It was a wild 2025-26 campaign for the NHL’s Metropolitan Division.
The Carolina Hurricanes, who over the past decade have journeyed from underdog to dark horse to bona fide contender, finally climbed the Stanley Cup summit, winning their first title in two decades. The Pittsburgh Penguins found level ground after a few years of stumbling, earning a return to the playoffs after three years on the outside looking in — and then they were ousted by a young, hungry Philadelphia Flyers team that rode electric late-season momentum all the way to their finest finish in a half-decade.
Then there was the rest of the division. The Washington Capitals missed the post-season after earning a second-round berth just a season ago. The Columbus Blue Jackets extended their playoff drought to six years. The New York Islanders saw the start of a new era with Matthew Schaefer’s arrival, but still missed out on the dance for the second straight season. The New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers continued to take steps backward after reigning among the division’s best just a few seasons ago.
With a new campaign on the horizon — a new test for the division leaders looking to hold their position, and a chance at redemption for those who came up short last year — let’s take a look at the players who will be crucial to their Metropolitan Division clubs’ efforts in 2026-27:
Carolina Hurricanes: Brandon Bussi
A Stanley Cup ring, and a sterling shutout performance in a Cup-clinching Game 6 against Vegas, made clear Brandon Bussi’s ability to rise to the moment. Still, the Canes’ situation in the cage will have a different complexion next season.
Gone is Frederik Andersen, who split games with Bussi during the regular season and, crucially, won the first 13 of Carolina’s 16 playoff wins, including back-to-back sweeps in Rounds 1 and 2. With the veteran moving on to Edmonton, the pressure will be on Bussi to prove he can hold down the fort over a full campaign. The 28-year-old will be heading into just his second NHL season — having spent the past three seasons with the AHL’s Providence Bruins — and will begin Year 1 of a new three-year, $5.7-million deal with the Canes.
Splitting time with him will be 27-year-old Pyotr Kotchetkov, who played a pivotal role for the Canes goaltending corps over the past few seasons, but saw his 2025-26 limited by injury issues. All eyes will be on whether the duo can provide enough stability in the cage to allow Carolina to mount another march to the Cup Final.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Arturs Silovs
It’s something of a similar story in Pittsburgh. After finishing second in the Metro last season, after a string of campaigns in the division’s basement before that, the Penguins enter 2026-27 looking to prove their resurgence was more than a one-year fluke.
They’ll do so with a lineup that’s seen plenty of turnover this summer. New offensive talents Andrei Kuzmenko and Nick Robertson are dotted among the forward corps’ bottom six, and new blue-liners Trevor van Riemsdyk and Kaedan Korczak will slot in to replace key depth pieces. The most important change, though, might be the fact that the net will be turned over to young Arturs Silovs.
The 25-year-old split netminding duties with a veteran partner for the entirety of last season — first with Tristan Jarry and then Stuart Skinner following the trade that brought the two-time Cup finalist to Pittsburgh. It was Skinner who got the start for the first few games of the post-season, before Silovs took over and nearly pulled Pittsburgh back from an 0-3 series deficit. With Skinner headed to Winnipeg, it’ll be up to Silovs and young Sergei Murashov to keep Sidney Crosby’s club in the post-season picture once again.
Philadelphia Flyers: Matvei Michkov
The first two seasons of Matvei Michkov’s NHL career have brought no shortage of promise and potential. The 2023 seventh-overall pick has shown glimpses of his elite ability, posting 26 goals and 63 points as a rookie, and following that up with a 20-goal, 51-point sophomore effort. Now, he heads into the final year of his entry-level deal, looking to take another step for the upstart Flyers.
The latest reporting out of Philly suggests the 21-year-old is on track to do just that. Per The Athletic, the young winger started his off-season training earlier this summer, and seems in line to suit up alongside the club's most dynamic centreman, Trevor Zegras, on the top line come training camp later this month.
Further evolution from the talented young scorer would be a crucial bit of progress for the Flyers, who saw their young core grow in leaps and bounds last season. With young Porter Martone on the way too, and the likes of Zegras, Owen Tippett and Jamie Drysdale all in their prime, a season of elite production from Michkov would allow the Flyers to truly make some meaningful playoff noise.
Washington Capitals: Jakob Chychrun
The 2026-27 campaign will be the first in nearly two decades that will see the Capitals take the ice for training camp without John Carlson in the mix. The veteran blue-liner saw his 17-year run with the Caps come to an end late last season, when he was dealt to Anaheim for a package of picks, before signing with the Tampa Bay Lightning this summer.
Of course, the Caps already have their new No. 1 rearguard on the roster, the club fresh off watching Jakob Chychrun string together a career-best 26-goal, 60-point effort last season. The 28-year-old has been building since breaking into the league with Arizona a decade ago, logging a few years in Ottawa, too. But it's over the past two seasons in D.C. that the blue-liner has pulled himself into the league's elite.
