NHL Season Preview 2026-27 By BIGGG Sports

NHL 2026-27 Season Preview — by BIGGG Sports

Season Expectations

Puck drops on the new NHL season tonight, and the champagne is barely dry in Raleigh. The Carolina Hurricanes are the defending Stanley Cup champions after knocking off Vegas in the Final, with rookie-turned-folk-hero goaltender Brandon Bussi stealing all three of those Finals games — including a championship-clinching shutout. It’s a stunning changing of the guard: Florida had won back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025 before Carolina finally broke through, and now it’s the Hurricanes’ turn to find out how hard it is to repeat.

Florida didn’t sit still after losing its throne. The Panthers pulled off the trade of the summer, prying Brady Tkachuk away from Ottawa to finally put him on a line with his brother Matthew — we’ll get into exactly what that means for the rest of the league below. Vegas, meanwhile, lost coach John Tortorella after that Final defeat and promoted from within, handing the bench to Ryan Craig, while also shipping out leading goal-scorer Pavel Dorofeyev to the Rangers.

It’s also been a summer of change behind the scenes. Toronto tore up its front office and its roster at the same time, with new GM John Chayka and new coach Jim Hiller bringing in Sergei Bobrovsky and top pick Gavin McKenna and hoping chemistry builds fast. Edmonton went looking for its own culture reset, hiring 700-game-winner Mike Babcock to try to get Connor McDavid over the hump — and McDavid himself signed only a two-year, $25 million bridge deal, a contract that reads less like a commitment and more like a two-year audition for a front office that needs to deliver. Detroit’s Steve Yzerman stepped down as GM mid-summer with captain Dylan Larkin reportedly requesting a trade, Nashville brought in Colorado’s title-winning GM Chris MacFarland to replace Barry Trotz, and Vancouver handed the keys to Ryan Johnson with Henrik and Daniel Sedin now running hockey operations — all this after the Canucks stunned their own fan base by trading captain Quinn Hughes to Minnesota in the middle of last season. Alex Ovechkin, remarkably, is back for a 22nd season in Washington and still shooting the puck harder than players half his age.

And Toronto wasn’t finished. Just before puck drop, the Leafs pulled off the early front-runner for trade of the year, sending homegrown winger Matthew Knies to Columbus for Kirill Marchenko, depth forward Miles Wood and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins — then immediately locking Marchenko into a six-year, $75 million extension. It’s a swap of a fan-favourite grinder for a bona fide first-line play-driver entering his prime, layered on top of an offseason that already rebuilt the front office, the bench and the crease. Does it get Toronto back into the playoffs? We think so — Marchenko’s shot-creation numbers are the kind of thing that lifts Auston Matthews’ whole line, and paired with Bobrovsky in net this is a deeper, faster roster than the one that missed out last spring. A real Stanley Cup contender, though? Not yet, in our book. Too many new pieces have never played a shift together, the blueline is unproven, and the Atlantic is loaded top to bottom with Florida, Tampa Bay, Montreal, Ottawa and Buffalo all capable of a deep run themselves. File it under playoff team with real top-six firepower, not favourite.

It’s also worth naming what’s happening under the cap ceiling this year, because it explains a lot of these moves. The salary cap jumped from $95.5 million to $104 million this season — the biggest single-year increase in league history — with another $9.5 million bump already locked in for 2027-28. That kind of growth sounds like it should make life easier for everyone, but in practice it’s widening the gap between the haves and have-nots inside individual rosters. A handful of stars are still playing on extensions signed years ago at the old cap ceiling — bargains now, whatever they looked like at the time — while anyone signing a second contract in this market, like Marchenko’s fresh $12.5 million-a-year deal in Toronto, is getting paid at a completely different rate. Teams that locked up their core early have real cap flexibility to spend on depth; teams paying full 2026-27 price for young players just reaching free agency are finding out how little that extra cap room actually buys once term and dollars catch up with it.

Beyond the contenders we cover in detail below, we like Dallas, Tampa Bay and Montreal as teams capable of a deep run if their stars get paid and stay healthy, and we’re watching Chicago closely once Connor Bedard returns from shoulder surgery in November.

