Power Ranking All 32 Teams NHL Over the Last 5 Seasons
Power Ranking All 32 NHL Teams Over the Last 5 Seasons0 of 32
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With the 2024-25 NHL season getting closer, let’s do a ranking of all 32 teams in the league.
However, this is not a ranking for this season. Instead, let’s do a ranking of all 32 teams over the past five seasons.
To be clear, this is not a ranking for how good each team is after this offseason, or how good it should be this season, or how good it was just this past season. This is a cumulative ranking of performance over the past five years.
So what is the methodology for the rankings? Simply put, results matter.
We used a point system that rewards (and punishes) teams for certain milestones, achievements and finishes in both the standings and the playoffs.
It works like this:
Teams receive the following point totals for the following achievements:
Win the Stanley Cup: 7 pointsLose Stanley Cup Final: 6 pointsWin Presidents’ Trophy: 5 pointsLose Conference Final: 4 pointsWin Regular Season Division Title: 3 pointsWin Playoff Series: 2 points (for each series) Make Playoffs: 1 point Conversely, teams get punished for the following and will lose points:
Finish in last place in division: -1 pointFinish with bottom-five record in NHL: -2 pointsFinish with worst record in the NHL: -3 pointsPretty objective. Pretty fair. Do not like where your team is ranked? It is probably because they did not do enough over the past five years.
Here is how it all shakes out.
32. San Jose Sharks1 of 32
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This has been the worst five-year stretch in the history of the Sharks franchise, and there isn’t another one that is even remotely close to it in terms of futility. The Sharks finally regressed after two decades of consistent competitiveness, started a full-scale rebuild, and have bottomed out over the past five years.
They have zero playoff appearances, a couple of last place divisional and bottom-five NHL finishes and also one year with the worst overall record in the NHL.
Their 123 wins over this five-year stretch are the second-lowest total in the NHL, ahead of only the Seattle Kraken.
Important context: The Seattle Kraken have only played three seasons over this five-year stretch and are still just 16 wins behind the Sharks.
There have been some big steps this offseason to finally get the rebuild kickstarted in the right direction with No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini joining the organization, as well as the recent trade for goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov, but they are still a couple of years ago from being relevant again as potential contenders.
31. Anaheim Ducks 2 of 32
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The Ducks have only been marginally better than the Sharks over this stretch, finishing one spot ahead because they had one fewer bottom-five finish in the NHL.
Anaheim also has zero playoff appearances to show for this run (a streak that actually goes back six seasons) and has one year with the worst record in the league.
There is some compelling evidence to suggest better days could be on the horizon for the Ducks thanks to a rapidly increasing pool of young talent that includes Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras and a talented crop of young defenders.
There is a core here that could be good relatively soon, but they have had to play a lot of bad hockey in recent years to start collecting it.
30. Detroit Red Wings 3 of 32
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This has to be a playoff-or-bust season for general manager Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings.
The playoff drought is now at eight consecutive years overall, including all five years of the Yzerman era.
What makes the results from the past couple of years so disappointing is that they really made some big efforts and spent some big money to bring in veteran players to complement their young core of talent. But have they spent it in the right places and on the right players? That remains to be seen.
When it comes to the 2024-25 season, the playoffs shouldn’t only be a realistic goal—they should be an expectation, especially after narrowly missing out this past season on a tiebreaker. If they fall short again, it is a failure by the front office and a damning indictment of Yzerman’s overall plan and the job he has done. Because right now, the best you can say about his roster is that it finished in ninth place in the Eastern Conference one time.
29. Columbus Blue Jackets4 of 32
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Perhaps the worst part about the Blue Jackets’ results here is that they really seemed to be trying to win.
Some teams are bad because they are rebuilding.
Some teams are bad because of bad luck in a given season.
Some teams are bad because they just don’t seem to know what they are doing.
The Blue Jackets have been the latter over the past couple of years, and it has not just resulted in objectively bad results on the ice. They also had the negative vibes that came with the entire Mike Babcock experience (and failure).
The only thing that keeps them out of the bottom three here is the fact they had a playoff appearance in the bubble back in 2019-20, eliminated Toronto in the qualifying round and got to play a first-round playoff series against Tampa Bay. At that point, the Blue Jackets were at the tail end of a run of four straight playoff appearances. It has been nothing but disappointing results since.
