Hawks Insider

NHL Preseason Power Rankings 2020-21

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The 2020-21 NHL season begins Wednesday! So let's dive into our first Power Rankings edition.

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1/31

The Red Wings might be the worst team in the NHL again, but they are in great hands with Steve Yzerman leading the rebuilding project.

2/31

Trevor Zegras is going to be a stud at the NHL level, whenever he makes that jump. Get excited, Anaheim.

3/31

The Senators probably aren't going to be very good again, but who cares? They may have found their franchise cornerstones in Jake Sanderson and Tim Stuetzle to already along with Brady Tkachuk.

4/31

The Kings are assembling a nice pool of prospects with centers Quinton Byfield and Alex Turcotte. But they're still a year or two away from becoming full-time NHL players.

5/31

The Blackhawks won't have Kirby Dach (wrist) or Alex Nylander (knee) for potentially the entire season, and Jonathan Toews (medical issue) remains out indefinitely. With no Corey Crawford or Robin Lehner, who's going to emerge as the No. 1 goaltender?

6/31

The retirement of Corey Crawford really hurts for the Devils, who were expected to have one of the top goaltending tandems with Mackenzie Blackwood as the 1B. Expect Jack Hughes to have a breakout season.

7/31

The Sharks should be better than they were last season, in part because they're in the NHL's weakest realigned division. The acquisition of Devan Dubnyk helps strengthen their goaltending tandem with Martin Jones.

8/31

There were way more offseason subtractions than additions for the Coyotes, who are going to lean heavily on their elite goaltending tandem of Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta to keep them in games.

9/31

GM Bill Guerin is reshaping the look of the Wild after trading Devan Dubnyk and Eric Staal, and letting captain Mikko Koivu walk. The player to watch in Minnesota this season is Kirill Kaprizov, who finally came over from the KHL.

10/31

Connor Hellebuyck turned in a Vezina Trophy season last year. And the Jets need him to do it again if they want to compete for a playoff spot in the all-Canadian division.

11/31

The Panthers lost their top-two goal scorers from last season in Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman, and won't have Sergei Bobrovsky to start the season. Where their scoring is going to come from outside of Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau is a real concern.

12/31

The Rangers made the playoffs last season and landed the No. 1 overall pick in Alexis Lafrenière, but they're in an extremely tough division this year and have their work cut out for them.

13/31

The Sabres signed a former Hart Trophy winner in Taylor Hall, who is likely to play with MVP candidate Jack Eichel all season. Is this the year Buffalo finally ends its nine-year playoff drought?

14/31

The Oilers surprisingly didn't address their goaltending situation, but they did make several sneaky good offseason additions in puck-moving defenseman Tyson Barrie, depth scoring winger Dominik Kahun and middle-six center Kyle Turris. The return of Jesse Puljujarvi could also give the Oilers a nice boost.

15/31

The Canucks are building a strong foundation but can they take advantage of this season with Quinn Hughes and Elias Petterson on the final year of their entry-level contracts?

16/31

If Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan return to form and Jacob Markstrom plays like he did in Vancouver, the Flames can compete for the division title this season.

17/31

The Predators collectively and individually underachieved across the board last season. This team can be a serious Stanley Cup contender if it can put it all together.

 

18/31

The Blue Jackets are arguably the NHL's best defensive team and have one of the top goaltending duos in Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins. Will the Pierre-Luc Dubois situation be a distraction all season?

19/31

The Canadiens were the league's top puck possession team last season and got even stronger in the offseason with the additions of goaltender Jake Allen, shutdown defenseman Joel Edmundson, power forward Josh Anderson and two-way winger Tyler Toffoli.

20/31

The Islanders will be one of the top defensive teams for as long as Barry Trotz is around. Do they have enough firepower on offense to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?

21/31

Is the Stanley Cup window closing for the Penguins or do Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have one more run in them?

22/31

The Stanley Cup runner-ups will be without Ben Bishop (knee) and Tyler Seguin (hip) until at least March. Can the Stars stay above water until then?

23/31

The Flyers have a very high ceiling and if Carter Hart can pick up where he left off in the postseason, they can legitimately make a deep run.

24/31

The time is now for the Maple Leafs, who are still searching for their first postseason series win since 2004. If Frederik Andersen can bounce back and T.J. Brodie helps stabilize the back end, look out for Toronto.

25/31

Peter Laviolette has led three teams to the Stanley Cup Final as a head coach: Carolina in 2006, Philadelphia in 2010 and Nashville in 2017. Will he make it a fourth with the Capitals in 2021?

26/31

The Hurricanes have one of the best young cores in the league and arguably the deepest defensemen group. Will they get the consistent goaltending needed to put them over the top?

27/31

There will be no David Pastrnak (hip) to start the season and the losses of Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug will sting, but the Bruins' newly-appointed captain Patrice Bergeron and four-time 30-goal scorer Brad Marchand are still playing at a high level. The goaltending tandem of Jaroslav Halak and Tuukka Rask should also give Boston a chance to win every night.

28/31

The Blues let captain Alex Pietrangelo walk, but used the extra cap space to sign one of the best puck-moving defensemen in Torey Krug and the top goal-scorer on the market in Mike Hoffman. And they're hoping to get Vladimir Tarasenko back for the stretch run. The biggest question will be whether or not Jordan Binnington can bounce back after Jake Allen was traded to Montreal.

29/31

The Golden Knights lost Nate Schmidt and Paul Stastny but did so to make room for Alex Pietrangelo, who was the biggest fish on the free-agent market. Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner make up arguably the best goaltending tandem in the league.

30/31

There might not be a deeper team in the league than the Avalanche, who were decimated by injuries last season. They are the favorites to win the Stanley Cup, and it's difficult to pick against them if they can stay healthy.

31/31

The defending Stanley Cup champions will be without Nikita Kucherov for the regular season, but they are loaded from top to bottom and are getting captain Steven Stamkos back at full strength.

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