season, is the top North American skater available, according to the league's Central Scouting bureau.
Moves are already underway after the Canucks fired their GM, Patrik Allvin, on Friday.
31. Chicago Blackhawks
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Previous Ranking: 31
Overall Record: 29-39-14
Finishing second-to-last overall and missing the playoffs for the sixth straight season isn't something the Chicago brass wants to ponder much, so they've moved on to other business.
GM Kyle Davidson had his stay officially extended by chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz, and that pair will now focus on keeping Connor Bedard, who can become a restricted free agent this summer, in the fold.
"Our intention is to be competing and winning Stanley Cups," Wirtz said, "but we can't race to that conclusion until we do all those right things."
30. Calgary Flames
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Previous Ranking: 30
Overall Record: 33-39-9
It didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but the Flames can take some solace that they finished well on home ice, going 7-0-1 through at eight-game stretch at the Saddledome before a loss to Colorado on Tuesday.
Calgary failed to make the playoffs for the fourth straight season but had won more on home ice than 11 of the other 15 teams in the Western Conference entering Thursday's games.
29. Toronto Maple Leafs
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Previous Ranking: 26
Overall Record: 32-36-14
The Maple Leafs had long been eliminated from the playoff chase but they somehow managed to compound the disappointment with seven straight losses (0-6-1) to close out a miserable regular season.
A new GM is on the way after Brad Treliving was fired amid a plummet from first in the Atlantic Division in 2024-25 to just 78 points this season, and that leaves the fate of coach Craig Berube in question, too, after two seasons on the job.
"It's disappointing this season," Berube said. "I guess that's the focus, really, looking at everything. Didn't live up to expectations."
28. New York Rangers
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Previous Ranking: 29
Overall Record: 34-39-9
Whether he's living up to top overall pick expectations is up for debate, particularly in New York, but what's not up for discussion is the fact that Alexis Lafreniere was a point-per-game player after returning from the Olympic break.
Still just 24, the Quebec-born forward had 12 goals and 13 assists in the final 25 games of his sixth NHL season and equaled the high watermark of 57 points he'd established in 2023-24.
27. Seattle Kraken
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Previous Ranking: 25
Overall Record: 34-36-11
There aren't a lot of positives to pull out of the stretch run for the Kraken, who were five points out of first in the Pacific at the Olympic break, but were done in by a 7-16-2 stretch drive that was tied for second-worst in the league.
Seattle's 2.52 goals per game in those 25 games were only better than Chicago's 2.36 and its 3.76 goals-against average was 30th overall, ahead of only Toronto and Vancouver.
26. Winnipeg Jets
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Previous Ranking: 23
Overall Record: 35-34-12
It's not a streak they were aiming to prolong, but the Jets became the second straight Presidents' Trophy winners—following last year's New York Rangers—to miss the playoffs the next season.
Winnipeg was doomed by a number of factors in 2025-26, not the least of which was an 11-game skid (0-7-4) from Dec. 15 through Jan. 8.
They were also foundering just before that slide in the absence of injured goalie Connor Hellebuyck, going 4-8-1 while the subsequent Olympic champ was recovering from knee surgery on Nov. 22.
25. San Jose Sharks
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Previous Ranking: 22
Overall Record: 38-35-8
The Sharks were eliminated from the playoff chase for the seventh straight season on Monday, but chances are the drought won't go too much longer.
San Jose seems stocked for the future thanks to teenage scoring ace Macklin Celebrini, who became the franchise's first 100-point scorer since Joe Thornton in 2006-07.
But it'll take a bit more support on the back end, where the team was in the bottom tier in goals-against average and shots allowed.
24. Florida Panthers
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Previous Ranking: 27
Overall Record: 40-38-4
The Stanley Cup run is over for the Panthers but they did play out the string respectably well, winning three in a row including a season-high eight goals in Wednesday's finale against Detroit.
The offseason will bring myriad questions for GM Bill Zito, including the fate of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who played the final season of a seven-year deal that was worth $10 million annually.
"You can say, 'I need three Maseratis,'" Zito told The Athletic, "but there are none out there, there's none for sale, there's no one that will trade you theirs, so you'd better have a Plan B."
23. St. Louis Blues
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Previous Ranking: 28
Overall Record: 36-33-12
Looking for good news after a playoff miss in St. Louis?
