Best, worst scenarios for every Metro Division team

Only three weeks remain before the puck drops on the NHL’s 2026-27 campaign.

For some clubs, that date brings with it a much-needed clean slate, a chance at redemption following seasons that went awry. For others, it brings a familiar challenge: how to maintain their place among the game’s very best.

The Metropolitan Division brings a bit of both. On one side of the aisle, there’s Carolina, the defending champs, who will be looking to run it back and repeat in 2027. On the other, there’s the rest of the crop — a few clubs trying to build on progress found last season, a few trying to take that elusive next step, and a few just trying to find any type of spark.

With the new campaign approaching, here’s a look at the best- and worst-case scenarios for each club in the Metro in 2026-27:

CAROLINA HURRICANES:

Key additions: None

Key subtractions: Frederik Andersen

Cap space today: $9 million

Best-case scenario: The best-case here is pretty clear. After coming up with their finest season in two decades and climbing all the way back to the Stanley Cup summit, an ideal 2026-27 in Carolina would simply be more of the same — another lengthy run, another banner hung at the Lenovo Center, and the club continuing to make good on the potential they’ve shown for the past half-decade.

Worst-case scenario: For all that hope and optimism, there is one crucial change to the Canes’ lineup this season. Veteran netminder Frederik Andersen, who suited up for the majority of the club’s Cup run, and won all but their final few games, has departed for Edmonton. The true worst-case scenario for Carolina would be this change in net destabilizing the club a year after their title run. It would be young duo Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kotchetkov falling short in the cage, the season going sideways, and the team taking a step back so soon after their glory run.

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS:

Key additions: Andrei Kuzmenko, Nick Robertson, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Kaedan Korczak

Key subtractions: Anthony Mantha, Stuart Skinner, Ryan Shea, Parker Wotherspoon, Noel Acciari

Cap space today: $10.9 million

Best-case scenario: The Penguins enter the new season with a lineup that’s endured plenty of off-season turnover. If all goes to plan, the new recruits would fit in seamlessly and, perhaps more importantly, help the next generation of Penguins stars take a step. Teenager Ben Kindel is likely to line up with newcomers Andrei Kuzmenko and Nick Robertson. Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty will challenge for spots. And 22-year-old Sergei Murashov will play a key role in the cage. The best-case would be these young guns turning potential into performance in 2027.

Worst-case scenario: On the other side, the worst-case, of course, would be that lineup not gelling as expected. More than the changes up front, what will be crucial is how things mesh on the blue line. Gone are Ryan Shea and Parker Wotherspoon who quietly played a pivotal role in stabilizing the Penguins’ blue line last season. If replacements Trevor van Riemsdyk and Kaedan Korczak can’t step into those roles seamlessly, if the club’s defence goes sideways and makes life more difficult for young Murashov and Arturs Silovs, the worst-case scenario would be a tumble back out of the playoff picture for Sidney Crosby's club.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS:

Key additions: Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, Boone Jenner, Vincent Desharnais

Key subtractions: Connor McMichael, Trevor van Riemsdyk

Cap space today: $75,417

Best-case scenario: The Caps went all-in this summer, bringing in some notable reinforcements up front in the form of Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou and Boone Jenner. After a disappointing 2025-26 that saw Washington's offence stumble — finishing middle of the pack offensively just one year after housing the second-best attack in the league — the best-case for 2026-27 would be the newcomers injecting some life into the Caps’ attack and carrying them back to the playoffs.

Worst-case scenario: Or, maybe the big swing just misses. The worst-case would be the new stars failing to deliver the immediate impact expected — particularly Tuch, who will begin Year 1 of a new eight-year, $84-million ($10.5 million AAV) contract. With franchise staple Alex Ovechkin likely heading into the final year of his big-league career, the worst-case would be another middling season from the organization, and another season without playoff hockey as The Great Eight’s D.C. era comes to an end.

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS:

Key additions: Joseph Woll, Noel Acciari, Simon Benoit

Key subtractions: Sam Ersson, Garnet Hathaway

Cap space today: $13.8 million

Best-case scenario: Rock Tocchet’s club caught fire over the home stretch of 2025-26, electrifying the Flyers faithful as they made it back to the playoffs for the first time in a half-decade, and then bounced the rival Penguins. Key to that late push was young Porter Martone. If all goes as planned in Philly, the best-case would be Martone picking up where he left off in his first full rookie campaign, helping the Flyers core take another step and head into the playoffs once again as a young, hungry dark horse.

