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The Florida Panthers enter the 2024/25 NHL season as the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
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On 4 October, the first game of the season will take place in Prague.
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Utah joins the league, having taken the personnel of the Arizona Coyotes after the team was deactivated.
After back-to-back trips to the finals, the Florida Panthers finally won their first-ever Stanley Cup to conclude last season, beating the relentless Edmonton Oilers in Game 7.
With 4 October swiftly approaching, we look to the 2024/25 NHL season in this preview, covering the biggest news and moves of the offseason as well as the favourites to win the divisions, the Cup, and individual honours.
Biggest NHL Offseason News and Moves
These are the biggest bits of news to know from the NHL offseason.
Johnny Gaudreau Passes Away
The NHL was rocked by the news that one of its star players, Johnny Gaudreau, and his brother died in a car accident while riding their bicycles on 29 August.
The league, its teams, and players past and present have paid tribute to the 2017 Lady Byng Memorial Trophy winner (awarded to the NHL’s most gentlemanly player).
Arizona Coyotes Replaced by Utah
While the NHL has welcomed a couple of new franchises in recent years, the new Utah Hockey Club arrives as more of a replacement team than a fully-fledged expansion team.
Instead, the Arizona Coyotes franchise was deactivated – partially because the team’s owner failed to live up to promises of building a worthy stadium – with all of its personnel being transferred to the new Utah team.
To mark the move, the new Utah ownership went big in the open market. Utah HC added Mikhail Sergachev, Ian Cole, and John Marino to instantly create a much stronger blueline group.
Nashville Predators Run Riot in the Offseason
Arguably, the Nashville Predators enjoyed the most prolific offseason in the NHL, adding some superb pieces to a team that’s building back to being a contender in the crowded Central Division.
Already boasting Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, Ryan O’Reilly, Dante Fabbro, and the locked-in Juuse Saros – who penned a new eight-year deal – the Preds signed Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei.
San Jose Sharks Take Macklin Celebrini First Overall
General manager Mike Grier continued to commit to his hard rebuild of the San Jose Sharks last season, which helped him to collect another massive haul of picks and, importantly, the first overall selection in the 2024 NHL Draft.
He went with the consensus top choice, Macklin Celebrini, who’ll likely join the NHL lines immediately, along with another top-tier rookie, Will Smith.
Team expectations remain rock bottom, but both rookies are in with a shot at the Calder Trophy.
Stanley Cup Favourites
As is often the case, when the reigning champions hold onto their key pieces, they enter the new season as the favourites, and that’s what’s happened with the Florida Panthers.
They’ve still got Sergei Bobrovsky in net, Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, and Adam Boqvist on the blueline, and Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, and Sam Bennett among their forwards.
It’s a stacked team, but after two runs to the very final stage of the postseason in a row, it’d be a monumental task to get there again. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are as gruelling as they come, so a less impressive season is predicted.
Instead, of the teams atop the outright betting market, the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, and Toronto Maple Leafs look to be the more optimal picks.
It’s exceedingly competitive in the NHL, with each of these teams looking stacked from top to tail, but with goaltenders invariably being the difference-makers in the postseason, the Stars, Rangers, and Canucks look to have an edge.
Atlantic Division
The Florida Panthers boast the deepest and most well-rounded roster in the Atlantic Division, but fatigue will almost certainly play a role, as will attempts to keep the stars fresh enough for another strong postseason run.
So, while the residents of one of the largest arenas in the NHL potentially try to ease their top players through the regular season, there’s a chance for another team to jump to the top spot.
Perpetually failing to succeed in the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs still manage to do well in the regular season each year, thanks to their star-studded forward corps and what is now an enviable blueline group.
On paper, the missing piece is in goal. The Buds will be rolling the dice on 26-year-old Joseph Woll, who played 25 games in the NHL last season with a .907 save percentage and 2.94 goals against average.
In the regular season, the Maple Leafs have enough firepower to take the Atlantic Division, but despite making it to the playoffs in each of the last eight seasons, only once have they made it passed the first round.