Look no further than the youngsters, particularly rookie Jimmy Snuggerud, who scored his 20th goal in a Tuesday win over playoff-bound Pittsburgh and produced a career-high four points.
Also lighting it up with two goals in that game and 32 points in his first 24 games after the Olympic break was forward Dylan Holloway. The 24-year-old's production since Feb. 22 was tops on the team and eighth in the league entering Thursday's games.
22. New Jersey Devils
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Previous Ranking: 20
Overall Record: 42-37-3
Make it three playoff misses in five years for the disappointing Devils, who finished 14-10-1 after the Olympic break but couldn't make up enough ground in the hyper-competitive Eastern Conference.
New Jersey's 87 points were 12 points off the postseason pace in the East but would have been just in the mix out West, whose second clinched wild-card team had just 90 entering Thursday's games.
"It's not the season we had in mind," forward Connor Brown said. "There's some major growth that needs to be done, and there are going to be a lot of changes here, but I'm very optimistic we have a lot of pieces to turn this around a lot quicker than people think."
21. Nashville Predators
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Previous Ranking: 24
Overall Record: 38-33-10
Anyone remember the summer of 2024?
That was when the Predators and GM Barry Trotz were the talk of the league after a free-agency spending spree that landed Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei.
Two seasons later and it still hasn't translated to a playoff berth, let alone a deep run, and the front-office regime will change during the offseason when Trotz's retirement becomes official and his successor is named.
20. New York Islanders
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Previous Ranking: 11
Overall Record: 43-34-5
The Islanders ended up on the outside when it came to the Eastern playoffs after a post-Olympic slide, but last year's top pick was an unqualified success.
Matthew Schaefer is the only logical choice for the Calder Trophy, which will be awarded in June, after a rookie season in which he led first-year blue liners in assists, points, power-play points, shots on goal and ice time.
"Watching him from the bench live," new Islanders coach Pete DeBoer said, "it was just, 'Wow.' I mean, what a player."
19. Columbus Blue Jackets
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Previous Ranking: 10
Overall Record: 40-30-12
Some egos will have to be massaged after Rick Bowness went scorched earth on the team following a late-season fold that resulted in a sixth straight playoff miss.
The Blue Jackets went 19-2-1 immediately after Bowness replaced Dean Evason in January, but crumbled to 3-9-1 in their last 13, including 0-5-1 in their last six on home ice.
"I'm changing this culture," Bowness said after 2-1 loss to visiting Washington in the season finale. "These guys, they don't care. Losing is not important enough to them. It doesn't bother them. How can you go out and play like that?"
18. Detroit Red Wings
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Previous Ranking: 16
Overall Record: 41-31-10
You can't help but wonder if Hall of Fame player Steve Yzerman has finally worn out his executive welcome in Detroit, after the Red Wings went 3-8-2 in their final 14 games and missed the playoffs for a franchise-record 10th straight season.
Yzerman succeeded Ken Holland as GM in 2019, but the team has not finished better than fifth in its division since his arrival and actually dipped five points (91 to 86) in 2025-26 from a season before.
17. Anaheim Ducks
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Previous Ranking: 12
Overall Record: 43-33-6
Two third-period goals gave the Ducks a 5-4 defeat of Nashville in their season finale and yielded a first-round series with Edmonton to begin their first appearance in the playoffs since 2018.
The win helped offset a subpar stretch drive for Anaheim, which had gone 1-6-2 in its previous nine games with a goals-against average of 4.11 that was 29th in the league over that stretch.
"It's playoff hockey. Anything can happen," forward Ryan Poehling said. "Just be on top of our game and just kind of take care of what we can, I think is the biggest thing."
16. Los Angeles Kings
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Previous Ranking: 21
Overall Record: 35-26-20
It's a Herculean task to take on the league's top team but the Kings are at least arriving to their first-round with Colorado on a hot streak.
Los Angeles went 6-0-2 in its first eight games in April, averaging 3.50 goals per game on 29.8 shots per game, the latter of which was fifth-best in the league.
"You got to kind of focus and lean on your leaders, and Drew (Doughty) and (Anze Kopitar) are those guys for us," winger Alex Laferriere said, "and they're telling us how it feels like 2012 in here, and how they were stringing together some games at the end of the season and crept in and then they went on to win the Cup."
