Nine NHL storylines we’re watching in 2026-27

Well, that was quite an off-season, eh?

A lot has changed in just a short span of time — trade requests! massive contracts! expansion talks! — but there’s no time to rest. We’ve got hockey to watch. 

More hockey than ever before, in fact, as the league’s 32 teams each face an 84-game schedule ahead. Nobody knows what’s in store for the campaign to come, but if this summer was any indication, we should probably buckle up. 

With a fresh slate of hockey ahead and the standings all reset to zeros, here are the storylines we’re watching in 2026-27.

Which division is strongest?

To try and predict this, we must first narrow down our definition of, well, “strongest.” For example, no one will accuse last year’s Metropolitan Division of throwing down the gauntlet, but it did produce the Stanley Cup champions in Carolina — a team that is well-positioned to run it back. 

No division appears to be deeper than the Atlantic, with all eight squads able to make a legitimate case for why they could be playoff-bound this year, buoyed by a healthy Panthers squad poised to make noise and a Leafs roster brimming with intrigue. Neither made the playoffs last year. Both could jump back in. But don’t count on any one of Montreal, Boston, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, or Buffalo stepping aside to let them in. Detroit, meanwhile, is a wild card in either direction (or maybe even literally). 

A top-heavy Central Division promises to pack a punch as Colorado, Minnesota, and Dallas look ready to once again fight for the top three spots — but can Utah relegate one of them to a wild card spot? 

And as tightly as Edmonton and Vegas have gripped the Pacific Division’s top slot, this year feels like it could bring a changing of the guard with San Jose looking to make a splash while Anaheim brings plenty of fascination, too. 

McDavid’s two-year contract starts the clock ticking in Edmonton

The pressure to win is palpable every season when you’ve got the consensus top player in the league on your side… but 2026-27 carries a little more weight considering Connor McDavid’s entering the first season of the two-year, $25-million deal he signed with the Oilers last October. At the time of the signing, McDavid said the deal gave him and the organization “a chance to extend our window” after back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025. He got his coach of choice, despite blowback, in Mike Babcock, in hopes of giving the team an edge. McDavid will be extension-eligible next summer, and whatever happens this year sets the tone for that monumental decision. 

Class of pending UFAs packs plenty of intrigue

For the second straight season, Jason Robertson embarks on an all-important contract year. Despite proving his worth to the Dallas Stars as a pending RFA in 2025-26, finishing the campaign as the club’s leading scorer, the two sides settled not on a long-term pact but rather on a one-year deal that walks Robertson into unrestricted free agency next July. If we thought last year was interesting in Dallas, the intrigue doubles (along with the stakes) in 2026-27. 

And then there’s Quinn Hughes. Based on how the pending UFA defenceman has answered questions about his future, Hughes isn’t bothered by any timeline other than his own. 

“For me, I just feel at peace,” he said during September’s Player Media Tour. “I’m gonna take my time, and [Wild GM Bill Guerin]’s gonna take his time, and I’m sure it’ll work out.” 

That last part should ease Minnesota fans’ minds. A strong start for the team would surely go a long way, too. Perhaps the bigger question in this case isn’t if he’ll sign, but rather for how much — does he eclipse the $20.4-million AAV Cale Makar’s extension carries? 

All the chatter about Robertson and Hughes over the summer distracted us from truly acknowledging Nikita Kucherov’s name listed there atop the pending UFAs. It feels impossible to picture him in a sweater other than the blue and white of Tampa Bay, but until the two sides sit down and sign an extension, there remains a great unknown. At 33, he’s coming off the second-highest point total of his career and his fourth straight year eclipsing 110 points. We can wager a guess as to his worth, but what does the term look like? 

Toronto has a new No. 1

Ten years after Toronto opened up a new era by calling Auston Matthews to the draft stage first overall, lottery luck was once again with the Maple Leafs, and Gavin McKenna their unquestioned top pick. An off-season of significant changes has brought in new management and coaches, an updated blue line with a veteran goaltender behind it, a revamped bottom-six, and — as of Monday afternoon — a new elite sniper to complement all of it in Kirill Marchenko, with Matthew Knies part of the Columbus-bound return. Even amid all that change, all eyes will be on the new kid to see how he fares early on in his Toronto tenure. 

Ovechkin’s last run?

