Now that the 2024-25 NHL season has concluded, it’s time to hand out grades for how each team did based on preseason expectations and results, along with the overall play of the clubs. For instance, a team that had no expectations entering the season and ended up making the playoffs will get a good grade.
For this series, among teams that didn’t make the playoffs, we will go from the bottom of the league to the highest-finishing team that was just outside of the playoffs, and for playoff-clinching teams, we will go from the first team eliminated to the Stanley Cup champions.
Table of Contents
24th: Pittsburgh Penguins
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
In a year where nobody expected the Penguins to make the playoffs, there is, of course, a shining light: Sidney Crosby. He put up yet another 30-goal NHL season, which shows that he’s still got juice left in the tank, which is a good thing for transitioning from the old guard to the youth movement with a healthy amount of offense.
General manager Kyle Dubas does have intriguing prospects waiting on the pipeline in Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, and they both got their doses of NHL experience before the season ended, which is a smart decision. Pittsburgh also has more draft picks in the next three years than any other team in the NHL, with 30, and among the stockpiling of picks includes three first round picks in the next two years.
This bodes well into the rebuilding plans for the future, and the youth movement could suggest that better days are indeed ahead. It’s not exactly a full-scale rebuild and complete teardown right now, but they’re clearing out some of their aging veterans to make room for the youth movement that is about to take shape when Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang all retire.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
The season was a slow and painful death for the Penguins. The big reason is that they don’t have the depth to keep up with the rest of the Eastern Conference, and they’re letting the top lines run the show most nights. There wasn’t a lot of consistent scoring, and Malkin is visibly showing that Father Time is knocking on his doorstep.
The scoring issues were also amplified with how dreadful they were defensively. Bad defense and bad goaltending are a match made in hell, and this was the exact case for the Pens. The defense gave up the second-most goals per game this season (3.58), and Tristan Jarry completely flamed out as the starting goaltender, with a 3.31 GAA and a .884 save percentage through mid-January, resulting in him being demoted to the AHL.
Even worse, Pittsburgh allowed the first goal of the game when their opponents fired the first shot of the game 15 times. Even in a bad Metropolitan Division, the Penguins were not serious playoff contenders because of their sloppy defensive style of play.
Expectations for Next Season
Now that they have moved on from Mike Sullivan, the winningest head coach in Penguins history, they are now focusing on the youth movement with Dan Muse as the new bench boss. The main focus isn’t on the playoffs, but rather, the youth movement, with McGroarty and Koivunen being the two key faces of it, and expect them to compete for roster spots during training camp.
If they were to make the playoffs one last time with Crosby, it’s on Dubas to address the problems that have plagued them. They do have talent to be a contender, but it’s a huge “if” should they address the concerns of this team. The lack of goal-scoring on the team should be addressed with smart veteran additions. The defense also cannot stay the way it is, either.
If Dubas were to avoid a full-scale rebuild, he must make the most of this summer to balance out the roster between the team’s present and the future. Infuse the youth with the present, and outside help is needed to a degree.
Final Grade: D+
23rd: New York Islanders
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
There were points during the 2024 NHL season in which the Islanders were going to surprise people again into making the playoffs, especially when they went 11-3-0 during January ahead of the Four Nations Face-Off break. They did have some solid individual performances during the run, including from Bo Horvat and Anders Lee.
Although he took a step back, Noah Dobson showed that he is one of the emerging offensive defensemen of this league, and Alexander Romanov is increasingly comfortable in a shutdown pairing role. Plus, trading away Brock Nelson got them a very nice return that included promising prospect Cal Ritchie and a 2026 first round pick, in the last great trade that Lou Lamoriello made before his contract was not renewed, though with how the Islanders are constructed, it’s for the best.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
This was an Islanders team that was mediocre from start to finish. They were in the worst spot imaginable in the NHL: Not good enough to compete for a playoff spot and not bad enough to get a top draft pick. They didn’t really stand out in any category. They finished 25th in scoring (2.77 goals per game), gave up the 13th-most goals against (3.14), and with terrible special teams all around: second-worst on the power play (13.1%, only ahead of the Ducks) and equally as putrid on the penalty kill (72.2%, only ahead of the Red Wings).
