Intriguing NHL training camp battles taking shape ahead of 2025-26 season

Less than a month from now, the puck will drop on the NHL’s 2025-26 campaign. And already, the early motions of a new season are beginning.

Across the league, the game’s next generation is gathering to try to make their marks, to punch above their weight and earn life-altering big-league shots. This week, the veterans will report to camp too, the league’s 32 teams reuniting with clean slates and lofty expectations.

But before the first real games begin on Oct. 7, much has yet to be determined.

There are roster spots to claim, line combinations to pin down and roles to earn. With that in mind, here’s a look at a few notable storylines set to play out across the league as training camps begin.

Who earns the coveted top-six spots around Nos. 97 and 29 in Edmonton?

There are plenty of crucial questions causing chaos in Edmonton right now, none more pressing than whether Connor McDavid is willing to once again commit long-term to the Oilers project, or whether the captain is mulling a future elsewhere. But regardless of how things shake out down the line, the more immediate question is who lines up beside him this season.

Fresh off a second-straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final — and a second-straight loss to the Florida Panthers — the Oilers enter 2025-26 with a notably different forward corps. Four veteran forwards have departed, while only Andrew Mangiapane has been brought in. A crew of young talents are expected to earn spots and blossom into everyday NHLers — Michigan State product Ike Howard leads the way, while there are high hopes for 2022 No. 9 pick Matthew Savoie, acquired from the Buffalo Sabres last year. And then there’s Zach Hyman, who at some point will slot back in, but still has a ways to go in his recovery.

With their season on the line last June, head coach Kris Knoblauch had Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Corey Perry lining up alongside McDavid, while Evander Kane and Kasperi Kapanen flanked Leon Draisaitl. Two of those four are no longer on the roster. With the pressure on and McDavid’s future up in the air, who gets the call this time around?

Who gets to play alongside Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado?

Speaking of plum wing assignments, right after the top-six roles in Edmonton, there may be no spot more coveted around the league than the one beside Avalanche behemoth Nathan MacKinnon. But for a club that’s been among the game’s top contenders for years, and one that houses two of the most dominant, dynamic players in the sport, the Avs find themselves with some question marks heading into the new season, too.

Colorado opted for surgery on the fly last season, bringing in a new starting goaltender, turning over much of their forward corps and, most notably, shipping out franchise icon Mikko Rantanen. In the wake of the January trade, MacKinnon saw a carousel of wingers take the ice with him, skating at different points with Martin Necas, Jonathan Drouin, Brock Nelson, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin. 

Necas and Lehkonen held down the top line with No. 29 in Colorado’s all-or-nothing Game 7 loss to Dallas (and Rantanen) last May. Of course, the fact that the Avs’ season ended as early as it did suggests they haven’t yet found the best alignment for their current offensive pieces. The return of Gabriel Landeskog gives head coach Jared Bednar another option to mull — the captain’s chemistry with MacKinnon is well-established, but with Rantanen gone, does the team need to keep the two apart to spread the wealth among the top six?

Who replaces Mitch Marner on the Maple Leafs’ top line?

If Rantanen’s departure from Colorado was the blockbuster of the season, Mitch Marner’s move out of Toronto surely headlined the off-season. After a near-decade suiting up for his hometown club, the former Selke nominee is set to ply his trade in Vegas next season, most likely on Jack Eichel’s wing. Much had been made of the need to break up Toronto’s Core Four, to bring more balance to the Maple Leafs’ offensive group. Now, the blue-and-white faithful have gotten their wish, No. 16 is gone, and a slew of new faces have been brought into the lineup.

But while the group as a whole may feel less top-heavy, there’s a key question still to be answered — who lines up in Marner’s former spot, up on the first line beside Auston Matthews? The issue is made all the more pressing by the fact that Matthews is coming off one of the most tumultuous seasons of his career, and heads into 2025-26 looking for a return to form. Now, he’ll have to do it without the player he seemingly gelled best with, offensively. 

Of course, by design, the names brought in using the cap space that would’ve been allotted to Marner don’t bring the same star quality. Nicolas Roy comes in as the likely 3C and Dakota Joshua will slot in as a needed physical presence in the bottom-six. And as it stands now, Matias Maccelli looks like he may get a shot on the top line alongside Matthews and Matthew Knies. That leaves John Tavares, William Nylander and Max Domi as the likely second-line trio, though Nylander and Domi are candidates to move up alongside No. 34, too. Finding the right spots for the right pieces will be key, and in the always-difficult Atlantic Division, Toronto won’t have much time for experimentation.

Who lines up beside Matvei Michkov as the Flyers’ No. 1 centre?

The Philadelphia Flyers have been a team in transition the past two years, and that remains the case in 2025-26 as the club heads into the campaign with a new head coach and some new talent thrown into the mix. Matvei Michkov, the club’s star rookie, offered reason for hope last season, though, putting up 26 goals and 63 points in his first go-round in the big leagues.

The club might’ve found another dynamic talent to suit up alongside him, too, as Trevor Zegras arrives fresh off a June trade from the only NHL organization he’s ever known. New head coach Rick Tocchet said the team will be moving Zegras back to centre — the 24-year-old was pushed to the wing in Anaheim two seasons ago, but had his best campaigns as a centreman. Of the potential of Zegras and Michkov together, the coach said, “We’d be idiots” not to try it.

Potential aside, though, there’s still much to be sorted. First, there’s the question of whether Zegras can find his footing as a centreman again, and more importantly, whether he can handle what Tocchet will ask of him as the club’s 1C. Then there’s the matter of how the rest of the forward group shakes out, with veteran centreman Sean Couturier being paid like a No. 1 centre for the next half-decade, and Christian Dvorak brought in this season as well. Can Zegras form a promising top-line partnership with Michkov, or will he wind up as a depth winger behind the star Russian?

Can No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer crack the Islanders’ lineup out of camp?

The Islanders are in a period of transition of their own, navigating a return to life outside the playoffs and a future without Noah Dobson and Brock Nelson in the fold. But the next era of Isles hockey got a jolt of life in June when the club added defender Matthew Schaefer with the first-overall pick in the NHL Draft. After a couple months of revelling in the twist of fate that put the Islanders at the top of the draft order and put Schaefer in blue and orange, now comes the key question: When will his career on Long Island begin?

It’s no small decision for the Isles brass, who must balance the excitement around Schaefer with an eye for what is best for the teenager’s long-term development. History suggests he’ll be involved sooner rather than later, though. Over the past decade-and-a-half, three other blue-liners have been tabbed with the No. 1 pick: Aaron Ekblad (2014), Rasmus Dahlin (2018) and Owen Power (2021). All three debuted soon after, as teenagers, and did fairly well fairly quickly. On the other hand, the undisputed top two defencemen in the game right now, Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, didn’t play their first full NHL campaigns until 21 and 20, respectively — and then they hit the ground running. Schaefer turned 18 just this month.

The Islanders’ blue-line depth may force the issue, though. New York heads into the new season without Dobson, who amassed more than 200 points over the past four seasons with the club before his June trade to Montreal. As it stands, the Islanders' opening-night blue line likely consists of Alexander Romanov, Tony DeAngelo, Adem Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Scott Mayfield and Adam Boqvist. There seems to be room for Schaefer to break into that group.