1 week Ago By Adam Gretz
We are already more than a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 NHL season, and that means it is time to hand out some grades from the first two months of the season. Some teams are short of expectations, others are exceeding them and some are just simply meeting them. When handing out grades there is somewhat of a curve here as preseason expectations do matter.
A preseason Stanley Cup contender with serious championship goals that is underachieving is probably going to get a harsher grade than a rebuilding team that is hanging around in the playoff race. The process behind the record also matters as well. Are you winning because you are outplaying teams every night? Or are you escaping because of goaltending and luck? It is also important to keep in mind a grade after two months does not mean a team can not get better or worse the rest of the way.
It is not a statement on how good the team will be in April or May, rather a snapshot of where it is right now and what it has done so far this season. With that out of the way, let us get to the grades. All advanced stats in this article are via Natural Stat Trick .
Grade: D This is starting to become a rather grim situation. From a long-term perspective there is a lot to like about the Ducks' future. They have some serious young talent and some potential.
But there is almost no progress anywhere to be seen. The record is still near the bottom of the NHL and the process behind it remains just as bad. Entering play on Friday they have the worst 5-on-5 expected goals share in the league, the worst expected goals against numbers, have one of the worst overall goal-differential numbers and even worse, are not seeing much progress from some of their young players.
Trevor Zegras has not bounced back (and now he is out for a while), Mason McTavish has taken a step backwards and it is looking like they maybe missed a chance to trade Frank Vatrano when his value was sky-high at last year's trade deadline. What makes the record even worse is they have received some of the best goaltending in the league so far this season. Not even that is giving them a chance.
This is going to be their seventh consecutive non-playoff season. Grade: D At some point the Bruins were going to take a step backwards. Every time we think it is going to happen, they find a way to keep winning.
Maybe this is the season it happens. The Bruins have already made a coaching change, are a middle-of-the-pack team in the standings and were outscored by 19 goals going into Thursday's game against Seattle. After being lifted up by elite goaltending the past two seasons, Jeremy Swayman has struggled so far as the clear No.
1 goalie and Linus Ullmark is no longer there to help right the ship and share the playing time. Scoring depth has been a concern after Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak, while the offseason additions of Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov have not solved the defensive zone issues or the lack of a true No. 1 center.
Maybe the coaching change was necessary. But there are more problems here than just who is behind the bench. The general manager needs to start feeling some heat for that.
Grade: D- When you look at the roster on paper there is a ton of talent on defense, but the team does not defend well. They also don't score well. They really do not do anything well and are on their way to a 14th consecutive season without the playoffs.
What makes it even more maddening is they entered the season with more than $5 million in unused salary cap space. Just a total failure here so far from top-to-bottom and it has been going on for far too long. Even worse, the general manager (Kevyn Adams) held a bizarre press conference where he made excuses for the team's shortcomings by talking about how Buffalo is not a destination city for players because they do not have palm trees and beaches.
Unused cap space, a general manager making excuses and a bad roster is the trifecta of failure. Grade: B The Flames have clearly been entering a rebuild, or at least a re-tooling, over the past year by dealing away several veteran players. Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Jacob Markstrom and Andrew Mangiapane were all dealt for future assets.
Instead of going in the tank, the Flames have been surprisingly competitive so far this season. There is not much about their overall play that is particularly strong or dominant, but rookie goalie Dustin Wolf has taken advantage of his opportunity and their team defensive play has been solid enough. Will they sustain this all season? Probably not.
But it's been a nice start. Grade: A The Hurricanes are doing what they do best. Wearing teams down with a dominant possession game, playing strong defense, and winning a lot of hockey games.
The most impressive part of their early success? Martin Necas is having a breakout year offensively and providing the type of go-to offensive they have needed from a top-line player. The scariest part of their early success for the rest of the Eastern Conference? They are not getting great goaltending, entering play on Thursday with the 26th ranked all situations save percentage in the league. If they get even average goaltending, combined with the breakout year from Necas, there would be real reason to believe this could be their year.
Grade: D- The bar for the Blackhawks this season was pretty much on the floor. Just be better. Just be competitive.
Just make it look like you are taking a step forward and getting closer to becoming relevant again. They have failed to even clear that bar. Entering play on Thursday the Blackhawks had the second-worst record in the NHL (by points percentage) and look just as bad as they did in the first two years of this full-scale rebuild.
Even worse, they do not seem to be getting the most out of young star Connor Bedard. There is nothing really wrong with his production, and it is important to keep in mind not every No. 1 overall pick progresses at the same rate, but they are not putting him into the best possible positions to succeed and not even he has been a huge bright spot this season.