There should be some renewed optimism now thanks to an extremely deep farm system that is loaded with young talent and a new general manager in Don Waddell to start rebuilding the organization.
28. Chicago Blackhawks5 of 32
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This has been a combination of former general manager Stan Bowman starting to erode the team with bad (and often times nonsensical) roster decisions, a once great core getting older and retiring, and the need to start a full-scale rebuild (a need that was accelerated by the aforementioned bad roster management).
The Blackhawks have one playoff appearance over the past five years, but it does come with something of an asterisk—it was the result of the expanded playoff field in the 2019-20 bubble where the Blackhawks, ranked 23rd in the NHL, won a qualifying round series against Edmonton before losing in five games to Vegas in the actual playoffs.
After a couple of years of mediocrity, as well as Bowman resigning following the Kyle Beach investigation, the Blackhawks finally went all-in on a rebuild.
That rebuild has so far produced Connor Bedard and Artyom Levshunov to be the new foundation, but they are still probably a couple of years away from contending again.
27. Buffalo Sabres6 of 32
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The Sabres are currently in the middle of the longest playoff drought in NHL history and have gone through multiple failed rebuilds that needed another rebuild to try and fix it.
The only thing that has bailed the Sabres out from being lower is that over the past three years they went from being a consistent bottom-five, last-place team to a team that has finished in fifth and sixth in its division and started to inch its way closer to a playoff spot.
But even that saw a small step backward in 2023-24.
When you look at this roster on paper it feels like it should be better than it is, especially given how many premium picks and players they have on defense. It has simply not yet come together.
Maybe this will be the year?
26. Utah Hockey Club (Arizona Coyotes)7 of 32
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Before relocating to Utah this offseason, this was one of the most hopeless and depressing situations in all of professional sports, with the lone exception of maybe the Oakland A’s.
Bad team. Worse ownership. Baffling arena situation. Uncertain future.
It was impossible to win, and it should be no surprise that the team did not win.
The Coyotes snuck into a playoff spot during the 2019-20 bubble, and that has been it for them over the past five years. If there is a silver lining, it’s that for as bad as the team has been, they mostly avoided having a lot of bottom-five finishes and never finished with the worst record in the league over the past five years. There were several teams worse. So there’s that.
The move to Utah has already paid off in a big way for the franchise with an actual arena, real ownership and some big-time roster moves to maybe put the team into playoff contention.
25. Ottawa Senators8 of 32
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The Senators have undergone a lot of changes over the past few years and have put together a real effort to try to compete. But no matter how much things change behind the bench or on the ice with the roster, the results remain consistently mediocre.
They are not the worst team in the league.
They have some real, top-line talent and what should be a good core to build around.
But they are not a playoff team and have not really been close at any point in recent seasons.
24. New Jersey Devils 9 of 32
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If you asked me my honest, objective opinions of the 2024-25 New Jersey Devils, it would be that they might be in the top five of my Stanley Cup contenders list.
The 2023-24 season was a brutal combination of bad goaltending, bad coaching and major injury issues that took away some of their best players for most of the season. They should have been better. They should be better this season, mainly because the injury luck should be better, the coaching should be better and the goaltending should be significantly better after the addition of Jacob Markstrom.
But, when looking at the Devils organization for the purposes of this article and this project, their five-year run isn’t really anything special. They not only have just one playoff appearance and one playoff series win, they also went through some really tough rebuilding seasons that saw some bottom finishes. That includes two bottom-five finishes that knock them down a few spots.
They will not be this low over the next five years.
23. Philadelphia Flyers 10 of 32
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The only real success the Flyers have had over this window was the 2019-20 season when they were one of the better teams in the league going into the bubble, advanced to the second round, and then gradually started to decline over the next couple of years before bottoming out in 2021-22.
It has been a weird stretch because when it looked like they needed to rebuild, they refused to commit to it and would not even acknowledge that the word rebuild existed in the English language.
Then John Tortorella comes in to coach the team, he seems to embrace the idea of a rebuild, and then immediately makes them competitive and nearly drags them to a playoff spot in his second season when the only expectation for them going into the season was for them to lose, and lose a lot.
The roster is still lacking in high-end talent, but the arrival of Matvei Michkov this season could help change that and perhaps start to inch open their window for contention.
