1 quick thought on all 32 teams a month into the season
The 2025-26 NHL season passed the one-month mark on Friday, which means it's time to take a trip around the league. Here's one thought on all 32 teams.
(Stats courtesy: NHL.com, Evolving-Hockey, and Sportlogiq.)
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ANA | BOS | BUF | CAR | CBJ | CGY | CHI | COL | DAL | DET | EDM | FLA | LAK | MIN | MTL | NJD | NSH | NYI | NYR | OTT | PHI | PIT | SEA | STL | SJS | TBL | TOR | UTA | VAN | VGK | WPG | WSH
Anaheim Ducks
The Joel Quenneville coaching impact is real. One of many data points: the Ducks are generating 17.1 quality scoring chances per game - tying them for 13th in the NHL - to start Quenneville's tenure. They generated 13.1 and 12.6 per game to rank 31st and 30th, respectively, in Greg Cronin's two seasons behind the bench.
Boston Bruins
The Bruins have won eight games in regulation or three-on-three overtime. Each time a different player has risen to the occasion. Marat Khusnutdinov, Mark Kastelic, Fraser Minten, Michael Eyssimont, Viktor Arvidsson, Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie, and Pavel Zacha all have one game-winning goal.
Buffalo Sabres
It was easy to crown Utah the instant winners of the June trade that sent Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring to Buffalo for JJ Peterka. After all, the Mammoth were getting the best player in the deal and locking him up on a five-year extension in the process. But the trade looks like a win-win in November. While the Sabres could use Peterka's offensive juice, Doan and Kesselring flesh out Buffalo's lineup. Together, they provide equivalent on-ice value to Peterka.
Calgary Flames
Most of the NHL could use an upgrade at second-line center, and the 4-10-2 Flames have a desirable trade chip in Nazem Kadri. But owner Murray Edwards "doesn't have any intention" of moving Kadri, according to TSN's Darren Dreger. That's poor asset management for a team that needs to focus on the future. Calgary should be capitalizing on the supply and demand imbalance.
Carolina Hurricanes
The early returns from Nikolaj Ehlers are modest. After signing a six-year, $51-million deal in the offseason, the winger has pitched in just two goals and four assists in 13 games. Still, there's no need to panic in Carolina. It takes players of all talent levels time to adjust to the club's all-out style of play. The chemistry between Ehlers and Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho is palpable, with the line sporting a 59% expected goals rate through 121 five-on-five minutes.
Chicago Blackhawks
The 7-5-3 Blackhawks have been a pleasant surprise. What sticks out about the Jeff Blashill-coached team is its ability to stay in the fight. Chicago has, on average, led for 17:59, been tied for 31:50, and trailed for 11:02. That last number is notable because Carolina is the only NHL team trailing less often.
Colorado Avalanche
Colorado is an absolute buzzsaw. The Avs are first in the NHL in points and points percentage, and tied for first in point differential. They're tied for sixth in goals scored per game and tied for third in goals against. And, for good measure, they're first in expected goals for per game and first in xG against.
Columbus Blue Jackets
File this under Things Nobody Saw Coming: Columbus is fifth in the NHL in team save percentage (.906). The craziest part? The unheralded tandem of Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves deserves roughly 99% of the credit. The 7-6-0 Blue Jackets are a bottom-five team in both quantity of shots allowed (shot attempts against) and quality of shots allowed (expected goals against).
Dallas Stars
Stars winger Jason Robertson has sniped only three times in 14 games to put him on pace for 18 goals. That would be his lowest output since 2020-21, though the chances of it happening are slim. In fact, expect Robertson to pop off soon. He's shooting a ton, recording 20 shot attempts per 60 minutes and 12 shots on goal per 60 just like he did in his best scoring season (46 goals in 2022-23).
Detroit Red Wings
Detroit's penalty kill was laughably bad last year with its league-worst kill rate (70.1%) and whopping 11.3 goals against per 60 shorthanded minutes. The 2025-26 Red Wing own the seventh-best kill rate (85.7%) and a completely respectable 5.1 goals against per 60. Goaltending has been a major driver.
