Kaprizov might not be quite performing to his deal<\/a>, but the Wild as a whole are, and finally look to be clawing their way out of the middle pack.<\/p>\nAdvertisement<\/p>\n
No. 5: The Florida Panthers are struggling<\/p>\n
We all know Florida is a team built for the playoffs, but they need to get a move on if they hope to be in the postseason. Right now they\u2019re 9th in the East, and lagging big time in the Atlantic where they\u2019re 4th in the division.<\/p>\n
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No. 6: Brandon Bussi?! <\/p>\n
Goaltending has been an up-and-down problem for the Hurricanes for years, but they might have found their guy in Brandon Bussi. The journeyman 27-year-old has exploded onto the scene this year becoming the fastest goalie to win 10 games. Who knows if it\u2019s sustainable, but it\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n
No. 7: The West is terrifying<\/p>\n
The West was always shaping up to be the best conference in hockey, but my God. Five of the top six teams in the NHL come out of the west, and the playoffs are going to be an absolute dogfight.<\/p>\n
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No. 8: The Hurricanes thriving through injuries<\/p>\n
It appeared the Canes might have been cooked until December when early season injuries to Jaccob Slavin and Jalen Chatfield wrecked their defense. Instead the team has been thriving on the forecheck to an East-leading 46 points, without a single elite star. Carolina is still going to do hockey their way, and it\u2019s working.<\/p>\n
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No. 9: Morgan Geekie\u2019s breakout<\/p>\n
Nobody knew what the future of the Bruins would look like as David Pastrnak rounded into 30 and could have demanded a trade to a contender. Enter Morgan Geekie, who is second in the NHL in goals this season and the biggest reason Boston is 2nd in the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
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No. 10: Mikko Rantanen the assist man<\/p>\n
Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen has routinely been a goal scoring beneficiary of other strong players around him, but this season he\u2019s turned into a distributor. With 30 assists in 33 games he\u2019s showing depth we didn\u2019t think he had.<\/p>\n
No. 11: The Wings are back<\/p>\n
The NHL is a better place when Detroit is a factor, and thankfully they\u2019re back in 2025. Detroit are 1st in the Atlantic and look like a real threat this season. Alex DeBrincat is playing fantastic hockey, but the Red Wings will need more from their defense down the stretch.<\/p>\n
No. 12: Sidney Crosby, ageless wonder<\/p>\n
Sid is no longer the kid, but he\u2019s still so damn good. The Pens are struggling in 2025 which could lead to a trade ahead of the deadline, and Crosby will be the man to watch. The 38-year-old has 35 points so far this season and leads Pittsburgh in goals.<\/p>\n
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No. 13: The Islanders are the kings of New York<\/p>\n
It was always going to be a tossup whether the Islanders or Rangers would be better this season, but at this point we can stop the fight. The Islanders are the No. 2 team in the Metropolitan Division, and are soaring with rookie Matthew Schaefer. Meanwhile the Rangers, well, they just look old.<\/p>\n
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No. 14: Jesper Wallstedt<\/p>\n
When it comes to the Wild we knew Kaprizov could score in bunches, but who was going to pull it together on the back end? Enter goalie Jesper Wallstedt, who has fast emerged as one of the best goaltenders this season. He is the only goalie to have a GAA under 2.0 (currently at 1.95) and he\u2019s thriving with the new-look Minnesota defense.<\/p>\n
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No. 15: Matthew Schaefer is already elite<\/p>\n
The expectation of Schaefer prior to the draft was that he was a safe, low-ceiling, high-floor defender who could have an impact similar to Jaccob Slavin. Instead he\u2019s emerged as one of the best defensive players in the NHL with a defensive point share that ranks in the Top 10 \u2014 and he hasn\u2019t turned 20 yet.<\/p>\n
No. 16: Nathan McKinnon found a way to get even better<\/p>\n
Nathan McKinnon was the best all-around player in hockey last year, and he\u2019s the same guy this year \u2014 but to ludicrous levels. McKinnon leads the NHL in goals, and is on pace for a career-high 143 points in 2025. How is it possible that a guy this could could find another gear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re over a third of the way into the 2025 NHL season and it\u2019s been friggin\u2019 awesome. Building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[52107,64,63,101827,483,195951,28932,54993,12266,3274,128977,195953,195952,35870,25924,31031,54992,7524,78921,195950,575,5132,3919,3752,32666,85],"class_list":["post-358521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alex-debrincat","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blackhawks","tag-boston","tag-brandon-bussi","tag-connor-bedard","tag-david-pastrnak","tag-detroit","tag-florida-panthers","tag-jaccob-slavin","tag-jalen-chatfield","tag-jesper-wallstedt","tag-kirill-kaprizov","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-matthew-schaefer","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-morgan-geekie","tag-nathan-mckinnon","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-rangers","tag-rookie-season","tag-sidney-crosby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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