22. Seattle Kraken 11 of 32
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The Kraken have only existed in the NHL for three years but have had a respectable showing so far. Their first year was a little rough with a last-place Pacific Division finish and bottom-five finish overall, but they bounced back in Year 2 by not only making the playoffs but also knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
When expansion teams entered the NHL in the 1980s and 1990s (and even into the early 2000s) they were typically doomed to five or six years or terrible play before becoming even remotely competitive.
But the changes to the expansion draft rules with the Vegas draft, not to mention a salary-cap league have given the newest teams quite the boost in becoming competitive.
The Kraken have already been more successful in the first three years than a handful of established teams over the same time period.
What’s truly crazy is they have done that despite some really curious and strange decisions by a front office that has not really maximized the opportunities it has had in building a roster.
21. Los Angeles Kings 12 of 32
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This one might seem a little low because the Kings have made the playoffs three years in a row, but…that’s pretty much all they have done. Over the five-year window, they are 19th in total wins during the regular season, have no division titles and do not have a single playoff win to show for their appearances.
The Kings deserve credit for transitioning through a rebuild without ever hitting rock bottom for an extended period and quickly building themselves back into something competitive. And there is a lot of reason for optimism going into this season.
But those three straight years in the postseason have resulted in three straight first-round exits at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers each season.
On one hand, maybe they just have a problem with the Oilers and need to get over that hump.
On the other hand, you have to beat teams like the Oilers if you want to be a serious contender at some point. At this point they are good team. They are finding out the jump from rebuilding to good is a lot easier to make than the jump from good to contender.
20. Montreal Canadiens 13 of 32
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Now we have a bit of a shocker.
How did the Canadiens move all the way up to 20th given how bad they have been over the past three seasons? Especially when they are only 28th in regular season wins in the five-year window we are looking at?
Well, they had back-to-back playoff appearances prior to this recent rebuilding phase, and one of those playoff appearances resulted in an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. That is worth something. Only seven different teams have appeared in the Stanley Cup Final over the past five years. The Canadiens are one of them.
If you wanted to nitpick here—and you can—those two playoff appearances do come with a bit of an asterisk.
The 2019-20 postseason appearance came as a result of the expanded playoff field that saw the Canadiens (as the 24th and final team in the playoffs) beat the Pittsburgh Penguins the qualifying round to advance into the field of 16 teams. The 2020-21 playoffs—and Stanley Cup Final appearance—were the result of the shortened regular season and the modified division that saw them play against only the other Canadian teams.
Goalie Carey Price also played a big role in both by turning into vintage Carey Price.
But, those wins happened, you cannot take them away, and they were playing under the same conditions as everybody else.
19. Nashville Predators 14 of 32
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The Predators should have high expectations this season after going crazy in free agency (Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, Brady Skjei), but the past five years have been about as average and run-of-the-mill as you can get.
They have four playoff appearances in five years, which is fine. They are consistently competitive, find ways to stay in it even if it is a little fluky or seemingly unsustainable, and they do end up qualifying for the postseason more often than not.
But the past five years did not produce a single 100-point season in the regular season and they never advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs.
They have been good enough to get in the playoffs as a wild card team, but not good enough to do anything when they get there when they have to start playing the legitimate contenders.
Maybe that will change this season.
18. Minnesota Wild 15 of 32
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Is the criteria selling the Wild a little bit short here? Maybe. Because there have been a handful of really good teams here including three consecutive teams that played at a 100-point pace or better between 2020-21 and 2022-23. It is even more impressive when you consider some of the salary-cap constraints they had to work with in some of those years due to the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts that are still crushing their salary cap for another season before becoming a little more manageable.
But in typical Wild fashion, even when they have a pretty good team, it is still not good enough to get close to a championship or make any noise when it comes time for the playoffs.
There is just always somebody better.
Somebody better in the division.
Somebody better in the conference.
Somebody better on the other side of the ice.
The past five years have produced no division titles, no playoff series wins, a qualifying round loss in the bubble, and nothing of any significance outside of a couple of solid regular seasons. It’s been a good, competitive team. It has not been anything special.
17. Winnipeg Jets16 of 32
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The Jets are a fascinating and equally frustrating team.
