The NHL In 2025: Who's Hot And Who's Not?

The NHL season is over two months into the 2025 calendar, and during that period, some players and teams have been on fire, while others have been ice cold.

With the speed and intensity that's required to succeed in the NHL, even the league's best players can have trouble finding their 'A' games every night. 

Whether it's due to injury, travel or just the ups and downs of day-to-day life, we all have our highs and lows. And while top athletes can come close to delivering reliable consistency, hockey fans know that skaters, goalies and whole teams are going to go through hot and cold stretches over the course of 82 regular-season games.

Here's who has heated up — and who has cooled off — since the calendar flipped to 2025.

Talk about a new coach bump. Todd McLellan was hired to replace Derek Lalonde on Dec. 28, and the Red Wings are 13-4-1 in 2025. Their .750 points percentage trails only the Winnipeg Jets (.765) and Washington Capitals (.778) this year, and they went into the 4 Nations Face-Off break sitting in a wild-card spot in the tight Eastern Conference race, whether that's determined by points (61) or points percentage (.555).

According to Natural Stat Trick, Detroit’s expected goals share at 5-on-5 is 47.49 percent since Jan. 1, which is nothing special. The same goes for the team shooting percentage of 7.78 percent, and the Red Wings' penalty kill has a sub-par 70 percent success rate. The team's impressive record has been driven in large part by its power play, which has connected 19 times in 18 games in 2025. That's four more man-advantage goals than any other club.

Unfortunately for the St. Louis Blues, their in-season coaching change has been decidedly less impactful. The Blues were two points out of a wild-card spot in the West when they hired Jim Montgomery on Nov. 24, 2024. Now they’re eight points out and setting up to be trade-deadline sellers.

Since Jan. 1, St. Louis is 7-9-1 with 15 points in 17 games. That .441 points percentage ties them with the Chicago Blackhawks for the third-worst record in 2025, ahead of only the Seattle Kraken (.421) and the San Jose Sharks (.265). 

The Blues' 5-on-5 numbers actually aren’t too bad. They’ve got a 50.08 percent expected goals share and a solid .922 team save percentage, which ranks just outside the top 10. But their penalty-killing has been poor. In their last 10 games since Jan. 18, they’ve given up 10 goals while shorthanded, and gone 3-6-1.

After a chilly start to the season, David Pastrnak was tied for 32nd in the league in points and 58th in goals at the end of December. Carrying the NHL's eighth-highest cap hit of $11.25 million this season, per PuckPedia, it was odd not to see him higher in the points race.

But even though the Boston Bruins are still struggling to find the consistency they'll need to reach the playoffs, Pastrnak has returned to top form in 2025.

Before New Year's, he had 13 goals and 37 points in 39 games. Since Jan. 1, the 28-year-old has posted 15 goals and 31 points in just 18 games. That leads the NHL in both categories and has propelled him back into the top 10 in both goals and points for the year.

Pasta will be well-rested after the 4 Nations break, and the Bs are still within striking distance of a playoff spot. If he picks up where he left off, they'll have a real chance.

Early on, it looked like the Carolina Hurricanes had hit pay dirt with their one-year, $2.8 million contract for right-shot forward Jack Roslovic. The Columbus native put up six goals in his first nine games with his new team and was up to 17 goals in 37 games by the end of 2024 — easily on track to beat his career high of 22. 

But Rosolovic has hit a wall in 2025, with just two goals and one assist in 18 games. He has slipped into Carolina's bottom six and has seen his ice time drop to single digits in some games, although he is still getting a turn on the Canes' second power-play unit. 

Connor Hellebuyck is rightfully in the pole position for another Vezina Trophy, and Logan Thompson has parlayed an incredible season in Washington into the first big-money contract of his career.

But there are a bunch of other goalies who have also been terrific in 2025 — none better than the man that Thompson replaced in Washington, Darcy Kuemper. 

The Kings’ strong defensive structure provides a great environment for goalies, and Kuemper is getting more and more comfortable as the season wears on.

Since Jan. 1, his 1.85 goals-against average and .932 save percentage lead all goalies with at least 10 starts. But because Los Angeles doesn't score a ton, his 7-4-1 record falls short of some of his rivals.

Here are the goalies with eight or more wins in 2025:

The Minnesota Wild have been plagued by so many injury issues that a sharp drop-off in the performance of their No. 1 netminder has flown largely under the radar. 

Filip Gustavsson got off to a sizzling start this season, with a 17-6-3 record to go along with a .924 save percentage and 2.28 goals-against average through Dec. 31. 

Since Jan. 1, Gustavsson has been a respectable 5-5-0. But he has given up 36 goals in 11 appearances, for a 3.48 goals-against average and .896 save percentage.

Other goalies who haven’t been able to sustain their good starts include Sam Montembeault in Montreal, who’s at a .884 save percentage in 12 appearances in 2025, and Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who’s at .887.

Thanks to an uptick in offense from the Sabres, Luukkonen’s situation is the inverse of Kuemper’s. Despite a 3.17 GAA in 2025, he has matched Kuemper’s record, at 7-4-1.

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