It’s true that injuries took their toll on some of their players, including Mat Barzal, who played just 30 games this season, but there haven’t been a bunch of difference-makers on the team. Ilya Sorokin, who was once a Vezina Trophy finalist, looked painfully average with a .905 save percentage, and has been a far cry from the goalie that Islanders fans were hoping for when they were seeking to reach the playoffs.
The big free agency addition, Anthony Duclair, got injured, and when he came back on the ice, it was clear that he was not the same player that the Islanders were looking for when they signed him. He struggled immensely, and head coach Patrick Roy humiliated him, leading to Duclair leaving the team. Worsening matters is that, despite trading Nelson, Lamoriello held onto players on either expiring contracts or soon to be expiring contracts like Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and missed out on an opportunity to get more draft picks. Even after trading Nelson, nothing else has changed.
Expectations for Next Season
There is a ton of work to do. Despite getting the first overall pick in the Draft, which they will likely use on Matthew Schaefer, new general manager Mathieu Darche has to make sweeping changes in the offseason for what could likely be a retool. One-and-done in the playoffs cannot be the standard.
Darche must assess what direction the franchise is headed towards. There are crucial personnel decisions to make. He started off with a two-year extension to Palmieri, but there are several crucial decisions to make on the RFA front, and among those RFAs include Dobson and Romanov. Who they keep will heavily impact the defensive core.
Scoring depth is another area to address. Barzal’s injury was a crushing blow to Long Island, and getting added help on the offense so that they can withstand a major injury will help out a lot. But everything should start with a very honest and deep look at where they are as a team.
Final Grade: D+
22nd: New York Rangers
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
In a season full of drama, the Rangers didn’t want to deal with any added distractions. While general manager Chris Drury was able to offload underperforming captain Jacob Trouba, that showed a bold move, though it kept the Rangers from falling flat. Kaapo Kakko’s development went stale at Broadway, so dealing him to the Kraken was a fresh start for him while getting a defensive defenseman in Will Borgen in return. Lastly, adding JT Miller was something that New York wanted to do to jolt up an offense that was falling flat.
There was growth from the young players of this core, the most notable of such being Will Cuylle, who put up a career-high 20 goals and 43 points during the 2024 NHL season. While Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox are the mainstays of this core, the developments of Brett Berard and Gabe Perreault will be interesting to watch.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
Oh dear. It’s very hard to argue that the Rangers have been the biggest disappointment in the NHL in the 2025 season. To be fair, regression should have been expected, as they were not as good as their Presidents’ Trophy-winning counterparts from 2024, and there was every reason to believe they would take a step backwards. But not to this extent of regression where they would miss the playoffs entirely, even after a 12-4-1 start to the 2024 NHL Season
Everything that they showed from the 2024 season became a fizzled spark. They lacked any form of consistency, and that was especially true as they never won three consecutive games after November. Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad had seasons to forget, and the power play, which was once a strength of the team, was abysmal, converting just 17.6% of their chances. Igor Shesterkin, who was perennially a Vezina Trophy candidate, was above average, and it didn’t help that the overall 5-on-5 play in front of him was some of the worst in the NHL.
The cherry on top was that the entire team was completely dysfunctional. They looked lost defensively at times, and they never showed the same resiliency that they showed in seasons past. Many players openly spoke out about their frustrations not only with the coaching staff but also with the front office, whether it be the players venting their frustrations about their utilization or them not trusting Drury after the front office put their veterans on the trade block.
Did the locker room tensions get in their own way? Did Peter Laviolette’s messages fall empty-handed? Either way, even if both reasons are true, they could never make things stick together for a full year. But one thing is certain: There is going to be a lot of changes at Broadway.
Expectations for Next Season
Two of the changes made this offseason were: 1) Firing Peter Laviolette to make way for Mike Sullivan to be the new head coach, and 2) moving on from Chris Kreider and clearing all of his cap hit to retool the roster.
Kreider may not be the only one who is on his way out. With how Zibanejad struggled immensely throughout the season could lead to Drury finding him a new team. And the defense core is in need of a makeover given that they gave up the 14th-most goals against (3.10), and with one of the league’s best goaltending tandems between Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick.
