November 4, 2025 by Bob Schmidt

Now that each team has played ten games, I have assembled my version of a power rankings chart. I created this chart based only on each team’s first ten games, their overall record in those ten games, the strength of each team’s quality of competition in those ten games, and how they fared against the stronger, mid tier, and weaker teams.

Detroit came out of the gate hot with five wins in their first six games. Two of those five wins were over last year’s Stanley Cup winner, the Florida Panthers, and the Cup finalists, the Edmonton Oilers. Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, and Lucas Raymond are all averaging over a point per game to start the season while rookie Emmit Finnie has found early success in a top six role with his four goals tying for the second most on the team.

After dropping their season opener to the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey rattled off an eight-game winning streak, only one of which was a against a tier three team (San Jose Sharks). The Devils did not have any winning streaks of more than three games at any point last season. A healthy Jack Hughes, who leads the league in goals at the time of this writing, has played a large part in this early success and there is hope he will play the full schedule this season, which is something he has not been able to do since the 2020-21 season.

To me, the Penguins are the surprise team of the early part of the season. They are expected to finish in the bottom third of the league, but I guess no one told the Penguin players about that. At the time of this writing, the Penguins have the second best power play (32.3%), the second best save percentage (.915), and the third best shooting percentage (13.3%) in the NHL. First year NHL head coach Dan Muse has seemingly energized this team. They are still led on ice by the usual suspects Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin; but they have also gotten unexpected production from 27-year-old forward Justin Brazeau, who is averaging a point per game to start the season.

The Mammoth finished off their ten game segment with an impressive seven game winning streak. At the time of this writing, Utah boasted four players that were averaging a point per game or more. That’s something that, if it can be maintained, would greatly help an offence that finished 20^th overall in average goals scored per game last season. This quartet is led by Nick Schmaltz, who is coming off his fourth consecutive 20-goal season and is currently on pace for 48. Though that seems fairly unlikely, Utah knows that they should be able to count on captain Clayton Keller to push for 30 goals and 75 points, something that he has done for three consecutive seasons now.

Good guy Kells 🩵 pic.twitter.com/Tp1mA77dVc

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 29, 2025

It’s no surprise to see this team make the list. Most prognosticators had the Stars as being one of the top tier teams this season. A key reason for the strong start to this season has been the power play which, at the time of this writing, was operating at a 31.7% efficiency (3rd in the league). Head coach Glen Gulutzan returns as the bench boss for the Stars thirteen years after he broke into the NHL as a head coach with this same organization. Gulutzan is hoping that a full season with superstar forward and Stanley Cup winner Mikko Rantanen is the piece of the puzzle that is needed to finally get past the Conference Finals, a series that they have lost in the last three consecutive seasons.

The Hurricanes came storming out of the gate like a… well… a hurricane, by winning their first five games. It was not an easy schedule to start the season for Carolina as they endured the longest road trip that they will have all season. This six-game trip had them making stops in perennial contender cities such as Las Vegas, Denver, and Dallas; and they still managed to win four of the six games, two of which were resolved after regulation time. The Hurricanes have utilized their depth at offence as, at the time of this writing, 17 players have scored a goal and 21 have at least one point, all within ten points of the team leaders. Their 3.64 goals per game average has them ranked third in the NHL.

Full confession, Washington was my pick to win the Stanley Cup this season. Their start to the season has not swayed my mindset on that at all. The Capitals have found early success on the strength of their defensive game. Their 2.33 goals against average per game tops the NHL, and the goaltending duo of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren have combined for the fourth best save percentage in the NHL (.908). This successful start has happened in spite of only two goals scored so far by the NHL’s all time leading scorer, Alex Ovechkin, in what is most likely his last NHL season. Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome have carried the majority of the offense thus far along with last season’s 30-goal scorer Aliaksei Protas. Their captain inevitably finding his scoring touch will only strengthen my confidence in my pre-season prediction.

Columbus is another team, like the Red Wings and the Penguins, that I would not expect to see on this list. The Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, but they took a significant step forward last season by finishing above .500 for the first time since their 2019-20 campaign. Columbus is one of the youngest teams in the league. Five of their top eight point producers from last season are 25 or younger. Optimism reigns supreme for this franchise as each of these youngsters gains another year of experience with the hopes that their continuing growth translates to team success. Goaltender Jet Greaves is already pushing veteran Elvis Merzlikins for playing time in his first full season up with the big club, and their combined save percentage of .912 is the second best in the league.

The Blackhawks are my second biggest surprise team of the early season, behind only the Penguins. In all honesty, I would be very surprised to see them on here again. Be that as it may, I have them on here in large part due to how well they did with the third most difficult quality of competition of the first ten games. Chicago faced a tier one team in six of their ten games and won three of them. Spencer Knight has really solidified his spot between the pipes. A full season with him along with the continued growth of franchise cornerstone Connor Bedard and 2022 first rounder Frank Nazar have hopes riding high in the Windy City.

It is no surprise to see this team make an appearance on this list, and there is a good chance we will see them on here after every ten game segment. The Jets had a five game winning streak during this stretch, three of which came on the road. Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor continue to lead the offense with their contributions helping Winnipeg lead the NHL with a 3.75 goals for per game average and the second best shooting percentage of 13.8 at the time of this write up. Add to that the goaltending of the defending Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck, who has guided his team to the league leading save percentage of .918 and the third best goals against average of 2.50, and it’s no wonder why I picked the Jets to be the Western Conference champions this season.

Where are the Edmonton Oilers on this list you ask? I have them at 21^st after the first ten games of the season.