Opening Night — Monday, 29 September 2026

ESPN Tripleheader

• Carolina Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers — 5:00pm ET (Raleigh; the Hurricanes raise their championship banner)
• Boston Bruins vs. New York Rangers — 8:00pm ET
• Vegas Golden Knights vs. Chicago Blackhawks — 10:30pm ET

Sportsnet Doubleheader

• Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens — 7:00pm ET (possible NHL debut for No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna)
• Edmonton Oilers vs. Vancouver Canucks — 10:00pm ET

Top 5 Contenders

Florida Panthers — the “Bully” lineup

If there’s one team we don’t want to play against this season, it’s this one. Bringing in Brady Tkachuk to finally pair with his brother Matthew doesn’t just add a 26-year-old with 59 points last season — it hands Florida a roster built entirely around making opponents’ lives miserable. Brady slots onto the top line with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, while the second line is about as nasty as hockey gets: Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk. Throw in a third line of Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen that’s arguably the best in the league on its own, and then stack the depth chart with brawlers like Radko Gudas and Garnet Hathaway, and you’ve got what we’re calling the Bully lineup: a team that out-hits, out-agitates and out-wills you before it even has to out-skill you, and it can do that too. The one real question mark is between the pipes, where Jacob Markstrom returns to replace franchise legend Sergei Bobrovsky — a downgrade on paper that Florida is betting its physicality and star power can cover for. If Barkov and company stay healthy after last year’s injury-wrecked campaign, this is a championship-calibre roster again.

Carolina Hurricanes — defending champions

The reigning Cup champions had, by their own admission, a quiet offseason — the classic “if it ain’t broke” approach after a title run. The biggest change is in net, where Brandon Bussi inherits the No. 1 job after his stunning Final performance, with Frederik Andersen departing for Edmonton and Pyotr Kochetkov staying on as insurance. Carolina still leads the league in offensive-zone time and has as much top-ten talent as anyone; the main housekeeping items are locking up restricted free agent Alexander Nikishin and getting Seth Jarvis back to full health. GM Eric Tulsky’s stated goal says it all: build a team good enough to win the Cup even on nights it isn’t at its best.

Colorado Avalanche — retooling on the fly

Colorado remains a contender, but this was a summer of subtraction as much as addition. Valeri Nichushkin was traded to Columbus, and both Jack Drury and Ross Colton went to Nashville — along with GM Chris MacFarland himself, who left to become the Predators’ president of hockey operations. In their place come depth veteran Jaden Schwartz and two young forwards, Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux, brought over from Nashville in the Drury/Colton return. The Wedgewood–Blackwood tandem that shared last year’s Jennings Trophy is back, though a rough Western Conference Final sweep raised questions about their playoff readiness. With Cale Makar’s next contract still to be settled and the roster trending older, Colorado’s window is still open, but it’s no longer wide open.

Edmonton Oilers — the two-year audition

Everything about Edmonton’s offseason points toward win-now urgency. Out goes longtime coach Kris Knoblauch, in comes 700-win veteran Mike Babcock, tasked with finally getting Connor McDavid a championship. Frederik Andersen arrives from Carolina to upgrade the net, Darnell Nurse was flipped to San Jose for Shakir Mukhamadullin, and depth pieces like Ryan Shea and Mathieu Joseph were added up front and on the blueline. The elephant in the room is McDavid’s own contract: a two-year, $25 million extension that reads as a message to the front office as much as a commitment to the city. The core talent and team speed are still elite — Edmonton led the league in high-speed bursts last season — but the margin for another near-miss is thin.

Vegas Golden Knights — retooling after heartbreak

Losing a Stanley Cup Final to Carolina cost Vegas its head coach, with John Tortorella not retained and internal candidate Ryan Craig promoted from the AHL to replace him. The bigger loss on paper is leading scorer Pavel Dorofeyev, traded to the Rangers, along with depth pieces Keegan Kolesar and Kaedan Korczak and goaltender Akira Schmid, who was flipped to Florida. Victor Olofsson arrives to help replace some of that lost scoring, Parker Wotherspoon bolsters the blueline, and Carter Hart and Adin Hill carry on as the goaltending tandem. With Jack Eichel and Mark Stone still anchoring the lineup and a new coach promising to hold the line on the organization’s championship standard, Vegas remains squarely in the contender conversation even after the disappointment of falling one round short.

The Teams, Division by Division

Atlantic Division

Florida Panthers — see the Bully lineup above; the Tkachuk reunion and a stacked top nine make this our pick to win the division again. Tampa Bay Lightning — added John Carlson and Ilya Mikheyev but the real story is locking up Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov before his contract situation drags on. Toronto Maple Leafs — a near-total roster overhaul under new GM John Chayka, capped by the blockbuster Knies-for-Marchenko trade; we’ve got them back in the playoff mix, though not yet true Cup contenders. Boston Bruins — JJ Peterka joins David Pastrnak up top after arriving from Utah, while the Bruins keep hunting for a true No. 1 centre. Montreal Canadiens — the Eastern Conference Final run last spring wasn’t a fluke, and with Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Ivan Demidov all still just entering their primes, we like this group to push even further. Ottawa Senators — losing captain Brady Tkachuk to Florida stings, but William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky add scoring punch to a team that’s already shown it can win playoff rounds. Buffalo Sabres — finished first in the Atlantic last season, added size and speed on defence via Olen Zellweger and Louis Crevier, but still needs another top-end scorer. Detroit Red Wings — Viktor Arvidsson adds offence, but captain Dylan Larkin’s trade request and Steve Yzerman’s surprise departure as GM have this franchise’s direction genuinely unsettled.

