Ranking Canada's Seven NHL Teams By 2026-27 Stanley Cup Chances

It's been more than three decades since a Canadian NHL team hoisted the Stanley Cup, which was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993. Canadian fans are hoping that the drought ends in the upcoming 2026-27 season.

In 2025-26, just three of the seven teams saw the Stanley Cup playoffs, with the Canadiens going the deepest to an Eastern Conference final appearance, and losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes.

With training camps approaching in a few weeks and rosters essentially built, here's how the seven Canadian franchises stack up against each other this year.

The Vancouver Canucks enter the season as one of the league's clear rebuilding clubs. They’re not projected to be all that good, and there’s still talk that pieces might be sold off before the year begins. A new GM, new front-office hires, new coaching staff and a different roster mean some hard times are coming.  

The Canucks have some solid stars, but their chemistry seems off. There's talent on the roster, but not enough to be in the playoff conversation, let alone the Stanley Cup conversation.

Much like the Canucks, the Calgary Flames will surprise people if they’re in the playoff mix. They’ve got some good young pieces coming up, but GM Craig Conroy has moved most of his top guys. The Flames are further along in a rebuild, but they’re not going to win much. 

The 2026-27 season is likely to be a long year for the Flames and their fans. 

The Winnipeg Jets could be good, but they might be awful. If they end up trading superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, expect the latter.

The Jets have stronger pieces than either Vancouver or Calgary, but what was once a team that felt like it was onto something feels the opposite now. The off-season buzz around them isn’t at the same level as the other Canadian teams that are ahead of them on this list.

In fairness, they might be a playoff team if things go right, especially considering they were the Presidents' Trophy winners in 2024-25.

The question with the Ottawa Senators will be whether the team is better because Brady Tkachuk is gone or worse for the same reason.

On paper, the loss of Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers stings. In the locker room and when it comes to the leadership of the group, this could be addition by subtraction. 

The Senators didn’t get anything that will help them this season in the trade. Still, GM Steve Staios has insisted the team isn't taking a step back, and the Senators did reinvest in the present by adding forwards William Eklund and Andre Burakovsky to help fill the offensive void.

The Toronto Maple Leafs' odds took a real hit after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. It led to sweeping changes in the front office, the coach, and much of the roster. 

GM John Chayka has been busy overhauling the roster, including the addition of veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. However, for the Leafs, it’s not a given that these changes will work. Nonetheless, there are some pieces here that could make the Maple Leafs a team capable of bouncing back in the Atlantic Division. 

Don’t rule them out. At the same time, don’t be fooled into thinking that all these changes automatically make them a playoff team. 

Montreal could certainly be the top Canadian team this season. They’ve done almost everything right, and their run in 2025-26 has them pegged as a team of the future. They went from a rebuilding team just a few years ago to the NHL's youngest conference finalist in 33 years.

The pieces they have locked in on this roster are impressive. Lane Hutson is already one of the league's best defensemen, Nick Suzuki won the Selke while hitting 100 points, Cole Caufield scored 50 goals, and Juraj Slafkovsky continues to develop into a power forward.

Ivan Demidov is going to be a star, and their blue line and goaltending aren’t glaring weaknesses. The Canadiens will be a legitimate contender now, and the belief is that internal growth alone should push them further than their run this past year.

Even though they took a step backward in 2025-26, no Canadian team is closer to the mountaintop than the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers still have two of the best players in the world. They’ve got an excellent scoring defenseman, some solid depth, and they made changes this summer that should improve the team. 

The gamble with picking Edmonton is that they’re getting a bit older and they took a big swing hiring Mike Babcock as their new head coach. It could be a massive success with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl fully supportive of the move. It could be a disaster. 

This is a team with something to prove this coming season.

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