NHL Power Rankings: Biggest headline for all 32 teams

While there’s plenty to choose from, there’s a compelling case that the story of the 2025-26 NHL season is the incredible showings of two teenagers.

The current campaign is flush with big-time developments. Among the teams that will or very well could miss the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, you have the two-time defending champions from Florida, the Winnipeg Jets team that finished first overall last season and the Washington Capitals squad that finished second.

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. 

For all the immediate turnover we’re talking about here, though, it’s easy to feel like the story of the season is the new, long-term brilliance represented by Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Schaefer. 

These guys aren’t just teenagers; they’re young teenagers by NHL standards. Schaefer — who’s one goal shy of tying Brian Leetch’s record for goals by a rookie defenceman — won’t turn 19 until just before the start of the next training camp. Sophomore Celebrini, meanwhile, is still 19 until mid-June. 

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’ll 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’s 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.

(For clarity, we’re using age guidelines set on Hockey Reference’s wonderful Stathead feature, where a player’s age for the purpose of a given season is determined by how old you are on Jan. 31 of that campaign.)

When’s the last time teens have shone like this in a season? Not surprisingly, you’ve got to go back to a wide-open era. 

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 — perhaps most incredibly of all — Housley’s 18-year-old teammate in Buffalo, Tom Barrasso, win both the Vezina and Calder Trophies. 

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.

Forty-five years later — adjusting for how the game is played, ect. — it doesn’t feel hyperbolic to compare Celebrini and Schaefer to Gretzky and Bourque.

While it’s 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 — we’ll have a playoff version on the eve of the post-season on Friday of next week — we wanted to highlight a headline or two for all 32 clubs at the (almost) conclusion of this watershed campaign. 

1. Colorado Avalanche (51-16-10) Much of what went right in Colorado — 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 — doesn’t 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’s suited up in over 40 contests (43) and he’s posted a career-best SP at a time when save percentages are, on balance, falling around the league. 

2. Carolina Hurricanes (50-22-6) The 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’s struggled to find a goal or two when it matters most. Carolina has had decent PPs in past seasons — ranking in the 10th-to-15th range — but nothing like what we’ve seen for going on four months now in Raleigh. 

3. Buffalo Sabres (48-23-8) You 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’s shaken the stink of a 14-year drought, it’s reasonable to expect real contention from the Sabres year over year. 

4. Dallas Stars (46-20-12) Wyatt Johnston has been a great player from the moment he joined the league, but he’s 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 — 10 more than his previous career high of 33 from last year — and he leads the NHL with 26 power-play strikes.  

5. Montreal Canadiens (46-22-10) Cole 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. 

6. Minnesota Wild (45-21-12) You 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. 

7. Tampa Bay Lightning (48-24-6) Nikita 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. 

8. Pittsburgh Penguins (40-22-16) The story here is just a complete shift in perception — at least from the outside world — 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. 

9. Boston Bruins (43-26-10) While it’s 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’s 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’s Brandon Carlo trade. 

10. Philadelphia Flyers (40-26-12) A 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’ve never been there. 

11. Ottawa Senators (41-27-10) Anybody else starting to wonder if the story of Ottawa’s season will be the Sens peaking at right time? Who wants to play this team in Round 1 if Ottawa gets some saves?

12. Utah Mammoth (41-30-6) This club’s aggression since moving to Utah — up to and including acquiring MacKenzie Weegar at the trade deadline — 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’s basically going to have the exact same record as Utah. It’s not like the Mammoth will be overmatched in Round 1.

13. Edmonton Oilers (40-29-10) The 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 — if not more — questions about the crease as when Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard were the battery. 

14. Vegas Golden Knights (36-26-16) The late-breaking development was John Tortorella replacing Bruce Cassidy with eight games to go and — for the moment — looking as though he’s going to get Vegas into the playoffs on a heater. The Knights are 4-0-0 under “Torts” and have allowed two or fewer goals in three of those outings. 

15. Washington Capitals (40-30-9) The Caps took a step back this year, but may still squeak into the playoffs. We’ll 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 final twirl. 

16. New York Islanders (42-31-5) Following the Knights’ 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 — all at home — left and likely needs all eight points to get in. 

17. Columbus Blue Jackets (39-27-12) The second-half surge under new coach Rick Bowness won’t mean a thing if the Jackets can’t make the playoffs. Still, it’s a huge development to see Jet Greaves — who just turned 25 — show he’s got the goods to be a No. 1 in his first full season. 

18. Detroit Red Wings (40-29-9) Another 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’s an 8-13-4 slide that’s been capped with absolute heartbreakers in the Wings’ 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. 

19. Los Angeles Kings (32-26-19) It’s 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. 

20. Nashville Predators (37-31-10) Everyone is getting traded! Steven Stamkos is cooked … no, wait, he’s one of the best goal-scorers in hockey again! Barry Trotz is stepping down … and nobody is getting traded?! I don’t know what the story of the season in Nashville is, but the word of the year is “rollicking” and somehow, at the end of this wild season, the Preds could still make the post-season.

21. Anaheim Ducks (41-32-5) Hopefully for Ducks fans, the story of the season won’t be a six-game skid that continues to the point they miss the playoffs. Barring that — and Anaheim should have enough of a cushion to at least get in — 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. 

22. New Jersey Devils (40-35-3) It 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 — and there are really good ones here — with GM Tom Fitzgerald and the club parting ways.  

23. St. Louis Blues (33-32-12) Not 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?

24. San Jose Sharks (37-33-7) Macklin Celebrini’s 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. 

25. Winnipeg Jets (34-31-12) If you’re a Jets fan, you’re 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.

26. New York Rangers (33-37-9) This 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. 

27. Florida Panthers (37-37-4) From 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 — good and mean as ever — next fall. 

28. Calgary Flames (32-36-9) Flames 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. 

29. Toronto Maple Leafs (32-32-14) In the parlance of youth, the Leafs have “crashed out.” If they can do so to the point of retaining their first pick — rather than forking it over to Boston — based on it falling int the top five of the draft, maybe it will feel worth it. A premium pick and a new, exciting GM hire could get Buds backers to perk up a little. 

30. Chicago Blackhawks (28-36-14) Perhaps the story of the season for the Hawks happened in the KHL, where 2023 second-rounder Roman Kantserov became a scoring star and incredibly intriguing prospect with a 36-goal campaign (in 63 games).

31. Seattle Kraken (32-34-11) The Kraken weren’t a hockey team as much as a yo-yo this year. Seattle’s season, in six chunks: 11-5-5; 1-9-1; 8-0-1; 2-5-2; 7-3-0; 3-12-2. 

32. Vancouver Canucks (22-47-8) The Canucks scraped the bottom and embraced it. Vancouver fans can only hope the story of the season is their team winning the lottery on May 5 and picking first overall for the first time in franchise history.