NHL Power Rankings: Can the Capitals hang on to the top spot?

Welcome back to another edition of the only power rankings that matter, brought to you by the best power rankers in the business.

As the NHL gears up for a spicy stretch drive, we’ve got you covered with the exact perfect rankings for each team. The 12th best team? Easy. The 27th best team? We’ve nailed that too.

As always, our rankings are perfect and unimpeachable. Debate them at your own peril.

Last week: 1
Sean’s ranking: 1
Dom’s ranking: 1

We’re at a bit of a crossroads with the Capitals. They’ve occupied the top spot in three of the last four rankings and at 32-10-5 are seemingly running away with the Presidents’ Trophy playing at a 120-point pace. That’s eight points up on second. Good for them!

But it’s tough not to notice the ‘check engine’ light is blinking. After starting the season looking legitimately formidable, the team’s fundamentals have nose-dived. At five-on-five, only five teams have a worse xG over the last month. During that time Washington is 11-2-3, though — so who cares?

Should we care? Should we power rank based on their vibes? Should we simply reward them for their record? Should we ignore that, outside of Logan Thompson, the team hasn’t looked good in a while? Should we be thinking big picture when it comes to their recent performances, regardless of outcome?

These are the questions that keep us up at night. For now, after yet another win, we’re sticking with the vibes. But the Capitals are officially on watch.

Last week: 2
Sean’s ranking: 2
Dom’s ranking: 2

Should Connor McDavid be getting more calls? Yes. Absolutely. No question. Anyone who watches him regularly can see that. And the numbers bear that out this season with a career low 0.83 penalties drawn per 60. His career average is 1.44.

But after the Oilers released a statement regarding McDavid’s suspension, it’s hard to have much sympathy for the situation. Very “But mommmmmmmm, he started it” energy.

Last week: 4
Sean’s ranking: 3
Dom’s ranking: 3

It’s not accurate to say that the Jets live and die by their power play — they’re 12th in goals/60 at five-on-five, and they’ve got the best goalie on the planet. It all counts.

The power play, though … sheesh. Since 2007-08, only last season’s Oilers have scored more goals per 60 than Winnipeg’s 12.62. The list of players currently generating more primary assists there than Nikolaj Ehlers is Nikita Kucherov and, uh, nobody else. Overall, are the Jets creating chances at a similarly crazy rate? Nope; their 9.25 expected goals/60 is ninth in the league. Still good, in other words, but not otherworldly. Just something to watch.

Last week: 3
Sean’s ranking: 5
Dom’s ranking: 4

Vegas has been unusually fortunate with injury luck this season relative to what the team usually goes through. The Golden Knights face a pretty big test, though, with William Karlsson out week-to-week. While his production hasn’t been great, with just 18 points in 38 games, his ability to drive play is a key part of Vegas’ success. Only Mark Stone has a higher expected goals percentage on the team than Karlsson’s 56 percent.

Last week: 13
Sean’s ranking: 4
Dom’s ranking: 6

Every year there are two distinct Jesperi Kotkaniemi moments.

The first: You look at his stats, see he’s on pace for like seven points and Google his contract again just to check how many years are left on that bad boy.

The second: You see he has four goals in his last three games, see that he’s still only 24 and think “Maybe this is where he finally figures it all out.”

After that, you don’t think about him again for the rest of the season. Until he’s traded for J.T. Miller, of course.

Last week: 5
Sean’s ranking: 6
Dom’s ranking: 5

Last week, we gassed up Jason Robertson for pulling himself together after a slow start and a 4 Nations snub. Since then, he’s kept things rolling, scoring three goals in Dallas’ three games. The Stars weren’t great, but their best winger looks pretty good. He’s creeping closer to a 30-goal pace.

