NHL Power Rankings: New No. 1 Team Emerges After Opening Week

The first few weeks of the NHL season are always a little wild.

Whether it's the short training camps, the early start, or both, some teams have looked great right from opening night while others still look like they’re enjoying the summer. 

What's important, however, is we've now seen all 32 teams in action. Here's how the power rankings shake out after the first full week of the season. 

The Golden Knights look absolutely dominant and they nearly came back to beat the Anaheim Ducks after being down 4-0. They've had a pretty easy schedule so far, and their path will be made easier with a weak Pacific Division. 

No, the Avalanche may not be able to run their power play like the Edmonton Oilers, but they do have a Cup and don’t have trouble beating weaker teams.

The Wild have so far been very good, though losing Brock Faber is a big blow and they squandered a two-goal lead against the Buffalo Sabres. Their top players are producing save for Matt Boldy – he will score soon enough – but the Central is going to be a bloodbath as expected.

In the early going, no team has looked like they made a bigger leap than the Mammoth. Such a weird schedule quirk they don’t face a Central Division rival until Oct. 27 against the Wild, which might be their first real test.

The Panthers have managed to earn a point in every game so far despite playing on the road for 10 of their 14 games until the end of October, and injuries have hit them again with Aleksander Barkov on LTIR and Brad Marchand needing help to get off the ice in just his second game back.  

A nice bounce back after a poor performance in the season opener, and again showed how dominant they can be with a 6-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens in a rematch of last season's Eastern Conference final.

Jon Cooper didn't have kind words for his squad in a poor showing in the season opener against the New York Rangers but they were back on track with two straight wins and only two goals allowed. We don’t count out this team, ever. 

The Sabres have a ton of young talent but we seem to forget Owen Power is just 23 years old and will continue to get better. He's averaging 26 minutes per game, a big jump from last season, and looking very good while doing so.

Tuesday’s game against the Canes was the litmus test and the Habs were outplayed and squandered their lead multiple times. While they’ve proved to be a resilient bunch – they nearly came back down 5-1 against the Penguins – they haven’t been dominant or consistent enough to be considered Cup contenders, though it’s still early in the season.

Hey, they didn’t give up a touchdown! 

Beating the Celebrini-less San Jose Sharks wasn’t home to write about, but at least they managed to score five goals after scoring just once in their first two games.

Glen Gulutzan noted the Stars offense underperformed despite finishing ninth in goals for per game last season so either they’re back on track or galaxy brained themselves into fixing something that didn’t need to be fixed.

With Alex Ovechkin announcing that this will be his final season, we’ll be on milestone watch. Ovechkin is 11 goals shy of passing Wayne Gretzky for most regular-season and playoff goals, 12 points away from reaching 1,700, and 36 shy of passing Mario Lemieux for ninth in all-time points. 

Anaheim had two big tests against the Golden Knights and Panthers to begin the season, and the Ducks won both games. That's a good start considering how much depth they lost over the summer. But can Jackson LaCombe (29:09 TOI/GP) and Tristan Luneau (26:47 TOI/GP) do this for 84 games?

The Penguins keep winning games and finding diamonds in the rough. Declan Carlisle, 26 years old and played 42 games in a depth role for the Lightning last season, is tied for the team lead with four points. Nick Robertson has two goals in three games. And now GM Kyle Dubas has leveraged Filip Hallander's hot start to acquire defenseman Spencer Stastney from the Oilers.

It would be a very Senators thing to happen if Linus Ullmark misses an extended period of time only to see Leevi Merilainen take off with the Vancouver Canucks while getting stuck with a tandem of Samuel Ersson and Jonas Johansson. 

So much for having more balanced scoring this season, right? Clearly head coach Marco Sturm is unhappy with how his forwards are being deployed and is looking to shake up his team's second line, with Marat Khusnutdinov, Fraser Minten and JJ Peterka skating together in practice on Wednesday.

Yes, the Rangers are first in the league. Just like we all predicted. 

Connor who? Through three games, the Jets have the eighth-best save percentage at 5-on-5 per NaturalStatTrick.com. 

Semyon Varlamov is one of the feel-good comeback stories of the season already, making his first start since Nov. 29, 2024 after getting a pair of new knees. 

They scored zero goals with Macklin Celebrini out of the lineup. That alone makes a strong case for Celebrini to be MVP. 

Jack Hughes' injury scare aside, no one is really surprised the Devils goaltending has allowed 11 goals in their past two games and barely beat the Flyers in their season opener, who might be the worst team in the league right now. 

Denton Mateychuk is making a very, very strong case to be the breakout player of the season.

The good: They were very good in one-goal games up until last season, and they’re already improved in that regard with a comeback win against the Predators after being down 3-0. The bad: Apparently, scoring on a 3-on-0 in overtime is really, really difficult. 

A mixed bag so far where it looks like they might have to grind out games and then they blow a 3-0 lead to the Maple Leafs. The good news is Chris MacFarland has another 81 games to decide if he’s going to give this old core one last kick at the can or start the rebuild.

A great start with 4-0 road win in Dallas but they get shellacked 6-1 in Colorado the next night and then lose to the Blackhawks. Last season, the Blues could barely win two games in a row and need to find a way to be more consistent this season.

No matter how many games the Canucks win this season, the biggest takeaway is that Elias Pettersson is starting to look like Elias Pettersson again. He trails only former teammate Kiefer Sherwood (20) with 19 hits so far this season. 

Blowout wins against the Calgary Flames but also losses to the Oilers and Golden Knights. This kind of shows you how the Kraken are in the mushy middle where they’re not good enough to compete but also not bad enough to tank. 

$16 million in cap space, rising cap environment, and a top player who took all the risk and attended training camp without a contract? Losing Simon Edvinsson will be 100 percent on the Red Wings. 

The good news is the Kings look like they can actually score goals. The bad news is they still can’t win regulation. 

Michael Bunting is a solid player but when you sign him a week into the season it tells me you’re already desperate for ideas. Teams usually don’t fall this far this quickly in the power rankings early in the season, but their play has been really concerning. 

A really rough start to the season going 0-3-0 with 15 goals against, but they made good in their home opener and Patrick Kane’s return with a win against the Blues.

Let me save you some time. Per THN’s prospect guru Tony Ferrari, the best prospect in the 2027 draft class is right-handed Michigan Wolverine defenseman Landon DuPont. Landon’s father, Micki, was drafted 270th overall in the ninth round – which doesn’t exist anymore – in 2000 by the Flames; what a story that would be to follow in dad’s footsteps. 

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