10 NHL Teams Most Likely to Disappoint During the 2026-27 Season
When it comes to the new NHL season, disappointment is something most teams get to experience in some way or another.
Some teams might be let down after having a great season that falls short of winning the Stanley Cup, while others are left asking what happened during a year which was all but over before New Year's Day.
With training camps set to open in a matter of weeks, we're looking back at what teams did a year ago and looking ahead at what they'll do in the new season and wondering who among them will be left disappointed compared to last season.
That doesn't always necessarily mean missing the playoffs, and it doesn't always mean a team is challenging for the No. 1 pick in the draft, either.
We've picked out a handful of teams that enter the season with questions, concerns and potential pitfalls that could lead them to feeling like they should've done more in the end.
Whether the end comes in early April or mid-June does not matter because disappointment can come for anyone at any time in the NHL.
Anaheim Ducks
1 of 10
The Ducks took plenty of onlookers by surprise last season with their high-paced style of play and penchant for piling up goals.
Players such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke took major steps forward. Anaheim was powered by guys they focused their rebuild around.
The offseason was a bit dramatic, however. Carlsson's five-year, $90 million offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers was matched and threw GM Pat Verbeek's plans out the window for salary cap management. Gauthier remains unsigned and rumors have swirled about how those talks are going.
The Ducks addressed one RFA situation when they traded defenseman Olen Zellweger to Buffalo, and with just over $9 million in cap space to get Gauthier done, the headaches for management haven't gone away.
These kinds of off-ice dealings are problems for Verbeek until camp starts and if Gauthier isn't signed when it opens, then it's a problem for coach Joel Quenneville and the rest of the team who can't afford to slip up after such a strong showing in the playoffs last season.
The vibes are way off for the Ducks, and while all it takes is to string wins together to fix that, having an unsigned star player creates unease.
Buffalo Sabres
2 of 10
The Sabres had one of the more remarkable seasons a year ago. In early December, they were last in the Eastern Conference and by the end of the season, they were Atlantic Division champions with 109 points and one of the best teams in the NHL.
The Sabres have gone from a team whose fans simply hoped they might reach the playoffs to one expected not only to qualify, but also to make a deep postseason run. That is a drastic shift in expectations.
Buffalo's offseason saw those new expectations land while also moving Bowen Byram to Chicago and signing-and-trading Alex Tuch to Washington.
Although they found a way to replace Byram with Olen Zellweger from Anaheim, they're banking on their younger players to fill the void of Tuch's departure. Whether that's Jiri Kulich, Konsta Helenius or Noah Östlund taking a step up or Zach Benson building on his explosive playoff performances to add more offense, the Sabres at least have a lot of options.
Connor Hellebuyck has been the subject of trade speculation throughout the offseason. If a move to Buffalo does not materialize, the Sabres will move forward with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon as their goaltending tandem. Still, the uncertainty surrounding a potential acquisition could be a distraction for the club.
Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson will need to continue to be strong leaders to soften the blow of losing Tuch and keep everyone else focused thanks to the trade rumors.
Chicago Blackhawks
3 of 10
Hope always burns hot for Chicago thanks to having Connor Bedard. The problem Blackhawks fans have dealt with, however, is his unfortunate injury history early in his career.
Bedard is set to begin another hopeful season injured, which makes it difficult to get too excited.
Chicago has made some moves to do things differently. They acquired defenseman Bowen Byram from Buffalo (for the No. 4 pick in the 2026 draft and defenseman Louis Crevier) and signed him to a six-year, $75 million extension to be their No. 1 blueliner.
They also brought back team legend and future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane to spur their offense and power play. Those are reasons to think GM Kyle Davidson is getting aggressive about their perennial status as a lottery team.
Even with those additions, not starting the season with Bedard is a reminder of how thin the team still is. Yes, they've got some fun young talent with Frank Nazar, Anton Frondell, Artyom Levshunov and Roman Kantserov, but relying on young guys means needing them to be consistently strong players and that can take time.
Chicago could improve by 15-20 points and that would be a huge jump, but it also might not be enough to get them to the playoffs, which is what the organization and its fans want now.
Detroit Red Wings
4 of 10
If there's something Red Wings fans have learned over the past 10 years, it's that things can always be worse.
A decade out of the playoffs is hard enough, but watching the Red Wings fade down the stretch in recent seasons has made the drought even tougher to endure. Now, the club is without a general manager—for the moment—and faces uncertainty surrounding captain Dylan Larkin's future.
Hopes and dreams in Detroit are to see harmony return and perhaps an end to their playoff drought. If the new GM can patch things up with Larkin or get a haul for a player who's scored 30-plus goals in five straight seasons, then hope can have a chance to grow for the Red Wings.
As time rolls on with none of these issues settled, the Red Wings appear headed for another disappointing season.
Wings fans can feel good about Moritz Seider's growth into one of the league's finest defensemen and Lucas Raymond's continued improvement on the wing. But without Larkin and a general manager to guide the organization through arguably the NHL's most competitive division, Detroit could be in for another bleak season.
Florida Panthers
5 of 10
After missing the playoffs last season following back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, the Panthers did everything they could to make sure they'd be back with a vengeance.
They added Brady Tkachuk via trade, signed Radko Gudas and Garnet Hathaway and replaced Sergei Bobrovsky with Jacob Markström in goal. With a healthy Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, Florida is expected to be in the playoffs and to be a Cup contender again.
