At the moment, four Eastern Conference playoff slots are held down by squads that did not make it last year, and that number in the West is three.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For all the immediate turnover we\u2019re talking about here, though, it\u2019s easy to feel like the story of the season is the new, long-term brilliance represented by Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Schaefer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These guys aren\u2019t just teenagers; they\u2019re young teenagers by NHL standards. Schaefer \u2014 who\u2019s one goal shy of tying Brian Leetch\u2019s record for goals by a rookie defenceman \u2014 won\u2019t turn 19 until just before the start of the next training camp. Sophomore Celebrini, meanwhile, is still 19 until mid-June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both players are playing two full campaigns before turning 20, and what these two have done at their age is wild. If Schaefer can get his 23rd goal as a freshman defenceman, he\u2019ll tie a record Leetch set when the latter was 20 years old. As for Celebrini, his 108 points represent the third-most in league history by a teenager, and he\u2019s the first guy to post more than 100 points in an age-19 season or younger since Sidney Crosby had 120 as a 19-year-old in 2006-07.<\/p>\n
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n
Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n (For clarity, we\u2019re using age guidelines set on Hockey Reference\u2019s wonderful Stathead feature, where a player\u2019s age for the purpose of a given season is determined by how old you are on Jan. 31 of that campaign.)<\/p>\n When\u2019s the last time teens have shone like this in a season? Not surprisingly, you\u2019ve got to go back to a wide-open era.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 1983-84 season saw 19-year-old Steve Yzerman post 89 points, 19-year-old Brian Bellows bag 41 goals, 19-year-old Phil Housley record 77 points from the blueline and \u2014 perhaps most incredibly of all \u2014 Housley\u2019s 18-year-old teammate in Buffalo, Tom Barrasso, win both the Vezina and Calder Trophies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Four years before that, a 19-year-old Wayne Gretzky won the first of his eventual nine Hart Trophies in his first NHL campaign while, during that same 1979-80 season, future five-time Norris Trophy winner Ray Bourque blasted on the scene with 65 points.<\/p>\n Forty-five years later \u2014 adjusting for how the game is played, ect. \u2014 it doesn\u2019t feel hyperbolic to compare Celebrini and Schaefer to Gretzky and Bourque.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s hard for other teams to compete with the developments seen in San Jose and Long Island, every squad has its own story of the season. So, for our final regular-season power ranking of the year \u2014 we\u2019ll have a playoff version on the eve of the post-season on Friday of next week \u2014 we wanted to highlight a headline or two for all 32 clubs at the (almost) conclusion of this watershed campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Colorado Avalanche (51-16-10)\u00a0Much of what went right in Colorado \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon being a 50-goal man and MVP candidate, Martin Necas playing at a 100-point pace in his first full year with the club \u2014 doesn\u2019t register as a huge surprise. But how about Scott Wedgewood leading the league (among goalies with 30 games played) with a .918 save percentage? Wedgewood has looked good in limited showings previously, but this is the first time he\u2019s suited up in over 40 contests (43) and he\u2019s posted a career-best SP at a time when save percentages are, on balance, falling around the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Carolina Hurricanes (50-22-6)\u00a0The Canes have the best power play in the league since the calander flipped to 2026 (31.6 per cent) and that feels like a significant development for a team that\u2019s struggled to find a goal or two when it matters most. Carolina has had decent PPs in past seasons \u2014 ranking in the 10th-to-15th range \u2014 but nothing like what we\u2019ve seen for going on four months now in Raleigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Buffalo Sabres (48-23-8)\u00a0You can be a sophomore in college and have only vague recollections of playoff hockey in Buffalo. You cannot overstate how huge this leap-forward season has been in Western New York. This team can do damage in the playoffs this year and, now that it\u2019s shaken the stink of a 14-year drought, it\u2019s reasonable to expect real contention from the Sabres year over year.