Top 5 best and top 5 worst NHL teams following January
The five best teams in the NHL have rotated all season long as expected.
5. Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been in the previous three Stanley Cup Finals. They lost to the Colorado Avalanche last year but went back to back in 2020 and 2021. They have Hall of Famers all over the place, but it has taken a while to get going this season.
Now, they seem to have it all working again and will certainly be dangerous when the postseason rolls around. Nobody is going to want to play them in the first round because they are going to be a hard out once again. It is good to see them finally crack the top five for the first time in a while.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs
The team that the Tampa Bay Lightning are most likely to play in the first round is the Toronto Maple Leafs. The two teams are going to battle it out for home-ice advantage all season long, but one of the two teams in this top five will be out after the first round, which is kind of a shame.
Auston Matthews is going to be missing for a few weeks because of an injury, but they still have William Nylander, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner playing extremely well right now.
Those guys have earned the right to stay in the top five, as they are good enough to win it all. They just have some demons to get past (the first round). Maybe this is the year.
3. Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes are sitting at the top of the Metropolitan Division and have stars all over the ice. There is no doubt that they are good enough to win the Stanley Cup and deserve to be considered one of the best teams in the league.
Carolina now has plenty of playoff experience and people on the roster that are hungry to succeed in this league. They also have a coaching advantage over almost everyone that they play against.
2. New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils sit a few points behind the Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division but there is just something about them that is more exciting and skillful. Jack Hughes has become one of the best players in the league, and he is leading the way for a very good team.
They are very young and have very little playoff experience, but there is a youthful feel to this team. They also believe that they can beat anybody and have proven it. If they didn’t go through a little bit of a slump in December, they’d be right there in the Presidents’ Trophy race.
They are now one of the best teams in the league again after figuring some things out. They enter the All-Star break/bye week 8-1-1 in their last ten games, and every team in the league should be scared of them in the short and long term.
1. Boston Bruins
Despite losing their last three games, the Boston Bruins are still the best team in the NHL by a wide margin. They have a nine-point lead in the Presidents’ Trophy race still and are going to be the Stanley Cup favorite entering the playoffs.
They have the Vezina Trophy favorite in Linus Ullmark with other superstars like Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, and Charlie McAvoy, amongst others.
This is the best team in the league, and nobody should let this slight slump (that certainly included some bad luck) make them think that they won’t bounce back in a big way.
There are also plenty of bad teams in the NHL at this point in time.
28. San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks are bad, and they are only going to get worse. They have Erik Karlsson on a Norris Trophy-winning track, and fans don’t know for sure if he will even finish the season in San Jose. Timo Meier also leads the pack of Sharks that might get traded.
Once the potential firesale happens, there is a chance that they fall even further down this list. Somehow, they aren’t even the worst team in California.
29. Anaheim Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks are one of the worst teams in the league, but they have been a little bit better lately, which is why they are no longer dead last in the standings.
The Ducks have a lot of good young forwards that they are going to build around, but they may trade some of their defensemen, which is going to make things even harder for them down the stretch.
30. Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets are the only team on this list that are here by accident. They did not intend on being a bad team this year, but they just haven’t been able to figure it out.
They sit dead last in the league right now, but they probably won’t be as big of sellers at the deadline because of the fact that they never really saw themselves as a bad team coming into the year.
They will make some adjustments during the off-season and try to run it back next year. After the deadline, there are some teams that will surely be worse than them.
31. Arizona Coyotes
The Arizona Coyotes go on good stretches here and there, but they are bad. They have always been one of the worst-run teams in the league, and now they are playing at a college rink.
They are hoping to get out of it here soon, but few teams need some lottery luck more than them. It will be interesting to see what their chances are after the trade deadline.
32. Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks have the second-fewest points in the league, but it is by one point. With guys like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Max Domi, and Andreas Athanasiou amongst others on expiring deals, they could be the biggest sellers of all these teams.
light. Trending. Islanders make a splash, acquire Horvat from the Canucks
Things are going to go from bad to worse in February and March which is why they should be viewed as the worst team in the league. Obviously, like all of the teams on this list, they are no doubt thinking about winning the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery.