
The Washington Capitals are the new leader in our NHL power rankings.
With last week’s No. 1 team, the Vegas Golden Knights, losing back-to-back home games to the New York Islanders and Rangers and on the road to the Nashville Predators, the Caps rode a 2-0-1 week to the top of the hill. Washington is the only team in the NHL with a points percentage over .700 (.716), and it’s gotten a tremendous lift from unheralded free-agent goaltender Logan Thompson, whose 3-0 shutout of the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday raised his record to 19-2-3.
Vegas dropped to No. 3, falling behind Washington and the Winnipeg Jets, who lead the NHL in scoring (162 goals).
At the other end of the league, the Chicago Blackhawks remain at the bottom of the rankings. Chicago has lost three in a row and seven of nine since the start of the new year.
The most frustrated Hawk might be second-year center Connor Bedard, who scored his 100th career point in his 112th NHL game, a 5-2 home loss to the Calgary Flames on Monday – but said after the game that the losing has “been hard. It’s been a lot of games to lose. It weighs on you.”
2024-25 NHL Power Rankings: From No. 32 to No. 1
32. Chicago Blackhawks (14-28-2)

Bedard reached the 100-point mark in the exact same number of games as Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. But aside from last season’s Calder Trophy winner, the Hawks look like a mess. Defenseman Seth Jones, their highest-paid player, has been on the ice for 16 goals since Dec. 21, including three in the loss to Calgary. That game drew an announced crowd of 15,966 – the smallest to attend a game at United Center since April 2023.
31. San Jose Sharks (14-26-6)

San Jose ended its second three-game post-Christmas losing streak with one of the most unlikely victories in the NHL this season. The Sharks began a five-game road trip by chewing up Detroit 6-3, ending the Red Wings’ seven-game winning streak. Macklin Celebrini continued to make his case as a Calder Trophy candidate by contributing two assists in the win against the Wings, giving him 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists) in 34 games.
30. Nashville Predators (14-22-7)

The Preds don’t have a lot of wins, but they’ve beaten some of the Western Conference’s best teams. Nashville’s 5-2 win against the Pacific Division-leading Golden Knights goes along with victories over Winnipeg, Dallas, Los Angeles and Colorado, as well as Calgary and Vancouver. Steven Stamkos had his best game as a Predator in the win against Vegas, scoring twice and adding an assist, but he’s still on pace to finish with fewer than 30 goals and 60 points – down sharply from his 40 goals and 81 points with the Tampa Bay Lightning last season.
29. Buffalo Sabres (17-22-5)

A national TV audience saw a true NHL rarity on Wednesday – the Sabres scored one goal on no shots in the third period of a 4-2 home win against the Carolina Hurricanes. Ryan McLeod was awarded a goal when Tage Thompson’s shot toward an empty net hit the post and McLeod’s stick was slashed just as he prepared to score his third goal of the night. Despite the win against one of the NHL’s best teams, the Sabres are still last in the East and all but assured of extending their own NHL record for non-playoff seasons to 14.
28. Seattle Kraken (19-23-3)

Seattle has split the first four games of a five-game trip that ends in Winnipeg on Thursday. The Kraken look like a different team with Joey Daccord in goal – he played in the wins at Buffalo and Pittsburgh; Philipp Grubauer was pulled in 6-2 losses to Columbus and Detroit. Daccord is 14-9-2 with a 2.47 GAA and .914 save percentage; Grubauer is 5-14-1 with a 3.76 GAA and .870 save percentage. It’s hard to imagine coach Dan Bylsma will use Grubauer any more than he has to.
27. Anaheim Ducks (18-21-5)

Offense continues to be a problem for the Ducks, who have scored five goals while going 1-3-0 in the first four of a six-game trip that concludes with visits to Tampa Bay and Florida. They managed just 19 shots on goal in a 3-0 loss at Washington on Tuesday and haven’t reached the 30-shot mark in any of their past nine games. Barring a miracle, the Ducks are headed for their eighth straight non-playoff season.
26. New York Islanders (17-19-7)

