NHL Power Rankings: Where Every Team Stands After First Week of 2024-25 Season

Lyle Fitzsimmons Featured Columnist III

NHL Power Rankings: Where Every Team Stands After First Week of 2024-25 Season

Dave Reginek/NHLI via Imagine a place where unbridled optimism turns to abject fatalism over the course of 60 minutes, accompanied by daily seismic shifts in standings.
Welcome to the first week of the NHL season, 2024-25 style.
With a precious few exceptions, there's a good chance fanbase expectations across the league's 32 cities have already veered wildly, though none of the teams had played more than six games before Wednesday night and some had played as few as two.
It's a perilous world in which to trek, but the B/R hockey team nevertheless put on its collective voting hats and compiled the season's inaugural NHL Power Rankings, aptly subtitled "Where Every Team Stands After First Week of the 2024-25 Season."
The specs carry over from our most recent rankings on opening night , where a first-place vote netted 32 points and a 32nd-place tally yielded one. The vote/point totals are reflected by the rankings, and we invite you to take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

Matthew Stockman/Previous Ranking:
Overall Record:
So, if you had zero wins and a minus-10 goal differential on your Colorado bingo card for the first three games, go to the prize desk to claim your winnings. Otherwise, wring hands and tug at your hair until the Avalanche turn things around, which they will. Probably.

John Russell/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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You could always go ask a New York Jets fan, but if you need NHL-based evidence that winning the offseason is not always an instant elixir, look no further than the Predators. Their 0-3-0 start includes an ugly 7-3 home loss to Seattle on Tuesday night.

Paul Swanson/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Quick, someone get Jay Woodcroft on the phone. After all, it was a sluggish start in 2023-24 that cost him the head coach gig with the Oilers, which they'd replicated by being outscored 15-3 in three straight losses before rebounding slightly with an OT win over Philadelphia.

Scott Dinn/Icon Sportswire via Previous Ranking:
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It's no surprise the Sharks are without a win through three games of the season. But there's plenty of reason to think things will improve when No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini returns from a lower-body injury, given he had a goal and an assist in the only game he played.

Bill Wippert/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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It took four games to get it, but the Sabres finally rewarded veteran coach Lindy Ruff for returning to Buffalo with a 5-2 defeat of Florida on Saturday. It was the 64-year-old's first win behind the Sabres' bench since his first tenure ended in a February 2013 dismissal.

Kirk Irwin/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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The Blue Jackets had as difficult an offseason as can be imagined with the death of star forward Johnny Gaudreau, but they made it through an emotional home opener and are ready to move forward. "Johnny's one of our brothers," forward Cole Sillinger said .

Debora RobinsonNHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Given the youthful makeup of his team, it'll be particularly important for Ducks coach Greg Cronin to press for consistency from night to night. He's got it, sort of, through two games, shutting out San Jose in the opener before a 3-1 loss to Vegas on Sunday.

Dave Reginek/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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A 1-2-0 start to the season isn't disastrous by any measure, but it's easy to identify an anemic power play as an issue so far. The Red Wings were 0-for-4 against the New York Rangers on Monday and have scored just once with a man-advantage in 11 tries in three games.

Mark LoMoglio/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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You may have picked up on the theme already, but it's not been an easy start to 2024-25 for some of 2023-24's elite teams. The Canucks are another side that has struggled out of the gate while losing once in regulation, once in OT and once in a shootout, allowing 15 goals.

Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Previous Ranking:
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Starting the season with four straight road games is hardly ideal, but Connor Bedard wasn't using the trip as an excuse for a one-win record. "In the end, it's about how many games you win," he said , "and only getting one is not great. You can take positives from what we did."

Andy Devlin/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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The Matvei Michkov era is underway after the phenom scored his first two NHL goals at Edmonton. "He's out here blocking shots also and doing all the other stuff that creates that team camaraderie, that team concept," coach John Tortorella said . "That's really important."

Scott Taetsch/Previous Ranking:
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It was an early-season revenge opportunity for goalie Logan Thompson and he cashed it in for the Capitals, making 24 saves on Tuesday in a 4-2 win against the team that traded him. He won 56 games with the Vegas Golden Knights over parts of four seasons.

Michael Martin/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Monday's win at Colorado yielded a big return for both coach Patrick Roy and goalie Ilya Sorokin. It was Roy's first game in Denver since he coached there from 2013-16, and it was Sorokin's first game of the season after he underwent summertime back surgery.

Rick Ulreich/Icon Sportswire via Previous Ranking:
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A three-game road trip and a home opener doesn't provide much in the way of season-long evidence, but the early returns are strong for newly acquired defenseman Philip Broberg, who's got a goal and three assists in his first four games since arriving from Edmonton.

