This is one of the most unique crops of Stanley Cup playoff teams we\u2019ve seen in recent memory.<\/p>\n
The Eastern Conference is wide-open with the Florida Panthers out of the picture. You have the perennial contenders in Carolina and Tampa Bay, the new kids on the block in Buffalo and Montreal, a couple of dark horses, and even legacy teams such as the Penguins and Bruins that defied all expectations by making the dance.<\/p>\n
The West is unpredictable for a different reason: The best teams (Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota) will be forced to go through each other. Meanwhile, the Pacific is flawed; the division-winning Golden Knights finished with one point fewer than last year\u2019s Calgary Flames, who missed the playoffs. But the easier path means somebody from that side of the bracket will make it to the Western Conference final.<\/p>\n
Fans, media and statistical models are all making their predictions, but what do people inside the league think? We assembled a nine-person, anonymous panel of high-level NHL front-office executives and senior staff. We asked each person to sort all 16 playoff teams into Tiers 1-5 and tallied the average votes.<\/p>\n
This is how we explained the Cup contender tiers to our panel:<\/p>\n
Tier 1: Stanley Cup favorites
\nTier 2: Strong Cup contender (high-end contenders just below the inner circle)
\nTier 3: Dark horse (solid team that could make a deep run if it got hot, but has glaring question marks\/concerns)
\nTier 4: Long shot (maybe they can get hot and win a round, but they aren\u2019t realistically contending for the Cup)
\nTier 5: First-round cannon fodder (teams expected to struggle to make any meaningful run)<\/p>\n
While panelists were instructed to think of Tier 1 as the league\u2019s inner circle of Cup favorites (roughly 3-4 teams), several executives were reluctant to include more than two clubs in that category. The result is a smaller top tier than expected, which is a telling sign of how uncertain this playoff field is.<\/p>\n
Tier 1Colorado Avalanche
Average rating: 1.0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s rare for a team to earn a clean sweep of Tier 1 votes from every panelist. Colorado did. The last time it happened in this exercise? The 2022 Avalanche, who went on to win the Cup.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cThey\u2019re just loaded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cThe (Nazem) Kadri addition was great. When you have (Nathan) MacKinnon and (Cale) Makar, the star power you have is overwhelming. Having (Martin) Necas and (Brock) Nelson, it\u2019s just a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stage is set for a Stanley Cup run, but success is never guaranteed \u2014 just look at how dominant Presidents\u2019 Trophy-winning teams such as the 2023 Bruins or 2019 Lightning flamed out.<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cI\u2019ve always had a concern about their winger depth, just with (Gabriel) Landeskog\u2019s health. It goes both ways, where he hasn\u2019t had a lot of miles on the body in the last 12-24 months, but he also isn\u2019t really in that kind of shape to maybe give you four really strong rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then outside of Necas and (Valeri) Nichushkin, I don\u2019t know if they have any difference makers (on the wing). I think they\u2019re in that first tier, but definitely some questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas Stars
Average rating: 1.4<\/p>\n
Even though Colorado was rated as the best contender in the NHL, most of our panelists think Dallas isn\u2019t too far behind.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cDallas has an argument for being the best team in the league. I would give it to Colorado, but Dallas is right up there with them. It all starts with their depth and D core.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cThey\u2019ve got (elite) guys at every position, similar to Colorado. (Miro) Heiskanen is maybe my favorite defenseman in the league; he\u2019s slightly lesser than Makar. You got (Roope) Hintz, (Jason) Robertson, (Mikko) Rantanen, they\u2019re slightly lesser than MacKinnon. They\u2019re deep, probably even a little deeper than Colorado, but they\u2019re not quite as good at the highest high-end.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Hintz\u2019s uncertain health status \u2014 he\u2019s expected to miss Games 1 and 2 of the opening round \u2014 there are some questions about Dallas\u2019 speed down the middle and overall center depth.<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cThe injury to (Tyler) Seguin hurts them. I think down the middle, (they\u2019re) a little unsure with Hintz and his health. Wyatt Johnston had a pretty quiet playoff last year. Matt Duchene is a mixed bag \u2014 good player, but is he really going to stir the drink? But I do think, as a collective group and knowing what their identity is, they probably have the most cohesive top six.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tier 2Carolina Hurricanes
Average rating: 1.7<\/p>\n
