The 2026-27 NHL season opens with an unusual mix of clubs: defending powers trying to reassert themselves, recent champions aiming to prove last spring was no fluke and younger teams pressing for an early breakthrough, according to ESPN.
Last season produced notable upheaval. The Florida Panthers missed the playoffs amid an injury-plagued campaign, the Edmonton Oilers fell in the first round to the Anaheim Ducks and the Carolina Hurricanes claimed the Stanley Cup by defeating the Vegas Golden Knights, ESPN reports. Recent champions also include the 2023 Golden Knights, the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
ESPN aggregated market forecasts — normalizing and averaging odds from multiple sportsbooks and prediction markets — to produce consensus estimates of each club’s chances of reaching the playoffs and winning the Stanley Cup. Using that tracker, ESPN sorted all 32 teams into six tiers, from the top favorites to long shots.
Tier 1 places the Florida Panthers at the top of the market’s list of Cup favorites with a 10.5% chance of winning the Stanley Cup and an 81.6% chance of reaching the playoffs, according to ESPN. Florida bolstered its roster in the offseason by acquiring Brady Tkachuk, joining him with brother Matthew, and expects the return of Aleksander Barkov from the knee injury that cost him all of 2025-26. In goal, Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid are set to replace Sergei Bobrovsky; ESPN notes Florida ranked 28th in goalie GAR with Bobrovsky last season.
The Colorado Avalanche sit alongside Florida in Tier 1 with a 9.8% Cup probability and an 89.9% playoff probability, per ESPN. Colorado dominated the regular season essentially wire-to-wire but suffered a playoff sweep at the hands of a Vegas team that had 16 fewer regular-season wins and a goal differential 84 goals worse, ESPN reports. The Avalanche reinforced their core when defenseman Cale Makar signed an eight-year, $163 million extension last month; the club’s core also features Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. Colorado has reached the postseason in nine straight years but has only one Cup Final appearance (and the 2022 title) and one other Western Conference final in that span, and was among the oldest teams in the league last season.
Opening-night play begins Tuesday; ESPN will televise 100 exclusive games and offer an out-of-market package covering more than 1,050 contests, according to the network.