Grade: B- They have been hit hard by injuries early on, and the depth still has some question marks, but they are still scoring goals and have getting mostly strong results. The defensive play has taken a big step backwards, and the goaltending has been some of the worst in hockey. Management worked hard to change that by completely overhauling the goaltending depth chart by bringing in MacKenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.
Are they they players to get them back to a Stanley Cup level? They certainly can not be any worse than what they were getting earlier in the season. They do not need a goalie to steal them games. They just need somebody to not lose them.
Grade: C+ Expectations were especially low for the Blue Jackets this offseason, and they have mostly matched them. The most important thing for this season was always going to be the development of their individual young players and just showing some kind of improvement. That has happened in a lot of areas, especially with Kent Johnson who has been outstanding when he has been on the ice with nine goals and 16 total points in his first 14 games entering play on Thursday.
Veteran defenseman Zach Werenski is also having an outstanding season, averaging more than a point-per-game. There is a very good young core group here and a deep farm system with some serious high-end talent. They just need to bring it along and successfully build around it.
Grade: A The Stars have one of the best rosters in the league and one of the deepest teams. They have been in the Western Conference Finals two years in a row and should be on the short list of top Stanley Cup contenders this season. They have mostly played like it so far.
They have been outstanding defensively, with Miro Heiskanen playing at a Norris Trophy level through the first two months. The wildest thing about their early success is that they are getting sub-par production from Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and Roope Hintz, three of their best offensive players. When those guys get rolling -- and they will -- this team is going to be have few peers in the league.
Grade: D The Yzer-plan is still not coming together. At all. After having a great offensive performance get wasted by terrible defensive play a season ago, the Red Wings are still underwhelming defensively and now the offense has taken a huge step backwards.
The truly concerning thing is the defense and goaltending (an unexpected bright spot) have been the best parts of the team. They simply do not do anything particularly well or have any kind of identity, and it just seems like an organization that remains stuck in neutral. There is little indication that Yzerman's job is in jeopardy, but maybe it should be after this many years of almost zero progress.
Grade: B+ There are some concerns with scoring depth, there are serious concerns with defensive depth after the top-pairing of Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm, and there are still some goaltending concerns. But for all of the things the Oilers do not have, do you know what they still do have that nobody else does? Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Whether or not that is enough to get them a championship remains to be seen, but those two guys will take you a long way.
Grade: A The biggest knock on the Panthers when it comes to winning the Stanley Cup again is just the simple fact it is really difficult to reach the Stanley Cup Final three years in a row. That might not stop this team. Their offense is as good as it gets anywhere in the NHL and as deep as any other contender.
They can -- and usually will -- outscore anybody. They have the ninth-best points percentage in the NHL despite the fact both goalies have a save percentage under .900 for the season.
Clean up the goaltending and this team will look capable of winning it all again. Grade: A The offense still might not be great (16th in goals scored), but Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe are as good of a duo as you will find in the NHL right now. What is truly impressive about this team is the defensive structure that remains in place despite the fact Drew Doughty has not played a single game and they lost Matt Roy in unrestricted free agency.
They remain a dominant team defensively (third in goals against) and are getting some at least passable goaltending after adding Darcy Kuemper over the summer. They still have to prove they can score enough, and that they can win in the playoffs, but they are off to a strong start and play a winning brand of hockey. Grade: A The Wild might be the biggest surprise in the NHL this season.
After missing the playoffs a year ago, and still having to deal with over $15 million in dead salary cap space due to the Ryan Suter and Zach Parise buyouts, the Wild have the NHL's best record through the first two months and are starting to look like a bonafide contender. Forward Kirill Kaprizov is playing at an MVP level, while starting goalie Filip Gustavsson has bounced back and is playing like a potential Vezina Trophy winner. The scoring depth leaves a little something to be desired, but the Wild are allowing the fewest expected goals per 60 minutes (2.
01) in the NHL during 5-on-5 play, while they are getting elite goaltending from Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury. That will win you a lot of hockey games. It is for the Wild.
Grade: D- Another young team that is really struggling to find its way and not showing much progress. Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have been great, and Patrik Laine has definitely brought some juice since making his debut, but that is about where the positives end for this team. Aside from being one of the youngest teams in the league, they are also unfortunately one of the worst defensive teams and one of the worst teams in general.
This is simply a team that is a long way from being a serious contender. Grade: F The Predators made the playoffs a year ago, had strong underlying numbers, and were generally successful despite starting goalie Juuse Saros having a down year. Then they went out this offseason and added a couple of elite finishers in Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos, another top-four defenseman in Brady Skjei and re-signed Saros to a long-term deal when he seemed poised to have a bounce back year.