After sweeping a three-game road trip, the Islanders returned to UBS Arena for a seven-game homestand and promptly laid an egg in the form of a 2-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators, a team using a rookie goalie and playing its third game in four nights. New York would be better off declining opposition penalties; the Isles’ power play (we use the term loosely) hasn’t scored a goal since Dec 8.
25. Pittsburgh Penguins (18-20-8)

Goalie Tristan Jarry went on waivers Wednesday. Assuming he clears, something his hefty salary makes very likely, he’ll be on his way to Scranton-Wilkes Barre of the AHL, with rookie Joel Blomqvist on the way up for his second stint with the Pens this season. Jarry is 8-8-4 with a 3.31 goals-against average and .886 save percentage, and he allowed three goals on 17 shots Tuesday in a 4-2 home loss to the struggling Kraken – a game that saw the Penguins fail to hold the 2-1 lead they took into the third period.
24. Philadelphia Flyers (19-20-6)

The Flyers continue to ride the roller coaster during an up-and-down season. They were less than five minutes away from their third straight win but allowed a late tying goal and lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Flyers have won almost as many games in overtime and shootouts (eight) as they have in regulation (11 – only the Sharks, with 10 have fewer.
23. New York Rangers (20-20-3)

The Rangers are 4-1-2 in the new year after going 4-15-0 in their last 19 games of 2024. But they failed to build on their 2-1 win at Vegas on Saturday when they allowed the Colorado Avalanche to tie the game with 1:13 left in regulation, couldn’t convert on an overtime power play and then gave up the OT winner with less than 40 seconds remaining. There are wild card berths to be had in the Eastern Conference, but the Rangers will have to step up their game and hold onto leads to grab one.
22. Utah Hockey Club (18-18-7)

Utah’s seven-game homestand isn’t going the way its fans had hoped. The NHL’s newest team is 1-3-0 after four games, with all three losses against Eastern Conference teams. In all, Utah is 6-10-4 at Delta Center entering Thursday’s game against the Rangers, as opposed to 12-8-3 on the road. With a 2-7-1 mark in its past 10 games, Utah is perilously close to falling out of the playoff race in the West – not exactly the best way to cultivate new fans.
21. St. Louis Blues (21-20-4)

The Blues are another team stuck in the NHL’s mushy middle. St. Louis moved back over NHL .500 by edging the Flames 2-1 at Enterprise Center on Tuesday behind a 27-save effort by Jordan Binnington, but they have yet to be more than two games above the break-even mark so far this season. Free-agent signee Dylan Holloway has given the Blues an offensive boost with 15 goals and 32 points in 45 games; he also leads the team at plus-12.
20. Detroit Red Wings (20-19-4)

The loss to the Sharks on Tuesday quieted things down a bit in Detroit, where playoff talk was all the rage after a seven-game winning streak, their longest in 13 years, got the Wings back in the hunt. We’ll get a better indication of how much they’ve improved under Todd McLellan this weekend, when Detroit visits Tampa Bay, Florida and Dallas, all in the top 13 in the rankings, in a four-day span from Thursday to Sunday.
19. Montreal Canadiens (21-18-4)

Montreal finishes a stretch of eight road games in a 10-game stretch at Dallas on Thursday. The Canadiens have climbed into the playoff race by going 6-1-0 thus far, including a 3-2 overtime win at Washington last Friday and a 5-3 win at Utah on Tuesday. Beginning Saturday against Toronto, the Canadiens play six of their next seven games at Bell Centre, where they are 11-7-3.
18. Boston Bruins (22-19-5)

