When the Rebuild Rankings first began, a project following the 2023 Trade Deadline that has become one of the biggest pieces here at The Hockey Writers, there were two burning questions. The first was, which teams are closest to contention? This question still applies to these rankings. The other question, one that was asked behind the scenes, was, would any of these teams ever become contenders and exit the rebuild phase?
Fast forward to the 2025 offseason, and some of the teams in the initial rankings have made significant strides. The Montreal Canadiens are no longer a rebuilding team and aren’t on this list anymore. They made the playoffs last season and are starting to enter the Stanley Cup conversation. The Columbus Blue Jackets, who have been in every ranking since their inception, are on the cusp of contention, and a few moves might remove them from the list as well. The San Jose Sharks started as the furthest team from contention, a team going nowhere, and now have one of the best rebuilds in the NHL.
Related: 2024-25 NHL Rebuild Rankings: Post-Trade Deadline Edition
That brings us to the 2025-26 preseason edition of the rankings. Many teams avoid the tabooed “rebuild” phrase and will use any word but that to describe what they are going through. 12 teams fall into this rebuilding category (although some will be debated), and these rankings have a few similarities to the 2025 post-trade deadline edition, notably that these teams are divided into four categories. There are the teams that are in the early phases of their rebuilds, some that are caught in the middle, others that are starting to put things together, and a handful that are on the cusp of contention.
Before diving into the rebuilds, here’s a quick look at the retooling teams. Some of these are in the middle of retools, while others proved that with the right moves, it’s possible to retool on the fly.
4. Nashville Predators – After a disastrous 2024-25 season, the Predators decided to keep the roster together and add in the offseason, avoiding the teardown some suggested they needed. But hey, another bad season might put them on this list after all (with a new head coach and front office leading the way to boot).
3. New York Rangers – The New York Rangers are in a tough spot despite winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24. The good news is that the Mike Sullivan hire, Igor Shesterkin in the net, and star players in their core raise their floor and make a retool possible. The bad news is that their aging roster, minimal depth, and depleted farm system make it difficult to execute a retool or be a Cup contender any time soon.
2. Vancouver Canucks – The Vancouver Canucks looked like they were staring at a rebuild after the season ended. Then they put together a strong offseason where they notably re-signed Brock Boeser, making a retool within reason, as well as a playoff spot this season.
1. New York Islanders – A little lottery luck helped the New York Islanders, as they added Matthew Schaefer to their farm system. The right moves by Mathieu Darche, their first-time general manager (GM), also did as he took a team that was going nowhere and put them in a great spot heading into the new season. The Islanders have everything a retooling team wants, and with a great prospect pool, they have plenty of paths available in case they aren’t in the playoff picture.
Now, it’s time to dive into the rebuild rankings. With the help of over 20 writers from THW and elsewhere, these are the rebuilding teams closest to contention.
Category One: Early Phases of a Rebuild
Some of the teams in this category have promising rebuilds in the works. That said, they are still in the early phases where they are putting the pieces together. For these teams, even the ones off to great starts, the next steps are pivotal. Five teams are here with a common theme among them being that they are still at least two, if not more, years away from contending.
5. Pittsburgh Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t even started the teardown yet, something that’s inevitable, knowing the clock is ticking on their aging core. It speaks to how far they are from contending. After kicking the can down the road a few times, they are finally starting to hit the reset button, and it’s this moment when the fans realize how bleak a rebuild for this team looks.
The grim outlook starts with the core. Sidney Crosby is the duct tape for an otherwise flawed roster. Remove him, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang from the Penguins, and there are few, if any, players who can lead this team back to contention. Rutger McGroarty, Owen Pickering, and Ville Koivunen are exciting prospects but far from the elite talents that can carry the Penguins in the future. Taking a step back and looking at the depth chart, there are few regulars in their 20s on it, thanks to Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust, and multiple veterans, making it an aging group.
This is the bad news, and it’s why the Penguins might be near the bottom of the standings for a few seasons before there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The good news is they have the right person, or at least the patient GM, to lead them, with Kyle Dubas in charge. He’s willing to play the long game and develop the Penguins into contenders, and despite being in a difficult market to make changes, he’s already started the process, notably by hiring head coach Dan Muse, a younger coach who can develop a rebuilding roster.
The other bright spot is that Dubas is addressing the glaring needs for the Penguins down the road. They struggled in the net, so he acquired Arturs Silovs, who helped the Abbotsford Canucks win the Calder Cup in the American Hockey League (AHL). Silovs was the best young goaltender available, and he’ll help the Penguins both this season and in the long run. The prospect pool was depleted of talent, so Dubas made the tough but necessary decision to trade Jake Guentzel at the 2024 Trade Deadline. The past season plus and the season ahead are the difficult ones of the rebuild, where the team must take their medicine while they build up the farm system, but the good news is that progress is being made.