The Rangers can be a playoff team again, but they need to make significant changes. They don’t have to tear everything down, but Drury has to identify where the biggest holes on the roster are and patch them up. They all have to play like they have a chip on their shoulder next season, and that should get them back into the postseason. If not, they need to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves what they’re doing.
Final Grade: F
21st: Detroit Red Wings
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
The Red Wings showed resiliency multiple times this season, overcoming a slow start by making a coaching change, firing Derek Lalonde for Todd McLellan, which sparked their rise in December to a playoff spot. In the midst of this up-and-down NHL season, they looked like they may go on a run.
Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond led the charge, with Larkin leading the team in goals (29) and Raymond in points (75). The development of the latter into one of the better wingers in the league and a clutch goal-scorer shows that he can continue leading the charge of the offense. There are young players on the way, along with a red hot power play, which finished 4th in the league (27.0%).
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
The Red Wings’ defense has held them back over this current era of Detroit hockey, and it once again showed. They struggled in all of the same areas that have plagued them over the years, which is what led to a disastrous start and another March collapse. Adding to those defensive woes were a league-worst penalty kill (70.1%). While they did see growth, they didn’t do enough to control play at 5-on-5.
Noe helping is that general manager Steve Yzerman did next to nothing at the trade deadline to help the Red Wings seriously contend for a playoff spot, with the only known trade being Joe Veleno for Petr Mrazek and Craig Smith, which is not a needle-moving trade.
Red Wings fans are still looking for their first playoff appearance in nearly a decade, and Yzerman still has not addressed the need to add an impact player in free agency or at the deadline, which is preventing them from reaching the playoffs. Detroit needs to be consistent, and he needs to have a strong defensive structure that players can buy into. Not enough of it has been shown this season.
Expectations for Next Season
The Red Wings have the potential to make the playoffs, and they’ve shown it again and again. But they need to turn that potential to a reality. Yzerman is not one to make game-changing moves, but he has to open up to try something new, such as trying to make a move for Mitch Marner.
There are also internal decisions to make, which includes RFAs Elmer Söderblom and Albert Johansson, and UFAs Patrick Kane and Alex Lyon. It may depend on how Yzerman does in free agency with how drastic the measures will be.
However it is, he must get the Red Wings into being a team that can roll all four forward lines and not be a top-heavy team. They’ve relied so much on Larkin, Raymond and Alex DeBrincat for a huge majority of their offense. They need to improve their depth and defense, and boosting the blueline will help a lot.
Final Grade: D
20th: Columbus Blue Jackets
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
Very rarely do teams get an “A” while missing the playoffs, but given circumstances, the Blue Jackets are an exception. Columbus was in the playoff race up until the final week of the season. This alone is the biggest win of the season for them. From the start of the NHL season up until the end, they played meaningful hockey, especially in April when they made one last push to make the playoffs in what has been a special season.
Zach Werenski finished as the runner-up in Norris Trophy voting, finishing second among defensemen in scoring to Cale Makar, who won the trophy. Kent Johnson, Kirill Marchenko and Adam Fantilli showed that they are all rising stars, showcasing their growth and maturity throughout the season. Fantilli scored 30 goals in his sophomore season.
In a year in which they were expected to struggle after the tragedy of the deaths of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, they vastly exceeded all expectations, especially on the offensive side (3.17 goals per game). With the rising talent, one of the best prospect pools, and a boatload of salary cap space, they’re going to be a very interesting team to watch this summer.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
Too many injuries caught up with them. Sean Monahan, Boone Jenner and Erik Gudbranson all missed a lot of time because of several different ailments, and it hurt the Jackets from the start. Jenner and Gudbranson were unavailable until very late in the NHL season, each being limited to 26 and 16 games, respectively.
The goaltending was also subpar, as Elvis Merzlikins had a measly .892 save percentage, and Daniil Tarasov was even worse off, sitting at .881 on the year. That’s what led to Columbus having the 6th-worst goals against average (3.42) and were among the bottom of the league in allowing third period goals.
