The NHL power rankings still have the Vegas Golden Knights in first and the San Jose Sharks in last, but some Canadian teams saw their stock rise quickly or drop dramatically.
Welcome back to the ever-popular NHL power rankings at The Hockey News. Published every Wednesday, all 32 teams will be ranked from best to worst with an emphasis on their weekly performances.
For the sake of changing things up, it was really, really tempting to put the Flyers at the bottom after losing to the Sharks on Tuesday.
Finally, even if just for one night, the Sharks were not the worst team in the league. But they really are. They were outshot 39-19 and generated 1.03 fewer goals than expected at 5-on-5, per naturalstattrick.com. If anything, the Flyers beat themselves with an anemic offense and inopportune errors in their own zone and in net.
With a minus-42 goal differential, the Sharks are still on pace to generate the fewest goals and allow the most goals in the cap era, almost 50 more than the Ducks last season, who were statistically one of the worst defensive teams ever. That’s quite something.
Meanwhile, the elite teams are separating themselves from the pack. The biggest surprise, of course, are the Canucks, but I dare anybody to argue that anyone other than Quinn Hughes has been the best defenseman and Thatcher Demko, the best goalie. The Canucks enter the top five for the first time this season, and under Rick Tocchet, they truly are built differently.
The big fallers are the Canadiens, who have lost four straight, the Senators, who have lost five of their past six and booed off home ice, and, of course, the Flyers, who have lost seven of their past nine and scored just one paltry goal against a team that allowed 10 goals in consecutive games.
(All fancy stats are 5-on-5 and courtesy naturalstattrick.com. CF% stands for Corsi-for percentage and xGF% represents expected goals-for percentage.)
1. Vegas Golden Knights (11-1-1, +24 goal differential. CF% league rank: 27, xGF% league rank: 25)
Excellent defense, excellent goaltending and a crop of versatile forwards, including elite scorers and meat-and-potatoes guys. Forget about man-on-man or zone defense; if you aren’t deep like the Knights, you won’t beat them.
2. Boston Bruins (10-1-1, +16. CF%: 18, xGF%: 12)
I checked – not since Martin Brodeur in 2002-03 and 2003-04 has there been back-to-back winners for the Jennings, and Brodeur basically did it all himself. For back-to-back winners with both goalies, you’d have to go back to the late 1980s with Patrick Roy and Brian Hayward, who won three straight. Question for April: Can you win by rotating goalies in the playoffs?
3. Vancouver Canucks (9-2-1, +30. CF%: 17, xGF%: 29)
Told you this team was built differently. This Canucks team can snap passes from tape to tape, and there’s very little quit for a once-fragile team. Next move: Bring back the skate jersey full-time.
4. New York Rangers (9-2-1, +12. CF%: 20, xGF%: 19)
What’s been most impressive is this Rangers team can win a bunch of different ways, and their depth has been pretty good with Jonathan Quick and Erik Gustafsson stepping up with injuries to Igor Shesterkin and Adam Fox, their MVP and best defenseman, respectively.
5. Los Angeles Kings (7-2-2, +14. CF%: 5, xGF%: 2)
They’re getting good goaltending from Cam Talbot – a bit of a shocker – and their young players are contributing in a big way (finally), especially Quinton Byfield, who has six points in his past three games.
6. Dallas Stars (7-3-1, +3. CF%: 12, xGF%: 6)
Despite their record, I find it’s been a mixed bag. They’ve lost two straight now with only two goals scored. The upside is they’re winning games even though Jason Robertson has not been one of their top five players.
7. Colorado Avalanche (8-3-0, +7. CF%: 4, xGF%: 1)
The Avs might be the best streaky team in the league. One week, they’re blowing the doors off everyone, and in the following week, they get shut out three times. They need more depth and, at this rate, Alexandar Georgiev will start 70 games.
8. Toronto Maple Leafs (6-4-2, even. CF%: 15, xGF%: 26)
The upside is the Lightning are no longer their kryptonite because Matthew Knies is their Superman in a lead suit. The issue is the same; they don’t have enough depth, and their goaltending has been weak.
9. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-3-4, +5. CF%: 14, xGF%: 24)
Curse the three-point game; three of their four overtime losses have been to divisional opponents. Otherwise, the Lightning continue to be a dominant franchise. Somewhat worryingly, however, is that their goals against per game continues to rise, but hopefully that gets rectified when Andrei Vasilevskiy returns.
10. Carolina Hurricanes (8-5-0, +1. CF%: 1, xGF%: 5)
The Canes continue to test the theory that you don’t need a bona fide goalie to win, but would anyone be comfortable with Antti Raanta, Pyotr Kochetkov and possibly Jaroslav Halak carrying them to the final? Wishing a speedy recovery to Frederik Andersen, but if the Hurricanes don’t win it all, they’d be the biggest what-if for the you-need-an-elite-goalie-to-win debate.
11. Florida Panthers (6-4-1, -1. CF%: 6, xGF%: 13)
Keep in mind they’re doing this without their No. 2 center and their top two defensemen. Their stars are playing like stars, and watch out once Matthew Tkachuk really gets going, who’s stuck on two goals in 11 games.
12. New Jersey Devils (7-4-1, +1. CF%: 7, xGF%: 9)
Allowing the fourth-most goals per game is coming back to haunt them because Jack Hughes isn’t there to run their power play, which will inevitably come down to earth. It was easy to buy into the hype train, and the Devils are certainly a very talented bunch, but we keep forgetting the path to the top is never straight, and they still have plenty of things to work through.
13. Detroit Red Wings (7-5-1, +6. CF%: 25, xGF%: 20)
After winning five of their first six games, they went 2-4-1 with only one regulation win. However, you have to give the Wings credit for their furious scoring rallies, including the win against the Bruins and making the Rangers sweat even though they were up 5-0.
14. Anaheim Ducks (7-5-0, +3. CF%: 28, xGF%: 27)
Last season, the Ducks would go into a game as the underdog, and they would roll over the first few minutes. Not this season; they’re giant killers with comeback wins against the Bruins and Knights, and coach Greg Cronin has been big on accountability.
15. Winnipeg Jets (6-4-2, even. CF%: 3, xGF%: 7)
It’s been a tough start, and Connor Hellebuyck continues to play a ton of minutes. They’ve played seven of their 12 games on the road, but of the 23 games remaining from now until the end of the calendar year, only nine of them are on the road, and that includes manageable three-game and four-game road trips. Over the past three seasons, their performances at home (51-30-6) have been much better than on the road (40-39-10).
16. New York Islanders (5-3-3, -2. CF%: 29, xGF%: 21)
It’s been a running joke for eons that the Isles can’t score, and now, their leading scorer is a defenseman. Not taking anything away from Noah Dobson, but of the 34 forwards with a cap hit of more than $8.5 million, Bo Horvat and Mat Barzal rank 22nd and 28th, respectively, in points per game, per PuckPedia.
17. Buffalo Sabres (6-6-1, even. CF%: 19, xGF%: 17)
The Sabres are scoring again, their goals against is dropping, and they might’ve figured out a rotation between Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. The Sabres and Canucks are franchise bros, Cup-less since inception in 1970, but they’re building similar cases for their black threads; since last season, the Sabres are 12-2-1 wearing their goathead jerseys.
18. Arizona Coyotes (6-5-1, +6. CF%: 24, xGF%: 14)
There’s a case for the Coyotes to be ranked higher, but they’ve also failed to win more than two games in a row this season. Connor Ingram is low-key starting to get the edge for the starting job, but it’s just nice to see the team being competitive. The fan base deserves it.
19. Washington Capitals (5-4-1, -9. CF%: 11, xGF%: 15)
Their demise was exaggerated but probably still not far from the truth. After losing four of their first five, they won four of their next five. They’re overcoming a leave of absence from Nicklas Backstrom, a slow start from Alex Ovechkin and a general lack of offense in a league that keeps skewing toward the young and skilled. They’re on the playoff bubble and need to get hot at the right time to have a chance.
20. Minnesota Wild (5-5-2, -5. CF%: 16, xGF%: 22)
Nothing matters until the goaltending fixes itself because there’s no cap room for changes. If you’re wondering, Jesper Wallstedt is 4-2-0 with a .919 SP in the AHL, but he’s not going to be the solution this season, and the Wings and Hurricanes can tell you about how unwieldy it is to carry three goalies. Bright spot: Marco Rossi, whose career was nearly derailed by long COVID but emerged as a top-six center.