The Penguins still have a lot of work to do. Their defense will remain a mess until they start adding prospects who are ready, and Tristan Jarry isn’t the answer in the net. There are plenty of bad contracts weighing them down, with the Karlsson deal standing out. That said, they are no longer delaying the inevitable and instead facing it. It’s a mess, but Dubas is starting to clean up that mess.
4. Seattle Kraken
The Seattle Kraken made the playoffs in 2022-23. Otherwise, they’ve been a non-factor in the NHL since their inaugural 2021-22 season. Ironically, the same issues that have plagued them since their inception still affect them, notably elite forward talent and their inability to score.
In their first four seasons, the Kraken have only exceeded the 3.00 goals per game mark once. Jordan Eberle, Jared McCann, and Chandler Stephenson are good veteran forwards, but far from the stars who can take over games. This leads into the Kraken core, which is Shane Wright and Matty Beniers as the forwards and Joey Daccord in the net. Beniers and Wright are starting to develop into star players, and the hope is that this season they look like the elite prospects many hoped they’d become when they were drafted (so far, the two have been underwhelming). Daccord, meanwhile, is a bright spot as the goaltender to build around. Unfortunately, while the Kraken won big with him in the net, the Philipp Grubauer deal will go down as one of the worst in recent memory, a move that single-handedly set this team back a few years.
Along with having plenty of roster issues, the Kraken also don’t have the people in place to lead them back to contention, or more accurately, they have unproven leaders without a track record (or any record) of success. Lane Lambert is their third head coach in as many seasons, while Jason Botterill is in his first season as their GM. Both are getting a second chance, and it’s too early to tell if they are the right people to lead this team. The problem is with both coming in this season; the rebuild is also starting over from scratch, or specifically, it’s on a new timeline.
Under former GM Ron Francis, the Kraken became a team without direction. A team built on depth that was looking to contend but had minimal depth and was near the bottom of the standings instead. The Kraken were looking to take a patient approach, unlike the Vegas Golden Knights, who immediately became contenders. However, as they enter their fifth season, patience is starting to wear thin. The Kraken are making small steps forward while the other rebuilding teams are making significant strides, and it’s leaving them as one of the furthest teams from contention. So, the hope is that Botterill can turn things around while Lambert proves his disastrous tenure with the Islanders was a fluke.
3. Buffalo Sabres
The 14-year playoff drought weighs heavily on the Buffalo Sabres and their fanbase. It’s the longest in the NHL, and in that time, players, coaches, and executives have all come and gone, making it seem like external factors are causing this team to miss the playoffs every year (that or they are cursed, take your pick). It’s why one of the obstacles often cited with the Sabres is themselves.
It’s odd that the Sabres are stuck in the same spot, considering the core they have. Unlike most rebuilding teams, they have a core with elite game-changing talent on it. Tage Thompson is an elite scorer, and Rasmus Dahlin is a great two-way top-pair defenseman. Throw in Alex Tuch and Owen Power on the forward unit and the defense, and the Sabres have a core that can lead them back to the playoffs.
The problem is everything else. The top six has some star players, but the forward unit is otherwise a big question mark. The defense has the talent with Dahlin, Power, and recently re-signed Bowen Byram, but as a unit, it’s a weak link. When Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen is playing well, he looks like a viable starter at the NHL level, but he doesn’t do so consistently and needs a backup to split starts with him, something that the Sabres have struggled to find (the hope is Devon Levi becomes that soon enough).
The defensive struggles reflect a poorly-coached team, which leads to the issues behind the bench. Lindy Ruff is a retread head coach who, aside from not being suited for a rebuild, is stuck in his ways and won’t pivot, which often results in his teams collapsing during the season, including a 17-game losing streak for the Sabres last season. The Sabres need a coach who can kickstart a rebuild, and Ruff doesn’t seem capable of doing so.
Ultimately, the struggles point to the issues from the top down. The ownership is one of the worst in the NHL, and it’s made the Sabres the opposite of a destination. Players and coaches don’t want to go to Buffalo, which, in some ways, explains why they hired Ruff in the first place. The Sabres haven’t been the same since Terry Pegula bought the team, and only got worse when he purchased the Buffalo Bills in 2015 (who have garnered most of his attention, especially since they started winning).
It’s worth noting here why Pegula, who owns both the Bills and Sabres, has success with the football team but none with the hockey team, and why his ownership style impacts both in opposite ways. The Bills are one of the best teams in the NFL because they have the right leadership in place with a great GM and head coach, two people the owner leaves alone and lets them do their work. The hockey operations lack that stability, and Pegula is hands-off until he decides to interfere (only to inevitably make things worse). The other is Josh Allen, the star quarterback who changes the dynamics of the football team. Rebuilding in hockey is different, where one player (even a superstar) can’t change everything, which speaks to why team building is so difficult. If Allen were drafted by a different team, there’s a good chance the Bills would be talked about the same way the Sabres are currently (although they do have stability in the front office to soften the blow).
Along with the ownership issues have been the GM problems. Kevyn Adams assembled a roster that looked good on paper but doesn’t mesh on the ice. The Dylan Cozens for Josh Norris trade is a good case in point of that. On paper, Norris is an upgrade, giving the team a much-needed top-six center. His injury history and inability to form chemistry have made the trade a questionable one, to put it lightly. Adams hasn’t had an issue with development, but his asset mismanagement has set the team back. He doesn’t want to part with the prospects in the system, and it leaves the team with too many prospects and not enough roster spots for them in the NHL. Lastly, as GM, he hasn’t made the right hires, which is a crucial part of the job. The Ruff hiring particularly stings, and it could be his last one with the team.
This leads to the good news for the Sabres (at least one can hope it’s light at the end of the tunnel). They hired Jarmo Kekelainen this offseason, someone they needed in their front office. He’s not the best GM, but he is a team builder who is willing to make a bold move to get a team into the playoff discussion. He’s next in line to take over as the GM, and if this season ends poorly, he might take over the rebuild.
2. Chicago Blackhawks
The 2024 offseason will go down as a pivotal one for the Chicago Blackhawks, for all the wrong reasons. They were the big spenders, acquiring over-the-hill veterans including Tyler Bertuzzi, Alec Martinez, and Pat Maroon. The result, a step back in the 2024-25 season that saw them replace their head coach and put them at least another year away from contention.
The Blackhawks have a core to build around, but it’s underdeveloped in part because of how they’ve built around it. Connor Bedard is the prime example of that, as they’ve struggled to find the right players to play alongside him, and it’s set him back. Bedard still has all the talent to become a game-changing talent. Unfortunately, it will take longer than expected for the fans to see it. The same applies to Kevin Korchinski, the defenseman who they took with the seventh pick in the 2022 Draft but have moved up and down from the AHL and NHL to stunt his development.
From a historic perspective, Bedard needs a star to take the pressure off him to succeed. Wayne Gretzky had Mark Messier and Jari Kurri, Crosby had Malkin, and even the Blackhawks experienced this with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Every time Bedard takes the ice, he has a target on his back, and another young star will remove it and allow him to become the generational talent many expected when he was drafted. The hope is that the Blackhawks have that in the pipeline.
It’s also why the Blackhawks might be patient with the rest of the core that is on the way. Frank Nazar, Artyom Levshunov, and Anton Frondell all project as elite skaters poised to lead this team to contention. Aside from Nazar, it’s hard seeing any of those players on the NHL roster this season, which is probably for the best.
The other plus of the teardown, which GM Kyle Davidson did when he took over, is a top farm system. With a core already in place and starting to take shape in the coming years, these prospects won’t be asked to turn this team around as much as add depth to the roster. This team has the elite talent on the way; now, they just need reliable NHL regulars (such is the price of trading Brandon Hagel and letting Dylan Strome walk to assist a teardown).
The roster outlook makes it difficult to tell whether Davidson has done a great job with the rebuild or not. He did the teardown and built up the prospect pool. The next steps are where he’s come up short, and if he continues to fail at this point in the rebuild, patience will wear thin with him. It’s also worth noting that his first head coaching hire, Luke Richardson, never worked out. It’s why there’s a lot of pressure on the next hire, Jeff Blashill, to be the right one (an unwritten rule with GMs is they get two strikes with head coaches, so this hire must work out).
Speaking of Blashill, it’s too early to tell if he’s the right coach for this team. He was one of the retread hires who didn’t have a ton of success in the NHL. That said, he’s learned from his mistakes and spent a few seasons as an assistant learning the game. It’s why the Blackhawks were able to talk themselves into hiring him with hopes that, with a second chance, he would lead a successful rebuild.
All in all, the Blackhawks are in a good spot. They just need to be patient and avoid rushing the rebuild, which, given how impatient fans (and an owner) can be, is a tough thing to do. This offseason, they didn’t go crazy and instead spent minimally while focusing on development. It’s a much-needed step in the right direction.
1. San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks have arguably the best rebuild in the NHL. That’s the perception, at least among most of the writers who contributed to this edition of the Rebuild Rankings. Here are some of the many quotes on their rebuild.
“They’ve drafted better than anyone. Two projectable superstars, several projectable stars.”
“Love what Mike Grier has been able to do. From drafting to trades to even signing players into the fold, I think he’s done a tremendous job, and I’d argue the Sharks’ rebuild is going better than the Blackhawks. They have a really nice young core of Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Michael Misa, and Yaroslav Askarov. Along with Eklund and Dickinson. Truly a nice rebuild and I’m excited for that group.”
“The team with the best rebuild hands down is the Sharks. They have some incredible talent, have made some calculated moves, accrued amazing assets to keep their talent pool fresh, and surrounded that talent with good veterans to keep them competitive enough to learn.”