A 4-11-1 slump throughout the month of March is what sealed their fate, even for their late push in April. The youth showed up in many huge ways throughout the season, both in good ways and bad ways, especially against tougher opponents, and it’s something everyone needs to learn for next season.
Expectations for Next Season
The Jackets have a pair of first round picks this summer, which always bodes well. This franchise still has a bright future ahead of them, and general manager Don Waddell wants to continue building a team culture that they can be playoff contenders in the years to come. The two important RFAs to take care of business with are Tarasov and Dmitri Voronkov.
Goaltending is going to be the main priority of the offseason. Merzlikins hasn’t had a season where he’s put up a save percentage over .900 since the 2022 season. If he’s brought back, can they count on him to bounce back to his rookie form as their no. 1 netminder? Can Jet Greaves carry on his hot finish to last season onto next year?
Waddell wasn’t overly active at the trade deadline so as to not disrupt the chemistry that his team already developed. This summer, he can make meaningful changes to the team that can give them an added boost, because the main goal of next NHL season is to finish the story. Columbus should aim for a playoff berth next season. They almost got one this season, and the confidence they instilled throughout the end of the year can carry over to next season and beyond.
Final Grade: A
19th: Utah Mammoth
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
The Mammoth (known as the Utah Hockey Club during their inaugural season) made significant progress in their first year in Utah after relocating from Arizona. Acquiring Mikhail Sergachev was a huge step forward for the franchise towards playoff contention, and being outside of the playoffs is a success.
Before they moved to Salt Lake City, they had just one 80-point NHL season since 2015. In their first year at Utah, they finished with 89 points, playing in front of a passionate and loud crowd at Delta Center, which will undergo renovations so as to ensure that it can be up to NHL standards for a hockey venue. They were still fighting for a playoff spot entering the final two weeks of the regular season, which is another step forward, showing that big things are coming.
And that was a necessary step for the young talent led by Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley, and with the defense on the rise by getting not only Sergachev, but also John Marino, it’s going to go a long way for their confidence entering next season. They could use a goaltender upgrade and more scoring depth, but there is a plan in place for the future.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
Utah took way too many losses in overtime and in the shootout. They finished with 13 overtime and shootout losses, finishing third in the league behind a two-way tie for first between the Canucks and Flames, two other teams that were in the Western Conference wild card race. Losing that many games shows how close they were in taking them, but being close is not good enough when they’re competing for a playoff spot.
There was a lot of talk about playoffs in Utah entering the preseason, and while they entered the season as the 4th-youngest team in the league, injuries to key players took their toll, including Cooley, Guenther, Sergachev, Matias Maccelli, Marino and Sean Durzi. Yet it felt like excellent seasons from Keller and Karel Vejmelka were wasted with other players underperforming. Perhaps next year is a different story?
Expectations for Next Season
Unlike the days in Arizona, Utah is not hampered with issues on salary cap space. General manager Bill Armstrong invested $22 million in each of the next two seasons by boosting the defense. They will have more than enough cap space to improve a roster that can seriously make a push for the playoffs.
Speaking of playoffs, this is going to be their expectation heading into the 2026 NHL season, especially after acquiring JJ Peterka from the Sabres. They have a core that has went through all the growing pains and has made important progress throughout the years. Almost all of the roster is under contract for next season, and Armstrong has the cap space to improve this roster, specifically on the offensive side. Given they finished 21st in goals per game and 15th in total power play, these two areas are the most important focus areas throughout the summer.
Final Grade: B
18th: Vancouver Canucks
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
Despite being alarmingly inconsistent, the numerous injuries to key players, and the fallout of the feud between JT Miller and Elias Pettersson, they somehow found a way to stay in the wild card race in the final two weeks of the regular season.
There were players with strong individual campaigns, and among them include Quinn Hughes, Jake DeBrusk and Pius Suter, the latter having his first career 20-goal NHL season and a campaign of over 40 points, and with DeBrusk netting a 28-goal campaign, leading the team in that category. That, unfortunately, is not saying much, given everything that transpired over the year.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
Vancouver was supposed to be a playoff contender, but from the very start of the NHL season, it slowly but steadily went down the drain. Thatcher Demko didn’t fully recover from his complicated knee injury, and he also dealt with additional extended absences. When he was on the ice, he was a complete liability, and lost the starting job to Kevin Lankinen. And even for Lankinen having a hot start to the crease, the wheels fell off in the second half of the season despite getting a five-year extension in the middle of the season.
