Tom Fitzgerald did not mince words. Just days after the Devils were bounced from the playoffs by the superior Carolina Hurricanes, the fifth-year GM was asked what his team needed to do to “get over the hump” entering next season.

NHL.com continues its preview of the 2025-26 season. For the eight Eastern Conference teams that missed the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, their goal since the regular season ended has been determining how to extend their season into June, like the Stanley Cup ...

From MVP and Norris predictions to Stanley Cup picks, The Sporting News projects the biggest storylines for the NHL season.

BOTTOM LINE: The Buffalo Sabres and the New York Rangers meet in Eastern Conference action. Buffalo had a 36-39-7 record overall and a 23-15-3 record at home last season. The Sabres had an 18.8% power play success rate last season, scoring 43 goals on 229 chances.

There is going to be so much drama around Jack Eichel this season. Now Connor McDavid has signed, Eichel is the top free agent of 2026 with a bullet and teams will be falling over each other to try and land him, especially those who were stockpiling McDavid money.

Here are all 32 NHL teams ranked — in tiers! — from least to most watchable for the 2025-26 season.

We're less than one week out from the 2025-26 NHL season, and you know what that means: It's time to start thinking about divisional depth. The Western Conference has long featured two top-heavy divisions in the Pacific and the Central,