Fluke victories are still victories, and the Bruins got one Saturday when they scored on a deflection off a defender with two seconds left in overtime for a 4-3 road win against the Florida Panthers. Goaltending, not funny bounces, was the key Tuesday when the Bruins avenged a 4-1 loss at Tampa Bay five days earlier by beating the Lightning 6-2; Jeremy Swayman made 43 saves as Boston won despite being outshot 45-24.
17. Ottawa Senators (22-18-3)

The Sens helped their playoff hopes by sweeping a three-in-four stretch, including two shutouts on the road. Both were by rookie Leevi Merilainen, who blanked the Penguins 5-0 in Pittsburgh and the Islanders 2-0 on Long Island. The middle game was impressive in its own right; the Senators snapped the Dallas Stars’ seven-game winning streak with a 3-2 win on Sunday.
16. Columbus Blue Jackets (21-17-6)

The Jackets continue to be the best story in the NHL. Their 3-2 shootout win against Philadelphia on Tuesday was their fifth consecutive victory, and their 152 goals scored (through Wednesday) are fourth in the league. But their big test comes after they host San Jose on Thursday; eight of the next nine games, beginning Saturday against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, are on the road – where Columbus is 6-12-3.
15. Vancouver Canucks (19-14-10)

Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2023-24, and he may be even better this season. He is third among all defensemen with 47 points (nine goals, 38 assists), No. 1 in points per game (1.21), and the Canucks have outscored opponents by 17 goals when he’s on the ice at 5-on-5. Few if any defensemen can drive play the way he does. Hughes has five points in Vancouver’s past five games and is the most important skater on the Canucks.
14. Calgary Flames (21-15-7)

Calgary didn’t have to travel after its 2-1 loss in St. Louis on Tuesday; the teams meet again at Enterprise Center on Thursday in a rare scenario that has a team making both visits to an opponent in consecutive games. Don’t be surprised if Dustin Wolf is back in goal after Dan Vladar played against the Blues in the second of back-to-back games. Wolf is making a push for the Calder Trophy with a 15-6-2 record, 2.50 goals-against average and .916 save percentage.
13. Tampa Bay Lightning (23-16-3)

Most of the numbers (2.38 GAA, .913 save percentage) say Andrei Vasilevskiy has regained his status among the NHL’s elite goalies. The one that sticks out is his good-but-not-great won-lost record (18-13-2), which has him on track for a career high in losses. He can’t complain about a lack of support; the Bolts score a league-high average of 3.62 goals per game and have four 20-goal scorers; the other 31 teams combined have 15.
12. Carolina Hurricanes (26-16-3)

The Hurricanes kicked away three of a possible four points with an overtime loss to Anaheim at home Sunday and a loss at Buffalo on Wednesday, dropping them eight points behind the first-place Capitals in the Metropolitan Division. The loss to the Sabres dropped the ’Canes to 9-11-2 away from Lenovo Arena; Carolina hasn’t finished with a losing record on the road since going 17-19-5 in 2017-18.
11. Colorado Avalanche (27-17-1)

Nathan MacKinnon became the first player to reach 70 points this season when he had two assists in a 3-2 overtime win against the Rangers on Tuesday. He’s on pace to lead the league with 128 points, which would be 12 fewer than he had while finishing second to Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov last season. His numbers could be even higher the rest of the way if his shooting percentage perks up; MacKinnon’s 8.8 percentage is down from 12.6 percent last season and would be his lowest since 2016-17.
10. Florida Panthers (26-16-3)

The defending champs have helped themselves mightily with their success in the shootout. Florida’s 2-1 road win against the New Jersey Devils has them a 4-0 record in the tiebreaker, tying them with Columbus for the best mark in the NHL. Sam Reinhart, who’s second in the NHL with 27 goals, continues to lead the league in shorthanded goals with five – equaling the combined total of the other 18 players who’ve scored at least 20 goals.
9. New Jersey Devils (26-15-5)

