Cole Caufield and Jakub Dobes of the Montreal Canadiens celebrate an OT winner against the Nashville Predators on October 16, 2025. (Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Getty Images)
For all the parity the NHL likes to brag about, its upper crust hasn’t changed much lately. As I wrote in my 2025-26 season preview, the same four teams (Panthers, Oilers, Stars and Hurricanes) have made up 10 of the past 12 conference finalist slots, and the league’s average player is the oldest he’s been since the mid-2000s. Stability might be a welcome thing on some level, but it’s also nice to see things get shaken up sometimes.
Fortunately, though, a few up-and-coming teams are doing their best to stir the pot early this season — whether by threatening to make deeper playoff runs, get back to the postseason after a few years away, or simply assembling a core that could make noise in the future.
For instance, the New Jersey Devils have lost only once in 9 games to start the 2025-26 campaign and the Utah Mammoth have just 2 losses in 10 games so far, while the Canadiens and Red Wings aren’t far off from that pace, either. These are only a few of the young teams gaining ground in the early going, so let’s run through some of the most intriguing early risers who might reshape the playoff picture next spring — or beyond:
(All stats/rankings are as of Monday, Oct. 27.)
Record: 8-1-0 (16 pts)
Playoff Odds: 81% (made 1st round last year)
Elo ranking: 12th (up 6 spots from 2024-25)
Average age rank: 21st