Edmonton Oilers
Order has been restored atop the NHL. Connor McDavid, who started slowly, is tied for third in points, with 21 in 15 games, including one goal and six assists in three November contests. McDavid needing a minute before blasting off makes sense. The past two offseasons have been short and this year will be a grind no matter how the Oilers do thanks to the Olympics.
Florida Panthers
It's Nov. 8, and the Panthers are out of the playoffs. One bright spot: slick-skating Brad Marchand is leading the team in shots on goal (40), goals (nine), and points (15) despite missing a game. The 37-year-old is making it very difficult for Team Canada management to leave him off the Olympic roster.
Los Angeles Kings
Brandt Clarke and Joel Edmundson are a bit of an odd couple given the sizeable gaps in age, size, and skills. But they've been by far Los Angeles' top-performing defense pairing in the early going. The Kings are outscoring the opposition 10-5 in Clarke and Edmundson's 183 five-on-five minutes.
Minnesota Wild
Half of the league's general managers would trade blue lines with Wild GM Bill Guerin in a heartbeat. Minnesota has Jacob Middleton, Jonas Brodin, and Zeev Buium on the left side, and Jared Spurgeon, Brock Faber, and David Jiricek (currently in the AHL) on the right. The talent-rich group hasn't clicked as a unit, though, and the Wild are playing catch-up in the Central Division.
Montreal Canadiens
Everything's rosy for the 9-3-2 Canadiens. Well, nearly everything. While backup Jakub Dobes' breakout is a thrilling development, starter Sam Montembeault's step back is worrisome. Betting on some combination of Dobes, Montembeault, and stud AHLer Jacob Fowler is a reasonable long-term plan. But, if Montembeault can't find his game soon, Montreal will have to go goalie shopping. They can't let one player drag down the whole group.
Nashville Predators
There were warning signs of Steven Stamkos' decline toward the end of his run in Tampa. He had lost a step and his goal-scoring was way too reliant on Nikita Kucherov's playmaking. One season and one month into his Nashville tenure and Stamkos, now 35, is chasing the action. Two goals in 16 games.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils are first in the Metropolitan Division with a 10-4-0 record but the first month hasn't been all rainbows and butterflies. Coach Sheldon Keefe ripped his team's work ethic and habits following a recent 1-3-0 stretch in which Brett Pesce was unavailable due to injury. Pesce's a solid top-four defenseman - a core player - but his absence shouldn't cause such chaos.
New York Islanders
The Islanders have made a habit of mining the KHL for forward help. Maxim Tsyplakov, 27, came over last year from Moscow Spartak, and Maxim Shabanov, 25, was signed out of Chelyabinsk Traktor in July. Neither player has been super impactful, but they're nevertheless found money as everyday NHLers. You have to believe the Isles will be in the hunt for the next notable KHL free agent, 23-year-old forward Vitali Pinchuk, who's recorded 21 points in 22 games with Dinamo Minsk.
New York Rangers
New York's wacky home/away splits were simply an amusing storyline at first. The sample size is slowly growing, though, and nothing's really changed. The Rangers have produced an 0-5-1 record and minus-12 goal differential at Madison Square Garden and are 7-1-1 and plus-12 in any other rink.
Ottawa Senators
The Senators have to be the league's most frustrating team. Full periods of lackluster play. An awful penalty kill. Terrible goaltending. Yet a potent offense without Brady Tkachuk? The bumpiness is reflected in Ottawa's 6-5-3 record.
Philadelphia Flyers
You win some and lose some as a hockey executive. Even though it's early, it's safe to say Flyers GM Daniel Briere won the June trade with Anaheim that saw Trevor Zegras arrive in Philadelphia in exchange for Ryan Poehling, a second-round draft pick, and a fourth-rounder. On the flip side, Briere clearly lost the January 2024 deal with Ducks GM Pat Verbeek that brought in Jamie Drysdale and a second for - gulp - rising star Cutter Gauthier. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Ducks center has broken out to the tune of 11 goals in 13 games.
Pittsburgh Penguins
The games played leaderboard for 2025 draftees reads as follows: 14 for No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer, 13 for No. 11 pick Ben Kindel, then three others in single digits. Kindel has bagged five goals for Pittsburgh. The production's nice, but the most impressive part of the 5-foot-11 center's meteoric rise is the stickiness of it all. Even though he isn't big or supremely skilled, Kindel's proven he can hang thanks to a high motor and exceptional hockey sense.
