Even if Christmas and your birthday qualified for a play-in round, they’d likely lose to the opening of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the most exciting date on the calendar.
Stat sheets and win/loss records get wiped clean. Injuries get played right through like a foursome of old golfers. And the intensity ratchets seven notches.
The hockey you thought you enjoyed watching for five months will barely resemble the hockey you’re about to watch for the next two.
Best of all: New heroes are just waiting to don their capes, and old reputations will soon be overwritten.
We already know what matters most (hint: it’s silver and iconic and weighs 34.5 pounds). We don’t yet know who will matter most in sport’s greatest team tournament.
But we have a hunch these 16 players — one for every team standing — will define their city’s story. For better or worse.
(Or whoever takes the Carolina’s crease!) Since Rod Brind’Amour took the helm, the Canes have been to three conference finals and zero Stanley Cup finals. They’re fast. They pepper pucks. They work hard. Ultimately, though, a shortage of game-breaking top-end talent and less-than-trustworthy goaltending proves Carolina’s undoing.
None of Brandon Bussi, Frederik Andersen, or Pyotr Kochetkov (now healthy) mustered a .900 save percentage for the Metropolitan’s No. 1 seed and three-headed crease this season. Andersen, 36, is 11 springs removed from a nine-win postseason. Kochetkov’s career playoff save percentage is a ghastly .860. Let’s see if the late-blooming, unproven Bussi — already rewarded with a three-year contract extension — can give Carolina a fresh feel in the pipes.
As the youngest No. 1 centreman in the tournament, the 21-year-old Leo Carlsson represents an organization on the rise. The sturdy pivot piled nearly a point per game while facing the opposition’s toughest matchups. But much like exciting wingers Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke and a mostly young D corps led by Jackson LaCombe, Carlson has never experienced the jolt of Game 83.
The house-money Ducks will lean on the guidance of their beringed head coach, Joel Quenneville, and imported savvy of vets like John Carlson, Chris Kreider and Alex Killorn. But if the playoff team with the most regulation losses (33) is to surprise, they’ll need the youthful ignorance/exuberance of Carlsson & Co. to shine.
P.S.: Carlsson is an impending RFA. Imagine what a clutch playoff performance will do for his leverage at the negotiating table.
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“That’s why you play,” Sidney Crosby said. This was the captain’s response upon learning that he had guided his write-off Penguins back to the promised land after three long years in the desert — and at least that many waves of trade rumours. But any notion that Crosby would dare wear new laundry was based on the theory that his beloved Black and Yellow had grown irrelevant. Suddenly, under head coach Dan Muse, the Pens matter.
A point-per-game monster for 21 consecutive seasons, Crosby’s return to the Sweet 16 will be packed with all that pent-up energy he was too hurt to expend for Team Canada in Milan. And supported by rewind-the-clock performances by Erik Karlsson and Evgeni Malkin. Still, Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff series since 2018. That was against their bitter intrastate rival Flyers. Well, guess who Crosby draws in Round 1 …
Eight gruelling, tumultuous and generally sad years after he was drafted first overall in 2018, Rasmus Dahlin has led the Sabres to a snuffing of the longest playoff drought in pro sports. Hockey is back and in a major way in Buffalo. And the Sabres have home ice.
Now, if Dahlin — whose name will pop up on many a Norris ballot — and his band of beer-drinking brothers are to do damage, they’ll have to lean on the experience of coach Lindy Ruff, get clutch saves and improve their power play. Above all, Dahlin needs to be a star at both ends of the rink, running special teams, crawling under opponents’ skin and quieting seasoned superstars like David Pastrnak and Nikita Kucherov. We already see the captain logging 30-plus minutes in some OT thrillers. He’ll make 586 games worth the wait.
The two-time defending Western Conference champs know what they’ll get from Art Ross winner Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard — and goaltending will always be a mystery box in Northern Alberta — but the major X-factor here is Leon Draisaitl.
Draisaitl’s 52 goals and 141 points over 96 playoff games is all-time stuff. The big German has been sidelined longer than a month by a knee injury, though, and is expected to see game action “sometime” in Round 1. McDavid alone cannot carry the Oil through four rounds, so Draisaitl must be healthy and stay that way for two months. If so, the double-headed monster will make opponents fearful to commit penalties and cause coaches to sweat over which game-breaker to sic their shutdown pair on.
Probably this season’s least-celebrated 40-goal man, Dylan Guenther might already have his own statue if he played in Montreal (we jest). The 23-year-old sniper represents a young and exciting new franchise that probably doesn’t get enough love (Zammoth notwithstanding) but is about to introduce a whole state to the joys of playoff intensity and has a chance to multiply its fanbase through national exposure.
Guenther’s Mammoth have been tagged as a wild card to watch, and they actually racked up more wins (43) than first-round foe Vegas (39). Utah’s flip from the Central to a softer Pacific bracket may serve it well, and Guenther’s wicked release could break Carter Hart’s spirit if not the Internet.
Not unlike Dahlin in Buffalo, Dallas needs No. 1 defenceman Miro Heiskanen to be its best and busiest skater if the club is to survive one round, let alone four. We’ve seen the Stars attempt to go deep without the Finnish blueliner before (Heiskanen played just eight games in the Stars’ 2025 postseason run), and it doesn’t end well.
Heiskanen, who piled 63 points from the back end, missed the final three games of the regular season with a lower-body injury but may get the green light for Game 1. (Star forward Roope Hintz is also limping into the playoffs and has been ruled out until Game 3.) With margins for error so slim as the Stars draw the toughest opponents early (Minnesota and, likely, Colorado), Heiskanen must be in Norris-like form.
