This NHL season is two days old and has already brought Connor Bedard’s first NHL goal, an Auston Matthews hat trick and a Brock Boeser explosion.
All that despite the fact nearly half the league — 15 teams to be exact — has yet to play its first game of the new campaign. What that means, basically, is we’re still very much in the hope-springs-eternal phase of the hockey calendar.
Optimism takes different forms as you work through each tier of team. So with that in mind, it was no trouble to find (at least) one reason for hope for all 32 clubs in the first official power ranking of the new year.
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1. Colorado Avalanche (1-0-0) Rest, hunger and clarity. The Avs had four months off and a first-round loss to Seattle last year which surely re-ignited the desire to get to the top. Also, knowing captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss this entire season — unlike last year when uncertainty hung over his injury situation — means Colorado could act in the off-season to make adjustments.
2. Carolina Hurricanes (1-0-0) There’s potential for two in-house guys, second-line centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi and top-line winger Seth Jarvis, to take significant steps forward this year.
3. Toronto Maple Leafs (1-0-0) GM Brad Treliving just brings fresh eyes to the scene. He changed the complexion of the forward group in the off-season and you can bet he’s not done at least tinkering with a lineup that has not been able to make a playoff run.
4. Vegas Golden Knights (1-0-0) For much of the salary cap era, we became conditioned to reflexively say “nobody repeats.” Then the Penguins went back-to-back in 2017 — the first club in nearly 20 years to do so — and Tampa also turned the trick in 2021. So, Vegas, some teams repeat.
5. Edmonton Oilers (0-1-0) 97.
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6. New Jersey Devils (0-0-0) Not every team endures years of pain before finally getting over the playoff hump. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane won the Cup in their second trip to the playoffs. I wouldn’t be shocked if we wind up saying the same thing about Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier.
7. Dallas Stars (0-0-0) Matt Duchene could prove to be the UFA signing of the summer. Additions like that can put an already solid team over the top.
8. Boston Bruins (1-0-0) The goal-posts have moved, for sure, but the Bruins are still backed by the top goalie duo in the league. That’s a wonderful place to start.
9. Tampa Bay Lightning (1-0-0) No team was more in need of a long break than Tampa Bay. Like Colorado, the championship hunger should return — especially with so many people ready to write them off already thanks to Andrei Vasilevskiy’s injury.
10. Los Angeles Kings (0-1-0) A 1-2-3 of Anze Kopitar, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Phillip Danault down the middle might be the best centre trio in the league.
11. New York Rangers (0-0-0) It’s fair to question the forwards, but the top-four defence crew and the No. 1 goalie are elite.
12. Pittsburgh Penguins (0-1-0) Erik Karlsson will almost certainly help what’s been a middling power play the past couple years. And if that part of the Penguins’ game improves, they’ll be right back in contention.
13. Minnesota Wild (0-0-0) Matthew Boldy has another level to get to and centre Marco Rossi is ready to establish himself as the player Minny envisioned when it selected him ninth overall in 2020.
14. Calgary Flames (1-0-0) If nothing else, it’s a fresh start for everyone under new coach Ryan Huska. There’s still a lot to like about this roster.
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15. Florida Panthers (0-0-0) Maybe last spring’s run to the Stanley Cup Final can help Sergei Bobrovsky recapture better regular-season form.
16. Buffalo Sabres (0-0-0) How about, in addition to the high-end talent already on the roster, the idea that the Sabres could add hometown boy Patrick Kane to the mix when he’s ready to return from off-season hip surgery? Western New York would lose its mind.
17. New York Islanders (0-0-0) Ilya Sorokin has a .925 save percentage the past two years, a mark exceeded by only Linus Ullmark (.928) in that span. He’s a true No. 1 stud who ensures the Isles will be competitive.
18. Winnipeg Jets (0-1-0) Meet the team that provided its fans more than they dared hope for before the season even started. It felt fully in play that both Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck could be playing somewhere other than Winnipeg by March. Now — incredibly — both are locked up to be Jets for the next decade and the team can all focus on trying to get back into the post-season.
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19. Seattle Kraken (0-1-0) Seattle made the playoffs last year without the benefit of strong goaltending. If Phillipp Grubauer can get back to his old self, the Kraken will remain in that second-season mix.
20. Ottawa Senators (0-1-0) The Josh Norris injury and Shane Pinto contract situation are a bummer, no doubt. But from a 30,000-foot view — with a new, passionate owner and a young core that’s largely committed to the squad — there hasn’t been this much hope in Ottawa for a while.
21. Washington Capitals (0-0-0) If the Caps get full seasons from John Carlson, Nick Backstrom and Tom Wilson — three guys who each basically missed half of last year — it’s hard to imagine they’re not back fighting for the playoffs. Also, second-year Capital Darcy Kuemper has a .918 save percentage since the start of 2018-19, a superior mark to all but four goalies in the league during that time.
22. Nashville Predators (0-1-0) Regime change always brings optimism, so let’s see what happens under new GM Barry Trotz and new coach Andrew Brunette.
23. Detroit Red Wings (0-0-0) Alex DeBrincat scored 73 goals in his final 134 games with the Blackhawks during the 2020-21 and ’21-’22 seasons. Only five guys in the league had more during that two-year span. It didn’t work last season in Ottawa, but he’s happy to be home in Michigan and could light it up as a Red Wing.
24. St. Louis Blues (0-0-0) The Blues’ top two young forwards — Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas — are really good already and feel like they’ve still got another level to get to this year.
25. Vancouver Canucks (1-0-0) STOP THE SEASON! With four goals in the opener, Brock Boeser is almost a quarter of the way to his goal total (18) in all of last year and the Canucks have the same amount of victories as they did after eight outings last October. Let’s see where a full season under Rick Tocchet goes.
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26. Columbus Blue Jackets (0-0-0) It’s not fair to ask him to move the needle right away, but Adam Fantilli is the type of centre you dream of drafting and his Blue Jackets journey is about to begin.
27. Arizona Coyotes (0-0-0) Everyone who’s not picking a certain first-overall pick to be rookie of the year is selecting Logan Cooley. This kid is going to be fun to watch.
28. Philadelphia Flyers (0-0-0) Full rebuilds are tough, but also inherently exciting — especially at the beginning, which is where Philly stands now.
29. Montreal Canadiens (0-0-1) This is still a process-over-results team and there’s reason to believe a number of Montreal’s young players will grow this season.
30. Chicago Blackhawks (1-1-0) What could be better than watching Connor Bedard — a point-per-game NHLer through two career outings — dazzle while knowing wins are a secondary consideration this season and there might well be another top-three draft selection coming in June?
31. Anaheim Ducks (0-0-0) It took a while, but everybody is back in the flock with Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale finally inking contracts. Now the conversation can shift to what a fine collection of young talent this squad has.
32. San Jose Sharks (0-0-0) The Sharks have never had the first-overall selection for an NHL Draft. Here’s hoping…
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