That is where disappointment could set in. With such a veteran-laden roster and so many players remaining from their Cup-winning teams, it is easy to assume the Panthers can flip the switch and once again dominate the league and the playoffs. But an aging core and injuries could complicate those expectations.
Brad Marchand had offseason surgery and may miss the start of the season. We saw how injuries hampered so many of their players last season, including Marchand, Seth Jones, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart and Anton Lundell and overcoming bad health is hard to do.
Marchand's offseason surgery isn't foreboding, but it is a reminder of how things can get in the way. They should be a playoff team, but the expectation is for them to be back to where they left off and that's a tall order.
Los Angeles Kings
6 of 10
Even though the Kings' season ended with yet another first-round playoff loss, it also saw them lose team captain Anže Kopitar to retirement.
This season, they'll hope young center Quinton Byfield can step into Kopitar's role, and they'll have new head coach Peter Laviolette to try and guide them through that.
Things have not ended well for Laviolette in his past couple of spots in New York and Washington, but with a veteran team such as the Kings, he might be the right man to lead the way.
L.A. put up 90 points last season and had to outrun the Sharks, Blues and Predators for the final wild-card spot. They were also two points back of Anaheim for third in the division and two back of Utah in the first wild card.
The point is, it'll be tight if they don't improve and making up for Kopitar hanging it up is going to be difficult. They'll need Drew Doughty to find more points and for Brandt Clarke to take another step forward on defense, while Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe continue to produce offense while Kevin Fiala returns from his Olympic injury.
A few uncertainties are manageable, but the Kings have several.
Ottawa Senators
7 of 10
The Senators provided a lot of drama and excitement last season, and the offseason was no different. They traded captain Brady Tkachuk to division rival Florida but added William Eklund from San Jose to make them speedier and more skilled.
Amid the frustration surrounding Tkachuk last season, it is fair to wonder whether his departure could create a more settled environment for the Senators. But Tkachuk also played a major role in driving Ottawa to the playoffs, and replacing that leadership and production will not be simple.
Ottawa has talent, however. Tim Stützle and Eklund could form an exciting pairing up front, and Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot on the blue line are solid. Linus Ullmark is also still a top goalie.
After making the playoffs in a tumultuous season, though, only a return to the postseason in a calmer setting will make things feel normal again in the Canadian capital and the competition to get there is going to be ferocious in and out of the division.
Philadelphia Flyers
8 of 10
The Flyers' run to the playoffs last season was stunning in a lot of ways. After all, expectations for the rebuilding-on-the-fly team were low, and even with a motivating coach like Rick Tocchet in place, the postseason seemed like a stretch.
The downside to making the playoffs out of the blue is that the expectation now is they'll go even deeper than last year. Team management has tried to make the Flyers better this summer (just ask the Anaheim Ducks and Leo Carlsson) but were mostly quiet outside of that blockbuster offer sheet.
What that means is they're pretty much running it back with the same team that finished tied with Pittsburgh for second in the Metropolitan. Adding Porter Martone alongside Travis Konecny and Trevor Zegras should provide significant help.
The Flyers had strong chemistry last season, and recreating that could work out well. But even a slight regression could mean missing the playoffs, especially if Carolina stays strong and Washington continues to improve.
Pittsburgh Penguins
9 of 10
The Metropolitan Division is going to be messy, but that means fun for everyone looking for a playoff race.
For the Penguins, they had a taste of that last season in returning to the postseason, but with their older stars getting another year older, we have to question can they do it again?
We can bank on Sidney Crosby continuing to be great. We loved seeing Evgeni Malkin turn it on again last season, and we can hope Kris Letang can find that kind of fortune himself as well. After all, Erik Karlsson found a new, old gear last season.
Coach Dan Muse fine-tuned the Penguins last season, making them a solid yet still somewhat maddening team.
With Arturs Silovs in goal, they will rely on him to carry a heavy workload. But with the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes, an improved Washington Capitals team and the rest of the division all battling for playoff spots, Pittsburgh could face a difficult path all season.
Plenty of fans want to see Crosby, Malkin and Letang make one more playoff run before they retire.
The Penguins have missed the postseason in recent years, and another absence could signal the end of an era—a difficult reality for the franchise and its fans to accept.
San Jose Sharks
10 of 10
Let's get this out of the way: The Sharks are going to be good. They should also be one of the league's most entertaining teams to watch, and after narrowly missing the playoffs last season, expectations are that they will reach the postseason this year.
Sharks GM Mike Grier made moves to better prepare the team for the season, adding Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba and Michael Kesselring to the blue line.
With Macklin Celebrini emerging as a superstar—including as the cover athlete for EA Sports' NHL 27—and Will Smith developing into a promising winger, the question is whether San Jose is still too young to contend in a meaningful way.
San Jose has other young players such as 2025 No. 2 overall pick Michael Misa and 2026 No. 2 pick Ivar Stenberg ready to make big impressions as well as 2024 first-rounder Sam Dickinson ready to take another step on defense.
San Jose has a great deal of young talent to manage, and player development rarely unfolds on the same timeline. If several of those players take significant steps at once, the Sharks could become a dangerous team.
However, if its young core faces predictable growing pains while the Western Conference gets stronger, San Jose could endure another difficult season—one that tests fans' patience despite the long-term promise.
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