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Dallas Stars (46-20-12)\u00a0Wyatt Johnston has been a great player from the moment he joined the league, but he\u2019s taken another meaningful leap in Year 4. The Stars have a legit, stud No. 1 centre on their hands. Johnston, 22, is already at 43 goals this year \u2014 10 more than his previous career high of 33 from last year \u2014 and he leads the NHL with 26 power-play strikes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 5. Montreal Canadiens<\/a> (46-22-10)\u00a0Cole Caufield is one goal away from becoming the first Habs player with 50 in 35 years and Nick Suzuki is four points away from becoming the first player to put up 100 points in a Canadiens sweater in 40 years. Their offensive numbers are symbols of a new, exciting era in Montreal that officially landed this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n 6. Minnesota Wild (45-21-12)\u00a0You could argue the Wild landed the best player via trade any team has in a while when they acquired Quinn Hughes just before Christmas from Vancouver. While Minny needs to pair a summertime extension with the swap to make it a slam-dunk transaction, getting Hughes is still far and away the story of the season for the Wild.\u00a0<\/p>\n 7. Tampa Bay Lightning (48-24-6)\u00a0Nikita Kucherov may win the Hart Trophy, but we have to go with the stunning blue-line breakout achieved by Darren Raddysh. The guy who turned 30 about six weeks ago has 69 points in 71 contests this year, exploding his previous personal best of 37 from last season. The timing is something else, with Raddysh set to become a UFA in a 2026 class largely bereft of high-end talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n 8. Pittsburgh Penguins (40-22-16)\u00a0The story here is just a complete shift in perception \u2014 at least from the outside world \u2014 in terms of where the Pens are as an organization. This seemed like a lottery team all day long in September but not only is Pittsburgh on the verge of pinning down a playoff spot, the Penguins are almost certain to open the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs on home ice. Few developments in the league this year are as shocking.\u00a0<\/p>\n 9. Boston Bruins (43-26-10)\u00a0While it\u2019s surprising to see Boston back in the playoffs one year after a hard reset, it did feel like there was a path back to being competitive for this club. Still, did anybody anticipate the Bruins being fourth in points percentage (.684) in the second half and second overall at home (.731)? Morgan Geekie validating last year\u2019s breakout with an even better 37-goal (so far) campaign and the emergence of Fraser Minten playing so well as a rookie centre are two huge developments for this club. The cherry on top of the sundae would be Toronto handing over a pick in the six-to-eight range at the draft thanks to last season\u2019s Brandon Carlo trade.\u00a0<\/p>\n 10. Philadelphia Flyers (40-26-12)\u00a0A 15-5-1 run since Feb. 26 has transformed the feel around this squad. Thanks to that showing, Philly could snap a five-year playoff drought and provide important post-season experience to a bunch of core players on the team who\u2019ve never been there.\u00a0<\/p>\n 11. Ottawa Senators<\/a> (41-27-10)\u00a0Anybody else starting to wonder if the story of Ottawa\u2019s season will be the Sens peaking at right time? Who wants to play this team in Round 1 if Ottawa gets some saves?<\/p>\n 12. Utah Mammoth (41-30-6)\u00a0This club\u2019s aggression since moving to Utah \u2014 up to and including acquiring MacKenzie Weegar at the trade deadline \u2014 is about to pay off in the form of a playoff appearance in Year 2 in Salt Lake City that will nourish a new fanbase and create even more excitement for hockey in the area. By the way, the Mammoth are nearly locked in WC1 in the West and will play a Pacific Division winner that\u2019s basically going to have the exact same record as Utah. It\u2019s not like the Mammoth will be overmatched in Round 1.<\/p>\n 13. Edmonton Oilers<\/a> (40-29-10)\u00a0The Oilers finally made a goalie move, acquiring Triston Jarry from the Penguins, and yet the club will enter the post-season with just as many \u2014 if not more \u2014 questions about the crease as when Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard were the battery.\u00a0<\/p>\n 14. Vegas Golden Knights (36-26-16)\u00a0The late-breaking development was John Tortorella replacing Bruce Cassidy with eight games to go and \u2014 for the moment \u2014 looking as though he\u2019s going to get Vegas into the playoffs on a heater. The Knights are 4-0-0 under \u201cTorts\u201d and have allowed two or fewer goals in three of those outings.\u00a0<\/p>\n 15. Washington Capitals (40-30-9)\u00a0The Caps took a step back this year, but may still squeak into the playoffs. We\u2019ll know sometime early in the summer if the retroactive story of this season was watching goal king Alex Ovechkin play in the NHL for one\u00a0final twirl<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 16. New York Islanders (42-31-5)\u00a0Following the Knights\u2019 lead, the Isles axed Patrick Roy in the final flickers of the season as they try to claw back into one of the playoffs spots they (very surprisingly) held for much of the year. New York has four games \u2014 all at home \u2014 left and likely needs all eight points to get in.