Carolina narrowly edged out Tampa Bay as the highest-rated team in the East, but the divide in how front offices view them was stark and telling.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cCarolina\u2019s a level above everybody else in the East, in my opinion \u2026 They\u2019re really f\u2014ing good and they\u2019re really deep. They can throw three lines at you, they come at you in waves, their speed is top-level. (Brandon) Bussi has been a rockstar this year. They\u2019re gonna be in the Conference finals, I don\u2019t see any way that they\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 4: \u201cCarolina is a regular-season team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides goaltending, there\u2019s always a question about whether the team has enough game-breaking\/elite scoring threats, despite them being the NHL\u2019s second-highest scoring team in the regular season.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of marquee players that you could plug them into this (playing) style, and it brings their ability to be a game-breaker to a forefront rather than distracts from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning
Average rating: 1.8<\/p>\n
Any team led by Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point and Co. is a formidable threat.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cTo me, Tampa\u2019s the best team in the East \u2026 They\u2019re the best-coached team in the NHL. That\u2019s the biggest edge they have as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The main concern multiple panelists highlighted was the age, injuries and overall mileage this older core has accumulated from this season and previous Stanley Cup runs.<\/p>\n
Exec 4: \u201cTampa is banged up and old.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.J. Moser and Darren Raddysh also have to prove they can carry the top pair in the playoffs the same way they have in the regular season, because Victor Hedman\u2019s game has significantly declined, and his availability for Round 1 is uncertain.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cHedman\u2019s not the same. Point hasn\u2019t been as good. (Erik) Cernak\u2019s had some hard miles on him \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t want to play Tampa in the first round. Each successive round, I think the odds that they get tired, injured and worn down (increase).\u201d<\/p>\n
Minnesota Wild
Average rating: 2.1<\/p>\n
The Quinn Hughes acquisition has catapulted the Wild into top-five Cup contender status, but nearly every panelist agreed that they\u2019re the third-best team in their own division, which makes their playoff route \u201cdamn near impossible,\u201d as Exec 2 put it.<\/p>\n
Minnesota boasts arguably the best blue line and goaltending tandem in the NHL, but its one-two punch at center isn\u2019t very imposing and the Wild\u2019s crop of secondary top-six wingers behind Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy is good but not elite.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cThey have two rockstar goalies, their defense is crazy (good) now. You can throw (Brock) Faber, Hughes, (Jonas Brodin), (Jake) Middleton, and (Jared) Spurgeon and you\u2019ve got all 60 minutes of the game covered by those (five) guys; they can all play monster minutes. Faber and Hughes alone, it\u2019s almost criminal that they\u2019re on the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cI don\u2019t think they have the firepower (that Colorado or Dallas does), but I do think they have the necessary pieces to foil what the strengths of those Central teams are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vegas Golden Knights
Average rating: 2.3<\/p>\n
Vegas is one of the biggest unknowns in the West. The Golden Knights underachieved for most of the season, but they\u2019re experiencing a John Tortorella bump, going 7-0-1 since his arrival \u2014 though it\u2019s worth noting their schedule was quite soft in that stretch.<\/p>\n
Exec 5: \u201cYour path dictates where you go. I bumped Edmonton and Vegas up because the division is so weak. You look at the top-5 players in Vegas, they\u2019re elite. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see them get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cI don\u2019t think they can beat Edmonton (in a potential Round 2 rematch). They\u2019re just not dynamic enough anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some had questions about their stylistic mix offensively. Vegas has elite, dynamic forwards in Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner and Mark Stone, but they\u2019re all pass-first players, and outside of Pavel Dorofeyev, who\u2019s mostly a power-play scorer, they don\u2019t have many natural shooters to convert the chances that get created.<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cI think they have enough difference makers with Eichel, Marner, and then if you think about Stone and his ability to pick pucks off of guys, especially in the playoffs, where one good forecheck can tilt a game. (But) who those guys give the puck to is a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tier 3Buffalo Sabres
Average rating: 2.6<\/p>\n
Buffalo was rated as the third-best contender in the East by our panel, but there was some disagreement on exactly how dangerous the team is as a Cup threat, with the club receiving four Tier 2 votes and five Tier 3 votes.<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cI think their forward group is just dangerous. Up and down the lineup, they just have a really strong forward group identity, which is play with a s\u2014 ton of pace and then they have guys who can finish on every line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 4: \u201cI am not quite buying Buffalo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cBuffalo\u2019s gonna win one round (at least) without blinking. I really like their back end. (Rasmus) Dahlin is a 25-minute-a-game player; he\u2019s offensive, he\u2019s got size and he\u2019s a little bit sneaky with some of the s\u2014 he does.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Bowen) Byram has tightened his game up more this year. (Mattias) Samuelsson is rock-solid; he\u2019s turned into the best-case scenario of what he could be. I know Owen Power gets s\u2014, but my god, he\u2019s still a 22-23 minute a game player and he\u2019s 6-foot-6 and he can skate (well).\u201d<\/p>\n