There is some very real, high-end talent throughout the roster, including in net where they have one of the most significant game-changing players in the league in Connor Hellebuyck. As good as it is to have a player like him, it might also be something of a curse because a goalie like Hellebuyck has a tendency to help mask a team’s flaws.
He is so good and so impactful that he can carry the team to the playoffs, make management and the front office think it is better than it actually is, which then results in a team that maybe does not make enough necessary changes to keep getting better.
The Jets seem kind of stuck in that cycle right now.
Even so, they have four playoff appearances in five years and one playoff series win which leaves them right in the middle of the pack of the league. That seems about right for a perpetually mediocre franchise.
16. Pittsburgh Penguins17 of 32
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Between 2006-07 and 2021-22 the Pittsburgh Penguins were the most successful team in the NHL. They made the playoffs 16 years in a row, won more regular-season games than any team in the NHL during that stretch, more playoff games than any team in the NHL, played in five Conference Finals, four Stanley Cup Finals and won three Stanley Cups. They were a constant force and a yearly contender.
Now they are starting a new streak with back-to-back years out of the playoffs, with no playoff series wins since the 2017-18 season. They are on the threshold of a rebuilding phase, and while they do still have some future Hall of Famers on the roster, it is going to be a fight just to get back into playoff contention this season.
The past five years have produced only three playoff appearances and no playoff series wins. There are some reasons you can point to for the lack of success in recent years, from goaltending issues to injuries at key moments, but the bottom line is they simply are not the team they used to be.
The only thing that elevates them a little bit here in the rankings is that one of those three playoff appearances over the past five years came along with a division title (even if it did come in the 56-game 2020-21 season).
15. Washington Capitals 18 of 32
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The Penguins and Capitals have pretty much followed the same path over the past 30 years.
They were both good throughout the 1990s, rebuilt at the same time in the early 2000s, landed multiple Hall of Famers to jumpstart their rebuilds in the mid-2000s and then pretty much ran the Eastern Conference (and NHL to an extent) through the 2010s. Now they are starting to slow down at the same time again as their core players get older.
The Capitals, however, are doing a slightly better job of managing that over the past couple of years and are coming off a playoff appearance in 2023-24. That playoff appearance was a gigantic fluke given how badly the team got outscored for the season, but they still managed to outlast the rest of the teams in that quagmire of a playoff race. The Capitals have also put themselves in a great position to be significantly improved this offseason thanks to a productive offseason that saw them add Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy, Pierre-Luc Dubois Andrew Mangiapane and Logan Thompson to their roster.
14. Calgary Flames 19 of 32
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On the surface, this seems like a little too high, especially given the current state of the Flames and the way the past two years have gone.
The roster is not good at the moment, they have some awful contracts on the roster (Jonathan Huberdeau being at the top of the list) and they are very clearly starting to go through a rebuild after a massive sell-off of talent over the past year.
There have, however, been some decent moments, specifically during the 2021-22 season when they won a division title and a playoff series. That season alone was enough to jump them up a few spots in the overall rankings over teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, Winnipeg, Nashville and Minnesota.
13. St. Louis Blues 20 of 32
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The Blues were one of the most consistent teams in the NHL throughout the 2010s, finally reaching the top of the NHL mountain in 2018-19 with the franchise’s first Stanley Cup win.
It came just in time for them, because the five years that have followed have been a step back toward consistent mediocrity, including back-to-back seasons outside of the playoffs.
The biggest issues have been inconsistency in goal, as the commitment to Jordan Binnington has not always worked out as planned, while the defense has never really recovered from the departures of Alex Pietrangelo and Vince Dunn.
They continue to try and compete in the short-term, something they made very clear this month when they signed defenseman Philip Broberg and forward Dylan Holloway away from the Edmonton Oilers as restricted free agents, giving up 2025 draft picks.
12. Vancouver Canucks 21 of 32
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This might have been one of the more shocking placements, because the Canucks have not been a consistent force in the NHL since the end of the Henrik and Daniel Sedin era.
But while they have not been consistent contenders, they have not been all that bad, either.
Over the past five years, they have had just one last-place finish, zero bottom-five finishes and never finished with the league’s worst record. And while they only made the playoffs twice, each playoff appearance resulted in a playoff series win, and the 2023-24 season produced a stunning Pacific Division championship. Two playoff series wins and a division title is more than most teams can say, which gets them a very respectable No. 12 ranking.