Beyond that, Jake Oettinger might be playing himself onto some more Vezina ballots. In eight starts this month, he’s put up a .928 save percentage and saved 5.85 goals above expected

Last week: 7
Sean’s ranking: 7
Dom’s ranking: 7

The Leafs may be tops in the Atlantic Division, but that has more to do with their competition — nobody else is pacing for over 100 points. Part of the issue is shaky goaltending in the absence of Anthony Stolarz. Joseph Woll has been great, but there have been points where he’s been getting more starts than he can handle without much trust in the goalies behind him. Another tough outing for Dennis Hildeby against Columbus is a testament to that.

Perhaps the more worrying trend, though, is what’s happening in front of the goaltending. Before Stolarz’s injury the Leafs were a top-10 team in chances allowed. Since? Bottom five. The Leafs need to clean things up defensively.

Last week: 6
Sean’s ranking: 8
Dom’s ranking: 8

Adrian Kempe has played nine games in 2025. He has scored one goal — no more, no less — in seven of them. Wednesday’s against Florida was a big one, a third-period tip that wound up the game-winner. That binge has him on pace for a career-best 44, and even if it doesn’t continue, he’s likely to be part of a great line still. The Kings are outscoring opponents 14-6 when Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Alex Turcotte are on the ice.

Last week: 8
Sean’s ranking: 9
Dom’s ranking: 10

It’s kind of wild that Minnesota is on pace for 103 points, but have just a plus-two goal differential. That’s the same amount as the Rangers, who are on pace for 14 fewer points.

Blame that on six losses by four or more goals, three of which have happened over the last two weeks. The other eight teams on pace for 100 or more points have averaged 1.75 blowout losses. Only the Leafs and Kings with four apiece have more than two.

Great teams don’t let games get that out of hand that often. The Wild need to fix that.

10. Florida Panthers, 28-18-3

Last week: 10
Sean’s ranking: 11
Dom’s ranking: 9

We’ve brought up the Panthers’ yo-yo act a fair bit of late, and true to form, they’ve gone 2-2-0 in their last four. No surprise there; they’re now 6-6-1 since the holiday break. A big reason is cold streaks from their most important offensive producers. Their top four in points/60 over the last 13 games are, in order, Jesper Boqvist, Anton Lundell, Mackie Samoskevich and Evan Rodrigues. Credit to the supporting cast where it’s due, but the mix isn’t right.

Last week: 9
Sean’s ranking: 10
Dom’s ranking: 11

Since a six-game winning streak that ended on Jan. 2, the Avs have gone 4-4-2 with a plus-1 goal differential and an expected five-on-five goals percentage of 49.5. Pure mediocrity there — and if it weren’t for Mackenzie Blackwood, the results would’ve been even worse. In that stretch, he’s put up a .919 save percentage and saved nearly eight goals above expected.

Last week: 11
Sean’s ranking: 12
Dom’s ranking: 12

The Lightning have five extremely good forwards and a huge dropoff in talent afterward. That makes filling out the top six a little difficult, but the Lightning have figured out a creative solution: Play Nikita Kucherov on both lines.

It’s not quite that simple, but it is funny to see that Brayden Point’s most frequent linemates at five-on-five are Jake Guentzel and Kucherov while Anthony Cirelli’s are Brandon Hagel and… also Kucherov. Over the last few weeks, the in-game double-shifting has become especially apparent.

And if you’re wondering, it’s actually the Cirelli line with better five-on-five numbers. Kucherov with that trio has earned 75 percent of the expected goals while outsourcing opponents 10-4. With Point’s line, they’re at 51 percent and 27-15.

Last week: 12
Sean’s ranking: 13
Dom’s ranking: 13

We should’ve seen this coming. Some time around Dec. 1, when Jacob Markstrom locked in and started playing like the goaltending answer the Devils acquired him to be, the injury clock should’ve started; New Jersey’s net is just that cursed. Wednesday night against Boston, the clock hit zero.

On the season, Markstrom is putting up a .912 save percentage, 10 points above average. In his last 18 starts, he was at .924 with more than 14 goals saved above expected, fourth-best in the NHL. Time to see if Jake Allen (.870 in his last six starts) can hold the fort.