A couple of panelists had concerns about whether the Sabres\u2019 elite regular-season goaltending results (league-high .927 five-on-five save percentage since early December) would actually carry over to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Edmonton Oilers
Average rating: 2.6<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a similar narrative to previous years for the Oilers: Superstars who can single-handedly win series, questionable goaltending, and flawed depth.<\/p>\n
Our panel agreed that this year\u2019s Oilers are slightly weaker than the last two years, especially with concerns around Leon Draisaitl\u2019s health, but that\u2019s offset by a favorable path through the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cThey\u2019ve been to the Cup (Final) twice because of three or four guys. If you had given them any kind of depth on the forwards or if their goalie wasn\u2019t Stuart Skinner, they\u2019re probably two-time Stanley Cup champions. So what do they do? They go out and get a goalie (Tristan Jarry) who might not be as good as Skinner \u2026 it\u2019s astounding to me that they haven\u2019t fixed any of the holes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 5: \u201cEdmonton\u2019s not murderer\u2019s row anymore. They have Connor, which is the cure-all, but they don\u2019t have the same depth they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montreal Canadiens
Average rating: 3.0<\/p>\n
The front-office execs we polled spoke in exceptionally glowing terms about the Canadiens\u2019 young core. This is a bona fide Cup-contender quality nucleus in their eyes.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cI love the pace they play at. (Cole) Caufield is a rockstar with the scoring. (Nick) Suzuki is one of the most underrated players in the NHL. He\u2019s f\u2014ing awesome and people have no idea; they go 25 (players) deep (talking about the best players in the league) before someone mentions Suzuki\u2019s name, it\u2019s crazy to me. He can do it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cMontreal and Buffalo are the exact same caliber teams. I would maybe even be a bit more bullish on Montreal. I believe in their higher-end players a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are some question marks about their depth, though. Noah Dobson\u2019s injury is a significant blow for the right side. A couple of panelists pointed out that the Canadiens are also, in their minds, another elite middle-six center away from championship-caliber forward depth.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cWhen you look at the middle six, you look at guys like (Alexandre) Texier and (Alex) Newhook and (Oliver) Kapanen and (Kirby) Dach, I\u2019m not sold on them as the middle pieces of a Cup-contending team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ottawa Senators
Average rating: 3.2<\/p>\n
The Senators dominate shots and high-danger chances, and there are believers who see a case for them as dark-horse contenders if they get league-average goaltending. However, not everyone is sold \u2014 Ottawa ended up being one of the most polarizing teams in this exercise, receiving votes everywhere from Tier 2 to Tier 5.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cOttawa\u2019s a better team to me than their record suggests. \u2026 When you have a guy like Jake Sanderson on the back end, it lets guys like (Thomas) Chabot and (Jordan) Spence take a bit of a backseat role and do their thing better.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrady Tkachuk is the emotional heartbeat of that team so a lot comes down to him, but they rely a lot on that team toughness where you can envision them in the playoffs having a lot of success. Shane Pinto is a really good and under-appreciated player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201c(Linus) Ullmark has the history (from past years) of being a really good regular-season goalie and being less able to be counted on in the playoffs. I don\u2019t love that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tier 4Pittsburgh Penguins
Average rating: 3.8<\/p>\n
The Penguins have morphed into an offensive powerhouse under Dan Muse, scoring goals at the third-highest clip in the NHL this season. Will it be enough to fuel a deep playoff run with the old guard?<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cThey\u2019ve had some clever additions (Anthony Mantha), I love the (Justin) Brazeau addition, (Egor) Chinakhov has been excellent for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cErik Karlsson is having an unbelievable year. A lot of things are going right for this team and you have to give a lot of credit to the coaching staff, but at the end of the day, how much more can you squeeze out of this team? (But) when you have (Sidney) Crosby, Karlsson, and (Evgeni) Malkin, I have to put them in that same bucket I put Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cIf they win that first-round matchup against Philly and they run into Carolina in that second round, I could see them beating Carolina in a little bit of a one-shot (scoring contest). \u2026 You\u2019re confident that Crosby against (Sebastian) Aho is probably a wash. Malkin against that (Logan) Stankoven line, they might get outshot, but they might (still) score the extra goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Utah Mammoth