Metropolitan Division

Carolina Hurricanes — see Top 5 Contenders above; the champs are running it back with a new starting goaltender and the same relentless system. Washington Capitals — Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou add real firepower, and Alex Ovechkin returns for a 22nd season on what’s now the franchise’s deepest forward group since its 2018 Cup run. New York Rangers — Pavel Dorofeyev arrives on a seven-year deal to lead a genuine retool after missing the playoffs, and Igor Shesterkin remains one of the league’s best safety nets. New York Islanders — captain Anders Lee is gone, so this is a youth movement built around rookie sensation Matthew Schaefer and emerging forward Calum Ritchie. New Jersey Devils — Anthony Mantha and a wave of Florida connections (including new GM Sunny Mehta) infuse some championship know-how into a team that just missed the playoffs. Pittsburgh Penguins — Sidney Crosby and a re-signed Evgeni Malkin carry on, with GM Kyle Dubas taking a deliberately conservative approach to roster building around them. Philadelphia Flyers — added goaltender Joseph Woll from Toronto, but still lack a true No. 1 centre even after an aggressive offer sheet for Leo Carlsson. Columbus Blue Jackets — traded leading scorer Kirill Marchenko to Toronto but got back a young, controllable Matthew Knies to pair with Adam Fantilli, while Valeri Nichushkin adds a proven scoring touch up top, as the Blue Jackets push to end a playoff drought dating back to 2020.

Central Division

Colorado Avalanche — see Top 5 Contenders above; still a serious threat, even after an offseason of subtraction. Dallas Stars — led the league in high-danger goals and return a loaded top six, but nothing else matters until leading scorer Jason Robertson is signed to a new deal. Winnipeg Jets — Presidents’ Trophy winners two years ago and playoff-less last spring, with three-time Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck now the subject of trade rumours after captain Jonathan Toews’ retirement. Minnesota Wild — added Blake Coleman and Olli Maatta from Calgary, and inherited the league’s biggest in-season storyline by trading for Quinn Hughes; with Matt Boldy and Brock Faber already in place, this is a team on the rise. St. Louis Blues — Mason McTavish and Connor McMichael add scoring punch to a team that ranked near the bottom of the league in goals last season. Nashville Predators — new GM Chris MacFarland brought in a wave of playoff-tested veterans (Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Mavrik Bourque) to surround a talented but still-unproven young core. Utah Mammoth — Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee add veteran leadership around rising star Dylan Guenther, though backup goaltending remains a question mark. Chicago Blackhawks — Connor Bedard’s shoulder surgery means a slow start, but Bowen Byram’s arrival on the blueline and a wave of exciting prospects keep this rebuild on track for whenever Bedard returns in November.

Pacific Division

Edmonton Oilers — see Top 5 Contenders above; new coach, new pressure, and a captain playing out a two-year audition. Vegas Golden Knights — see Top 5 Contenders above; retooling after Finals heartbreak but still built to contend. Los Angeles Kings — Anze Kopitar’s retirement ends an era, so the Kings leaned on experience, adding Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula and Corey Perry plus Cup-winning coach Peter Laviolette. Vancouver Canucks — still working through the fallout of trading captain Quinn Hughes mid-season, with a new coach (Manny Malhotra) and new GM (Ryan Johnson) tasked with a genuine rebuild around Elias Pettersson. Calgary Flames — ranked dead last in the league in scoring and traded away their leading goal-scorer in Blake Coleman, leaning hard into player development this season. Seattle Kraken — added speedy winger Mackie Samoskevich from Florida and are counting on a young core to fix a bottom-five offence. San Jose Sharks — Jacob Trouba and Darnell Nurse overhaul the blueline in front of scoring phenom Macklin Celebrini, who outscored his next two teammates combined last season. Anaheim Ducks — a promising young core headlined by Cutter Gauthier now has to prove last year’s playoff run wasn’t a ceiling, even without Troy Terry until November.

Note: our sports team put this preview together right as the puck was about to drop. Injuries, call-ups and in-season trades can and will shift plenty of this once the games start counting.