14. New York Rangers, 24-20-4

Last week: 18
Sean’s ranking: 15
Dom’s ranking: 14

New year, new Rangers. Well, actually, it’s kind of the same old Rangers. The team is back thanks to a 7-1-3 surge and it’s all thanks to the same reason as always: Igor is doing Igor things.

Igor Shesterkin came back from injury Jan. 9 and has been pretty much unbeatable since. The Rangers have won six of his seven starts and in that time he has a .948 save percentage while saving 11.4 goals above expected. As long as Igor is Igor in the second half, the Rangers will be just fine.

15. Columbus Blue Jackets, 23-19-7

Last week: 14
Sean’s ranking: 14
Dom’s ranking: 14

The Blue Jackets easily had the highlight of the week against the Leafs on Wednesday. Adam Fantilli scored his first career hat trick in front of a legion of friends and family, and Mama Fantilli was naturally the first to throw a hat. Great to see from the third pick of the 2023 draft.

Last week: 19
Sean’s ranking: 16
Dom’s ranking: 15

The Flames are playing at a 94-point pace, just as everyone expected. That they’re doing this while their leading scorer is Jonathan Huberdeau at a 62-point pace makes it even harder to believe.

Good for Huberdeau though, who had a three-point effort against the Sabres on Thursday night. He may never live up to his contract, but it’s great to see him bouncing back after a tough first two seasons in Calgary.

Last week: 15
Sean’s ranking: 17
Dom’s ranking: 17

The Canadiens are one of the league’s hottest teams, a tease of better things to come. With all their recent success, it’s easy to forget that the Canadiens still have Ivan Demidov to look forward to in the immediate future. We can’t wait until he pulls off something like this in the NHL. Electric.

Last week: 23
Sean’s ranking: 19
Dom’s ranking: 18

If Connor Ingram can string together some more good starts — and he’s got a .926 save percentage in three games since returning to the lineup — Utah might need to be taken seriously in the wild-card race. They’re squarely mediocre, with middle-of-the-pack five-on-five numbers and a streaky power play, and they recently lost 10 of 12 games, but they’d have a shot. Parity, baby. Parity.

Last week: 17
Sean’s ranking: 18
Dom’s ranking: 21

There’s a world in which the Blues, for once and for all, figure out whether they’re a true wild-card front-runner ahead of the 4 Nations; they play Dallas, Vancouver, Colorado, Utah, Edmonton, Florida and Chicago. A handful of losses there, combined with the fact that they trail the Flames in points despite three extra games played, would feel decisive. A bunch of wins and they’re probably sitting pretty. That makes it only more likely that they go 3-3-1 and settle nothing.

Last week: 21
Sean’s ranking: 20
Dom’s ranking: 20

The Senators have now been shut out three times in their last five games and five times in their last 11 games. That’s simply not good enough and it starts at the top with captain Brady Tkachuk. He’s gone nine games without a point, leaving him with just 38 points in 48 games — a paltry 65-point pace that would be a near 10-point drop from last season. He should be a lot better than this.

21. Boston Bruins, 24-20-6

Last week: 20
Sean’s ranking: 21
Dom’s ranking: 19

We need to talk about Charlie McAvoy. Even with Hampus Lindholm out of the lineup, and very few offensively capable forwards, the Bruins are still opting to keep McAvoy off both power play units. Ouch.

That’s a curious decision given McAvoy has been a staple on the top unit for years, one where the team could no longer trust the process. With McAvoy on the ice, the Bruins power play earns 9.5 xG/60, but they’ve only scored 2.7 actual goals/60. That disconnect is tough to ignore.

Last week: 16
Sean’s ranking: 22
Dom’s ranking: 22

Last week, we wondered when the Wings’ power play would cool off; at the time, the unit had 17 goals in 10 games with Todd McLellan as its head coach. It happened on cue — Detroit had one power-play goal in the ensuing three games, all losses. That made Thursday’s 4-2 win over Montreal a nice change of pace. The Wings scored two goals at five-on-five and could’ve easily had several more.