15. Edmonton Oilers
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Previous Ranking: 15
Overall Record: 41-30-11
A run to a third straight Cup final, if it occurs, will begin with a different opponent for the Oilers, who'll switch to Anaheim this season after four straight first-round defeats of the Kings.
Edmonton was 8-4-2 over the season's final month with a goals-against average under 3.00, thanks largely to the play of in-season acquisition Connor Ingram, who went 6-4-1 in his final 11 starts and will have No. 1 duties into the playoffs.
"I don't really know what I'm doing out there, just (thinking) stop the puck," Ingram said. "You've got to find the save somewhere. This is when you want to hit your peak and I think we're hitting our stride a little bit here."
14. Washington Capitals
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Previous Ranking: 17
Overall Record: 43-30-9
It's a similar story to Winnipeg in Washington, where the Capitals went from a top seed in the East with 111 points to finishing outside the bubble this spring.
The offseason will bring a resolution of the Alex Ovechkin mystery when the "Great 8" lets everyone know if he's going to return for a 22nd NHL season after the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021 expires on June 30.
Ovechkin, at age 40, reached 30 goals for the 20th time and pushed his all-time record to 929 in 1,572 NHL games.
13. Utah Mammoth
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Previous Ranking: 19
Overall Record: 43-32-6
It's a hearty welcome back to the postseason for the artists formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes, who grabbed the top Western wild-card spot to end a drought that stretched back to the 2019-20 tournament.
Utah will begin with a higher-seeded foe in Vegas but may be buoyed by the fact that it beat the Golden Knights in two of three meetings during the regular season and actually had more regulation wins (33 to 30) and more overall wins (43 to 39) than their imminent opponents.
12. Vegas Golden Knights
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Previous Ranking: 18
Overall Record: 39-26-17
You don't walk away from the table in Vegas on a heater. And it's difficult to be on any bigger one than the Golden Knights, who finished the season on a 10-game point streak and were 7-0-1 down the stretch under new coach John Tortorella.
The hot streak yielded another Pacific title for the franchise, its fifth since arriving to the league in 2017-18.
"We finished hard. We've been to our game ever since 'Torts' came in," defenseman Shea Theodore said. "Definitely revamped a couple of things, and obviously, we like where we're at. The way we finished the season. That's how you want to feel going into the playoffs."
11. Philadelphia Flyers
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Previous Ranking: 14
Overall Record: 43-27-12
The kids are all right in Philadelphia, where the Flyers are returning to the playoffs for the first time in six years thanks largely to the efforts of two precocious forwards.
Twenty-one-year-old Matvei Michkov led the team with 22 points in 26 games after the Olympic break and he was joined late in the stretch drive by Porter Martone, the sixth overall pick in last year's draft, who had four goals and 10 points in his first nine NHL games.
Philadelphia averaged 3.67 goals per game with Martone, 19, in the lineup, far better than its 2.93 average for the season.
10. Pittsburgh Penguins
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Previous Ranking: 9
Overall Record: 41-25-16
It's the first time in the playoffs since 2022 for the Penguins, who'll meet a familiar postseason foe to both the franchise and veteran Sidney Crosby when they face Philadelphia to open the tournament.
It's the eighth time for the Penguins and the fifth time for Crosby, who's scored more goals against the Flyers (60) than any NHL opponent.
The most recent "Battle of Pennsylvania" matchup was in 2018, when Pittsburgh dispatched Philadelphia in six games.
9. Ottawa Senators
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Previous Ranking: 13
Overall Record: 44-27-11
It's been a long time since January, no?
The Senators were tied for last in the East with 45 points on Jan. 12 but played among the elites for the balance of the season, going 23-8-6 in their last 37 games to snag the conference's second wild-card spot and a playoff date with Carolina.
A significant factor in the turnaround was goalie Linus Ullmark, who's won 14 of 21 starts and posted a 2.41 goals-against average since returning from a personal leave of absence on Jan. 31.
8. Boston Bruins
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Previous Ranking: 8
Overall Record: 45-27-10
He may not win it, but coach Marco Sturm will definitely warrant some support in the Jack Adams Trophy voting after his Bruins amassed 100 points in his first season.
It's a return to the playoffs after a one-year hiatus for Boston, which stagnated through the early season but went 25-10-9 after the holidays and posted the league's fifth-best points percentage (.670) after Dec. 27.
"I never even thought, to be honest with you, (the team would get) 100 points," Sturm said. "Because I know how hard it is to get that amount in this league. It's a hard league."
