With NHL rookie camps opening later this week and training camps beginning soon after, a clearer picture is available of what teams will look like to start the 2025-26 regular season. The results of one year will not become a carbon copy of the next season, as clubs will fall out of one of the top eight playoff spots in each conference, with others making improvements that will result in them earning a post-season berth.
In the West, there does not seem to be many opportunities for teams that finished outside of the top eight to jump up and earn a playoff spot. In the Eastern Conference, there does appear to be more clubs that could take a step back. In the Atlantic, Florida will likely be able to tread water while Matthew Tkachuk recovers from off-season surgery, Tampa Bay stood pat after re-acquiring Yanni Gourde and added Oliver Bjorkstrand at the deadline, and Toronto may not be able to score as much without Mitch Marner, but it is a better fit with head coach Craig Berube’s style.
In the Metropolitan, Washington brings back the same squad that finished with 111 points, and Carolina has added free agent winger Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman K’Andre Miller. The soft targets for clubs hoping to make the playoffs are the New Jersey Devils and the two Eastern Conference wild cards, the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens.
The Devils added depth forward Connor Brown in free agency, but will need both Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton to stay healthy to make the post-season. Ottawa re-signed Claude Giroux and added veteran Lars Eller, but will need everything that fell in place last season to happen again. Montreal will be heavily reliant on rookie Ivan Demidov making a big impact and Lane Hutson not having a sophomore slump, but they did add defenseman Noah Dobson in a trade.
Here are three bubble clubs that could make their move this season:
The Blue Jackets just missed the playoffs last season, and added a pair of battle-tested forwards in Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a deal with Colorado, as well as extending forward Mathieu Olivier, Dmitri Voronkov, and defensemen Ivan Provorov and Dante Fabbro. They also have youngsters in Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli, who took a big jump last season.
Columbus is almost totally reliant on Jet Greaves being their No. 1 goalie after a good AHL season, and coming up late in the year and going 7-2-2. Their fallback, Elvis Merzlikins, has almost certainly left the building.
After years of struggling to find a legitimate No. 1 goalie, GM Steve Yzerman may have finally solved the issue with the acquisition of John Gibson from Anaheim. The rest of the summer was spent solidifying their depth, adding veterans Travis Hamonic, Mason Appleton and James van Riemsdyk.
The Wings did not add any offense to a club that had only four players who scored 20 or more goals last season, which means they will have to play much better defensively, even though the depth on their blueline is questionable, and will need their improved tandem of Gibson and Cam Talbot to steal points.
The Rangers were a chaotic mess last season, as GM Chris Drury moved out Jacob Trouba, Reilly Smith, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko and Ryan Lindgren. Bringing in Cup-winning head coach Mike Sullivan and having center J.T. Miller for a full season should help right the ship, as well as adding veteran blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov.
The depth up front and on defense is not as solid as it was a couple of seasons ago, when the Rangers won the President’s Trophy and made the Eastern Conference final. More pressure will be on Alexis Lafreniere, Vincent Trocheck and Will Cuylle to provide secondary scoring and keep some of the pressure off Miller and Artemi Panarin, and the same goes for Braden Schneider playing in the top four and lessening the burden of Adam Fox.
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