Worst-case scenario: Key to remember, though, is just how long the club struggled last season before they turned it around in the campaign's final months — when the league broke for the Olympic break in February, the Flyers sat third-last in the East. The worst-case scenario would be Tocchet’s club returning in 2026-27 and looking more like the team they were during the first half of the year, rather than the one that put the league on notice down the final stretch, and last year's progress looking like a flash in the pan.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS:

Key additions: Matias Maccelli, Vitek Vanacek, Pete DeBoer

Key subtractions: Anders Lee, Carson Soucy, Adam Boqvist, David Rittich

Cap space today: $4.2 million

Best-case scenario: The Islanders shook up their organization significantly in the final weeks of the season, parting ways with Patrick Roy and bringing in Pete DeBoer as the club’s new head coach for the final four games of the season. Now, they’ll have a full training camp and campaign under their new bench boss. The best-case scenario would be DeBoer’s veteran guidance winding up enough to lead the Isles out of the basement and back into the mix in the Metro, with young Matthew Schaefer taking another step as one of the brightest young talents in the game, too.

Worst-case scenario: A look at the roster that will take the ice in Isles colours this season shows the cracks that could begin to show, though. While the club has an incredibly promising young talent in Schaefer, many of the rest of their best are all over 30 years old: Bo Horvat, Kyle Palmieri, Brayden Schenn, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Ondrej Palat, Casey Cizikas and Anthony Duclair up front, with Mathew Barzal just a year away at 29; Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech, Anthony DeAngelo and Scott Mayfield on the back end; and Ilya Sorokin and Vitek Vanacek in the cage. The worst-case scenario would be the lineup showing its age, and the tumble down the Metro rankings continuing.

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS:

Key additions: Valeri Nichushkin, Ryan Lomberg

Key subtractions: Boone Jenner, Mason Marchment

Cap space today: $12.6 million

Best-case scenario: There’s a fair chance the trajectory of Columbus’s season depends on how things shake out with young star Adam Fantilli. Best-case scenario, the centreman arrives at training camp and, buoyed by a hefty new extension, finds notable progress in 2026-27, making good on his immense potential and ascending to join the league’s elite. The hope is that meaningful progress from Fantilli could help Columbus find progress as an organization too, could pull the club back into the playoffs, and give star blue-liner Zach Werenski reason to sign a new deal with the Jackets down the line.

Worst-case scenario: Putting pen to paper has seemed more difficult than expected for Fantilli and the Jackets to this point, the pivot’s next deal complicated by the seismic raise granted to comparable young star Leo Carlsson. As of Wednesday, Fantilli remains a restricted free agent, without a new deal. The worst-case scenario would be the negotiation dragging on, the former No. 3 pick missing part of camp or the regular season, and starting the new campaign a step behind. It would be going down that route and seeing the relationship between the organization and their young star strained, seeing the situation become a distraction that derails the Jackets' season, and seeing the team's playoff drought ultimately extended.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS:

Key additions: Anthony Mantha, Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist, David Rittich

Key subtractions: Jacob Markstrom, Simon Nemec

Cap space today: $1.9 million 

Best-case scenario: The club made a splash this off-season with the addition of Anthony Mantha and Evan Rodrigues up front — two skilled, experienced offensive weapons to bolster the Devils’ attack. After a roller-coaster few seasons in Jersey, the plan for the best-case is simple: set the newcomers up to hit the ground running, put together a steady season of progress, and find a way back not only to the playoffs, but to their place among the East’s best, where they appeared briefly a few years back.

Worst-case scenario: There are question marks still hovering around this club and its ability to make it back to the post-season, though, namely whether Jake Allen and Nico Daws are a sturdy enough netminding duo to carry them there. But the true worst-case scenario in Jersey would be the club falling into the same, familiar injury loop the Devils have been stuck in for the past three seasons — it would be Jack Hughes seeing his campaign cut short once again, the Devils seeing early signs of promise undone as the season wears on, and the year finishing with only more disappointment. 

NEW YORK RANGERS:

Key additions: Pavel Dorofeyev, Marcus Pettersson, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Joonas Korpisalo

Key subtractions: Vincent Trocheck, Will Borgen, Jonathan Quick

Cap space today: $995,476

Best-case scenario: The glory days of the Rangers’ 2023-24 campaign seem awfully distant now. After following up that Presidents’ Trophy-winning effort with two years of sliding to the Metro’s basement, the best-case scenario in New York would be any type of climb back up the standings. More specifically, that best-case trajectory would have newly signed Pavel Dorofeyev arrive in Manhattan and continue the promising form he showed in Vegas — or perhaps take it a step further, putting up his first 40-goal campaign and helping the Rangers claw their way back to relevancy in the East.

Worst-case scenario: As with any hefty free-agent contract, there’s always the risk of what it could all look like if things go sideways. Dorofeyev’s $11-million cap hit will make him one of the highest-paid wingers in the league next season. If he falters, if he takes time to find his footing in Manhattan and his production underwhelms, the Rangers faithful, and the rest of the hockey world, are sure to bring up that price tag. But the Rangers' potential issues go beyond their new offensive weapon. The worst-case scenario would be the Blueshirts failing to find a spark in 2026-27, the team's veteran core continuing to slide, and the club wading through another disappointing year in the shadow of that Presidents' Trophy campaign.