Minas Panagiotakis/Previous Ranking:
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Consistency in goal will go a long way toward determining season-long success for the Canadiens, who allowed just one goal in a pair of wins on home ice but surrendered five plus an empty-netter in a lopsided loss to visiting Pittsburgh on Monday at Bell Centre.

Christopher Mast/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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And suddenly we have an offensive juggernaut in the Pacific Northwest in the form of the Seattle Kraken, who dented Nashville for seven goals on Tuesday and have 14 in four games, which puts them in the league's top half after they were 29th last season.

Vitor Munhoz/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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A middling 2-2-0 start hasn't kept a pair of elite Penguins from reaching the brink of milestones. Evgeni Malkin has three multi-point games and is a goal shy of 500 for his career, while Sidney Crosby is a point shy of becoming the 10th NHL player to hit 1,600.

Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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The recipe for the Hurricanes is simple but effective: limit opposition chances, play well in the net and score timely goals. They used it to perfection to earn a first win on Tuesday against New Jersey. Carolina allowed 25 shots and scored four times on 31 of its own.

Joel Auerbach/Previous Ranking:
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Two games with the champs have yielded two losses, and coach Jim Montgomery is using the matchups as a barometer. "[Florida is] the standard right now in the NHL for winning battles," he said , "and we're not up to that level yet. We have to vastly improve that level."

Chris Tanouye/Freestyle Photography/Previous Ranking:
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The good news for the Kings is they scored three power-play goals on Monday at Ottawa. The bad news is they allowed four amid eight overall in a high-scoring loss. Goalie Darcy Kuemper has a 3.59 goals-against average and .890 save percentage after three starts.

Chris Tanouye/Freestyle Photography/Previous Ranking:
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t's been a while since he was healthy, so 25-year-old forward Josh Norris is reminding people what he's capable of. He's got two goals and two assists so far and hopes to stay in the lineup long enough to replicate the career-best 35 goals he netted in 2021-22.

Ronald Martinez/Previous Ranking:
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Winger Kirill Kaprizov has scored 40 or more goals in each of the last three seasons, but he's indulging his play-making side through four games with five assists. The 27-year-old's career-best assist total was 61 and came alongside a personal-best 47 goals in 2021-22.

Rich Graessle/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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The Devils are viewed by many as a legit Eastern Conference contender and four wins in six games back that up, but a 4-2 loss to fellow power Carolina had coach Sheldon Keefe concerned. "[They're] an elite forechecking team," he said . "It was a real struggle for us."

Steve Babineau/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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The Panthers split a four-game road trip, but it's at least something of a moral victory given they played the final three of those games without both captain Aleksander Barkov (lower-body injury) and spark plug Matthew Tkachuk (illness) and won two of them.

Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Previous Ranking:
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It's probably not time for panic just yet, but it is worth noticing Auston Matthews is without either a goal or a point through three games. He scored 69 goals last season and has 15 shots, including eight against Pittsburgh on Saturday, but nothing celebratory.

Mike Carlson/Previous Ranking:
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It's way early, but it's hardly bad news for the Lightning that they entered Wednesday's games as one of just four teams—alongside Calgary, Dallas and Winnipeg—without a loss. Tampa Bay allowed just two goals on 48 shots against Vancouver and Carolina.

Bruce Bennett/Previous Ranking:
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It ended with a desultory shutout loss at New Jersey, but the relocation from Arizona was an early boon for Utah, which scored 16 goals while winning its first three games and converting power plays at a 42.9-percent clip. The unit went 0-for-4 in the 3-0 flop to the Devils.

Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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They didn't complete a Cup repeat in 2023-24, but the Golden Knights are giving early indications of a run at two titles in three years thanks to a strong start. Vegas scored 15 goals while allowing just eight in three wins before dropping a 4-2 decision at Washington.

Michael Mooney/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Artemi Panarin had three multi-point games and Igor Shesterkin allowed zero or one goal in two of three starts for the Rangers, who grabbed five of a possible six standings points to begin their Presidents' Trophy defense. Panarin's seven points are one off the league lead.

Darcy Finley/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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While it's true these Jets only trace back to 1999 in Atlanta, it's no less impressive that a 3-0-0 start is the best in franchise history. "There's no give up, no quit in this group," forward Kyle Connor said . "No matter what it is, we're sticking to the same game plan we're calling."

Gerry Thomas/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Jacob Markstrom is off to New Jersey but the Calgary tandem of Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar is doing just fine in his absence, thank you. The pair has stopped 112 of 122 shots through four games - a .918 save percentage - while the offense has netted a league-best 19 goals.

Glenn James/NHLI via Previous Ranking:
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Some teams have underperformed. Some others have overperformed. But the Stars are pretty much where everyone expected them to be through four games, having allowed just five goals. If Jake Oettinger maintains a .948 save percentage or 1.63 goals-against average for the long term, it's going to be quite a 2024-25 season in Dallas.

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