The Caps head into the new season with plenty of hope and optimism after a summer that saw them beef up their offence with the addition of Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou and Boone Jenner. Another sterling year from Chychrun on the back end will be just as essential to the club’s goal of charting a path back to the post-season.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Adam Fantilli
As of Thursday, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Adam Fantilli had yet to put pen to paper on a new deal for the 21-year-old, but there’s little doubt the restricted free agent will soon step back into his role as a key piece of the club’s future. Jackets GM Don Waddell said as much last week, though he did note that the negotiations have revealed “a little difference of opinion” regarding the centreman’s value, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
The price for the 2023 third-overall pick’s services has become murkier amid an off-season that’s seen Leo Carlsson sign for what was briefly a record-setting $18 million per year, and hefty contracts handed out regularly elsewhere around the league, too. Fantilli enters the fray coming off three seasons in Columbus that have been solid but not quite elite, the young pivot putting up a career-best 31 goals and 54 points as a sophomore, and a 24-goal, 59-point effort last season. Still, it takes only a cursory viewing of his game to understand the depths of the young sniper's raw talent.
With the cap rising and the market shifting, Fantilli is sure to get a hefty raise on his entry-level pact. The onus will be on the centreman to find his next level and take another step in Year 4 with the Jackets, with his growth no doubt essential to the Blue Jackets' own quest for progress.
New York Islanders: Mathew Barzal
After a difficult 2024-25 campaign that saw Matthew Barzal's season derailed by a knee injury, and subsequent surgery, the veteran clawed his way back to put up a resurgent effort in 2025-26. His 72-point season wound up the third-most productive of his decade-long career on Long Island. Now, the Islanders will be looking for Barzal to take another step.
Since breaking into the league with an 85-point gem as a rookie, the centreman has established himself as one of the most skilled, dynamic offensive weapons in the game. Still, there's a sense he hasn't yet unleashed the full weight of his offensive potential on the league. With the club undergoing key changes of late — losing captain Anders Lee to free agency, bringing in head coach Pete DeBoer in April — more pressure will be heaped on Barzal's shoulders to lead the organization forward.
A full season of Brayden Schenn will help on that front, and the continued growth of star rookie Matthew Schaefer on the back end will no doubt have a significant impact on the Isles’ season, too. But a year of Barzal at the peak of his potential would be the most potent catalyst for the club as they look to claw their way back to the playoffs.
New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes
Through seven seasons in New Jersey, Jack Hughes has shown in glimpses just how prolific a talent he can be when he’s at his best. A breakout 2022-23 campaign made that clear, as Hughes amassed 43 goals and 99 points, and pushed the Devils to the second round of the post-season. But the three seasons since have brought far more tumult to Newark.
While Hughes is fresh off a career-defining performance at the 2026 Olympic Games — leading the U.S. to gold, and scoring the gold-medal overtime clincher to end the tournament — his recent history in New Jersey has been more checkered. The past three seasons have seen the centreman sidelined by injury, annually winding up playing around 60 games, collecting exactly 27 goals, and finishing with 70-80 points. More importantly, in that span, with their talisman sidelined, the Devils have won just one playoff game and missed the post-season twice.
With the club getting further and further from the sterling 2022-23 season that had it looking like the class of the Metro, the Devils faithful will be hoping Hughes can bring his Olympic form back to the Prudential Center, and lead New Jersey back to the East's upper echelon.
New York Rangers: Pavel Dorofeyev
It's a new era for Pavel Dorofeyev. After a half-decade in Vegas, the 25-year-old was traded to New York for a package of picks in June, before inking a hefty new seven-year, $77-million deal with the Rangers. And with his new club entering 2026-27 after a campaign to forget, the pressure will no doubt be on Dorofeyev to deliver on that weighty raise.
There's no questioning the winger's talent. The past two seasons have seen Dorofeyev collect 35 and 37 goals, respectively, and 116 points total over 164 games. His 72 goals over that two-year span rank top-20 in the league, and the young sniper is fresh off showing his ability to perform under the bright lights, finishing among Vegas's leading goal-scorers during its march to the Cup Final. Still, the price tag now attached to his name will raise the stakes moving forward — at $11 million per year, Dorofeyev steps into the new season as the eighth-highest-paid winger in the league, just a hair below former Hart Trophy nominee David Pastrnak.
The former Golden Knight joins a Rangers team desperate for a new breakout star, the club having lost both Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck from its ranks. The Rangers will be desperate, too, to find big-picture progress after finishing last in the Metro last season, just a couple years after winning the Presidents' Trophy. A sterling debut from their newest star recruit will go a long way in making up ground on that front.
