Ranking Every Team Left in the 2026 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs
The NHL is in its Bob Dylan era.
That's a moderately clever way of pointing out that three of the final four teams from last year's playoffs are already out of the running for the Stanley Cup in 2026.
The Cup-chasing times, they are a-changin'.
The two-time defending champions didn't make the tournament at all and the team they beat to prompt each of their parades was bumped in the first round, meaning it'll be a new set of players and fans experiencing the thrill this time.
Sunday's Game 7 in Tampa Bay reduced the remaining 2025-26 field to eight teams and B/R analyzed each of them to compile an 8-to-1 ranking.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.
8. Philadelphia Flyers
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Sorry, Gritty. Hope we can still be friends.
The reality is that someone's got to be last on a list like this and logic dictates it's the Flyers given their lack of collective postseason experience and the difficulty of the matchup they face in Round 2 after dumping the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Philadelphia got through six games in the opening round without a single point-per-game scorer, getting five points from defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and four apiece from forwards Travis Konecny, Noah Cates and Trevor Zegras.
In reality, it's been about the goaltending delivered by the perpetually unheralded Dan Vladar, who posted a .937 save percentage and a 1.61 goals-against average against the Penguins—including a 1-0 OT shutout in the series clincher.
7. Anaheim Ducks
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If there's an award for the most impressively unlikely early win, it's Anaheim's.
The upstart Ducks stumbled down the stretch of the regular season with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games and barely made the Western field, but proceeded to lay out Edmonton upon arrival, winning in six games after being equal or superior to the Oilers in all but maybe three or four periods all series long.
They're young. They're good. They attack in waves. They have an emerging star in defenseman Jackson LaCombe. And they have a veteran coach with proven pedigree in Joel Quenneville, a three-time Cup winner in Chicago.
Vegas won't be an easy task in Round 2, and it'll take a consistently strong effort from goalie Lukas Dostal to get it done, but beating the Golden Knights as an encore will somehow seem a little less surprising than the opening act.
6. Vegas Golden Knights
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Two months ago, a second-round series for Vegas seemed a stretch.
Now, the seeding stars are lining up for yet another deep run in the desert.
The Golden Knights finished first in the Pacific Division and will take on the third-seeded Ducks in Round 2, but they arrive knowing that they already slayed a young, rising dragon in the Utah Mammoth in the first round.
There's plenty of muscle memory left from the successful Cup run in 2023 and the arrival of coach John Tortorella for the regular season's final stretch has created an energy and attention to detail that hadn't always been present.
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5. Montreal Canadiens
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Hockey experts agree that the Canadiens will contend for years to come. What many didn't expect, though, is the level to which they seem ready to do so now.
The youngsters in bleu, blanc et rouge swaggered into Tampa on Sunday evening and won a Game 7 against a team littered with Cup winners, while managing just nine shots and leaving their defensive fate in the hands of a 24-year-old with precisely nine games of previous playoff experience.
A second-round matchup with Buffalo reeks of old-school Adams Division tradition, and it'll take every bit of Jakub Dobes' heroics to keep things close against a prolific Sabres offense.
But, given what they've already done, you tell them they can't go any further.
4. Minnesota Wild
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The Wild were one of eight teams in the league to compile 100 points during the regular season, but all it got them was a third-place finish in the ultra-competitive Central Division behind No. 1 overall Colorado and No. 3 Dallas.
But they were up to the task in the first round against the Stars, eliminating them in six games thanks to star-level performances from their own star-level players, including six goals and nine points from breakout winger Matt Boldy.
Minnesota had a plus-8 goal differential (23-15) in that series and it'll have an even bigger lift to make against the Avalanche in Round 2 thanks to injuries to defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Joel Eriksson Ek.
Brodin has been out since blocking a shot in Game 5 against Dallas, and Eriksson Ek is day-to-day after falling leg-first into the boards in Game 6. To what extent either or both of them play will mean a lot for the chances of another upset.
3. Buffalo Sabres
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Sorry, Josh Allen. The numbers don't lie. A Cup may arrive before a Lombardi.
As odd as it seems to consider a team without a playoff date in more than a decade as a legit favorite this spring, the Sabres have proven their worth.
Buffalo was the league's best team, by eight points, from Dec. 16 through the end of the season, and a first-round dispatch of Boston featured three road wins by multi-goal margins in which they outscored the Bruins 13-3.
Based on all that, it's ludicrous to suggest they can't continue on what would ultimately rank among the least-likely championship runs in major sports history.
2. Carolina Hurricanes
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Stop us if you've heard this before: The Carolina Hurricanes are coached well enough, defensively conscientious enough and sound enough in goal to win it all.
The Hurricanes have finished second or better in their division for six straight seasons and arrived at each of the five prior tournaments as a favorite to win the Eastern Conference but haven't made the league's final two since 2006.
They arrived to Round 2 this time having swept through the surging Ottawa Senators despite scoring just 11 goals—thanks to 105 saves on 110 shots by goalie Frederik Andersen—and began the second phase with another 19-save shutout in Game 1 against the Flyers.
Will it be enough this time? Let's just say we'll believe until we don't.
1. Colorado Avalanche
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Frequent observers of B/R's Power Rankings during the season already know.
The Avalanche have been building toward a deep playoff run since the regular season began last fall, holding onto the top spot nearly every week from start to end.
They continued the mojo into Round 1 with a sweep of the outgunned Los Angeles Kings, which gave them some time to recover before entering what figures to be a more challenging second series against Minnesota.
Scott Wedgewood allowed just five goals on 101 shots against the Kings and if a team boasting forward talent like Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas—each of whom had 100 points during the season—and Cale Makar on the blue line gets that kind of goaltending, it's hard to imagine them four times losing to anyone.
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