21. Pittsburgh Penguins (5-6-0, +7. CF%: 10, xGF%: 4)
Just when Tristan Jarry was looking good and the Pens looked like they could string some wins together, he got hurt. Some guys are just really unlucky when it comes to this kind of stuff. From a numbers perspective, the Pens should be much, much better than their record; they rank top-10 in both goals-for and goals against per game and in various possession metrics. Why are they still 21st? Because puck don’t lie.
22. St. Louis Blues (5-5-1, -6. CF%: 32, xGF%: 30)
The only teams more futile in scoring are the Sharks, Caps and Hawks, and two of those are likely headed for the lottery. This team continues to be at a crossroads, and they have no chance when Jordan Kyrou and Pavel Buchnevich have combined for *checks notes* three goals and nine points.
23. Calgary Flames (4-7-1, -11. CF%: 9, xGF%: 11)
Wait, they’ve won two games? In a row?! Remember that last season the Flames lost seven games in a row in early November and still finished 11 games above .500, but they’ll need a huge run to make the playoffs. As for Jonathan Huberdeau… there’s no immediate solution, and that’s a big problem.
24. Montreal Canadiens (5-5-2, -8. CF%: 21, xGF%: 18)
It started off really well, and then the wheels for the goalies just completely fell off. And when you have no wheels, it doesn’t matter how accurate Waze is. In retrospect, we shouldn’t have put so much faith in Jake Allen and Sam Montembeault. The good news is that the team can still score goals, including Juraj Slafkovsky.
25. Seattle Kraken (4-6-3, -12. CF%: 13, xGF%: 16)
The Kraken have just two wins in regulation, tied for 30th in the league. There’s just been no rhyme or reason to their play this season, and while the Kraken have eschewed the Knights’ strategy to splurge on big names, you wonder if there’s a method to the Knight’s madness. The Kraken need that one reliable player to lean on because the committee approach isn’t really working right now.
26. Nashville Predators (5-7-0, -2. CF%: 26, xGF%: 10)
We came into the season not really knowing what to expect, but the Preds are also much more competitive than we thought. While they rank 26th this week, there’s some room to move up, but not much more if Ryan O’Reilly is your top goal-scorer.
27. Ottawa Senators (4-6-0, +3. CF%: 23, xGF%: 28)
There’s nothing more humiliating than getting booed on home ice. With the Battle of Ontario coming up and then four straight home games – Nov. 16 and 18 games will be played in Sweden – this is an important stretch. They need to snap out of their latest funk, losing five of their past six.
28. Columbus Blue Jackets (4-5-3, -7. CF%: 22, xGF%: 23)
The Jackets have lost six of their past seven, but at least the games are close; the margins have all been by two goals or less. Coach Pascal Vincent is putting his stamp on the team, and there will be ups and downs, but you hope by the end of the season, the Jackets will not be in the bottom five.
29. Chicago Blackhawks (4-7-0, -12. CF%: 30, xGF%: 31)
You pay Corey Perry and Nick Foligno the big money because they’re the ones who can stabilize the ship in rough waters, and that’s exactly what a young Connor Bedard needs. After playing seven of their first 11 games on the road, however, it actually hasn’t been that bad.
30. Philadelphia Flyers (5-7-1, -3. CF%: 10, xGF%: 8)
I have to drop the Flyers after losing seven of their past nine, especially the most recent one to the Sharks. It’s hard to score without a bona fide playmaker and hard to stop pucks without Carter Hart. Trust me, the Flyers are a better team than their record indicates.
31. Edmonton Oilers (2-8-1, -18. CF%: 2, xGF%: 3)
Can you believe we have a game against the league’s worst team as must-see TV circled on the calendar? In November?! The Oilers really need to go on a run here, and they’ve got a very short amount of time to do it with six of their next eight games on the road, including an Eastern Conference swing through Tampa, Florida and Carolina.
32. San Jose Sharks (1-10-1, -42. CF%: 31, xGF%: 32)
Congratulations to the Sharks. You have one win in a game where you were outshot by 20. (Seriously, the bar is set so, so low).
