NHL Power Rankings 2022-2023 Season

 By Jesse Rosales

My 8-year-old son comes up to me after losing a close game in his “U8 mite” house rec league and says, “dad I feel like we are losing a lot of games…. It sucks losing so much”. Ok, how do I respond to this as a parent? How do I handle this as a hockey-playing and fan fanatic, parent?  Do I give tough love and say that is what happens when you don’t play well? Do I be overly encouraging and tell him the score doesn’t matter and that it is all about having fun? I panicked…. I said “well son believe it or not there is a professional hockey team in the NHL that only won 30% of their games in an entire season. They were the lowest ranked team all season with a goal differential of -106, they had the worse fan attendance in the league and they may not even have a home anymore…. So life could be worse!

Whether or not that was the right thing to say, it was a great segue into giving my new NHL Power Rankings for the start of the 2022-2023 season. Of course, I was talking about the lowly Arizona Coyotes, and yes this article will be focused on my rankings for the top 10 NHL teams headed into the new season. Trust me, the fact that the Coyotes even got a mention in this article at this point surprises even me, but rest assured, there will be no more Coyote mentions in this article…. I think.

Looking back on last season, as I mentioned, the worst team in the league (not saying their name again), had a goal differential of -106 last year. The best team in the league was +94! That team was the Florida Panthers and they didn’t even make the Conference Finals. They weren’t even the best team in their own state when it was all said and done, even after winning the Presidents Cup with 122 points! More to come on that… What a crazy year it was. And yes, this is where I stop to acknowledge the Colorado Avalanche FINALLY got it done and were clearly the most dominant team in the playoffs last season.  I mean they had more series sweeps than road losses in the playoffs. Let that sink in for a bit, because it’s simply unheard of. I mean we are talking Gretzky’s Oilers territory here. I will admit that repeating in the NHL is harder to do than in any other professional sports league. In fact, it’s only happened 17 times since 1930. NINETEEN THIRTY. And only 4 times since those Gretzky Oilers in the late 80s. So where will the Avalanche end up in these NHL Power Rankings? Well, without further ado, here are my top 10 teams going into the 22-23 seasons.

10. St Louis Blues

To be honest the Blues were probably the biggest challenge that stood in the Avalanche’s way to reaching the Finals last year and everyone knew it. The Blues are a tough team and have been for a long time. Former Avalanche Ryan O’Reilly leads the way for that team is a great example of what a captain should be. They have plenty of good offensive talent like Vladimir Tarasenko, Robert Thomas, and Jordan Kryou. Jordan Binnington is a Stanley Cup-winning goaltender with a career save percentage of .911 so you know he’s good enough to get the job done. I don’t believe the Blues have the depth to make a deep playoff run, but they most certainly will be there and will be a force to be reckoned with…. Again.

9. Pittsburgh Penguins

One of everyone’s favorite teams to hate. Quite honestly I don’t understand it. The Penguins have been one of the most consistent teams over the course of Sidney Crosby’s career. In fact, they have made the playoffs every year since 2006. With this offense, they resign fan favorites and team leaders Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. They also quietly acquired defenseman Jeff Petry from Montreal will help their blue-line play for sure. Their main question is at goalie. We will see if Tristan Jerry can get it done or not. I like the Penguins to give it another run with this veteran group.

8. Calgary Flames

I have to admit when the Flames lost Johnny Hockey to Columbus I thought Calgary was done for. When they traded Matthew Tkachuk, I DEFINITELY thought this was going to be a rebuilding year and hey, at least they would have a top pick in next year’s draft. That however is not the case. The Flames were somehow able to bring back Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar from the Panthers in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk. Pretty remarkable actually. I mean Huberdeau was tied for 2nd in points (115) and had the most assists overall last season with 85. You could easily argue the Flames actually WON the trade for Tkachuk and became better for it. They have one of the best goalies in the league with Jacob Markstrom who had the 4th highest save percentage (.922) and tied for the 4th most wins (37). The Flames are very much still in the hunt for Lord Stanley despite losing their 2 best players in the offseason. MIND. BLOWING.

7. Toronto Maple Leafs

Figuring how where to put the Toronto Maple Leafs in my NHL Power Rankings was a really interesting process. I could have just made this a one-sentence summary. “The Toronto Maple Leafs will look great in the regular season yet again, fail to win a playoff series.” Not sure what I mean? Just go check out any hockey fan page on Facebook or Instagram, and you’ll be sure to find a healthy dose of Maple Leaf trolling posts. Look, Auston Matthews is probably going to go down as the greatest goal scorer of this generation along with Connor McDavid, but I think it’s going to come down to goaltending, or lack thereof, for this team to get over the hump and win a playoff series. Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray are not gonna get it done and they missed a HUGE opportunity to snag an upgrade at the position during free agency.  They will be a high seed come playoff time but until they can get it done, you have to assume they won’t.

