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Real Kyper and Bourne<\/p>\nTwo-sentence preamble, since it\u2019s not tough to figure out what\u2019s happening here, starting now:<\/p>\n
Below are two sentences on my personal expectations for each of the 32 NHL teams over the course of the 2025-26 NHL season. They\u2019re listed as they finished last regular season, alongside a recap of their 2024-25 outcomes, for a refresher.<\/p>\n
1. Winnipeg Jets: 116 points, lost 4-2 to Dallas in Round 2<\/p>\n
Serious Cup contenders. The final outcome hinges on questions such as \u201cWhat\u2019s Jonathan Toews now?\u201d and \u201cCan Connor Hellebuyck be his special self in the playoffs?\u201d<\/p>\n
2. Washington Capitals: 111 points, lost 4-1 to Carolina in Round 2<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s Capitals were maybe the league\u2019s biggest surprise, after an off-season of savvy additions. They\u2019ll still be good thanks to the rise of some of their young guns, but will need to replicate some huge percentages (shooting and save) to remain a home ice advantage playoff team.<\/p>\n
3. Vegas Golden Knights: 110 points, lost 4-1 to Edmonton in Round 2<\/p>\n
Vegas is a high ceiling team, in that it\u2019s impossible to imagine many ways that they\u2019re not at least a 100-point team save for one: bad injury luck. If healthy, they\u2019re a top-five team in the league with no clear weakness.<\/p>\n
4. Toronto Maple Leafs: 108 points, lost 4-3 to Florida in Round 2<\/p>\n
The Leafs are solid and competitive all the way through, but may be less dynamic without Mitch Marner, and getting a repeat of last year\u2019s goaltending seems unlikely. Still a playoff team, and I do expect a quality forward addition in-season to ensure that, but as of today it’s tough to see ways they\u2019re better.<\/p>\n
5. Dallas Stars: 106 points, lost 4-3 to Edmonton in Round 3<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve got a few great top-end forwards (full season of Mikko Rantanen!), but those aren\u2019t nearly as valuable as their one-two back-end punch of Thomas Harley and Miro Heiskanen. Names like Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, and Matt Duchene are getting older, but there\u2019s too many good players for them to finish outside the tough Central Division\u2019s top-three teams.<\/p>\n
6. Los Angeles Kings: 105 points, lost 4-2 to the Oilers in Round 1<\/p>\n
The Kings seem destined to be a good team that makes the playoffs, but enters it like lambs to the slaughter, and not just because of their usual butcher, the Oilers. They\u2019re in a class above the middling-to-bad teams, but also not anywhere near the level of Western Conference giants like the Golden Knights, Avs, Stars, or the aforementioned Oilers.<\/p>\n
7. Tampa Bay Lightning: 102 points, lost 4-1 to Florida in Round 1<\/p>\n
Not sure how this happened exactly, but after years of being like \u201cTampa is finally fading away,\u201d they seem like contenders to be the best team in the East again. Maybe they could use another defenceman, and they need some of their older bodies to give them one more good year, but they\u2019re loaded with competitive, talented players, and might just have one more Cup run left in \u2018em.<\/p>\n
8. Colorado Avalanche: 102 points, lost 4-3 to Dallas in Round 1<\/p>\n
The Avs have had a bizarre run of seasons after winning the Cup, but are poised to enter this one with both Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin, so it kinda feels like they\u2019re back-back? Yes, losing Rantanen over comparative nickels remains an all-time blunder, but their top-six is just so loaded, and their top-pair so good, that they\u2019ll be there in the fight when the West starts getting whittled down.<\/p>\n
9. Edmonton Oilers: 101 points, lost 4-2 to Florida in the Stanley Cup Final<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough to see how the Oilers are much better than the year before, but maybe that doesn\u2019t matter, considering they\u2019ve been good enough to win the West twice in a row. Maybe there\u2019s more there from Trent Frederic, or their young guys add something, or enough experience pushes them through, but in all it seems like they\u2019ll be very good again, we\u2019re just not sure if it\u2019s good enough to win it all.<\/p>\n
10. Carolina Hurricanes: 99 points, lost 4-1 to Florida in the Conference Final<\/p>\n
The Canes’ depth almost guarantees they\u2019re going to be a misery to play against, as their fourth line includes Taylor Hall (18 goals and 42 points last year), and their bottom pair includes \u2026 well, I don\u2019t even know who you\u2019d call the bottom pair because they\u2019re all good. Remains to be seen if their top-end talent can pull them through, but I\u2019m bullish on a big year from the Canes.<\/p>\n
11. Florida Panthers: 98 points, won Stanley Cup (again)<\/p>\n
I guess it\u2019s possible that serious injuries to Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk hurt them enough that it tanks their playoff seeding and they run into a loaded first-round opponent who takes them down. But other than that worst-case scenario, they\u2019re the same old Panthers who brought everyone back, who have experience thriving in big moments, and who should remain the Cup favourites until proven otherwise.<\/p>\n
12. Ottawa Senators: 97 points, lost 4-2 to Toronto in Round 1<\/p>\n
When healthy, the Sens have one of the better D-corps in the NHL thanks to Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, and the strides of young depth guys like Tyler Kleven and Nikolas Matinpalo. Up front their top-end isn\u2019t quite as top-endy as some of the league\u2019s elite contenders, but they should be able to get a decent amount of pucks across the line, leaving the question: is Linus Ullmark gonna give them enough saves this time around?<\/p>\n
13. Minnesota Wild: 97 points lost 4-2 to Vegas in Round 1<\/p>\n
The Wild are sneaky kinda fun, and not just because they paid ungodly sums of money to keep Kirill the Thrill. They\u2019re a playoff team, and guys like Matt Boldy and Brock Faber and Zeev Buium should keep the speed up while others like Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin will keep their opponents honest.<\/p>\n
14. St. Louis Blues: 96 points, lost 4-3 to Winnipeg in Round 1<\/p>\n
The Blues have an extremely St. Louis Blues team, which means they\u2019re kinda big and heavy, their D kinda skates better than you\u2019d expect, and they\u2019re just pretty solid all the way through. Hard to see them as a Tier 1 Cup contender maybe, but they\u2019re good enough at everything and gonna be well-coached, so another wildcard playoff berth and a knock-down drag-out first round series feels kinda likely.<\/p>\n
15. Calgary Flames: 96 points, missed playoffs on the tiebreaker, fourth in the Pacific<\/p>\n
Last year, the Flames’ identity was to be the hardest working team in the league, and they pulled that off just by making opponents batty with their forecheck, which led to a 96-point season and missing the playoffs by a breath. But the whole \u201cwill beat skill\u201d saying only works if you\u2019ve got enough skill to at least hang with the skilled teams, and I’m not sure the Flames are there yet in their \u201dre-tool\u201d to be confident they’ll sneak back in.<\/p>\n
Real Kyper and Bourne<\/p>\n
Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne talk all things hockey with some of the biggest names in the game. Watch live every weekday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ \u2014 or listen live on Sportsnet 590 The FAN \u2014 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n