Dakota Joshua missed the first month and a half of the season recovering from a testicular cancer diagnosis, and all of Hughes, Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Filip Hronek missed extended time for a variety of reasons. Not to mention that Miller took a 10-game leave of absence and was traded several months later after the fallout of his rift with Pettersson, whose game fell off this NHL season.
Another detail that speaks to how rotten this season was how they were at the top five in the NHL in terms of fewest shots allowed per 60 minutes and scoring chances per 60 minutes, yet ended up 19th in goals allowed per game. This is why scoring depth matters, and it was more evident when they traded Miller to the Rangers which resulted in them desperately trying to find ways to replace his production, which backfired.
Expectations for Next Season
It was a disastrous NHL season for a core that is running out of chances to prove to the NHL that they can be a consistent playoff team. Everyone and everything completely fell apart, and now they saw the first domino fall as Rick Tocchet turned down a new contract extension and instead took the coaching job with the Flyers, resulting in Adam Foote getting promoted to head coach.
Brock Boeser was not traded at the deadline and seems to be destined to leave in free agency. And given recent news, it’s a matter of when, not if, he leaves, and the growing mess leaves the Canucks in a state of purgatory. He and Suter were tied for second on the team in goals scored, and both are unrestricted free agents.
Their situation may become much clearer once free agency ends. A lot of their players are under contract or team control for next season, but getting their questions answered now, along with a lot of their concerns, will provide a clearer path for where the franchise is headed next season.
Final Grade: F
17th: Calgary Flames
What Went Right During the 2024 NHL Season
The Flames made significant progress in their rebuild/retool in many different ways. Last season, they knew they were not going to contend for a playoff spot, so they sold off their veterans on expiring contracts for crucial assets. This NHL season, they challenged for a playoff spot up until the final week, where they missed out on the playoffs by a tiebreaker. Still, this team gave their fans a reason to watch hockey until the end of the regular season in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
Dustin Wolf has been a revelation in net, and he has solidified his crease as the likely goalie of the future in Cowtown, and his stellar season resulted in him being the runner-up to the Calder Trophy. Plus, Jonathan Huberdeau showed more as a two-way player than with his first two years with the Flames, showing a sense of improvement as what the team was looking from him when he was acquired.
The other great part of this season is that they have an established identity. Between their roster, their coaching staff, and their front office, they maintained continuity that saw them compete for a playoff spot up until the very end, and they could realistically be in a spot where they can make the playoffs next season.
What Went Wrong During the 2024 NHL Season
They were offensively disjointed. A lack of goals can be looked back on several areas, but when scratching the surface of the underlying numbers, this is where things can be unclear. They were top 10 in shots per 60 minutes and 13th in scoring chances per 60, yet they ended up in the bottom third at high-danger chances per 60. When combining these two stats, it led to the Flames finishing with the second-fewest goals per game, and with the second-worst shooting percentage in the league.
Expectations for Next Season
Having already secured an extension for Matt Coronato, the attention must be turned to their other two RFAs: Connor Zary and Kevin Bahl, who both mean a lot to the present and future of the Flames. After them, they have cap space to address team needs, and the biggest one being finishing. They may need more consistent sources of offense, and whatever general manager Craig Conroy chooses to do, it has to mean that he’s serious about getting the Flames to the playoffs.
The bad news is that they will have to give up the best of three first round draft picks to the Canadiens because of the Sean Monahan trade, and that their next two first rounders are at the middle of the pack. But that’s still a good enough opportunity to continue their rebuild/retool on the fly.
Still, the priority is to add game-breaking talent. When teams are this close to making the playoffs, the expectations on the following season are playoffs. Some of that hinges on what happens this summer, not only with the Flames, but with the other teams in a hyper-competitive Western Conference.
Final Grade: B
Written by Alec Nava
Stats Credit: NHL.com/Stats
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