This has been quite the season.
From a league-wide perspective, the offensive exploits of Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid — all already past the 130-point barrier — and Auston Matthews’ pursuit of 70 goals have rightly dominated headlines.
Obviously, those players are at the centre of what’s being written and said about their teams.
But — whether good or bad — every squad has a story of the season.
With one week to go until the final night of the regular season — and with this being the final power ranking of a dazzling 2023-24 campaign — we’re shining a light on that one story that defined the year for all 32 clubs.
1. Dallas Stars (50-20-9) This year demonstrated this squad is set up to contend in perpetuity. Dallas has eight guys who’ve netted 20 goals this year, and no team can match that balance. It feels like a generation of franchise-defining players just landed in Texas (Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger) and we’ve already seen the next wave arrive (Wyatt Johnston, Thomas Harley, Logan Stankoven).
2. New York Rangers (53-22-4) Artemi Panarin’s career year — 46 goals, 116 points — would land him squarely in the MVP race in a season when the top guys weren’t tearing their way to 140 points. The big development on Broadway, though, might be the 27-goal breakout by 2020 first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere.
3. Carolina Hurricanes (50-22-7) The Canes scuffled along to a 14-12-1 record out of the gate. It got so bad, coach Rod Brind’Amour was calling out his club during a typically benign in-game interview. Beginning with a 4-1 win in Ottawa on Dec. 12, Carolina completely turned its season around and has the best points percentage in the league (.750) since. Pyotr Kochetkov has a .924 save percentage since that night and Sebastian Aho — who scored two of the four goals — has 65 points in 52 games.
4. Boston Bruins (46-18-5) David Pastrnak has 41 more points (107) than the next closest Bruin (66 by Brad Marchand). A 41-point season is a decent year for a middle-six forward. His ongoing brilliance in the absence of the retired Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci is the story of the year in Boston. Also, what could be more Bruin than the near-identical stat lines of their foundational goalie tandem: Jeremy Swayman has a .915 save percentage and 2.56 goals-against average in 43 games, while Linus Ullmark has a .916 SP and 2.55 GAA in 38 outings.
5. Edmonton Oilers (48-24-5) The Oilers still have an outside shot at winning their division despite starting the season 2-9-1. The turnaround under new coach Kris Knoblauch is the story of the season in Northern Alberta.
6. Toronto Maple Leafs (46-23-9) Auston Matthews’ 66 goals is already the most we’ve seen from anybody since Mario Lemieux popped 69 in 1995-96. Low-key, the Ilya Samsonov comeback has been something else, too. The Russian had an .862 save percentage when he stepped away from the team after Christmas and spent time with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies while getting a mental health reset. Since Jan. 21, Samsonov has an 18-3-1 record with a .915 save percentage. He’s been a completely different goalie in 2024.
7. Vancouver Canucks (48-22-9) Whatever happens with the Canucks — and anything from a final-four playoff showing to losing in Round 1 feels in play — let’s not forget what an unbelievable comeback year this was for the franchise, highlighted by Quinn Hughes’ Norris-level play and the fact Elias Pettersson has signed on to be the stud No. 1 C for the next decade.
8. Colorado Avalanche (49-24-6) Nathan MacKinnon’s Hart-worthy season is the headliner. But, increasingly, it’s impossible to ignore the comeback year put together by Jonathan Drouin. The 2013 third-overall pick has basically been a point-per-game player in the second half and has nine goals and 24 points in his past 19 outings.
9. Tampa Bay Lightning (44-27-7) Kucherov’s entire season is a masterpiece, but he’s really gone crazy as the Bolts have saved their season. Tampa was in the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot on March 1 with an even goal-differential. Since then, Tampa is 12-3-1, thanks in large part to Kucherov averaging 2.19 points per game — better than everybody, including MacKinnon and McDavid — in that time. Tampa’s goal differential is plus-26.
10. Winnipeg Jets (48-24-6) It still really feels like the big story was signing Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele to twin extensions one day before the season began. How different would this feel-good year (even with a second-half stumble) seem if even one of those contract situations had been hanging over the Jets’ heads?
11. Florida Panthers (49-24-6) The Panthers were without their top two defencemen — Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad — until Nov. 17. Coming off a long Cup run and competing in a very tough division, that could have been a serious problem. But the Cats kept their heads well above water, then surged when those two returned. Even with an extended scuffle (4-7-2 in their past 13), Florida should open the playoffs with home-ice advantage. That did not feel like anything close to a certainty when it began the year shorthanded on the blue.
12. Nashville Predators (45-29-5) A 16-0-2 stretch from mid-February to early March has defined Nashville’s first season with Barry Trotz at the hockey operations helm and Andrew Brunette behind the bench. The Preds have already locked down a playoff spot that, at different times in the season, looked anything but assured.
13. Los Angeles Kings (41-26-11) Acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois last summer was the latest in a series of all-in moves by the Kings, and it just flat-out has not worked. Maybe Dubois can flip the script in the playoffs.