On paper, this looked like a contender. On the ice, it has been one of the worst teams in the NHL -- quite literally -- despite the fact Saros has actually given them the bounce back year. This team having the second-worst record in the league by points percentage despite getting a league average year from Saros is just an unbelievable failure so far.
Grade: A The Devils' bounce back season was one of the easiest things to pinpoint at the start of the season. Injuries and goaltending issues were their biggest undoing a year ago. The former was just going to require some better luck.
The latter seemed to be fixed with the additions of Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen. Markstrom and Allen have not been elite, but they have been at least league-average goalies while all of their key players have been healthy all season. The addition of Brett Pesce on defense, along with the return of a healthy Dougie Hamilton, has made the defense one of the best in the NHL and after spending large chunks of the 2023-24 season without Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier those three forwards have combined to miss one game this season.
They are one of the best teams in the NHL. Grade: D+ This team just has no identity. They are one of the NHL's oldest teams, they are one of the worst offensive teams, they do not defend particularly well, they can not hold onto third period leads and they do not have much starpower.
The only thing they have going for them is the fact they have one of the league's best starting goalies in Ilya Sorokin. That has been enough in the past to at least get them in the playoffs, but it might not be enough this season. It is just not a good enough roster and it is hard to see what the plan is here.
Grade: C- Despite making the Eastern Conference Finals in two of the past three seasons it was still pretty obvious this roster had glaring holes. Their defensive metrics and possession metrics have been consistently mediocre to bad, and they have never been a particularly strong 5-on-5 team. They win due to elite goaltending and an elite power play.
Management has typically ignored those flaws and just rolled with the idea that the current recipe would always be enough. Well, it isn't enough, and they are starting to find out the hard way this season that they need to do more with this roster. The defensive zone play has been one of the biggest issues this season, and they finally found a taker for captain Jacob Trouba and his contract.
As long as Igor Shesterkin is here the Rangers are going to have a chance, but they should know as well as anybody that an elite goalie behind a flawed team can only take you so far. Ottawa Senators: C- The Senators acquired starting goalie Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins -- and signed him to a new long-term contract extension -- in the hopes that he could solve their goaltending issues and help get the team back into a playoff position for the first time since the 2016-17 season. He has not done that, and has actually been one of their biggest concerns through the first quarter of the season.
The Senators are not scoring enough goals due to a lack of depth after their front-line players, but they are actually defending fairly well (fifth best expected goals against rate in the NHL) and better than expected. They are simply not getting enough saves. That has left them in a very familiar position -- on the outside of the playoff picture.
Grade: B For the second year in a row the Flyers are off to a respectable start and playing competitive hockey. The wins and losses, however, are mostly secondary to the continued development of their young core. The most important player out of that group is rookie Matvei Michkov, and he has already completely changed the vibe around the entire organization.
He is the real deal and is on his way to being the cornerstone of this franchise for the next decade and beyond. He is the type of player that can change a team for the better, and he already is. He has been worth the hype.
Grade: C- The Penguins have been one of the NHL's worst defensive teams this season and have still struggled to get consistent goaltending. They have had a terrible time trying to hold onto leads, and have let at least six two-goal leads turn into losses. That is the biggest reason they are on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture for a third consecutive season.
They have started to play better hockey over their past 10 games and have a pretty favorable schedule the rest of December. Given the way their top line of Sidney Crosby, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell is currently playing they might have a chance to play their way back into the playoff race. But they still have a lot of work to do, and they still have a lot of questions defensively and in goal.
They still look like potential sellers ahead of the trade deadline later this season. Grade: D+ They are still not a very competitive team, but this is another group that is simply looking for its young players to develop. In this case, they actually are.
William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund have been outstanding, while rookie Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the draft, looks like he has the juice to be a superstar in the NHL with 19 points (including 10 goals) in his first 20 games. Along with the production, he is also playing an advanced two-way game and is relentless along the boards in winning puck battles for his age.
He is the real deal. Grade: C The Kraken are doing what they have done for most of their brief existence in the NHL. They are not great, they are not terrible, they are just kind of stuck in the middle of the league.
It's a mediocre team that keeps making mediocre decisions. Starting goalie Joey Daccord is so far showing his 2023-24 season was not really a fluke, while Shane Wright is finally showing something offensively. That is the good news.
The bad news is Matty Beniers is off to a slow start, while the offense in general is simply underwhelming. They paid big money to Chandler Stephenson in free agency, and it is looking like the mistake critics outside of Seattle expected it to be as soon as that contract was signed. Grade: C Say this for the Blues -- I respect their recent aggressiveness.