11. Toronto Maple Leafs22 of 32
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Every year, the Toronto Maple Leafs are widely considered to be a Stanley Cup contender.
Every year, their season ends in bitter disappointment with the same result happening again and again and again.
This is by no means a bad team. Calling it a bad team would be unfair, inaccurate and just flat-out wrong. It’s just not a particularly great team, and this ranking just outside of the top 10 feels justified given what the team has actually accomplished.
Because what has it accomplished?
Over the past five years, it was eliminated in the qualifying round against Columbus when the Maple Leafs were the only Eastern Conference team playing in their home building under impossible circumstances for everybody else.
They won the North Division title in 2020-21 against the other six Canadian teams and then proceeded to lose in the first round (again) as heavy favorites against a Montreal team that did not match their talent level.
They have otherwise consistently finished in second or third in their own division, have only won a single game outside of the first round, and have not even come close to a championship.
The issue is not that they have failed to win a Stanley Cup. The issue is they never get close. They are a good to very good, fringe top-10 NHL team. They are nothing more until they actually win something of consequence to change that.
10. New York Islanders23 of 32
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When I crunched the numbers and came to the New York Islanders in the top 10, I kind of sat there and stared at it for a few minutes trying to comprehend what I was looking at. Outside of their goaltending, there is nothing consistently interesting about this team. They do not score a lot of goals. They do not play a particularly exciting brand of hockey. They are never great defensively in front of their goalies. They never seem to be considered a serious contender.
Am I underrating this team?
Are we as a league underrating this team?
Over the past five years, I think the answer to that question has to be a resounding yes, and when you look at what they have done over that time, it is quite honestly really, really good.
They have been in the playoffs four times and twice reached the NHL’s final four. That is a very solid run.
Sometimes it doesn’t makes sense as to how they do it, and it never seems like it is repeatable, but they annually find a way to repeat it.
What makes it even more staggering is they did that after losing John Tavares in free agency, something that did not seem likely or even possible at the time.
9. Edmonton Oilers24 of 32
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After wasting the first part of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s careers, the Edmonton Oilers have finally started to piece together a worthwhile team around them.
It still has flaws to be sure, and some potentially massive flaws going into this season. But the results have finally started to match what you expect a team with two franchise players in the prime of their careers to achieve.
They have made the playoffs in each of the past five years, reached at least the final four two times and this past season finally broke through with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final. Overall, they have six playoff series wins over the past five years after winning just six total between the 1992-1993 and 2018-19 seasons.
The question now is whether or not they have the defense and goaltending to actually bring the Stanley Cup back to Edmonton.
8. Boston Bruins 25 of 32
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Every single time it looks like the Boston Bruins might finally be at a point where they are going to take a step backward and slow down, they find a way to keep churning out wins and remaining near the top of the league standings.
While their recent playoff showings might be a little underwhelming when compared to their regular-season success, the past five years have produced two division titles, two Presidents’ Trophies and three playoff series wins.
That is a pretty nice stretch for a team that was thought to be “slowing down” on more than one occasion over those seasons.
The Presidents’ Trophy might not be widely respected because “it’s not the Trophy anybody wants,” there is still a lot to be said for finishing a full regular season with the best record in the league. Granted, one of those Presidents’ Trophies came in a shortened season (the Bruins had the best record in the league when the 2019-20 regular season was stopped), but they still had a six-point lead and were on track to win it outright in a full 82-game season.
7. Carolina Hurricanes26 of 32
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The Hurricanes are one of the most consistent teams in the NHL in every possible way, and you pretty much always know what you are going to get from them.
They have a rock-solid roster from top to bottom with very few weaknesses. While they do not have a true superstar (a player who is going to win a major award or finish in the top 10 in scoring), they have several bonafide top-line players who are all either in their prime or just about to enter it.
Their style of play is not always the prettiest, but it wears teams down and works out in their favor over the long haul. More often than not, it has produced a division title over the past five years (three times).
They are also going to consistently reach at least the second round of the playoffs, as they have done four times over the past five years, including one trip to the Eastern Conference Final.
But they have not yet had their breakthrough when it comes to reaching the Stanley Cup Final, which is the one thing holding them back from cracking the top five.
