Ranking the five-year windows for all 32 NHL teams
The ultimate goal for professional sports teams is, obviously, winning. But it is not just about winning in any one particular season. Teams want to be consistently good and competitive over several years, and here we are going to look at teams that are best set up for long-term success over the next five years. These rankings are not necessarily about which teams are best THIS SEASON, but who we might look back at five years from now and say had the best five-year run during that stretch.
Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Sam Girard, and Erik Johnson, and now Bowen Byram is on his way to being a star as well. As long as Alexandar Georgiev is solid in goal, they have a chance to win another Stanley Cup very soon, maybe multiple Stanley Cups.
Martin Necas, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi to still breakout into stardom (or superstardom).
Anthony Duclair set to miss a significant chunk of the season and with some of their offseason departures. But this core is still spectacular, especially with the addition of Matthew Tkachuk on the top line with Aleksander Barkov.
Kevin Fiala. They should also have a much healthier defense after some injuries devastated that unit at the end of last season and into the playoffs. They have an outstanding veteran core in place and one of the league’s deepest prospect pools. If players like Quinton Byfield and Arthur Kaliyev break out this season they are going to be a force. I think they win a Stanley Cup within the next five years.
Igor Shesterkin, but he is a game-changer and there is some real high-level superstar talent here (Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox). The key will be the development of recent top picks Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, and K’Andre Miller. If those guys pan out, especially Lafreniere and Kakko, this is going to be a dangerous team for a long time,. But those guys have to be stars.
Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk), they have done a great job maintaining a contending roster. I am not going to say they are definitely better than they were a year ago, but getting Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri long-term to replace Gaudreau, Tkachuk, and Sean Monahan is pretty good. They also still have an outstanding defense (which was strengthened in the Tkachuk trade with the addition of MacKenzie Weegar), a strong goalie, and a great defensive coach. They still have a chance, especially with Elias Lindholm and Tyler Toffoli in their top-six with Kadri and Huberdeau.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Will they stay? If so, the window stays open. If not? Could be a problem.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl masks a lot of flaws. And there are still some flaws here. I do think Jack Campbell can help a lot of things in goal, and keeping Jesse Puljujarvi was a smart move, but they still need to make some tweaks to the roster. But those tweaks are easier to make when you have the two best offensive players in the league.
Ville Husso because Jordan Binnington is signed long term), but man, is this offense good. Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou are studs, and in the short term they still have Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, and Pavel Buchnevich at the top. They will score enough to be a factor.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang have retired or seriously declined. That time is not here just yet. The playoff success has dried up recently, but goaltending has played a significant role in that, especially regarding injuries. Their core of Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Jake Guentzel is still great, and it is a deeper, better defensive team than it gets credit for being. They still have a few more years of strong, contending hockey ahead of them.
Darcy Kuemper. The big question is going to be Nicklas Backstrom’s future. Fortunately, they still have a top-line center in Evgeny Kuznetsov on the roster.
Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski and Roope Hintz, with all three of them being star-level players. They also have a legit top-pairing defender in Miro Heiskanen and a blossoming star in goal in Jake Oettinger. That is a great core to build around. The problem: They have very little depth and some bad contracts in Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Still, the high-end guys are the hardest players to acquire and the Stars have many of them at the most critical positions.
Robin Lehner out for the season they have no goalie and limited options to fix that. Not sure they are a playoff lock this season, and not sure how they navigate this salary cap situation in the coming years. They may have peaked in their first three or four years in the league.
Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci coming back for another year is significant. They are going to have some problems at the start of this season due to injuries to key players, but the playoffs should be within reach and if fully healthy they can still make a lot of noise. The elephant in the room though is the future of David Pastrnak. He is an unrestricted free agent after this season, and their ability to re-sign him will have a significant impact on what direction this team takes in future seasons.
Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, and Jakub Vrana, and they spent the offseason adding around them with some significant free agent and trade additions. They might not be a playoff team THIS season, but their window should be opening. If they do not make significant progress over the next couple of years something has gone very wrong here.
Jack Hughes is ready to emerge as a superstar and they have seen players like Jesper Bratt and Yegor Sherangovich take big steps. They made some excellent additions this offseason with Ondrej Palat, John Marino, and Vitek Vanecek. Will that all be enough to get them closer to the playoffs?
Kirill Kaprizov. The problem they are facing now is that for the next three seasons, their salary cap situation is going to be an absolute mess following the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Those two buyouts are going to eat up between $12 and $15 million of salary cap space over the next three seasons, meaning the Wild are going to be operating on their own salary cap hit in the mid-high $60 million range instead of the $82-85 million range the rest of the league will be working on. That is going to be a huge problem.
Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris, and Thomas Chabot, and then they went out and added an elite goal scorer in Alex DeBrincat, another star in Claude Giroux, and a solid starting goalie in Cam Talbot. If nothing else, they will be a ton of fun in the short term.
Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and 2022 No. 1 overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky become stars this suddenly becomes an interesting team. There are still a ton of holes here and a bit of a rebuild ahead, but there are some real pieces here and I love the potential of Martin St. Louis as a head coach.
Bruce Boudreau, and they get him for an entire season now, but will they be keeping J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser long-term? Can the new front office build a winner around Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes? There are still a lot of questions here.
Patrik Laine. They have two bonafide star forwards, have an outstanding defenseman at the top of their blue line in Zach Werenski, and some intriguing young players around them as a result of the Seth Jones trade that netted them two top-12 picks. The big question will be whether they can get the goaltending situation straightened out and if Cole Sillinger (part of that Seth Jones trade) becomes a star and a legitimate No. 1 center to build around.
Filip Forsberg, made a couple more big additions this offseason, and still look like a playoff team. But what can they do when they get there? Can Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen repeat that? Does Ryan McDonagh have enough left in the tank to make a big impact on defense?
Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Mason McTavish are their future, and for the first time in a few years give the Ducks some real reasons for long-term optimism and must-see players. But they still have a lot of holes around them and we have to see if John Gibson can still be an elite goalie.
Owen Power on defense. But do not get fooled by the late-season surge. That rarely translates over to the next season, and this team is still overflowing with holes and question marks, especially in goal and at forward. This is still going to take a few more years.
Oliver Bjorkstrand and Andre Burakovsky. They might not be a contender right away like Vegas was, but they are piecing things together here. We forgot what an expansion team is supposed to look like.
Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, and Connor Hellebuyck are all great, but they have so many problems around them and not much of a farm system to help fix that. They are not a bad team by any means, but I do not see them winning a Stanley Cup in the next five years either. Or even getting close to that level.
Ilya Sorokin to carry them.
Brent Burns. They are not rebuilding yet, but they soon will be. The Sharks have been one of the most consistent contenders for 25 years, but after three straight non-playoff seasons and more on the immediate horizon, they are quickly headed for their first real rebuilding phase in franchise history.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are playing for different teams, and the roster is completely torn down. This is going to be a significant, major rebuild.