Average rating: 4.0<\/p>\n
Utah is an exciting up-and-coming team, and very few people would be surprised if they find a way to take Vegas down in Round 1, but our panel doesn\u2019t view them as a true Cup threat quite yet.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cI think they\u2019re a year or two away if they make the right moves. Right now, I don\u2019t think they win a round and if they do, it\u2019s only one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cUtah\u2019s a better team than I think their record suggests. They\u2019re a fun team to watch. They are very much a team (though), where I don\u2019t bet on their high-end players in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys like (Clayton) Keller, (Logan) Cooley, (Dylan) Guenther, and (JJ) Peterka are great, but they\u2019re a little inconsistent, and I\u2019m not sure they\u2019re the type of players who (will) elevate in the playoffs to the same degree as other players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boston Bruins
Average rating: 4.0<\/p>\n
The Bruins have star power at every position with David Pastrnak, Jeremy Swayman and Charlie McAvoy. Many execs, however, were skeptical about their chances of a deep postseason run because they don\u2019t believe their secondary scoring (which has been surprisingly good this season) will hold up in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cPittsburgh and Boston, they can win a round, they\u2019ve had good years, but these are not teams that I believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 3: \u201cAll of the dice that they rolled this year hit. Tanner Jeannot fit in pretty nicely and Viktor Arvidsson fit in pretty nicely and Casey Mittelstadt, after the trade, adjusted (well), but just because those guys had productive regular seasons doesn\u2019t necessarily mean I trust those guys in a playoff series to pull you ahead in a tug of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anaheim Ducks
Average rating: 4.3<\/p>\n
The Ducks are a bit similar to last year\u2019s Canadiens narrative-wise: They\u2019re extremely fun, fast and dynamic offensively, but have some major flaws, especially defensively, which significantly limit their playoff ceiling. And yet, just like last year\u2019s Canadiens, it doesn\u2019t matter because the team is playing with house money after making the playoffs a year sooner than many expected.<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201cThey\u2019ve outscored teams. They got (Cutter) Gauthier, (Leo) Carlsson, (Beckett) Sennecke. (Jackson) LaCombe\u2019s a stud. (Mason) McTavish is having a bad year (but) he\u2019s still got almost 20 goals \u2026 (Luk\u00e1\u0161) Dost\u00e1l does have the ability to get on hot streaks, but it\u2019s very hard, if not impossible, to win like that in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cAnaheim\u2019s one of those teams that can win a round. The goaltending (for Edmonton) is unreliable, and Anaheim just has so many young studs that are virtually (all) offensive firepower.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tier 5Philadelphia Flyers
Average rating: 4.6<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t sleep on the Flyers in Round 1 against the Penguins. Philadelphia is structured defensively, Dan Vladar has had a strong year between the pipes, and Porter Martone (10 points in nine games) has been an instant difference-maker. Ultimately, though, Philadelphia is viewed as a mid-tier team that outperformed its true talent level.<\/p>\n
Exec 5: \u201cI know (Rick) Tocchet will get the most of them, but Philly is happy to be there. This is a miracle. They were miles out of it and they\u2019re young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exec 1: \u201c(Trevor) Zegras, (Christian) Dvorak, (Matvei) Michkov, (Owen) Tippett, I think they get pushed out (to the perimeter).\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Kings
Average rating: 4.6<\/p>\n
L.A. is stingy defensively, and the acquisition of Artemi Panarin injected a desperately needed game-breaker. But this is still a team that severely lacks offensive juice (29th-ranked in goals scored per game), at least in part because their back end is too heavy and slow to move pucks up the ice to their forwards.<\/p>\n
Exec 2: \u201cI expected more out of this roster. They can definitely win a round. I think they\u2019re a better team than Anaheim, a more playoff-ready team than Anaheim, but at the same time, I\u2019m not gonna bet on the team playing against Colorado in Round 1.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is one of the most unique crops of Stanley Cup playoff teams we\u2019ve seen in recent memory.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[233,95,229,29,144,147,146,5,145,38,21,4,25,56,100,92,3154,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-555164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-buffalo-sabres","11":"tag-carolina-hurricanes","12":"tag-colorado-avalanche","13":"tag-dallas-stars","14":"tag-edmonton-oilers","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-los-angeles-kings","17":"tag-minnesota-wild","18":"tag-montreal-canadiens","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-ottawa-senators","21":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","22":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","23":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","24":"tag-utah-mammoth","25":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116425131540131247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}