Stanley Cup Windows 2026-27: Central Division
Timing is everything to succeed in the modern NHL. The best-run franchises find the perfect junctures at which they blend ascending talent under long-term team control with veteran contributors. That’s what we saw from the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes. They had rising early-20s stars such as Seth Jarvis, Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake; prime-year horses like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and K’Andre Miller; and veteran stalwarts like Jaccob Slavin, Nikolaj Ehlers, Jordan Staal and Taylor Hall. Not only was their Stanley Cup window wide open at the ideal time, but it has been for several seasons and will be for many more, given so much of the roster remains under contract long term.
Which other teams find themselves in that sweet spot of their contention trajectory? Which teams have missed their windows? Which are about to open it? And which need serious renovations to even think about winning again?
Welcome back to Stanley Cup Windows, my annual series in which I plot all 32 franchises on a contention timeline. We began with the Atlantic Division earlier this week, and we continue with the Central Division, which has housed some of hockey’s top powerhouses in recent seasons but may be on the verge of a power shift.
WINDOW WIDE OPEN
Dallas Stars
A pessimist may surmise that Dallas’ window is closing. After three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances, the Stars got bounced in the first round this past spring. The franchise players of their previous generation, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, are nearing the ends of their careers. A salary-cap squeeze pushed promising young forward Mavrik Bourque out as a trade casualty this summer. And yet, as long as the Stars sort out Jason Robertson’s contract, they’re set up to keep contending indefinitely. Among the forward corps: Robertson, a top-10 scorer in the NHL over the past five years, is just 26. Wyatt Johnston, who led the league in power-play goals this past season, is 23. Future Hall of Famer Mikko Rantanen is 29, as is two-way pivot Roope Hintz. Dallas’ two best defensemen, horses Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley, are 26 and 24. Starting goaltender Jake Oettinger is 27. Every player I just rhymed off is under contract until 2029 at minimum, with RFA Robertson the exception for now. As long as he and Dallas come to a long-term resolution, the Stars will remain among the Central’s elite.
Utah Mammoth
The Mammoth are primed to control this division over the next decade. They’re already improved from 57 to 70 to 77 to 89 to 92 points in consecutive seasons. They boast a strong play-driving style that should lead to sustained excellence at 5-on-5. Most importantly, they have multiple waves of talent at various ages that make them extremely deep. Early to mid 30s: recent veteran additions such as forwards Vincent Trocheck and Anders Lee and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar. Late 20s to early 30s: prime-year star forwards Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz, power forward Lawson Crouse, No. 1 defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, shutdown D-man John Marino and starting goalie Karel Vejmelka. Rising early-20s stars: dynamic young forwards Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther. And there’s another generation of pedigreed talent expected to become go-to NHL players, from forward Tij Iginla and Caleb Desnoyers to recently acquired goaltender Sebastian Cossa. Don’t be surprised if Utah bags a Stanley Cup in the next few years. This team might even contend for one in 2026-27.
WIN-NOW WINDOW
Colorado Avalanche
The Avs just won the Presidents’ Trophy. They’re powered by a 30-year-old superstar in Nathan MacKinnon. Every core player on their team, from Martin Necas and Cale Makar to Nazem Kadri, ranges from 27 to 35 years old. They haven’t picked in Round 1 of the NHL Draft since 2023, and they’ve traded their 2027 and 2028 first-rounders. No team in the league is as go-for-broke as Colorado right now as it tries to win its first title since 2021-22, and coach Jared Bednar’s seat feels hot after his club flopped in the 2025-26 Western Conference Final, shockingly swept by the Vegas Golden Knights.
Minnesota Wild
The Wild shifted to a win-now operation in fall 2025 when they extended superstar left winger Kirill Kaprizov at a $17-million AAV and ponied up a package including top prospect Zeev Buium to land Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks. Bill Guerin has been on borderline tampering watch (kidding…mostly) since the winter because he was GM of Team USA’s gold-medallist squad at the 2026 Olympics. We know his team needs a No. 2 center if it wants to break through and reach its first Western Conference Final since 2003, and a Dylan Larkin trade has felt inevitable for a month now given the Wild are one of the few teams on his destination list. That the Wild made an insurance add in Blake Coleman in the meantime tells us they’re serious about deep playoff run in the present. It’s not that they’re that old of a team – Kaprizov is 29, Joel Eriksson 29, Matt Boldy 25, Brock Faber 23, Jesper Wallstedt 23 – it’s that they need to win while they have Hughes signed. Even if he inks an extension this summer, it’s expected to be a relatively short one.