New Jersey got points in all three games last week but won just one of them – defeating the Lightning 3-2 in overtime on Saturday. The offense continues to struggle, but the defense and goaltending have been carrying the team. Some help from the power play would be nice; the Devils are 1-for-19 in nine games since the Christmas break after going 34-for-109 (31.2 percent) in their first 37 games.
8. Toronto Maple Leafs (27-16-2)

Toronto fans booed their team off the ice after poor performances in a 3-0 loss to Vancouver on Saturday and a 4-1 thumping by the Dallas Stars two nights later. But the big concern might be the potential loss of center John Tavares, who limped to the locker room Wednesday after getting tangled up with defenseman Chris Tanev during a practice drill. Tavares has 20 goals and 42 points in 44 games, and he’s among the NHL’s best on face-offs. He was placed on injured reserve Thursday and is expected to miss at least two weeks.
7. Minnesota Wild (27-14-4)

Maybe it’s a good thing that the Wild will play their next two games on the road. Minnesota fell to 11-10-1 at Xcel Energy Center after allowing a total of 11 goals in home losses to Colorado and Edmonton this week. Forward Marcus Johansson (ankle) joined the Wild’s lengthy injury list after an elbow to the head from Edmonton’s Connor McDavid on Wednesday and will be out for a while with an upper-body injury.
6. Los Angeles Kings (24-12-5)

Count on one thing when you watch the Kings play — there won’t be a lot of goals scored. Los Angeles leads the NHL with 100 goals allowed but continues to have problems scoring. The Kings scored three goals and allowed four in the first three games of its road trip, splitting 2-1 decisions in Winnipeg (an OT win) and Calgary (a loss) before losing 1-0 at Edmonton on Monday. One big problem is Kevin Fiala, who’s on track for a 45-point season after putting up 85, 72 and 73 points since coming to the Kings in 2022-23.
5. Dallas Stars (28-14-1)

Dallas saw its seven-game winning streak end with a 3-2 loss in Ottawa on Sunday — but wasted no time starting a new streak with a 4-1 win at Toronto on Monday. Forward Matt Duchene, who will play his 1,100th NHL game Thursday when the Stars host Montreal, leads the Stars with 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists) in 43 games, is making his shots count – those 17 goals have come on just 77 shots on goal, a 22.1 shooting percentage.
4. Edmonton Oilers (28-13-3)

The Oilers closed within two points of Vegas for the Pacific Division lead by winning three of four games last week, including a come-from-behind 5-3 win at Minnesota on Wednesday. McDavid had two goals and an assist against the Wild to pass Jari Kurri as the No. 2 all-time scorer in Oilers history with 1,044 points in 686 games. He has a bit to go to catch the all-time leader – Wayne Gretzky had 1,668 in 696 games.
3. Vegas Golden Knights (29-12-3)

What looked like an easy week for Vegas turned into a nightmare, with three losses against teams that are at NHL .500 or below. The losses to the Islanders (4-0) and Rangers (2-1) at home were one thing; the stunner was the 5-3 loss at Nashville on Tuesday, where one of the NHL’s worst teams soundly defeated one of the best. Oddly enough, the Golden Knights’ best game came against their toughest opponent; they defeated the Wild 4-1 on Sunday.
2. Winnipeg Jets (30-12-3)

Kyle Connor made life easy for Vezina Trophy front-runner Connor Hellebuyck on Tuesday by scoring three straight goals in a span of 7:37 in the first period of a 6-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks. The Jets continue to make life miserable for opposing goalies – they’ve averaged 3.6 goals per game, most in the Western Conference. Combine that with the NHL’s best goaltender and you get a team that’s going to be tough to beat.
1. Washington Capitals (29-10-5)

The Caps don’t necessarily win pretty, but they do keep on winning and piling up points. A 3-0 win against Anaheim on Tuesday gave Washington a 5-0-3 record in its past eight games. Alex Ovechkin’s empty-netter in Nashville on Saturday was his 20th goal of the season and marked the 20th consecutive season he’s scored 20 – only Gordie Howe (22) has more.