“I truly believe the Sharks have knocked it out of the park with their rebuild so far. Their top six is lethal, and now adding a Michael Misa to that is even scarier. Also, trading for Askarov was a great decision. Also, having Sam Dickinson on the blue line, who I’d assume will be ready for the NHL come the 2026-27 season, is a great young skater.”
“I think the Sharks are definitely moving in the right direction. They have a strong, young group in place with players like Celebrini and Smith, so I think they are doing all the right things.”
So, why are the Sharks in this category? There’s a good case that they are starting to put things together, or even on the cusp of contention. That said, for all the optimism about where the Sharks are, they are still in the early phases, ironically, where the Blackhawks were a year ago.
Their core is shaping up to be a special one, with Celebrini leading the way while Smith and recently selected Misa rounding out the top six. Additionally, Askarov is the elite goaltender who can be the anchor in the net. With all four players, they are either a season away from making a significant impact or still developing and won’t dominate games just yet.
The other reason the Sharks have a promising rebuild going is because of the job GM Mike Grier has done. He was the GM willing to do the teardown, and he moved on from most of the veterans to rebuild from the ground up. This offseason, they signed some veterans, which can be seen as questionable additions, notably Dmitry Orlov and Nick Leddy on defense, but Grier isn’t giving the veterans multi-year deals, which is what a rebuilding team should do.
The Sharks have the right people in place and are taking the right steps. The question is whether their head coach, Ryan Warsofsky, is the right one for the job. Like the roster, it’s still too early to say, and this season might be a telling one for a coach who was brought in to get the most out of a young roster.
The Sharks still have question marks, notably on their defense, where they are missing that true top-pair defenseman to round out the core. It’s probably what they’ll target in next year’s draft before surging up the standings in the Pacific Division. Otherwise, the Sharks have a lot working in their favor. Give them time, and they’ll be one of the best teams in the league.
Category Two: The Murky Middle
There’s a good argument to be made that this category is worse than the teams starting from scratch. These are the teams that appear without direction and might be staring at a rebuild if things fail to progress. At the same time, they are closer to contention or further along in the process and could be contenders with a few moves. Some might say these two teams aren’t rebuilding and are just retooling, but they look stuck in the middle, at least for now.
2. Detroit Red Wings
There’s a lot of pressure on GM Steve Yzerman to get the Detroit Red Wings into the playoffs this season. It’s the seventh season of the “Yzerplan,” and not only does the team have one of the longest playoff droughts in the NHL, but the Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, two teams that also went through rebuilds, have passed them by. Both made the playoffs last season and this season enter as contenders.
Yzerman’s tenure with the Red Wings provides a few lessons for GMs across the league. His tenure with the Tampa Bay Lightning was a success, and the perception was that the Red Wings would similarly become a model franchise under his leadership. The first thing is that being a GM is more than just drafting and developing. It’s about building a winning culture, making the right head coaching hires, and working with the people outside of the hockey operations (from the ownership to the media to the fans, and everything in between). Yzerman drafted and developed a good team, but he came up short elsewhere (although the jury is still out on Todd McLellan, who will have his first full season behind the bench).
The roster itself also speaks to the shortcomings of the Yzerman tenure. They have good but not great core players. Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, and Simon Edvinsson are good players to build around, but none of them take over games like star players on other teams do. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if this team had depth and could beat teams with their later lines and pairings. The Red Wings, especially when they started paying Larkin and the core players, started to lose some of the depth they needed to become contenders.
Then there’s goaltending, an issue that has been a thorn in Yzerman’s side since he took over as GM. He was lucky to have Andrei Vasilevskiy when he was with the Lightning, but with the Red Wings, he’s gone through multiple goaltenders and has yet to find a reliable starter. The hope is that offseason addition John Gibson is the answer since he can change the conversation around this team.
The Red Wings can make the playoffs this season, although the Atlantic Division won’t make things easy. However, in the big picture, they must take a risk and make a big splash. Yzerman, for the most part, has played it safe as the GM, drafting and developing a good roster. To get this team into the contention conversation, he must make a big move at some point, which could happen this season with a handful of big names potentially on the trade block.
1. Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins essentially did a teardown at the 2025 Trade Deadline, moving on from Brad Marchand, Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic, and Charlie Coyle, leaving the team with minimal talent down the stretch. It’s why the Bruins ended the season with the worst record in the Atlantic Division and in draft position to select James Hagens, a much-needed center prospect for the pipeline. Where they go from here is interesting since the roster is still good enough to attempt to push for the playoffs, or they can lean into a rebuild, something GM Don Sweeney will avoid doing, considering the timeline it puts them on.
The core is still in place, although it’s their core by default and not the ideal one, since they have multiple veterans locked into long-term deals. David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm are the forwards, while Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Nikita Zadorov are on defense, and Jeremy Swayman is the leader in the net. Lindholm (the forward), Zadorov, and Swayman were signed to long-term deals last offseason, but one season in, and all three deals look like they’ve backfired, and the Bruins might have to move on from them one way or another.