\u00a0<\/p>\n 17. Columbus Blue Jackets (39-27-12)\u00a0The second-half surge under new coach Rick Bowness won\u2019t mean a thing if the Jackets can\u2019t make the playoffs. Still, it\u2019s a huge development to see Jet Greaves \u2014 who just turned 25 \u2014 show he\u2019s got the goods to be a No. 1 in his first full season.\u00a0<\/p>\n 18. Detroit Red Wings (40-29-9)\u00a0Another miserable stretch run has this franchise in a serious funk. Two years ago, the Wings had a 5-12-3 hiccup that killed them, then, last year, Detroit posted a 6-13-1 skid that torpedoed its playoff chances. This time out, it\u2019s an 8-13-4 slide that\u2019s been capped with absolute heartbreakers in the Wings\u2019 past two appearances, as Minnesota found a game-winning goal with 1:51 to go in the third on Sunday and Columbus got an equalizer with 17 seconds left on Tuesday before netting the OT winner. Just absolute misery in the Motor City as the team tries to snap a nine-year playoff drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n 19. Los Angeles Kings (32-26-19)\u00a0It\u2019s been a tough year all around in L.A., but seeing one of its offensive stars, Kevin Fiala, have his season wiped out by an injury at the Olympics was very tough for a team that always struggles to score. Of course, we must acknowledge Anze Kopitar becoming the all-time franchise leader during his final NHL season, every one of them spent with the Kings.\u00a0<\/p>\n 20. Nashville Predators (37-31-10)\u00a0Everyone is getting traded! Steven Stamkos is cooked \u2026 no, wait, he\u2019s one of the best goal-scorers in hockey again! Barry Trotz is stepping down \u2026 and nobody is getting traded?! I don\u2019t know what the story of the season in Nashville is, but the word of the year is \u201crollicking\u201d and somehow, at the end of this wild season, the Preds could still make the post-season.<\/p>\n 21. Anaheim Ducks (41-32-5)\u00a0Hopefully for Ducks fans, the story of the season won\u2019t be a six-game skid that continues to the point they miss the playoffs. Barring that \u2014 and Anaheim should have enough of a cushion to at least get in \u2014 this year will be about a promising young core returning post-season hockey to Orange County for the first time since 2018, as the arrow points distinctly up on the franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n 22. New Jersey Devils (40-35-3)\u00a0It just feels like the Quinn Hughes trade rumours in the first half of the season impacted the Devils dressing room and a talented team that perpetually disappoints once again found a way to be less than the sum of the parts. Somebody else is going to get the job of assembling those parts now \u2014 and there are really good ones here \u2014 with GM Tom Fitzgerald and the club parting ways.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 23. St. Louis Blues (33-32-12)\u00a0Not to duck the assignment, but the real question here is what will be the story of the off-season during a summer when Alex Steen is officially taking the GM reins from Doug Armstrong? Will the Blues resume their sell posture from the deadline and re-examine moving vital pieces like centre Robert Thomas and Colton Parayko, or will the emergence of young players such as goalie Joel Hofer, rookie winger Jimmy Snuggerud and young blue-liner Philip Broberg be enough to convince Steen to stay the course?<\/p>\n 24. San Jose Sharks (37-33-7)\u00a0Macklin Celebrini\u2019s emergence has put San Jose in a position not only to compete for a playoff spot well ahead of schedule, but have management be emboldened enough to go out and help the club by adding a player such as Kiefer Sherwood. That the Sharks are already in that headspace speaks volumes about how well this rebuild is going and not many people had that telegraphed before the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n 25. Winnipeg Jets (34-31-12)\u00a0If you\u2019re a Jets fan, you\u2019re hoping this season ultimately comes to be viewed as nothing more than a gap year, with the club returning to contention in 2026-27. Winnipeg must find some support scoring in the off-season, though.<\/p>\n 26. New York Rangers (33-37-9)\u00a0This was supposed to be a bounce-back season under the guidance of new, win-now coach Mike Sullivan. Instead, this year cemented the notion from last season that something is truly foul here. Where the Rangers rebuild\/retool goes from here is hard to say, but the idea there could be a quick fix has gone out the window.\u00a0<\/p>\n 27. Florida Panthers (37-37-4)\u00a0From the moment Aleksander Barkov injured his knee at training camp, the dye was cast. This battered-and-bruised squad finally broke down under the weight of three straight trips to the final. The Cats will be back \u2014 good and mean as ever \u2014 next fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n 28. Calgary Flames<\/a> (32-36-9)\u00a0Flames fans are probably fretting that a 6-2-2 run in the past three weeks has damaged the lottery odds for a team that has not drafted in the top three picks since moving to Calgary 45 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n