Way-Too-Early Predictions for 5 Sleeper NHL Teams for the 2026-27 Season

Going into every NHL season, there is always a good expectation for which teams will be contenders, which teams will be lottery teams, and which teams will be stuck somewhere in the middle.

Even with that, there are always surprises, and teams that missed the playoffs the previous year bounce back and play their way into the postseason.

And some teams that made the postseason come back and exceed expectations as contenders.

During the 2025-26 season, for example, we saw teams like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, and Philadelphia all exceed expectations and not only make the playoffs but, in some cases, advance to the second round.

There will be more next season.

So let's take a way-too-early look at some teams that could come back in the 2026-27 season and sneak under the radar to play their way into contention, either as a potential playoff team that nobody is expecting or a potential championship team that ends up being ahead of schedule.

A lot of this depends on what sort of offseason these teams can have, and there is some projecting that has to go into this, but that is what makes it a way-too-early look.

We are assuming big things for some of these teams this summer when it comes to trades and free agent signings.

Sleeper Contender: Washington Capitals

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It would be easy to start writing off the Capitals.

They have a somewhat older core. They had what could be seen as a "last hurrah" during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons to get back into the playoffs with that core, and then took a big step backwards in 2026-26, missing the playoffs.

Is that the beginning of the end for this group?

A sign of a team that needs to tear it all down and rebuild from the bottom?

Not even close.

The 2025-26 Capitals were significantly better than their place in the standings would have you believe, while their win total and point total would have been enough to make the playoffs in most normal years, when the Eastern Conference was not a total gauntlet.

They are the only team in the salary cap era to win 43 games and have at least nine overtime losses in the same season and miss the playoffs.

They are the only team in the salary cap era that had a goal-differential of at least plus-23 and missed the playoffs.

They are one of just eight teams in the salary cap era to have at least 95 points in a season and miss the playoffs.

They also had solid 5-on-5 numbers across the board, only to be done in by poor special teams, including a power play unit that badly struggled for most of the season.

There is still a good foundation here, a good collection of veterans, and some really impressive young players starting to make a name for themselves in the NHL. They have a top-pairing defenseman in Jakob Chychrun, a top-tier goalie in Logan Thompson, and should have a full season of center Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dubois was limited to just 27 games, taking a massive presence out of the middle of their lineup.

It should not be a stretch to imagine a bounce-back here. But what really should give the Capitals some hope and promise is the fact they have salary cap flexibility and two first-round draft picks to use as trade capital. That could help put them in the market for pretty much any top-line player that is available for a trade this offseason. If they can find a way to land one of them and add it to an already strong roster they could easily find their way back into the playoffs and make some noise when they get there.

Sleeper Contender: Florida Panthers

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The Panthers are not a "sleeper" team in the traditional sense, because many people are probably expecting them to be significantly better next season, largely due to the fact that Aleksander Barkov will be back and they should have a full season with Matthew Tkachuk.

They did, however, still miss the playoffs and finished with one of the worst records in the Eastern Conference. That reality will lower expectations for some going into next season.

But it shouldn't.

A large part of their struggles this season came down to the fact that they were not only missing Barkov for the entire season and Tkachuk for half of it, but by the end of the season, they were basically playing with an AHL lineup due to injury problems that continued to build throughout the roster.

This team just needs to get healthy.

It should be.

It also has a top-10 pick that could be a massive trade chip for an always-aggressive front office.

Sleeper Playoff Team: San Jose Sharks

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The Sharks could follow in the footsteps of a team like Anaheim next season and begin to emerge as a full-scale playoff team.

It is going to take some big work this offseason to transform the defense and some of the depth, but the most important foundational pieces for a contender are already in place. And that includes forward Macklin Celebrini, who is already arguably a top-five player in the NHL.

The wild-cards that will determine whether San Jose can close the four-point gap that existed between them and the Western Conference playoff teams this past season:

-- The development of their other young players, including center Michael Misa and whoever they add with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft.

-- Their ability to improve a defense that had some of the worst 5-on-5 metrics in the league, as well as fixing some of the depth that resulted in their offense struggling to generate much when Celebrini was off the ice.

Those are, admittedly, two absolutely massive wildcards. But they are going into the offseason with more salary cap space than most teams in the NHL, have another mid-first-round pick from the Edmonton Oilers that can be dangled as trade bait, and also have some prospect capital that can be floated out there.

They need some work around the edges.

But some of the impact of forward talent is already there, and it might be ready to start fully blossoming.

Sleeper Playoff Team: New Jersey Devils

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Call it a hunch, but it just seems like the Devils, with a new front office, are going to figure out a way to stop being a disappointment and play their way back into the playoffs.

They need some better injury luck from Jack Hughes, and if they can get lucky enough to get it, they will have one of the best players in hockey still in the prime of his career. That alone should be a good starting point.

It remains to be seen what direction new general manager Sunny Mehta wants to take, but there is little indication that he is going to completely tear things down and start over from scratch. As long as an in-his-prime Hughes is on the roster, while also carrying one of the most team-friendly contracts in the NHL, there is going to be a chance to build something solid here.

The Eastern Conference is going to be tough again, especially with Washington looking like a potential playoff team, Florida potentially bouncing back, and all of the 2026 playoff teams looking like potential return teams. But the Devils still have something to build off here, and a fresh vision from a new front office that might be able to actually do something with it.

Sleeper Contender: Utah Mammoth

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Utah was already a playoff team this season, and it entered the playoffs as a sleeper poised to make a run.

The run never materialized, mostly because they ran into an emerging buzzsaw in the Vegas Golden Knights in the opening round.

They should not only be considered a playoff team heading into next season, but also a sleeper contender in the Western Conference.

Aside from an exciting young core built around Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guether, the Mammoth were among the NHL's best 5-on-5 teams during the 2025-26 regular season. They also have an increasingly aggressive front office that figures to be in the market to make a serious splash this offseason to add to a rapidly improving lineup.

If they can add another top-six forward to their core to help round everything out, they would have a chance to be one of the best teams in the league.