These moves, plus firing Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery, two excellent coaches who have gone on to have success elsewhere (with Cassidy winning the Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023), have put Sweeney in the firing line. He’s betting on Marco Sturm, who has an AHL background, stepping up and leading this team to a great season out of the gate. A bad season from the Bruins will likely see Sweeney replaced as GM, and it’s why he probably wants to avoid a retool or a rebuild. It’s this context that puts the Bruins in an interesting spot and why they’ll look to compete this season, even if the roster projects as one of the worst in a great division.
This team needs a big boost from the prospects, and the farm system is good but unique. They don’t have that game-changing star player in the system, aside from Hagens, who is at least one, if not more, seasons away from making a significant impact. However, they have a few prospects who can be NHL regulars this season, notably Georgii Merkulov, Dans Locmelis, and Ty Gallagher. Then there’s Michael DiPietro, who isn’t a prospect but a standout goaltender for the Providence Bruins who can be a wild card for the NHL team this season, if they want him to back up Swayman.
Bounce-back seasons from Lindholm, Zadorov, and Swayman can have the Bruins back in the playoff picture. Likewise, with multiple prospects making an impact on the NHL roster, they can be a surprise team in the Eastern Conference. At the same time, they could be staring at a rebuild at the end of this season with Hagens, the hopeful top-line center that this version of the Bruins needs, leading the way.
Category Three: There’s Light At the End of the Tunnel
A lot of teams like to view themselves in this category. They want to see progress being made and that things are starting to come together. There’s a fine line between the other categories and this one. These are the teams that are on their way to contention and might be in the playoffs this season. It’s why only three teams fell into this category.
3. Anaheim Ducks
Last season was a big one for the Anaheim Ducks. After years of being at the bottom of the Pacific Division, they started to make strides towards the playoffs, earning 80 points and falling only 16 points shy of a playoff spot (16 points sounds like a lot, but for a rebuilding team, it’s a sign that progress is being made).
The progress can be credited to the core, which is no longer prospects and instead is a handful of young NHLers starting to make an impact. Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier lead the forwards, while Jackson LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov lead the defense. Moreover, the Ducks have their star goaltender for the future with Lukas Dostal proving he can carry the workload as a primary starter.
Troy Terry is an older part of the core, Trevor Zegras was traded in the offseason, and Mason McTavish is still unsigned at this time. Otherwise, the Ducks not only have a great core but also have key contributors in the positions needed for a successful rebuild (center, defense, and goaltender).
The question with the Ducks is their depth and how they address it. It’s been an issue in previous offseasons as GM Pat Verbeek would bring in veterans well past their prime, hoping they’d get the team to the playoffs. Instead, they regressed, and Alex Killorn, Radko Gudas, and Kevin Shattenkirk wouldn’t help the cause. This time around, the hope is that Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, and Jacob Trouba (a midseason addition) can turn back the clock and become key contributors on a Ducks team looking to make the playoffs.
The questionable offseason moves and multiple seasons near the bottom of the standings have put Verbeek on the hot seat. If the Ducks don’t make the playoffs, he’s probably on his way out, and another cycle of GM, head coach, and roster structure might be in the works.
It explains the Joel Quenneville hiring. The hiring brings with it plenty of controversy, as the former Blackhawks coach is directly tied to the 2010 scandal, and the coach, who was shunned from the league for four seasons, must earn back the trust of the league and the players. At the same time, Quenneville is a great coach who is known around the league as a players’ coach. With a team that can make the leap into the playoffs, he’s the type of coach to bring in to get them there. It’s also a situation where the Ducks can clean house and move on from him after one or two seasons if they miss the playoffs.
The Ducks are expected to make significant strides this season and possibly sneak into the playoffs. They are a team on the rise, and with the core getting better and the right head coach in place, they can be a contender in a few seasons. However, it’s important to proceed with caution. There’s a good chance Verbeek’s additions backfire, as the ones in the past have. There’s also a good chance the young core isn’t ready and still a season away. There’s also a good chance the game has passed by Quenneville, an older coach who has been out of the league for four seasons, and this hiring is a mess. There’s also a chance the players don’t buy into Quenneville’s style and he never earns their trust, forcing them to move on from him. That said, the Ducks are still ahead of most rebuilding teams and on track to contend if they stay on course.
2. Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers took a step back from a standings perspective last season. However, they took a step forward otherwise and have a lot working in their favor. They are one of the teams that can surprise in the Metropolitan Division this season and sneak into the playoffs, but also, with the right moves, be a contender soon enough.
The optimism starts with Matvei Michkov, a young star who is already proving to be a difference-maker at the NHL level. He took over games in his rookie season and is only getting better. While he’s not a center, he’s good enough to cover up some of the other issues in the lineup.