Central Division
Three of the best goaltenders in the NHL headline the Central Division frontrunners. First, there’s Jake Oettinger, who went 34-14-4 with a 2.72 GAA and .905 save percentage with the Dallas Stars.
Defence has long been the cornerstone of Dallas’ recent successes, but last season, breakout forwards surged the Stars to the second-best goal differential in the league with +64, only trailing the Panthers’ +68.
With such a strong roster and plenty of upside still to be found, the Stars are worthy favourites to take the Central Division in the ice hockey betting.
Next up is Alexandar Georgiev – who led the regular season with 38 wins – and the Colorado Avalanche. Still, their most significant player this season might be one they’ve been without for two years.
Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar are the undisputed stars of the show, but the team will revel in having their captain, Gabriel Landeskog, back and, hopefully, skating in the top six for a whole season.
A dark horse contender, most certainly, but there’s a lot to like about the Nashville Predators. They were aggressive in the offseason, locked down star goaltender Juuse Saros, and now look to be fully-fledged contenders again.
Metropolitan Division
Finishing ten points out of the playoff picture last season, it’s surprising to see the New Jersey Devils enter the 2024/25 season as the favourites to win the Metropolitan Division.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald went big in the offseason, adding Jacob Markstrom, Brett Pesce, Brenden Dillon, Tomas Tatar, and Stefan Noesen to try to reach the playoffs, but winning the division seems a bit of a stretch.
The Carolina Hurricanes sustained some pretty sizable losses, including Pesce, Skjei, and Jake Guentzel, but Rod Brind-Amour remains at the helm, and his style of hockey continues to get them to the playoffs.
As for frontrunners, perhaps the reigning Metro champions, the New York Rangers, should be given more credit. Igor Shesterkin remains among the best goaltenders in the league, and he has Jonathan Quick in support.
Ahead of them, it’s a top-tier defensive unit featuring K’Andre Miller, Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba, and Ryan Lindgren, while highly rated under-24s will look to improve what was already a division-leading goals tally from last season.
Pacific Division
Missing out by the finest of margins, the Edmonton Oilers battled back from 3-0 down to lose in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals – but will they bounce back as the Panthers did last season, or buckle under the rigours of a deep run without reward?
The Oilers return with much of the same, boasting depth on the blueline and an unrelenting forward corps headlined by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Importantly, Stuart Skinner got some invaluable experience that should bode well for the team should they make it to the playoffs once again.
Behind them, there’s the ever-present Vegas Golden Knights and their very physical lines, as well as the Vancouver Canucks. On paper, the Canucks are one of the most stacked teams in the Western Conference.
They won the Pacific Division by five points last season but could have done much better. With another season of experience, their still-quite-young star players should be able to take another step forward in 2024/25.
Hart, Rocket, and Memorial Trophy Frontrunners
The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded to the most valuable player to their team in the NHL, and since 2019/20, it’s gone to a center. Two of those five times, Connor McDavid has taken the trophy, with his third being in 2022/23.
This season, McDavid is, once again, the frontrunner to win the Hart Trophy, undoubtedly powered by the superstar center winning the 2024 Conn Smythe Trophy – only the sixth time the coveted MVP crown has gone to a player on the losing team since 1965.
For the scoring title, the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy, it’s as good as Auston Matthews’ in the eyes of the odds. Having won three of the last four and with 69 goals in the bag last season, it’s easy to see why.
The James Norris Memorial Trophy goes to the league’s best defenseman each year. Since the end of Nicklas Lidstrom’s reign, only one skater has taken the trophy more than once: Erik Karlsson in 2012, 2014, and 2023.
In 2025, however, a repeat winner seems more likely. Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, and Cale Makar headline the odds, with Roman Josi out at 13.00 as a dark horse contender worth considering.
The NHL returns with the Buffalo Sabres taking on the New Jersey Devils in Prague for two games in the 2024 NHL Global Series on 4 October. From there, it’s anyone’s guess which team will come out on top by the summer.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