7. Minnesota Wild
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Previous Ranking: 7
Overall Record: 46-24-12
Another year, another chance to exorcise first-round demons for the Wild, who've not made it past the opening series in eight tries since last doing it in 2015.
Minnesota will have a significant task in its matchup with the Dallas Stars—who won 50 games and finished third overall in the league—after going 2-2-0 against them with a dead-even 13-13 tally in goals during the regular season.
"There are probably more similarities than not in the sense that I think they're a well-put-together team," coach John Hynes said, "they play with strong structure, they're highly competitive, they're good on special teams and they play for each other. When you look at the combinations, you see why the games have been so competitive."
6. Montreal Canadiens
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Previous Ranking: 6
Overall Record: 48-24-10
It took a playoff tiebreaker to decide which team (Tampa Bay) got home-ice advantage for a first-round series in which the Canadiens will be an underdog, but not one lacking in confidence.
Both Montreal and the Lightning earned 106 points in the regular season but the series will open in Florida because Tampa Bay had more regulation wins (40-34).
The Canadiens haven't won a playoff series since they advanced to the Cup final (and lost to Tampa Bay) in 2021.
"Whenever you are a young team and you are trying to win your first playoff series, I usually feel that takes you to the next level," coach Martin St. Louis said. "We are going to have to do it against a very good, experienced Tampa team. What a great opportunity that is."
5. Tampa Bay Lightning
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Previous Ranking: 5
Overall Record: 50-26-6
The Lightning will certainly be the more experienced team in their first-round battle with the Canadiens, given nine straight playoff appearances that have yielded two parades, a loss in a Cup final and a trip to the Eastern finals.
Tampa Bay has reached the playoffs in 12 of coach Jon Cooper's 13 seasons.
"Every year, whether you win or not, regardless of how far you go, you learn a little bit," Cooper said. "Hopefully we are a bit wiser than we were last year."
4. Buffalo Sabres
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Previous Ranking: 2
Overall Record: 50-23-9
You can search a long time and not find a better or more surprising story than the Sabres, who will host a playoff game for the first time since April 2011.
Buffalo was tied for last in the East at 14-14-4 on Dec. 15 when GM Kevyn Adams was fired, prompting a 36-9-5 spike the rest of the way that yielded the most points (77) and highest points percentage (.770) in the league.
"We needed to piece it together," forward Alex Tuch said. "It started with the work ethic and honestly that's all it came down to is, we felt each and every night we were working really hard individually and for one another."
3. Carolina Hurricanes
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Previous Ranking: 3
Overall Record: 53-22-7
It's prove it time, again, for the Hurricanes, who ride into the Eastern playoffs as the top seed but still in search of a first appearance in the Cup final since 2006.
Carolina has finished first or second in its division for each of the last six seasons but has made the conference final just twice and gone just 1-8 in those series.
"That's a huge accomplishment nobody really cares about," Brind'Amour said of earning the No. 1 seed. "It says you had a real good year and that you came to play every night. (Now) we get to look to bigger and better things."
2. Dallas Stars
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Previous Ranking: 4
Overall Record: 50-20-12
Three straight fruitless trips to the Western Conference finals are in the past for the Stars, who finished the season with five wins in a row to grab second in the Central Division and secure home-ice advantage for a first-round meeting with Minnesota.
Defenseman Miro Heiskanen missed the last three games with a lower-body injury but may return for the opener against the Wild, but forward Roope Hintz will miss at least the first two games while continuing recovery from a lower-body injury suffered on March 6.
1. Colorado Avalanche
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Previous Ranking: 1
Overall Record: 54-16-11
If regular-season records matter, it's Colorado's Cup to lose.
The Avalanche finished a near wire-to-wire masterpiece that yielded a Central Division title, a top seed in the West and a Presidents' Trophy, though the latter hasn't been all it's cracked up to be.
No team since the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks has hoisted a Cup after finishing first overall in the league, including a Colorado team that was No. 1 in the regular season in 2020-21. Colorado was first overall in 1996-97, too, but lost in the conference final, then won the Cup in 2000-01 after also taking the top overall spot.
"It's just about us trying to keep our game where it's at," said assistant coach Nolan Pratt, who's filling in while Jared Bednar recovers after being struck by a puck, "and preparing for what's coming forward."
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