Which 2025-26 Round 1 loser inspires the most – and least – hope for next season?
As Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs heats up, the eight teams eliminated from Round 1 fade in the rearview mirror and begin planning their offseasons. Some have more optimistic outlooks than others, and the Round 1 defeats were thus more costly for some teams than others.
Of the eight Round 1 losers, which team inspires the most and least confidence going forward?
MATT LARKIN: The most: Easily the Utah Mammoth for me. They’ve steadily improved under GM Bill Armstrong, rising from 77 to 89 to 92 points in consecutive seasons. They’re a strong 5-on-5 team at both ends of the ice. They have breakout young stars entering their primes in Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther, and they have several more blue-chippers on the way, which can mean additional help in the lineup or tradeable assets to pursue star upgrades. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utah rise up as one of the big dogs in the Central next season. The least: it’s the Los Angeles Kings for me. They’re so darnn medicore, they have no help coming from their cleaned-out prospect pool, and while they have more than $18 million in cap space, some of that must go to RFA blueliner Brandt Clarke. The Kings are caught between a good and bad team and an old and young team. They have no identity.
MIKE GOULD: The most: I would still have to say the Tampa Bay Lightning, given their incredibly strong track record with their current core. They’ll need to make some changes, there’s no doubt about that, but I’d be remiss to write off a team led by Julien BriseBois and Jon Cooper. These Bolts kind of remind me of the Pittsburgh Penguins, circa 2014-ish … I think they’ve still got a few more deep runs ahead of them. The least: It was neat to see the Boston Bruins bounce back this year, but that’s still a team with fatal flaws and I can’t see them repeating what they accomplished this season. They kind of feel like the L.A. Kings of the East — their Selke-winning star center is gone, their other stars are getting up there in age, and they’ve got way too much money invested in mid-tier players.
PAUL PIDUTTI: The most: Give me the Dallas Stars. This is a really good team — third in the NHL in points (112) and fourth in goal differential. No, Colorado and Minnesota aren’t going anywhere next year, and Jason Robertson is set to test free agency. But it’s easy to forget that Dallas made the Conference Finals in each of 2023, 2024, and 2025. With a longer offseason and a returning core of Miro Heiskanen, Wyatt Johnston, Mikko Rantanen, Jake Oettinger, Thomas Harley all age-30 or younger, elite GM Jim Nill’s crew is well set up for future runs. The least: To differentiate from L.A., I do worry about the Pittsburgh Penguins. General manager Kyle Dubas has done a superb job unearthing hidden gems, keeping the old guard happy, and assembling picks and prospects. But I think of this team two years from now and it feels like it could be an ugly roster. Ben Kindel and Egor Chinakov are nice players, yes, but as their Hall of Famers age out soon, there will be a gaping hole for a while until the team can bank high-end talent again.
SCOTT MAXWELL: The most: I agree with Matt on this one, the Utah Mammoth have every reason to be optimistic. As I pointed out last month, they played near the level of a Cup contender at both ends of the ice this season and gave the equally strong and more experienced Vegas Golden Knights a scare in the playoffs. Utah has an exciting young core who are locked up and will only improve. They also have a few interesting prospects who can either join the team or be traded for high-impact players immediately. The least: Once again, I gotta agree with Matt and go with the Los Angeles Kings. They’ve been mediocre for five years now, and this was supposed to be the point where they reaped the rewards of their rebuild. Instead, most of their prospects flamed out, and the team was carried into the playoffs on the backs of what remained of Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. Artemi Panarin could soften the blow of Kopitar’s retirement, but I don’t see how this group turns things around to become a Cup contender without another rebuild.
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