We're past the halfway mark of the 2025-26 season, and many teams stand out as being particularly strong. Here are the four elite contenders who are the frontrunners to achieve Stanley Cup glory.
Every NHL team has now passed the halfway mark of the 2025-26 season, so it’s a terrific time to look at which teams have emerged as the favorites to win this year’s Stanley Cup. We’re going to look at two teams in each of the league’s two conferences and label them as the teams most likely to win a championship.
But first, a couple of notes: the team we picked to win the Cup this year – the Colorado Avalanche – has proven itself to be the strongest team in the league, and not by a small amount of standings points, either. The Avs have 11 more points than the next-best teams in the NHL, and they’ve lost only four times in regulation.
The team we picked to win the Metropolitan Division – the Carolina Hurricanes – are on track to do exactly that, as they lead the Metro and the Eastern Conference with 57 points.
That said, we haven’t been perfect in our predictions. As we’ll explore below, two other teams have shown they deserve to be in our top-four Cup front-runners this season. So let’s get right to it. In alphabetical order, here are our picks as the teams with the best odds at winning it all this year:
Carolina Hurricanes
The Hurricanes built up a 22-9-2 record as of Dec. 17, and they were on a five-game win streak leading up to that point. And although they’ve since gone 5-5-1 in their past 11 games, Carolina has shown the all-around game many of us expected out of them.
Still, there’s still room for improvement, as they’ve got the sixth-best offense in the league at an average of 3.36 goals-for per game, and they’ve got the NHL’s 12th-best defense at an average of 2.98 goals-against per game.
Meanwhile, the Canes have more salary cap space than any team on this list, with approximately $16 million in cap space. It says here that Carolina GM Eric Tulsky should spend some of that money on an improvement in goal, as the Hurricanes have gotten a weak season out of veteran Frederik Andersen, and youngster Brandon Bussi shouldn’t have to carry the full weight of the team on his shoulders.
But otherwise, this Canes team looks as fast and slick as they appeared on paper prior to the season. Whether it’s making an addition in net or on defense, there’s every likelihood they’re going to be even more challenging to beat.
In a relatively wide-open Eastern Conference, Carolina has as solid a chance as anyone to get out of the Eastern final for the first time since they won their first Cup in team history two decades ago. And if they get to that point, the Canes could upset the Western Conference champs and win it all.
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Colorado Avalanche
What can you say about the Avalanche that their 32-4-7 record doesn’t already tell you? By just about every metric, Colorado has been in a class all its own. They’ve got the league’s best defense by nearly a half-goal, posting a 2.21 goals-against average. And they’ve got the league’s best offense by 0.60 goals-for, with a goals-for average of 4.05.
In addition, the Avs’ penalty kill is the NHL’s best, at an efficiency rating of 85.4 percent. If there is a blemish for Colorado, it’s their power play, which currently sits 24th in the league at 16.8 percent. But when your 5-on-5 play is so overpoweringly effective, you don’t need to rely on your man-advantage to win you games.
The Avalanche have $2.2 million in cap space right now, but that number increases to $5.3 million by the March 6 trade deadline. But even if they didn’t make another move this year, the Avs would still be our choice to win it all.
They’ve got the leading Hart Trophy candidate as regular-season MVP in superstar center Nathan MacKinnon, the leading Norris Trophy candidate as top defenseman in star blueliner Cale Makar, and a slew of supporting talent that gives them an almost comical advantage regardless of who they play.
Minnesota Wild
When we put together our Central Division pre-season rankings, we badly missed the Wild, placing them in sixth place. But without throwing anyone under the bus, we weren’t the only ones who had Minnesota well out of a top-three spot in the Central, as The Hockey News’ Yearbook pegged the Wild as the Central’s fifth-place team this season.
Instead of languishing near the cellar of the division, Minnesota has moved into a tie for second place with the equally impressive Dallas Stars. And since Dec. 6, the Wild have gone 11-2-3 – numbers that you’d associate with the Avalanche this season.
Minnesota has received the best goaltending in the league this season, and that’s reflective in their 2.62 goals-against average, a number which ranks second-best in the league. The Wild also have a whopping seven shutouts this season, proving they can beat you in high-scoring games as well as low-scoring contests.
And though Minnesota GM Bill Guerin has $5.5 million in cap space, that number rises to $12.8 million at the deadline. So the Wild have their best opportunity in years – and maybe, in the 25-year history of the organization – to win the first Cup in franchise history.
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Tampa Bay Lightning
In our Atlantic Division pre-season predictions, we had the Lightning as the third-best team in the division. And at the time this story was written, that’s precisely where Tampa Bay is. They’re also only one point out of first place in the Atlantic as they ride a current eight-game win streak.
That shows us that the Bolts are in a great position to reach the summit of the Atlantic and set themselves up with home-ice advantage once the playoffs begin.
The Lightning have the third-best defense in the league at a goals-against average of 2.64. While at the other end of the ice, they’ve got the NHL’s second-best goals-for average, at an average of just 3.45 goals-for. There’s a discernible balance to the Bolts’ attack that bodes well for the second half of their season and their post-season.
Tampa Bay has $2.2 million in cap space, but the truth is, they don’t have any holes in their roster right now. The Lightning have Cup-winning experience as part of their core, they’ve got world-class netminding in goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, and they’ve got the NHL’s best road record at 14-4-3. There are virtually no flaws with this lineup, and so long as they stay healthy, the Bolts have what it takes to go on a deep playoff run, and maybe, just maybe, win another Cup.
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