6. New York Rangers27 of 32
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This team is so close, but there just always seems to be one thing holding them back from becoming truly elite.
The top of their roster features All-Star and superstar-level players. Artemi Panarin is an MVP candidate. Adam Fox is one of the three best defenders in hockey. Igor Shesterkin is, at worst, the second-best goalie in hockey on any given night and the type of goalie that can turn a bad team into a playoff team and a playoff team into a Stanley Cup contender. Recent No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere looks like he is on the verge of becoming a force of an offensive player.
Their power play and special teams? They are as good as it gets in the NHL.
They also won a Presidents’ Trophy this past season and have been in the Eastern Conference Final twice in the past three years. The rebuild has, for the most part, been a success.
But they just need to fix some of their 5-on-5 flaws and defensive zone issues to become less special teams and goalie dependent to jump over and join some of the teams in the top five.
5. Dallas Stars28 of 32
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The Stars have built themselves a powerhouse of a hockey team through some great drafting and player development, watching as their farm system has churned out high-level players like Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, Roope Hintz and Wyatt Johnston in recent years. All of them are All-Star-level talents.
Even though it has not produced a championship with this current core, the Stars have been making regular appearances deep into the playoffs, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance, two Western Conference Final appearances and a division title over the past five years.
It’s been a great run, and given the ages of the aforementioned players, their window should remain open for the foreseeable future—not to mention their farm system has more talent making its way through (Logan Stankoven, Mavrik Bourque, Thomas Harley).
4. Colorado Avalanche29 of 32
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The Avalanche have been one of the gold-standard teams in the NHL over the better part of the past decade and boast one of the league’s most talented rosters. They have done that through great drafting and shrewd moves in free agency and trades where they always seem to find bargains.
Not only bargains in terms of their salary-cap commitments, but also bargains in terms of how they tend to win so many trades.
That roster has produced the second-most regular-season wins over the past five years, three division titles, seven playoff series wins, a Presidents’ Trophy and a Stanley Cup.
Their 2021-22 Stanley Cup-winning team was one of the most dominant teams of the salary-cap era.
3. Vegas Golden Knights30 of 32
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From the moment they arrived in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights have been a constant Stanley Cup contender.
They are ruthless in their roster construction, are always in on every star player that becomes available in trades and free agency, and are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to…let’s say…mastering the finer points of the league’s salary-cap rules.
Every sports fan would love their team to go out of their way to try and win like this.
Every sports fan would love it if their team actually did win like this.
After a Stanley Cup Final loss in their debut season and some near-misses in the seasons that followed, the Golden Knights got their first championship during the 2022-23 season and capitalized on the window they opened for themselves.
2. Florida Panthers 31 of 32
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The past three years alone are probably enough to put the Florida Panthers in the top two.
That stretch saw the Panthers win a Presidents’ Trophy, reach the Stanley Cup Final with an unexpected postseason run as a No. 8 seed, and then come back the next year and actually win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.
They also had two playoff appearances in the two years prior to the start of that run.
The big turning point came via a 2022 trade that sent forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for forward Matthew Tkachuk. As good as Huberdeau and Weegar were in Florida, Tkachuk brought an entirely different element to the team, giving them an in-his-prime superstar who can impact the game offensively, defensively and physically.
But that was far from the only blockbuster acquisition to help get them here, as they also made major moves to land impact players like Sam Reinhart, Sergei Bobrovsky, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett. Even the under-the-radar moves like Evan Rodrigues, Brandon Montour and Gustav Forsling paid off in big ways.
That also does not even get into the impact that Aleksander Barkov—the true franchise player here—makes on a nightly basis.
They are almost as good as it gets. The only team that has exceeded them is their cross-state rival.
1. Tampa Bay Lightning 32 of 32
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Then we have the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are in a lot of ways a mix of every other team in the top five.
They have a Vegas-like tendency to manipulate the salary cap to their advantage.
They make shrewd moves in free agency and trades like Florida, and they have a monster home-grown core of superstar talent along the same lines as Colorado and Dallas with Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevksiy, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos (before he left in free agency this offseason).
They played in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals between 2019-20 and 2021-22, winning two of them, while their 11 playoff series wins over the past five years are three more than any other team in the NHL during that stretch.
Even with first-round playoff losses in each of the past two seasons, their five-year run is still the best of any team in the NHL.