San Jose Sharks
On one hand, Macklin Celebrini is so good that he deserves a spot on Canada's Olympic team at 19 years old. On the other, the Sharks are bad enough that they might also end up with the next phenom, 2026 top prospect Gavin McKenna. Could you imagine Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson, Yaroslav Askarov ... and McKenna on the same team?
Seattle Kraken
Berkly Catton, a crafty 5-foot-10 forward, is kind of stuck. The Kraken rookie can't spend his first pro season in the AHL - the league he's probably best suited for - because he's too young. His options are limited to the NHL, where he's looked solid but unremarkable through eight games at 12:52 a night, and the WHL, where he dominated with back-to-back 100-point seasons. The best course of action might be NHL, world juniors for Canada, then WHL.
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis is the league's biggest disappointment so far. A fringe playoff team on paper, the Blues currently sit 31st in the standings with 12 points in 15 games. Missing the postseason by a mile would actually be helpful - a way for the superstar-less franchise to potentially escape the NHL's mushy middle. The Blues last used a top-five pick in 2008 (Alex Pietrangelo, fourth overall).
Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay's defense corps looks agonizingly slow and tracking data backs up the eye test. Five of the eight blue-liners to dress for a game this season own below-average max speeds, while the others clock in barely above average, according to NHL Edge. (Emil Lilleberg, whose max speed lands in the 75th percentile among NHL defensemen, is the fastest.) The takeaway: Lightning D-men are easy to expose off the rush and rarely push the pace the other way. If unaddressed, this issue could kill the club's Cup chances.
Toronto Maple Leafs
It's nice to see goalie Joseph Woll back in the fold after taking time away from the team to attend a personal family matter. Toronto's season has been a rollercoaster partly because Woll's partner, Anthony Stolarz, hasn't played up to his usual high standards and third-stringer Cayden Primeau - who was placed on waivers Friday - has been atrocious in relief. Woll was gone for almost five weeks, so he'll need a ramp-up period. But he's a key piece.
Utah Mammoth
Andre Tourigny, now in his fifth year as head coach of Arizona/Utah, is tied with Martin St. Louis and Quenneville for best odds to win the Jack Adams Award. It's an appropriate slot for the leader of an upstart team with a strong underlying profile. The 9-5-0 Mammoth play an uptempo brand of hockey on offense and smothering style on defense. Tourigny gives his skilled players the green light to attack creatively as long as they don't slack when the opposition presses for offense.
Vancouver Canucks
The good of the Canucks' 7-8-0 start: Thatcher Demko, Kiefer Sherwood, and Conor Garland have all been outstanding. The bad: highest-paid player and No. 1 center Elias Pettersson's been only OK. The ugly: that so-so record was achieved off a soft schedule. A gauntlet awaits, with Columbus, Colorado, Winnipeg, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Florida, and Dallas the next seven opponents.
Vegas Golden Knights
If it feels like the Golden Knights almost always bursts through the gates of the season, it's because, well, they do. Vegas has built up the seventh-highest points percentage through 13 games, at .654. They were rocking a .731 through 13 games last year, .855 to start 2023-24, and .846 in 2022-23.
Washington Capitals
This has been pointed out elsewhere, yet it bears repeating: coach Spencer Carbery isn't simply limiting Alex Ovechkin's defensive responsibilities this season, he's flat-out hiding the 40-year-old. Through 14 games, Ovechkin has yet to start a shift in the defensive zone following a stoppage in play. He's been deployed 121 times: 81 in the offensive zone and 40 in the neutral zone.
Winnipeg Jets
Anybody who claims they felt confident handicapping Toews' return to the NHL is lying. Considering the two-year layoff, and the significant health issues Toews battled through, it truly could have gone any which way. A month in, we've learned Toews, 37, is a competent middle-six center - not the dominant two-way force he once was but a useful player nonetheless. He's recorded seven points in 14 games while logging a career-low 16:18 a night. Most impressively, he leads the league in faceoff proficiency, winning 63.5% of draws.
John Matisz is theScore's senior NHL writer. Follow John on Twitter/X (@MatiszJohn) or contact him via email ([email protected]).