The NHL Contention Cycle: Where does each team stand going into 2025-26 and in the future?

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NHL Preseason

When one contention window closes, another one opens. That’s the NHL’s circle of life, a cycle of teams oscillating between contending for the Stanley Cup and rebuilding toward their next chance.

We call it the NHL Contention Cycle, and this is Year 2 of estimating where each team currently stands within the league’s tried-and-true pattern of build, rise, contend, fall, and rebuild.

How do we do that? By measuring each team’s core of top players, both now and in the future, via the Player Tiers and Prospect Tiers — two industry-sourced projects that aim to establish a hierarchy of the league’s best in each category.