Top 5 best and top 5 worst NHL teams following November

The worst teams in the league have the 2023 NHL Draft on their minds this year.

28. San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks are one of the worst teams in the NHL right now. That is especially odd knowing that they have the future Norris Trophy winner on their roster. Erik Karlsson has been so special and if he keeps it up, he will take that award home with ease.

The Sharks may or may not be able to trade him but they will remain one of the worst teams either way. They can be exciting because they still have good players but they are 8-14-4 for a reason.

29. Arizona Coyotes

This is actually a good place for the Arizona Coyotes with all things considered. They are in dead last going into November and play their home games in a college rink. However, they have been playing okay at times to avoid being a complete embarrassment.

If they can stay the course and start making better decisions in the long term, they will be onto something special. For now, they just need to keep grinding. Maybe they will finally have some lottery luck this year. Every team in this “top five worst” section hopes the same thing.

30. Columbus Blue Jackets

The most surprising team on this part of the list is the Columbus Blue Jackets. After signing Johnny Gaudreau in free agency, it seemed like they would at least be an okay team while some of their prospects develop but they have been horrible.

Can you imagine the Michigan kid Adam Fantilli playing in Columbus? That would be a wild scene. It would also be fun to see Connor Bedard play for them as well. We will see how it all shakes out with them.

31. Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks are bad. They have the least amount of points in the NHL. What keeps them from being in last place is one team being worse at this point in time based on the way that they have played.

The Ducks have some outstanding young players to be excited about and a few of them are already proving it in the NHL. Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Mason McTavish lead that pack.

Their farm system is great and it is also only going to get better. They won’t be down here for long. Of all the teams on this part of the list, they have the brightest future as of right now. If they added one of the studs at the top of the 2022 NHL Draft, they’d be pretty much set.

32. Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks, like the Anaheim Ducks, have six wins. The tiebreaker for last in the league is how bad they play in their losses. They don’t have a goalie as good as John Gibson of the Ducks and their farm system is well behind them (although it is improving too).

The Hawks would be smart to trade Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to try and get even worse. No team is more desperate to win the lottery right now more than them when you factor in what they have at the NHL level and in the system.

It is going to get a little worse before it gets better for Chicago. The good news for fans right now is that Kyle Davidson clearly has a plan to rebuild this team. It appears that he knows what he is doing so far. We will know more in about three years.

The NHL is a strange place sometimes because each list has some surprises but every game in this league is compelling because anyone can win on any night. It should be even more fun to see where each team is after December.