WINDOW CLOSING
Winnipeg Jets
Nothing says closing the Stanley Cup window like regressing from a Presidents’ Trophy to missing the postseason. The Jets were the first team in 18 years to do so. The problem went beyond superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s down year, too. The Jets’ veterans, from Mark Scheifele to Kyle Connor up front to Josh Morrissey on defense, remain elite, especially on the offensive side of the puck, but the generation behind them hasn’t levelled up as expected. From Kristian Vesalainen to Ville Heinola to Brad Lambert and, in the mild disappointment category, Cole Perfetti, the Jets never got the lifts they expected to from their next wave across their 2017-2022 draft classes, albeit Chaz Lucius’ career ending from a hereditary disorder was pure bad luck. Now they’re banking on the likes of Brayden Yager and new first-round pick Viggo Björck to catch up to their vets. But it feels like Winnipeg’s big chance was 2024-25. They lost a top-six forward to free agency in Nikolaj Ehlers after that, and it remains to be seen if they’ll lose Hellebuyck in an offseason trade this summer.
FOGGY WINDOW
Nashville Predators
In David Poile’s final days as GM through Barry Trotz’s relatively brief tenure in the position, the Preds were the “Are they coming or going?” poster children, mired in mediocrity, never bad enough to compile true high-end prospects, just good enough to attract and sign big-ticket free agents. And what are they now with Chris MacFarland taking over their hockey operations? Great question. They already had one of the oldest veteran core groups in the league with Steven Stamkos (36), Ryan O’Reilly (35), Jonathan Marchessault (35) and Filip Forsberg (31) at forward and Roman Josi (36) and Brady Skjei (32) on defense, and they added 29-year-old Ross Colton, 31-year-old Alex Kerfoot and 32-year-old Ilya Lyubushkin to the mix this offseason. At the same time, they secured some youthful upside in Bourque, 24, reclamation project Nils Hoglander, 25, and two-way forward Jack Drury, 26. Luke Evangelista, 24, just set a career high with 56 points. Towering winger Matthew Wood, 21, scored 17 goals in his rookie year, while center Brady Martin, 19, is knocking on the door, and they just landed Wyatt Cullen with a top-10 pick. Does that mean the old and young generations might actually merge into a competitive team? It’s so hard to say, as the Preds’ older guys are past their primes and their younger guys aren’t in their primes. They’re missing legit star players in the 23-27 bracket.
St. Louis Blues
Out of the playoffs. In the playoffs. Out of the playoffs. Sold off veterans Brayden Schenn and Justin Faulk at the Trade Deadline. Traded Jordan Kyrou this offseason. Those all look like rebuilder moves at first glance. Contradicting them: trading for 29-year-old veteran blueliner Brandon Carlo, using the 15th and 29th overall picks in Round 1 of the 2026 Draft to acquire center Mason McTavish and ensuring a prime-year player rather than futures came back in the Kyrou deal in Connor McMichael. The Blues are thus not a contender nor a rebuilder, more of a retooler. In Robert Thomas, Dylan Holloway, Jimmy Snuggerud, Dalibor Dvorsky, Jake Neighbours, McTavish and McMichael, they do have a decent group of early-to-mid-prime forwards at their disposal, all between 21 and 27. But aside from Philip Broberg and Logan Mailloux, their D-corps, which also includes Cam Fowler and Colton Parayko, is relatively old. The Blues are like the Preds in that they could finish with anywhere between 80 and 100 points and no result would surprise me.
WINDOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks’ points percentages across their past five years: .415, .360, .317, .372, .439. They’re technically trending up, but their highest point total over that span is 72, and it landed them more than 20 points back of a playoff berth in 2025-26. Chicago just keeps piling up picks and prospects, and its collection of young talent is truly exciting. It’s way beyond just Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell and Artyom Levshunov: KHL goal-scoring leader Roman Kantserov has crossed the pond, and Chicago’s “secondary” tier of prospects, from forwards Marek Vanacker and Sacha Boisvert to defenseman Xavier Villeneuve, would be many NHL teams’ top prospects. Nevertheless: this group just hasn’t shown the ability to win in the NHL yet. Chicago had the worst 5-on-5 expected goal differential in the NHL last season. Desperation has understandably set in for GM Kyle Davidson, as evidenced by him sending the 2026 NHL Draft’s No. 4 overall pick to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Bowen Byram and paying him $12.5 million a year. It’s possible all the blue-chippers, especially Calder Trophy threats Frondell and Kantserov, finally spark a surge toward playoff contention, as we saw from the San Jose Sharks last season, but Chicago has to prove it at this point to make us believe. It also doesn’t help that Bedard is out until November at the earliest recovering from a shoulder injury sustained during offseason training.
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