14. St. Louis Blues (42-32-5) Craig Berube — the only coach to win a Cup in franchise history — was axed this year, and the Blues seem to bounce between winning four in a row and losing four straight under interim coach Drew Bannister. They’re finishing strong and have a slim chance at nudging into the playoffs, but this is a team in transition and it will be interesting to see where GM Doug Armstrong guides things in the summer.
15. New York Islanders (36-27-15) See above. The Isles tapped Patrick Roy in-season to be the new bench boss, and every time you look up, they seem to either be on a good streak or bad streak. The difference between the Islanders and Blues is New York should conclude the roller-coaster ride with a playoff spot.
16. Pittsburgh Penguins (36-30-12) The story of the year in Pittsburgh is coming face-to-face with hard realities. This team was a deadline seller a month ago. Even if Sidney Crosby successfully wills the Pens into the playoffs — where, hilariously, they could conceivably face old friend Jake Guentzel — it feels like Pittsburgh has passed the point of no return in terms of building a true contender around Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
17. Vegas Golden Knights (42-28-8) Injuries to star players and all-in moves have defined this season in Vegas. But more and more it seems like the defending champs will get a long summer of recovery to heal up and be back as strong as ever in the fall.
18. Washington Capitals (37-30-11) Single weirdest season in the league? Alex Ovechkin didn’t score for half a year, the Caps have a minus-40 goal differential (the five worse teams are legit dreaming of a lottery win) and Charlie Lindgren became an NHL starter at age 30. Yet, here they are, clinging to the final playoff berth in the East.
19. Detroit Red Wings (38-32-8) Let’s face it, if the Wings find a way to get in and lose in four straight Round 1 games, the story of the season will still be progress. If they don’t, it’s going to seem like they’re stuck in the mud.
20. Minnesota Wild (37-32-9) Even more than the disappointment of missing the post-season, the defining aspect of this campaign in Minny has to be the emergence of rookie D-man Brock Faber. The Wild now have a right-shot stud who grew up in the state ready to anchor the blueline for the next dozen years.
21. Seattle Kraken (33-31-13) Maybe the defining moment of this tough year in Seattle is happening right now. Shane Wright was called up from the AHL at the start of this month and has four goals in four games. If he’s becoming the player Seattle hoped it was getting at fourth overall in 2022, next year will be better than this one.
22. Buffalo Sabres (37-37-4) Another lost year. There’s no other way to put it.
23. Arizona Coyotes (34-40-5) It’s becoming increasingly plausible that the story of the season in the desert is this being the Coyotes’ final season in Arizona.
24. Ottawa Senators (34-40-4) Through all the incredible noise — a coach and GM being axed, a young player getting hit with a 41-game suspension for gambling-related actions — the story remains a team dotted with high-end skill that can’t stop spinning its wheels.
25. New Jersey Devils (37-37-5) A true season from hell. The Devils were blasted with injuries to top guys, and a season that began with justifiable belief they could win the division and make playoff progress delivered only disappointment after disappointment.
26. Montreal Canadiens (30-36-12) After scoring two goals in his first 31 games, Juraj Slafkovsky could wind up with 20 goals this season. The second-half development of the 2022 first-overall pick is the defining element of the season for a rebuilding squad.
27. Calgary Flames (35-37-5) Just as we suspected, the selling of four pending-UFAs — Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin — defined Calgary’s season. What we didn’t see coming was the rupture with franchise goalie Jacob Markstrom when he was understandably angered after a potential trade with New Jersey fell through.
28. Philadelphia Flyers (36-32-11) John Tortorella called the Flyers’ latest loss — a 9-3 setback to the Habs on Tuesday — “rock bottom.” After spending about 70 games looking like a surprise playoff team, the Flyers have come completely unglued and now figure to be hit with the double crappy whammy of missing the post-season, while still not drafting at the top of the board. That’s not great for a franchise that was pretty open about its intentions to completely rebuild in the past 12 months.
29. Columbus Blue Jackets (26-41-12) The season started on an awful note with the Mike Babcock fiasco, and never improved. You’d like to say the arrival of Adam Fantilli as a potential franchise centre stands out above everything, but even he had his season cut short in late January by a calf laceration.
30. Chicago Blackhawks (23-50-5) Connor Bedard is here and already demonstrating an ability to live up to the highest of expectations. You can’t ask for anything more if you’re a Hawks fan.
31. Anaheim Ducks (26-48-5) The takeaway from the season in Southern California is, even with all the intriguing young talent, the Ducks are still clearly some distance from being competitive.
32. San Jose Sharks (18-51-9) The defining — and I would argue, encouraging — development in San Jose was fully leaning into a full rebuild by trading Tomas Hertl at the deadline. It’s a long road to hoe, but if the Sharks cash in on having the best lottery odds, the road to recovery is going to get a lot shorter.
