It\u2019s the time of year where everything\u00a0still\u00a0looks good on paper.\u00a0The puck hasn\u2019t dropped yet and all those off-season moves that were supposed to transform rosters remain full of promise.\u00a0Every team theoretically\u00a0has the chance to go 84-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We know that won\u2019t happen,\u00a0though. Inevitably, there\u00a0will be teams that\u00a0we\u00a0think don\u2019t have any chance who end up making a playoff push and vice versa. There\u2019s always a team or two\u00a0that have high expectations\u00a0who we believe could be Cup contenders\u00a0that\u00a0stumble.\u00a0It\u2019s easy to pencil in\u00a0a handful of teams that should cruise to a playoff spot or division title, but nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Even the\u00a0best teams have flaws and there\u2019s a lot that can go wrong over a long season.\u00a0In order to avoid disappointment, you have to accentuate\u00a0your positives and try to mask your shortcomings.\u00a0However, that\u2019s easier said than done, but\u00a0the teams that do\u00a0the best job of overcoming their flaws are usually\u00a0still standing late in the spring.<\/p>\n
Here\u00a0are\u00a0the biggest\u00a0potential\u00a0flaws\u00a0for each division favourite heading into the season:<\/p>\n
The Oilers pushed all their chips into the middle of table this summer, bringing in Mike Babcock behind the bench in what seems like a Stanley Cup-or-bust season.\u00a0It was a huge bet to make on a guy that\u00a0has had a ton of success in the past, but little to none in recent memory. Babcock\u00a0hasn\u2019t coached in the NHL in six seasons\u00a0and hasn\u2019t won a playoff series in well over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s inheriting a roster that\u2019s very top heavy\u00a0and as good as the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard are, the Oilers clearly took a step back last season.\u00a0Edmonton had a hard time replacing\u00a0Corey Perry, Connor Brown and Viktor Arvidsson a year ago\u00a0up front, and the forward group looks very similar again heading into 2026-27.\u00a0The only addition of note is Alex Formenton, who hasn\u2019t played in the NHL since the 2021-22 campaign and is likely headed for a bottom-six role.\u00a0The Oilers will be banking on players like Isaac Howard and\u00a0Matthew Savoie\u00a0taking a big step forward,\u00a0which is a big leap of faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darnell Nurse has departed on the blue line and say what you\u00a0will about his tenure in Edmonton, but he still averaged over 22 minutes a night during his time as an Oiler. It will be a big ask for the incoming Ryan Shea and Shakir\u00a0Mukhamadullin\u00a0to pick up the slack. That could put even more strain on the goaltending, which we know has been an issue\u00a0for years in Edmonton.\u00a0Tristan Jarry, who is coming off a nightmare season,\u00a0will be tasked with\u00a0trying to turn things\u00a0around, as Devon Levi is largely unproven and free-agent signing Frederik Andersen is already injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All this is to say\u00a0that Babcock better be able to implement some magic to a\u00a0largely returning\u00a0roster that struggled to find any consistency last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No one could catch the Avalanche last season after they exploded out of the gates, losing just twice in regulation before the new year.\u00a0Colorado was powered by several incredible campaigns that exceeded expectations, but how much of that is sustainable?<\/p>\n
Martin Necas\u00a0ended up\u00a0with 100 points\u00a0after shooting 18.4 per cent on the year, which was significantly above his career average. Goaltender Scott Wedgewood\u00a0finished with a .921 save percentage\u00a0to go along with 31 wins,\u00a0numbers that very few expected and something that will be hard for the 34-year-old to replicate.\u00a0Brock Nelson\u00a0and Nazem Kadri will be 35 and 36 respectively come October, so\u00a0at some point\u00a0it will be hard to count\u00a0on\u00a0them\u00a0to continue producing at a high level. Then there\u2019s Brent Burns,\u00a0who scored 12 times from the blue line a year ago\u00a0at age 41. It would be foolhardy not\u00a0to\u00a0expect a little regression there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s also keep in\u00a0mind both the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild finished with well over 100 points in 2025-26, so they could easily overtake the Avs for a division crown\u00a0if some of Colorado\u2019s key players take too big of a step back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If it\u00a0ain\u2019t\u00a0broke, don\u2019t fix it. That seemed to be the Hurricanes’ strategy this off-season and rightfully so. Carolina\u00a0finally put it all together last spring and their incredibly balanced lineup was too much for the rest of the field to handle, so they chose to pretty much keep everything status quo heading into\u00a02026-27.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, a\u00a0division foe\u00a0and perhaps the Canes’ biggest challenger this season\u00a0in the Metropolitan Division\u00a0took the opposite approach.\u00a0The Washington Capitals loaded up and brought in Alex\u00a0Tuch, Jordan Kyrou\u00a0and Boone Jenner to add to an already talented group. Not to mention players like Cole Hutson, Ilya Protas and Ryan Leonard are a year older and figure to be\u00a0more\u00a0significant contributors this time around. The Caps look as big, skilled and physical as anyone\u00a0in the league and are now arguably as deep as Carolina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes’ depth also took a bit of a hit this summer with Frederik Andersen\u00a0leaving, Seth Jarvis currently injured and\u00a0Alexander Nikishin seemingly headed for a breakup with the organization.\u00a0That means there is more pressure on Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov to stay healthy and carry the load in net, while Eric Robinson\u00a0may need to move up the lineup until Jarvis is ready to return.\u00a0Carolina\u00a0still has more than $8 million in cap space available\u00a0and perhaps it would have been wise to\u00a0be more aggressive\u00a0in free agency to try to bolster\u00a0an already strong lineup just a little more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Injuries ravaged\u00a0the Panthers last season but they figure to be back\u00a0in\u00a0full force\u00a0after some off-season moves bolstered an already potent lineup.\u00a0The addition of Brady Tkachuk\u00a0makes Florida\u2019s\u00a0forward group one of the scariest in the league, as the Panthers are clearly doubling down on their physical style of play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one lingering question mark, though, it\u2019s between the pipes. Florida chose to let Sergei Bobrovsky walk\u00a0in free agency and replaced him with Jacob Markstrom, which was somewhat of a curious move.\u00a0Markstrom\u00a0is making close to the same money as Bobrovsky, is\u00a0roughly the same age and is coming off a similarly poor season. Now he joins a Panthers squad\u00a0that relied on Bobrovsky to bail them\u00a0regularly when the defence broke down.\u00a0Due to Florida\u2019s aggressive forechecking\u00a0style and the way its defence crashes down low to keep pucks alive, the Panthers\u00a0are actually vulnerable at times to odd-man rushes and breakaways. In fact, during their two Stanley Cup-winning seasons, the Panthers gave up\u00a0132 breakaways, more than any other team\u00a0in the NHL\u00a0over that span.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like the Panthers are well insulated at the position either if Markstrom falters.\u00a0Akira Schmid, with his 82\u00a0career\u00a0games and sub .900 save percentage spread over five seasons,\u00a0would be the next man up.\u00a0We\u2019ve seen bad goaltending derail really strong teams before, so Florida will be hoping Markstrom can stay healthy and have a bounce-back season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the time of year where everything\u00a0still\u00a0looks good on paper.\u00a0The puck hasn\u2019t dropped yet and all those off-season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-905020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905020","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=905020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}