Bill Guerin mortgaged a chunk of the future to win now. With no guarantee of an extension, the Wild GM gave up four decent young pieces to Vancouver for the privilege of having Quinn Hughes run his blueline for two playoff runs.
A major reason Hughes wanted to switch sweaters was to play more do-or-die hockey, something that had eluded the shifty D-man in five of his seven seasons in B.C. Now Hughes — already Minnesota’s single-season points leader by a defenceman — will get his fill. The 26-year-old gold medallist led the entire league in average time on ice (27:44), and we can’t see coach Jon Hynes monitoring his minutes with so much on the line.
The Presidents’ Trophy champions gave up a haul to bring (the 35-year-old version of) Nazem Kadri back to Denver in an attempt to recreate the glory of 2022. You don’t let the dawgs go. But if you do, you try to lure them back with treats.
The last playoff game Kadri played ended with him lifting a lifelong dream over his head. He’ll be raring to go, no doubt. But the two-way forward is also coming off a career-worst minus-30 campaign, and the Avs weren’t as strong in the second half of the season as they were in the first. Coach Jared Bednar is blessed with supreme centre depth, but he must find the right fit for Kadri — a familiar X-factor complement to Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas.
Full disclosure: We were prepared to give our final flowers to this first-ballot Hall of Famer after Game 82. It’s not every April that a team with the NHL’s 25th-most wins (25), 22nd-best goal differential (minus-22) and 20th-best points percentage (.549) receives an invite to the dance. That said, we’re happy that two-time Cup champ Anze Kopitar is getting one last twirl.
The Kings’ reward for finally dodging the Oilers is a date with the most fearsome wagon in hockey: Colorado. Any shot of this No. 8 seed repeating what Kopitar’s original No. 8 seed accomplished in 2012? The 38-year-old scored his age this season. Hopefully, he was sandbagging and is ready to turn back the clock. Otherwise, it’ll be early handshakes and a bittersweet farewell to one of the classiest and most consistent to ever lace ’em up.
Ten outta 10. Mitch Marner jumped the good ship Maple Leaf just in time to keep his playoff streak alive and has exploded for nine points in the eight games since emergency coach John Tortorella joined him on the Strip. An impressive 7-0-1 surge since the bench switch earned the Knights another Pacific Division title, but the best pillow fighters of the bunch need to maintain this run of strong defensive play.
Marner will be critical in that regard. Vegas shelled out big dough for the responsible playmaker because it hasn’t been able to get past Round 2 since winning the Cup in 2023. Marner has never gotten past Round 2, but he’s never been surrounded by more guys who have. Remember, he cited championship pedigree as a primary reason for choosing the Knights. It’s time to contribute to that.
The youngest member of this list is a prime reason why: (a) the Flyers surged over some strong competition down the stretch to lock up the Metropolitan’s No. 3 seed, ending a five-year postseason drought; and (b) hockey feels so promising again in Pennsylvania.
The 19-year-old Porter Martone is riding a whirlwind here, signing an NHL deal days after a stellar, 50-point turn as a Michigan State freshman, then erupting for 10 points in his first nine games as a professional. How deep Rick Tocchet can push his band of overachievers is anyone’s guess. Seldom does a team with the league’s worst power play (15.7 per cent) even make the cut, let alone go deep. But rest assured, Martone will inspire hope and sell sweaters.
A hotly tipped Selke contender, Nick Suzuki busted out offensively with his first 100-point campaign, taking time to scoop up Olympic silver along the way. Theories that Montreal’s captain may peak at a No. 2 centre have been debunked, and now the London, Ont., native is trying to elevate his exciting young club past last spring’s one-and-done playoff experience.
Funny, Jon Cooper — coach of Montreal’s first-round opponent — must flip from singing Suzuki’s praises to hoping his clutch gene doesn’t stump the Lightning. The 26-year-old will be leaned on to win his matchups at both ends, but not since 2021 has he been surrounded by such a deep and diverse supporting cast.
It’s no coincidence that the worst season of Jeremy Swayman’s career (22-29-7, .892 in 2024-25) coincides with the only year he has missed the playoffs. Nor is it an accident that the Bruins’ resurgence has matched that of their best goalie. Attending every day of training camp, Swayman set a new career high in wins this season (31) and posted a tidy .908 save percentage.
The man has his swagger back. And although Boston is just one of a few pleasant surprises in a topsy-turvy Atlantic Division, its experience and its certainty between the pipes gives reason to believe the B’s could upset a couple teams higher in the standings. What better way for the Vezina candidate to slap an exclamation mark on his bounce-back campaign than to make some noise in the post-season?
Which version of Linus Ullmark will the scorching-hot, increasingly healthy Senators get? The version that won a Vezina and posted a .938 in 2023 and showed up late this season to backstop an impressive post-Olympic rally? Or the one that feels under mental duress, gets overwhelmed by workload and dipped to a career-low .891 this season?
The Sens have bought in to coach Travis Green’s relentless system, and last year’s nervy test run in the post-season should serve this coming-of-age core well. Even better, their path looks a little less thorny on the Metro side of the bracket. But of all Eastern Conference entries, Ottawa comes in with the worst team save percentage. In other words, Ullmark has the most room for improvement. Think of it as an opportunity.
When Coach Cooper speaks of his long tenure in Tampa Bay, he never hesitates to credit “the goalie.” Well, otherworldly workaholic Andrei Vasilevskiy has come back down to earth in recent playoffs. His .875 in 2023, .897 in 2024 and .872 in 2025 have been a contributing factor to the Lightning’s three-spring string of first-round exits.
The Russian cat has been superb and (mostly) healthy through a return-to-form regular season, though. Last time Vasilevskiy posted 39 wins, the Bolts went all the way to the final (2022). A fine omen.
