-(3).jpg?w=2560 "Bleacher Report")
NHL Power Rankings for Every Team Ahead of the Start of the 2026 Preseason
T-minus one day.
Pucks drop around the NHL with seven preseason games on Saturday and shots and passes begin for real on Sept. 29 when the 2026-27 regular season gets started with games in Raleigh, N.C., Toronto, Boston, Edmonton and Las Vegas.
It's all got the B/R hockey staff on the brink of rapture but collective sanity was harnessed long enough to open with a set of Power Rankings looking at each of the 32 teams on preseason eve.
Not surprisingly, nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina to start the season, as the reigning Cup champs copped the No. 1 position, followed by last season's President's Trophy winner, an Eastern Conference finalist, and a team not so far removed from scheduling two straight raucous celebratory parades.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought in the app comments.
32. Vancouver Canucks
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The Canucks weren't very good last year. And they won't be very good this year either. Even if Manny Malhotra were to wave a wand and bring his highly-drafted son, Caleb, to the NHL right away, even having a third overall pick wouldn't do much good. Can Elias Pettersson ever resemble a player earning $11.6 million a season?
31. Calgary Flames
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OK, full marks to the Calgary brass. It may be a bit before the Flames are legitimately relevant again. But they've done a good job accelerating a rebuild that's seen them move some people while watching others leave. This is a team that won 50 games and a Pacific title and amassed 111 points as recently as 2021-22, a roster from which only forward Mikael Backlund remains.
30. Seattle Kraken
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Quick, name a Seattle player you'd move heaven and earth to get onto your team. Yeah, us neither. Matty Beniers and Shane Wright are solid NHL'ers but have only occasionally looked like second and fourth overall picks, mostly Beniers. If they'd have gotten Jason Robertson to agree to come over from Dallas, who knows? But they didn't.
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29. Chicago Blackhawks
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Slowly but surely, Kyle Davidson is getting it done. He drew the magic ticket and picked Connor Bedard first overall in 2023, added future goalie Spencer Knight in a trade with Florida and added suddenly well-traveled defenseman Bowen Byram in a trade with Buffalo. Anton Frondell and Frank Nazar are good young forwards and even Patrick Kane is back for a chance to be an elder example.
28. Winnipeg Jets
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There are some who'll suggest the sky isn't falling in Winnipeg, even in the absence of Connor Hellebuyck, because much of what's left over was good enough to snag a President's Trophy in 2024-25. We'll soon see how much of that successful regular season was Hellebuyck's doing and what Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele can do without him.
27. Columbus Blue Jackets
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OK, so everything's all better, eh? Zach Werenski won a Norris Trophy amid constant speculation that he wouldn't stay long term, but he vetoed a trade to Dallas in late June and arrives to this season suggesting "Columbus is where I want to play, where I want to win, and where I want to be for a long time." He'll be eligible to extend with the Blue Jackets on July 1, 2027.
26. Detroit Red Wings
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Chalk the lack of confidence in the Red Wings up to the bad optics of their captain, Dylan Larkin, asking out. It doesn't help that they've not made the playoffs in ages, a drought that finally cost GM and franchise icon Steve Yzerman his job. Still, the cupboard isn't entirely empty with the likes of Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond still in the fold.
25. St. Louis Blues
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No offense to the fine hockey fans in the Midwest, but it's difficult to get super excited about a team that's not only missed three of the last four playoff tournaments but also unloaded one of its best in Jordan Kyrou. But all of a sudden there's a lot of young talent in St. Louis that shouldn't be slept on. Don't believe us? Ask an Edmonton fan if they'd like Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg back.
24. Nashville Predators
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Certainly there are fans in Nashville who will shriek, "stop talking about the 2024 offseason already!" And they have a point. But the Predators haven't done anything significant enough in the last two years to make anyone forget what now looks like an ill-fated big free agency swing. Is there veteran talent? Yes. But enough to win anything? No.
23. New York Islanders
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This just in: Matthew Schaefer is a stud. And goalie Ilya Sorokin is a legit NHL elite as well. Exactly what the Islanders get from guys not wearing sweater numbers 48 and 30, though, will determine how close they get to the front-running Hurricanes and the rest of the Metropolitan Division. Last year, they were four points out of fourth place and eight points south of the playoff cut line.
22. New York Rangers
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It's easy to dismiss the Rangers based on last season's disaster but it's easy to look at a roster with Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, and now Pavel Dorofeyev and think things can be better after all. The holdovers aren't young, but Dorofeyev, 25, injects youth and a goal-scoring pedigree after netting 72 goals across what became his final two seasons with Vegas.
21. Toronto Maple Leafs
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Welcome to the big time, Gavin McKenna. The Penn State alum goes from the serenity of Happy Valley to the hockey madness of Toronto as an 18-year-old. No pressure, eh kid? If he comes in on the level of a Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard, the Maple Leafs will happily add him to a group that already includes Auston Matthews and William Nylander. And now Sergei Bobrovsky, too.
20. Los Angeles Kings
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Out with franchise icon Anze Kopitar. In, for a full season, with supernova forward Artemi Panarin. But is what's left around him enough to make noise in the Pacific and the West as a whole? Maybe not. Having four of your top-six defensemen, and six of your top eight, past their 30th birthdays might not be an ideal setup.
19. Pittsburgh Penguins
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The good news? Sidney Crosby is clearly Pittsburgh's best player. The bad news? Sidney Crosby is clearly Pittsburgh's best player. And perhaps the next two in line, Evgeni Malkin and Erik Karlsson, are each closer to 50 years old than 20. So while they'll be good enough to keep people in the seats until No. 87 goes, it won't be ring-worthy.