Those issues include the center position, defense, and goaltending. That’s what the Flyers addressed with the Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Dan Vladar additions, plus a farm system with a few forwards in it. Zegras, it’s worth noting, is an X-factor in this rebuild as the former Duck is a high-upside center who can change the dynamics of this team, and at the same time, needs the right coach and system for that to be a possibility. In a few years, the Flyers can have a top line of Michkov, Zegras, and Porter Martone, which not only provides offense but also forechecks and defends well, something any top line needs in the modern NHL.
Speaking of Martone, he headlines a farm system that’s another reason for optimism. Sure, Martone, who they selected sixth in the recent draft, is a winger, but Jack Nesbitt, who they took at 12, who, like Jett Luchanko, their 2024 first round pick, is a center who projects to join the NHL roster. With Alex Bump, Nikita Grebenkin, and a few other names in the farm system, the Flyers can have a young and talented team in no time.
None of the prospects mentioned above play defense, and the position is an issue in the short and long term. Travis Sanheim is a top-pair defenseman, but at 29 years old, it’s hard to see him as the leader of the unit moving forward. The hope is that Jamie Drysdale, who has shown flashes since he was acquired early on in the 2023-24 season, can emerge as their number one defenseman. Otherwise, the unit has a lot of hit-or-miss players, which is why they’ll likely focus on the position in the draft moving forward.
The other reason for optimism is that the Flyers, at least for now, appear to have the right people leading the rebuild. Daniel Briere was patient with the rebuild, allowing the farm system to become what it is and not make any big trades or free agency signings to rush things. While the John Tortorella tenure set them back, the Rick Tocchet hire looks to get them into contention.
It’s worth noting the mixed reviews on Tocchet. There’s plenty of frustration about him being another former Flyer, and the team is trying to return to the past or the glory days of the early 2000s. Along with being a former player on the team, he’s a retread coach who is known for losing his voice in locker rooms after a few seasons. That said, Tocchet is known for getting the most out of his teams and running a balanced system. He won’t change things overnight, but once the players buy in, they’ll become a tough team to stop, like the Canucks group he coached in the 2023-24 season.
The Flyers have glaring needs and aren’t Cup contenders. However, the pieces are falling into place. There’s a good chance they sneak up on teams this season and are in the middle of the Metropolitan Division by midseason, and can add a depth defenseman to get them back into the playoffs and the contention conversation.
1. Utah Hockey Club
After coming just seven points short of a playoff spot last season and adding JJ Peterka in the offseason, the Utah Mammoth are knocking on the door of the playoffs. GM Bill Armstrong drafted and developed to the point where this team has prospects on top of prospects. Now, it’s about the finishing touches.
The core has taken shape with Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, and Mikhail Sergachev leading the way. Most teams are building around their core by adding outside talent while they are building from within, with prospects starting to round out the roster. Caleb Desnoyers was their recent first-round pick, and there’s not a lot of pressure to rush him to the NHL since Dmitri Simashev, Daniil But, and Tij Iginla are expected to make an impact beforehand.
The long-term plan is finally paying off for Armstrong and head coach Andre Tourigny. That said, the expectations are different as they head into the upcoming season. They’ve done a good job with the development, and now, it’s about getting the team over the finish line. For Tourigny, it’s about coaching a team that isn’t rebuilding anymore and instead is looking at the playoffs and beyond (it’s why he’s a name to keep in mind for the Jack Adams Award and with raised expectations, as on the hot seat). Armstrong, meanwhile, will have to start making some bold moves and adding elite players to get this team to contention. Adding Peterka was a start, and this trade deadline is one where he might make a splash.
In some ways, they’ve become the Red Wings of the Western Conference, which isn’t a compliment per se. They’ve hit a lot of “singles” and “doubles” with their core and don’t have that “home run” or star who can take over games, at least as of now (Cooley is an elite playmaker, and Desnoyers is too early to tell). They’ve been patient, and now that they are close to the playoffs, the question is when that swing is coming to get them there. Additionally, both teams have struggled in the net and don’t have a reliable tandem needed to will them to the playoffs.
The surplus of prospects is also a good thing in general. However, they have prospects on top of prospects. At some point, Armstrong must move some of them for NHL-level talent. It’s where this team can make their next big move and put themselves in the contention conversation.
Ultimately, it’s hard not to feel good about what’s going on in Utah. They’ve built things from the ground up and are not only getting better every season and showing progress, but also have a farm system that’s only going to keep adding talent to the NHL team, if Armstrong uses it correctly, that is.
Category Four: On the Cusp of Contention
These teams are one or two pieces away from not only becoming a playoff team but a force to be reckoned with. The Canadiens were in this category for years, and last season they finally became a playoff team and are now contenders in the Eastern Conference. So, which two teams are on the cusp of contention this time around?
