The East

The 2025/26 season is about %20 complete. Most teams are approaching the 20 game mark and the parity in the East is impressive. New Jersey and Carolina are the two teams that stand out against the rest and I suspect that when Tkachuk returns from his injury that Florida will join them. The rest of the East is up for grabs. It’s reasonable to assume that Buffalo will miss the playoffs again, but as I stated previous, it’s not obvious on paper that they should. Last year, I never would have guessed that NYR would miss the playoffs with that line-up, yet here we are. With NJ, Carolina and Florida at the top and Buffalo holding down the basement, the rest of conference is a blob of teams that all have very similar talent levels. I suspect that the seperation in the standings that will ultimately play out will be determined largely by injuries (or the lack thereof), goaltending and luck.

I define Top Shelf Talent (TST) as the players who get there points and stats regardless of how good the team around them is. Nathan McKinnon is top shelf because he will score 100 points no matter what team he is on or who skates on a line with him. Most of the teams in the East are absent TST. Kucherov, Pastrnak, and the top three in Toronto are a few of the exceptions, but many of the teams fighting for the playoffs don’t have any TST.

Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin used to be top shelf, but father time has forced them back into the blob. Same for Patrick Kane in Detroit. Here’s my best guess, at this point in the season, at how the playoffs in the East will look when the 82nd games of the season are completed.

In no particular order:

1. Florida- They are back-to-back champs for a reason. TST throughout the line-up. If they get Barkov back, they could three-peat. I don’t think they will, but they easily have the deepest squad in the NHL. Kudos to their GM for getting everyone signed and locking in a winning line-up for the foreseeable future.
2. Carolina- Brindamour was one my favorite players before he started coaching. I would love to see him win a Cup as a coach as well as a player. Carolina is a fun team to watch. They have a solid team throughout the line-up and if they get Slavin back and stay healthy, they could go the distance. I would love to see them play Florida or NJ in the playoffs, preferably in the Conference finals.
3. New Jersey- I suspect this team is primed to make some noise. Another team I enjoy watching. Jack Hughs is TST and they have the depth around him for a serious push this year. I would love to see them add one more rock-solid defender into their top four.
4. Boston- Subtracting Marchand from the team hurts, but I think they have enough to be in the playoffs. I don’t know if they have the depth to sustain success when key players like McCavoy get hurt, but they have solid goaltending and play good D in front of Swayman. Geekie and Pastrnak seem to have good chemistry.
5. Detroit- Full disclosure: I’m a huge Wings’ fan and any analysis of them by me should take my biases into consideration, but I think this is the year they end the playoff drought. Watching them as much as I do, I can say confidently that this team is playing different. McClellan is helping to start give this team an identity and they play with a confidence I haven’t seen in this franchise for a long time. They have young talent making an impact but they are still searching for that #1 goalie. So far, Gibson is underwhelming.
6. Tampa Bay- They have too much talent to miss the playoffs. This team is still super deep and their slow start is a reflection of the parity in the conference taking them by surprise perhaps. They’ll figure out that if they don’t turn it up they will be this years’ NYR and they won’t let that happen. They may not finish in the top three in the division, but they’ll be in the show at the end.
7. NYI- This is the smallest big team in the NHL and the slowest fast team. They play solid D except when they don’t and their special teams can be dangerous until they aren’t. Is Sorokin a good goalie? Usually….but sometimes occasionally. This team perplexes me which is why I like them. I don’t like Patrick Roy as their coach because I don’t like Patrick Roy. Horvat is one of my favorite players and Schaefer looks legit. I would not want to play them in the first round of the playoffs.
8. Washington- I think their depth at D and their goaltending push them into the playoffs over Toronto, NYR and the others. They may struggle to score at times, but Chychrun and Carlson are great and Thompson in net is a difference maker.

Montreal and Ottawa are overrated. Toronto is all flash with their scoring but the absence of depth on the blue line and in net will spell their doom. There will be hell to pay from their fan base when they miss the playoffs, as there should be. It always fascinates me when a franchise has TST like Mathews and Nylander and Marner and fails to build around them appropriately. They already lost Marner and their fans will point at Florida screaming ‘Why couldn’t we do that’? The most classic example of this phenomenon of the ‘failure to build’ would be when Columbus had Rick Nash for all those years. He was such a unique and special talent that they allowed to waste away until he had to go. Marner leaving feels like that. The organization failed and he had to go.