The decision to dip into the restricted free agent market to add forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg were strong moves that added some much-needed young talent into the organization. Especially on defense with Broberg where the Blues have badly needed some change. They also acted quickly to bring in Jim Montgomery as their head coach as soon as he became available, despite having just hired Drew Bannister on a full-time basis.
They are clearly trying to get better and be something more than a mid-level team. The problem is the results have not really changed on a team level. They still have some big goaltending concerns with Jordan Binnington -- whose play has regressed after this past season's strong showing -- while Broberg alone has not been enough to fix the defense.
This is not a terrible team, but it is not a particularly good team, either. Grade: C+ They are clearly not the team they were at their peak a few years ago as the salary cap and age have really cut into their depth. They still have elite players at the top of the lineup, as Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli and Andre Vasilevskiy are all playing extremely well.
The rest of the roster? Not so much. They should be a playoff team. They might not go beyond the first round when they get there.
Grade: B This is going to be a fascinating team to watch the rest of the way. The results in the standings have been excellent. Their core players have been productive, as they always are.
They are also getting exceptional goaltending from Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll. But the depth and defensive play are still concerns, and it is worth asking what this team would look like in the standings of the goaltending was not as great as it has been. Can they count on those two to keep up this level of play all season? That is going to be a big question that will seriously impact their success or failure of their season.
Grade: B Having a real NHL arena to play in and a real NHL owner supporting them has made a massive difference here. They are above .500 and hanging in the playoff race despite some huge injuries on defense that have taken away John Marino and Sean Durzi for most of the season.
But the addition of Mikhail Sergachev, a big year from goalie Karel Vejmelka and some really good young forwards (specifically Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther) have made this a team worth watching. Do they have enough to get into the playoffs? That remains to be seen, but there should be more optimism around this franchise than there has been at any point over the past decade. Grade: B They could still use some defensive depth upgrades, but the Canucks deserve a ton of credit for being as good as they have been this season with some of the absences they have had to deal with.
Starting goalie Thatcher Demko has been sidelined for most of the season, J.T. Miller has missed 10 games and now defenseman Filip Hronek is sidelined.
Despite all of that, they are still a top-10 team in the league by points percentage and should still have a chance to be a contender in the Western Conference. Especially if Demko is able to get back into a rhythm and play the way he did a season ago. Grade: A The Golden Knights have one of the NHL's best records and are again looking like a team that has a chance to be a serious contender.
It is a big improvement from last season's team that was the eighth playoff team in the Western Conference and did not get out of the first round. Jack Eichel is having one of the best offensive seasons of his career, and Ivan Barbashev continues to be a surprising standout after arriving in Vegas. Mark Stone also remains an elite two-way player when he is healthy (he has missed half of their games), Their defensive play is a little bit of a concern, especially with only mediocre goaltending behind it, but they can score goals with the NHL's elite.
Grade: A After sneaking into the playoffs as one of the worst postseason teams of the modern era, the Capitals front office knew that same recipe was not going to work again in their favor. So they spent the offseason bringing in a ton of veteran talent, including Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, Jakob Chychrun, Andrew Mangiapane and Logan Thompson. The result has been one of the NHL's best teams through the first two months.
That record is made even more impressive by the fact they have been without Alex Ovechkin for a significant chunk of the season due to injury. The new additions, as well as another big season from Dylan Strome and the emergence of young players like Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas have made this team a legitimate contender once again. They also have the return of Ovechkin looming on the horizon as he continues to chase Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record.
He has 15 goals in 18 games and is off to one of the best starts of his career even at the age of 39. This is a team to be worried about in the Eastern Conference. Grade: B+ The overall record is great.
It is one of the best in the NHL. They also got off to the best 16-game start in NHL history by going 15-1-0 to open the season. That is all fantastic.
There was also an element of luck and some smoke-and-mirrors to that start, and they are starting to see some regression over the past few weeks. When they were winning games at a record pace at the start the big question was a matter of sustainability. The success was driven by an outstanding, MVP-level goaltending performance from Connor Hellebuyck and a team full of players that were shooting at outrageously high shooting percentages.
Their underlying numbers and possession metrics have consistently been below average for the season, including their 48 percent expected goals share. Hellebuyck is going to be great -- because he always is -- but the shooting percentages were probably due to regress at some point. They have, and the wins have become less frequent.
Winnipeg has still given itself a great start and will be a playoff team, but it may not be as good as it looked at the start of the season. There is a lot of talent at the top of the roster, and as long as Hellebuyck is playing like an MVP they will have a chance to win most nights. They still might have a ceiling and need some more help to be a serious Stanley Cup contender.
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