After last spring’s will-he-or-won’t-he weeks of wondering in Washington and around the league, Ovechkin signed a one-year pact to come back for the 2026-27 campaign… will this one be his last? If the man himself is to be believed, not even Ovechkin knows the answer to that. (“We’ll see” were his words of choice when asked about it this summer.) At 41, he enters his 22nd NHL season as the third oldest player in the league behind just Brent Burns and Corey Perry (both of whom are just a few months his senior).

So, what will we see from Ovi this season? The league’s greatest-ever goal-scorer has 929 markers to his name after putting up 32 last year. He’s 21 from hitting 950, and with 1,006 regular-season and playoff goals combined to his name, he’s just 10 shy of breaking another one of Wayne Gretzky’s records (The Great One had 1,016 combined markers). Of course, it’s not just the fate of the Great No. 8 that makes this upcoming Capitals season so intriguing, though. It’s also how the club has reshaped its top-six to both make the most of this last chapter (or two!) of Ovechkin’s career, as well as prepare for a post-Ovi era — whenever that may be. 

Crosby’s milestone watch

Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby also embarks on his 22nd NHL season and while he, too, is due a new deal, the questions about retirement aren’t quite so loud. The bigger storylines around Crosby right now are the milestones he’s fast approaching. He’s 38 points from surpassing Ron Francis (1,798) and breaking into the NHL’s top five all-time, and 89 from tying Gordie Howe for fourth on the list. Any opportunity to recognize Sid’s greatness is an opportunity we’ll take. 

How will Hellebuyck, Larkin situations unfold? (And will see more trade requests?)

Unfinished business follows the Winnipeg Jets and Detroit Red Wings from the summertime into the season, as two of the largest off-season developments become two of the most consequential storylines of the upcoming campaign. After not reporting to Winnipeg for camp, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has made it clear he’s played his final game as a Jet — and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff made his own stance clear, too: He’s not moving the netminder until he gets a return worthy of his talent. 

Like Hellebuyck in Winnipeg, Dylan Larkin’s chapter in Detroit is coming to a close — the team’s move to remove the captain’s ‘C’ from his sweater spoke volumes, erasing any hope that after a summer-long standoff the two parties would put aside their differences and move forward together. Unlike Hellebuyck, Larkin did report to camp — it was an injury that sidelined him early on, though he’s skated with the team since and was named to the opening-night roster.  

All this points to the larger picture that’s developed league-wide over the past year, and accelerated over the summer, of this new era of player empowerment that’s seen players requesting trades out of organizations despite being under contract. Brady Tkachuk forced a move away from Canada’s capital to join brother and Team USA teammate Matthew in Florida. Quinn Hughes wanted out of Vancouver before he was dealt to Minnesota last winter. Rumours of Zach Werenski wishing to leave Columbus were ultimately dismissed and resolved, but Kirill Marchenko’s desire to be dealt was granted on the eve of the season when he was traded to Toronto. Will we see more similar situations unfold this season?

Big contracts bring bigger expectations 

The salary cap remains on the rise, and players are cashing in. Never before has an off-season so monumentally altered the league’s financial landscape — just look at all the major-money deals handed out. One of the biggest league-wide contract trends we saw was a tidal wave of teams investing early in young stars, resulting in AAVs out-shining actual performances… so far. 

The league’s highest AAV for 2026-27 belongs to Leo Carlsson — albeit via a matched offer sheet — who will earn $18 million for the next five years despite not yet reaching 30 goals in a season. Four of the top six cap hits for this season belong to players age 22 and younger (Carlsson, Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Cutter Gauthier) with just one 70-plus-point season among them (that belongs to Bedard last year). 

And then there are the extensions that kick in next year, with both the game’s biggest young names (Macklin Celebrini) and lesser-known stars in the making (Ivan Demidov, Zeev Buium, Noah Ostlund, Ryan Leonard, to name a few) signing long-term pacts early. This is a trend that should continue this season and beyond. 

Will expansion talks heat up again?

As the saying goes, everything’s bigger in Texas. And for a few weeks late in this off-season, it seemed almost certain that applied to the NHL’s reported hopes of expanding to the state… but then, talks seemed to cool as quickly as they heated up. 

As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported, expansion to either Austin or Houston is no longer the certainty it felt like mere weeks ago. We should learn plenty more in the months leading up to the league’s next Board of Governors meeting in December.