6. Carolina Hurricanes

Sebastian Aho is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. He has Paul Kariya written all over him which is super exciting. The Canes made really solid off-season moves by acquiring Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny, and Brent Burns. What’s more, is that they really didn’t give up much of anything to get them. That being said Pacioretty and Burns are up there in age and Pacioretty is already sidelined for at least 4-6 more months before the season even beings. They do have a top 5 goalie in Frederik Andersen, but until Pacioretty comes back from Achilles’ survey and we can see what he looks like, I’m tempering expectations for this Canes team.

5. Tampa Bay Lighting

Yes, bringing back Sergachev, Cirelli, and Cernak were big moves… even great moves given the 8-year extensions they each got. But they also lost key players Ryan McDonagh and Ondrej Palat, which I think counts for way more than people think. They have leadership, and they have the best goalie in the league (for now), but the problem I have with the Lightning is the feeling that while multiple teams are trending up right now, the Lightning are trending down. Not far enough where they won’t be in contention, but they are sliding. With age, salary cap, and just the normal parity that happens in the NHL, it’s really hard to see them sustaining their greatest moving forward, but less improving upon it. The little cracks are starting to show, even for Vasilevskiy and you saw it in the series against Colorado. He had his highest goals-against average since 2018 at 2.52. And no I’m not a hater… It’s all about sustainability to a bar that has been set incredibly high for many years. Vasilevskiy is still the number 1 goalie in my rankings, and the Lightning are still #5 in my NHL Power Rankings for a reason, so give me a break lol. 

4. Edmonton Oilers

Even though the Oilers got swept by the Avalanche in the playoffs, there was a TON of positive to take away from that series if you are an Edmonton fan. Connor McDavid was simply incredible and retaining Evander Kane in free agency was absolutely huge. They arguably have 3 of the top 15 players in the NHL period when you add MVP candidate Leon Draisaitl to that conversation. The Oilers’ biggest missing piece last year was goaltending. I love Mike Smith. The wily old veteran played really well to start the playoffs last season, but it was obvious that once they hit the buzzsaw that was the Colorado Avalanche, he just didn’t have what he needed in the tank. I mean the guy is 40… He had a 2.29 goals-against average against the LA Kings, then a 3.40 against Calgary in the Battle For Alberta series, then it ballooned to 5.53 in the series against Colorado! That to me says age got the best of him. So what did the Oilers do? Acquire former Maple Leaf goaltender Jack Campell. Oh, the Canadian drama!!! For all the reasons I said Toronto needs to be concerned about goaltending, the Oilers no longer have to. That should be enough to get them to a Cup Finals since 2006.

3. Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are a very interesting team to keep track of. They lost some key parts of their team in the offseason but they also acquired some key pieces as well. It is hard to say if they truly got any better, but I think it’s safe to say they didn’t lose enough to see a significant drop in the rankings. The reigning President’s Cup champions will be right back in a similar position that they were in when they ended the regular season last year. They did lose their top scorer in Jonathan Huberdeau, but they added Matthew Tkachuk. Tkachuk brings a physicality and toughness that I think the team really needed. It wasn’t the biggest surprise ever when the Lightning beat them in the first round of the playoffs last year, but it did surprise me in the fashion it happened. They had been a top offensive team all year, and the Lightning just stifled them consistently in that series. They still have a deep roster with all-star caliber players like Barkov and Ekblad. Their goaltender isn’t top 5 in my rankings, but he is good enough to not be the reason they don’t have another super successful regular season campaign.

2. New York Rangers

For some reason, the New York Rangers are not getting as much love as I think they should be getting this off-season. General Manager (and former Avalanche forward) Chris Drury has done a great job constructing this roster. They are young, hungry, diverse, and super talented. They lost Ryan Strome in the offseason, who was a big part of their second line, but they still have top goal scorer Panarin, 2-way player Mika Zibanejad (probably one of the coolest names in the NHL), and oh yeah, by the way, they have who I believe is the number #1 goaltender in the league, Igor Shesterkin. I really like this team and I think they have all the pieces necessary to claim the top spot in the East when it’s all said and done. That is why they are my #2 team in these NHL Power Rankings.

1. Colorado Avalanche

If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. The Colorado Avalanche did just that to win their first Stanley Cup since 2001. What was statically interesting about this team, is that they were a rare example of a top-rated offense beating top-rated defense and goaltending. That usually never happens. The Avs are bringing back a good portion of their Cup-winning team, but 2 of the biggest losses were Nazem Kardi and Andre Burakovsky. They took a low-risk gamble on goaltender Alexander Georgiev after letting Kuemper walk in free agency, and he should pair nicely with fan favorite Pavel Francouz. The biggest reason the Avs retain the number #1 spot in these NHL Power Rankings is their powerhouse roster. Mackinnon, Rantenten, Makar, Toews, not to mention the young up-and-comers like former first-round draft picks Alex Newhook and Bo Byram. This team is still loaded and General Manager Joe Sakic has not only built a team in “win now” mode but a team that will be in that mode for quite some time still. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Right now, the Colorado Avalanche are the best.