18. Ottawa Senators
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The biggest name transaction of the offseason didn't exactly go in Ottawa's direction, did it? It was one thing to know Brady Tkachuk wasn't enthralled with the idea of being in Canada's capital, it was another to actually see the move to Florida occur. Can the likes of Tim Stutzle and Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot move it forward, especially in light of Chabot's annoyance at his ex-teammate?
17. New Jersey Devils
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It's easy to see the variance in opinions on the Devils. Some see them as a playoff team and a genuine contender in the Metropolitan. Others expect them to be in the out-of-the-playoffs tier for the third time in four years. Jack Hughes is a flat-out force when he's healthy, but the second part isn't always reliable. And hey, if they can get big brother Quinn into the fold, watch out.
16. Philadelphia Flyers
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Whether an offer-sheeted Leo Carlsson would have made a significant difference is up for debate, particularly in a debate-friendly place like Philadelphia. But here's some reality, if your two leading scorers are tied for 55th (Travis Konecny) and 57th (Travor Zegras) in the league, there's some ground to cover before scheduling a parade.
15. Boston Bruins
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Good enough to be respectable or maybe slightly better? Sure. Good enough to win a stacked Atlantic Division and truly compete for the city's first Cup since 2011? Probably not. But hey, a team could do a lot worse than throwing David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy out there for 20-plus minutes each night. What they get beyond that will largely determine where they wind up.
14. San Jose Sharks
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Will the Sharks be this year's Ducks? Anaheim only finished six points ahead of San Jose last season but it turned out to the difference between missing the playoffs and reaching (like the Ducks did) the second round. Macklin Celebrini arrived as a 100-point player and is a legit superstar but it'll take more than just him to get the franchise over the relevance threshhold.
13. Anaheim Ducks
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The Ducks probably arrived a bit earlier than expected and ended Edmonton's Western dynasty while doing so, and they've locked up Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier for the long term, too. But their defense took a hit with the offseason exits of John Carlson, Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas.
12. Edmonton Oilers
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It's hard to argue with the star power of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, but there's some aging underneath, questions about goaltending, and who knows what it's all going to look like when the Mike Babcock Era officially begins on Sept. 29. They could win a Cup or they could be looking for a new coach by the holiday season and shopping McDavid at the deadline.
11. Utah Mammoth
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There are several teams in the league who, if they were stocks, would send investors into a buying frenzy. The Mammoth are one of them. They've got a horde of young players who've proven themselves NHL-ready and they acquired a hot prospect goalie in Sebastian Cossa in the offseason. If he lives up to the hype, it's the beginning of prolonged relevance in Utah.
10. Buffalo Sabres
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It wasn't easy to find optimism about the Sabres heading into last year, and losing Alex Tuch wasn't a great look, but they're young and they're skilled and they're loaded. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin played like a No. 1 overall pick (2018) last season he was ranked fourth in the league at the position by NHL Network.
9. Washington Capitals
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Having the league's all-time leading goal scorer is going to guarantee a steady relevance, but it seems to be warranted. They've consistently gotten value from other teams' castoffs and brought in the likes of Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou this offseason to bolster the ranks around Alex Ovechkin. Can Logan Thompson continue to be one of the NHL's best goalies? Stay tuned.
8. Minnesota Wild
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Luring Quinn Hughes to Minnesota made the Wild a contender and keeping him in town will continue that run. Kirill Karizov and Matt Boldy are certainly worthwhile pieces, too, but they haven't shown an ability to get the team out of the Central Division.
7. Vegas Golden Knights
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How much was real and how much was John Tortorella? That's the question in Vegas, where the Golden Knights scuffled to "just" 95 points and fired Bruce Cassidy on the way to winning the Pacific (just five points up on the conference's eighth-seeded playoff team), then won 14 playoff games. Welcome to the NHL, new coach Ryan Craig.
6. Dallas Stars
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Depth has been the selling point in Dallas for years and it's no surprise given the presence of Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen and the recently signed Jason Robertson for at least one more year. If Jake Oettinger holds up his end, the Stars will be in the mix.
5. Tampa Bay Lightning
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That the Lightning have remained relevant since their last Stanley Cup hoist in 2021 is testament to the competitive muscle memories of Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy, among others. But they're in a difficult Atlantic mix with Buffalo and Montreal and have been bounced from the first round of the playoffs in four straight seasons. When the relevance ends, it might be abrupt.
4. Florida Panthers
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Go ahead, you tell the Panthers that one year out of the playoffs negates the idea that they're a real contender after parades in 2024 and 2025. They're hardly a team full of youngsters, but adding Brady Tkachuk from Ottawa does boost the nastiness quotient and getting Alexsander Barkov back from injury is a huge plus. C'mon, would anyone really be shocked if they won again?
3. Montreal Canadiens
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It's a good time to be a hockey fan in Montreal. Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson are studs, Cole Caufield is excellent, and Jakub Dobes showed signs of being "the man" in goal in the playoffs. He won nine games, and had a 2.66 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in the Canadiens' run to the Eastern final.
2. Colorado Avalanche
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The Avs rolled to 55 wins, 121 points and a President's Trophy last season and it got them into the Western final for the first time since they won it all in 2022, but it didn't mean much when they encountered Vegas last spring. Still, having Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar isn't a bad thing. Can MacKenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood win it all? We'll see.
1. Carolina Hurricanes
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It's pretty great to walk into training camp as the defending champions and that's what the Hurricanes get to do that one else does. That they've managed to put together a Cup-winning team with better than $8 million in cap space remaining is impressive.
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_0.jpg?w=2560 "HUGE Changes in 2017 Re-Draft 🔄")