2. Calgary Flames
There’s a great debate about the Flames and where their rebuild stands. One way of looking at it is that it’s false hope, and their great seasons are a misperception of where they are in the big picture. Another angle is that they are putting things together, but still a ways to go before they are contenders. Then there’s the optimistic view that the Flames are on the cusp of contention. Last season showed why they are closer to contention than the public perception.
The reason there are high hopes with the Flames is because of their core, their young core that is. They have a veteran group playing significant roles on their roster in Nazem Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, and Rasmus Andersson. That’s not the group that will lead this team to contention. The young one will.
That young group is led by goaltender Dustin Wolf, who was a Calder Trophy finalist last season. The Flames, unlike most rebuilding teams, have a star goaltender to build around, one who can single-handedly take over games with dominant play in the net. It’s not crazy to think that Wolf is already a top-five goaltender, and having one changes the outlook of the organization (think about the Winnipeg Jets and Connor Hellebuyck’s impact). Wolf is the standout, but the Flames also have Matthew Coronato and Conor Zary leading the forwards, while Zayne Parekh is a top defense prospect who can anchor the unit.
Along with a young core is a younger roster. The Flames have multiple reliable contributors 26 or younger, including Joel Farabee, Kevin Bahl, Yegor Sharangovich, Morgan Frost, and Brayden Pachal. While the forward unit and the defense don’t have a star player, there’s plenty of depth to make the Flames a well-rounded team.
The lack of star power is the glaring weakness with the Flames’ rebuild and is often cited as one of the reasons their ceiling is limited. It’s why this team must eventually make a big move to find a skater who can make a difference, especially once they become a perennial playoff team, which they should be quite soon, considering their roster’s continued improvement. GM Craig Conroy knows Calgary isn’t a destination, and elite free agents aren’t walking through the door anytime soon. However, he can make a Sam Reinhart-type trade, where he finds a player with high upside in an under-the-radar deal.
Conroy took over a team in no-man’s land in the 2023 offseason. Yet, two seasons later, the Flames are set up to contend. It’s because he retooled, or more accurately, rebuilt on the fly. He was willing to overhaul the defense, trading three defensemen at the 2024 Trade Deadline (Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, and Nikita Zadorov), to set up the team for long-term success. He moved on from Tyler Toffoli, Elias Lindholm, and Jacob Markstrom, three veterans who were dealt in deals that were unpopular at the time but not only brought back assets for the Flames but also made space for the prospects to play and develop. All this to say, Conroy’s proven a willingness to make moves that are unpopular at the time with the long-term vision in mind, and it’s why he’s the right person for the GM job.
It’s one thing to make the moves to “let the kids play,” and it’s another thing to have a coach willing to let them play. Ryan Huska has done that and allowed the young team to develop. Better yet, they played above their weight last season, finishing the season tied with the St. Louis Blues with 96 points (they missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker). Huska’s been the ideal coach for the rebuild and balancing the roster that has its mix of aging players and prospects. The question moving forward is how he’ll coach in the playoffs and if he’ll give the Flames an edge or not.
The Flames have their issues; notably, they can’t score. They averaged only 2.68 goals per game last season, and a successful rebuild needs scorers (it’s hard to win every game 2-1 or 1-0, even with Wolf in the net). They also must address the aging players and their contracts, notably the Kadri deal, which has three seasons left on it. Otherwise, the rebuild, while not a conventional one, is successful. Now, it’s about putting together the finishing touches, which is the next big test for Conroy.
1. Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets became one of the biggest stories in sports last season. The tragic passing of Johnny Gaudreau had the team playing with a heavy heart, and they rallied all season. Ultimately, they finished the season two points shy of the playoffs, but the strong season gave the fanbase hope for the first time in over five years.
While the strong season was taking place, the Blue Jackets were starting to see the effects of head coach Dean Evason and GM Don Waddell. The word culture is often overused in sports, as every GM, coach, player, and fan likes talking about the culture and instilling a winning culture. Evason and Waddell laid down the foundation to turn an organization with a legacy of failure into a competent franchise in one season.
Evason deserves a lot of credit for changing the day-to-day culture with the Blue Jackets. For years, this team lacked that “adult in the room” who could preach accountability while keeping the team together. Evason wanted the young players to earn their spots on the roster and had many of the veterans become mentors to the young skaters, both on and off the ice.
Waddell, meanwhile, didn’t change things overnight but made the small moves that went a long way. The Dante Fabbro addition, for example, saw him claim a stay-at-home defenseman off of waivers and have him balance out Zach Werenski’s two-way game to give the team a dynamic top pair.
Werenski, by the way, is the reason the Blue Jackets don’t have a typical core. He burst on the scene last season as a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman who can do it all. He can take over games with great play on the offensive end while also shutting teams down on defense. Werenski is the best player on any rebuilding team, and the Blue Jackets have made him the focal point of their rebuild and their roster in general, using him in all situations.