Last week: 22
Sean’s ranking: 24
Dom’s ranking: 23

Last year, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser combined for 111 goals. This year that trio is on pace for 70 goals. Combine that with Thatcher Demko being unavailable for a long stretch and outright bad when he has been available, and you get what some scholars are calling the great PDO reckoning of 2025. In all situations, the Canucks were at 102.2 last year. They’re at 99.4 this season.

Last week: 24
Sean’s ranking: 23
Dom’s ranking: 24

It occurred to us on Thursday that Travis Konecny might be leading the Metropolitan Division in points. Turns out he’s not — Jack Hughes has him beat, 56-55. Whoops. Still, what a player he’s turned into.

Last week: 27
Sean’s ranking: 25
Dom’s ranking: 25

Against Columbus on Tuesday, Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves and Mathew Barzal set up Bo Horvat for a pair of goals. That’s how things should go for the Islanders, theoretically. That’s not how they’ve gone in reality, though — at least not frequently enough. Even after winning five of seven, they’re still 15th in the Eastern Conference, and they should still trade Brock Nelson at some point in the next six weeks.

Last week: 28
Sean’s ranking: 26
Dom’s ranking: 26

The key to making up ground with the league’s softest schedule in the second half is actually making due on the “easy” wins. Going down 5-1 against the Sharks is not that. Coming back to win 7-5 though? Now we’re talking.

The Predators have now won five straight games… and are still four games below .500. Oof. Maybe that epic comeback win can be a turning point for the season, but there’s still a lot of mountain to climb.

Last week: 25
Sean’s ranking: 27
Dom’s ranking: 27

Big news out of Anaheim Thursday night …

Then the Penguins went out and lost 5-1 to a team with four regulation wins since Dec. 1. Sidney Crosby’s hair will never again be exposed to pregame air.

Last week: 29
Sean’s ranking: 28
Dom’s ranking: 28

Since they acquired him from the Rangers on Dec. 18, Kaapo Kakko leads the Kraken in points per 60 (3.12) and expected goal share (53.6 percent). Maybe most importantly, he’s averaging 16:40, up from 13:17 with the Rangers, and playing on the top six primarily with Matty Beniers and Jaden Schwartz. They’ve been good together, controlling 60 percent of the goal share with underlyings to match. Even if Seattle stays stuck in neutral, they can figure out what Kakko brings to the table.

Last week: 30
Sean’s ranking: 29
Dom’s ranking: 29

Mason McTavish looked incredibly motivated in a two-goal effort against the Penguins and it might be because his coach called him a “third-line guy” the day before.

Maybe Thursday night’s performance can be a stepping stone for the third pick from 2021 to prove he’s a lot more than that. The Ducks certainly need that to be the case.

30. Buffalo Sabres, 18-25-5

Last week: 26
Sean’s ranking: 30
Dom’s ranking: 30

Each week, the Sabres find new ways to impress. On Thursday night, they got outscored 2-0 by the third-worst penalty kill in the league in Calgary. Not for lack of opportunity, either; the power play went 0-for-6. Go Bills.

Last week: 32
Sean’s ranking: 31
Dom’s ranking: 31

We’ll take a break from Connor Bedard progress reports to say that Ryan Donato is having a (relatively) nice season in Chicago. He’s putting up 2.44 points (third on the team) and generating 9.42 individual shots per 60 (40th in the NHL, a hair behind Kyle Connor). He’s done it in a variety of roles, too. Might be a useful piece for a deadline buyer.

32. San Jose Sharks, 14-30-6

Last week: 31
Sean’s ranking: 32
Dom’s ranking: 32

We mentioned Blackwood and his good goalie-ing back in the Avalanche blurb. Since the Sharks traded him back on Dec. 9, they’ve gone 4-15-1 with the No. 25 save percentage in the league. Mission accomplished! Tank secured!

(Top photo of Alex Ovechkin and goaltender Charlie Lindgren: Steven Bisig / Imagn Images)



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ARTIKEL TERKAITDARI PENULIS