It’s not just Werenski. The Blue Jackets have a surplus of young talent starting to make significant strides at the NHL level. Adam Fantilli is coming off a 31-goal season and is only entering his third season in the league. Kirill Marchenko and Kent Johnson are top-six forwards who also consistently add to the offense. With more prospects on the way, the Blue Jackets have a team built with star power and depth, and will have it for years to come as well.
The question is what the prospect pool will look like in the future. With Cayden Lindstrom, Denton Mateychuk, and Jackson Smith expected to make an impact this season or shortly thereafter, the Blue Jackets will need to restock their farm system. Additionally, if Waddell makes a few moves to put this team in the contention conversation, it will come at the cost of prospects and picks, which this team still needs. That said, this is a problem that’s only prominent because the prospects are starting to make their way into the NHL, which is a good sign.
It’s also worth noting that the Blue Jackets have the ideal group of veterans for a rebuilding team. Sean Monahan was brought in as a top-six center, yet he’s more than that as a leader in the locker room, and can move down in the lineup to make space for a younger player like Fantilli if needed. Boone Jenner has lost a step with age, but he’s not a liability on the ice and is a great leader off the ice. Overall, the Blue Jackets veterans are there to assist the rebuild and not interfere with it, and they’ve done a great job keeping an otherwise young team on track.
The Blue Jackets still have questions in the net. Elvis Merzlikins at best can split starts with another goaltender, but can’t be relied on as a primary starter. Waddell traded Daniil Tarasov this offseason, so he’s betting on Jet Greeves, a 24-year-old with only 21 NHL starts under his belt, to step up and fill that void. Goaltending was the undoing for this team in the past, and it could unravel a promising rebuild as well. That said, it’s the one glaring weakness for Waddell to address and something he can fix, if not this offseason, next offseason.
If the Blue Jackets find stability in the net, they not only will make the playoffs but also will be one of the sleeper teams to watch moving forward. They have all the things a contender needs, and with the Metropolitan Division being weaker than usual, they can leap past multiple teams to secure a playoff spot this season. The big thing for them moving forward is finding ways to become a Cup contender, which the core in place gives them a head start with.
Other Notes on the Rebuilding Teams
This is the sixth edition of the Rebuild Rankings, and with that, there’s something new learned every time. In the aggregate, there’s less fluctuation from teams compared to when the rankings began, and a milder reaction to teams that land a big prospect (when the Blackhawks won the draft lottery, it looked like their rebuild was all but wrapped up).
The big theme that stands out is off the ice and its ownership. A good ownership group can’t win a Cup, but it can and will set a team back even further. With rebuilds, the teams with incompetent ownership stand out from the ones who have a say in everything, to the ones who are hands-off and view the team as just another “investment.”
The Sabres are the prime examples with the Pegulas running the team, making them the opposite of a destination (it explains the underwhelming free agency classes and re-hiring Ruff when other coaches don’t want to go there). The Flyers haven’t been the same team since Ed Snider passed away, going from a Cup-winning franchise in the 1970s to a perennial playoff team in the next three decades to one that’s only made the playoffs three times in the past decade. The then-Arizona Coyotes were a mess under Alex Meruelo and failed in a market that otherwise should have been a destination, the way Florida and the other southern teams have become. With Ryan Smith purchasing the Coyotes and moving them to Utah, the outlook of the rebuild has changed significantly. The Penguins haven’t been the same team since the Fenway Sports Group purchased it (which explains a sense of urgency from a Mario Lemieux-led group to repurchase the team).
Ownership sets the tone for how the organization is run from the top, and while it’s hard to make much of a difference on the ice, there are ways to spend and cut corners elsewhere. Likewise, some owners set teams back by being too hands-on and trying to interfere with every decision the team makes, and others fail because they don’t care about the team at all (and view it as another investment). The bottom line is that to succeed in the NHL, and particularly, to have a successful rebuild, the ownership group must prove it’s willing to spend and build up the culture along with the GM and coaching staff.
On the ice, one of the takeaways is about the core. It’s not only about having one, which matters more than depth, a great farm system, or draft assets. It’s about having elite players in the core. Having a good player to build around is key, but having a star who can change a game on any shift is what separates the rebuilds that succeed in the long run compared to the ones that don’t (especially in the big picture, which is winning the Cup).
Positional importance also matters when it comes to the core and overall team-building. The ideal core has two forwards, one of whom is a center, a defenseman, and a goaltender. The teams that are building around those four positions, especially an elite goaltender, have an advantage. Goaltending has declined, and the Florida Panthers, who are back-to-back Cup champions, won without a number one defenseman, but the rebuilds that are often successful have one of both. Goaltending raises the floor of the team, and a defenseman who does it all makes all the difference (the same is true about a two-way center).
Which rebuild do you think is closest to contending? Let us know in the comments section below!
