Top 5 most disappointing NHL teams at Olympic break, including Rangers
When this season began, the New York Rangers expected to reach the NHL Winter Olympic break at least competing for a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, if not solidly ensconced in one. Instead, the three-week intermission in the 2025-26 season finds them dead last in the Eastern Conference and 30th in the 32-team League with an unsightly 22-29-6 record.
They are 19 points behind both the New York Islanders, who own third place in the Metropolitan Division, and the Boston Bruins, who own the second wild-card spot in the East.
To say that the Rangers are a disappointment would be putting it mildly. General manager Chris Drury threw in the towel on Jan. 16 when “Letter 2.0” told Blueshirts fans there were going to be changes made and that players they’d enjoyed watching for years could be headed elsewhere as part of a “retool, not rebuild.”
He followed that on Wednesday by trading forward Artemi Panarin, New York’s top scorer in each of the past six seasons, to the Los Angeles Kings for forward prospect Liam Greentree and a draft pick or two.
Yes, the Rangers being on track to miss the playoffs for the second straight season puts them among the most disappointing NHL teams so far this season. But they’re not the biggest one.
Here’s a look at the five most disappointing teams in the NHL at the Olympic break.
5. Edmonton Oilers (28-22-8; 2nd in Pacific Division)
Any team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl should be having a better season than the two-time Stanley Cup Finalists, who’ve played in fits and starts this season and reached the break on a three-game losing streak that includes a 4-3 loss to the archrival Calgary Flames in their last game. The only thing saving them so far is that the Pacific Division is arguably the weakest in the NHL.
McDavid (NHL-leading 96 points in 58 games) and Draisaitl (fifth in the League with 80 points in 55 games) are doing their parts. So is defenseman Evan Bouchard (65 points in 58 games) and forward Zach Hyman (22 goals in 39 games after returning from injury).
The Oilers are fourth in the NHL with 198 goals, so scoring isn’t the problem. Keeping the puck out of their own net is another issue: Their 194 goals allowed are the fifth-most in the League. Neither Tristan Jarry (acquired from Pittsburgh for Stuart Skinner) nor Connor Ingram has given them the kind of goaltending a Cup contender needs. Edmonton hit the break on pace for 90 points. The lowest wild-card team in the West last season had 96.
“We’re a different team. We’re not the same team,” Draisaitl said after the loss to the Flames, “We’re not as good (as last season) right now. We’re not even close. We need to understand that.
“There is a break now, but when we come back, we have to get going.”
Note: The Oilers barely edged the Toronto Maple Leafs for the dubious honor of landing in this Top-5 list. The Maple Leafs (27-21-9) are six points out of the second wild card in the East, and could miss the postseason for the first in 10 years and fail to record 100 points after doing so each of the past four seasons. Many expected a step back after Mitch Marner departed for the Vegas Golden Knights in the offseason, but not to this extent.
4. Florida Panthers (29-25-3; 8th in Atlantic Division)
Injuries are a legit excuse for a lot of the two-time defending champs’ problems. They lost captain Aleksander Barkov (knee) for the season in training camp and have had Matthew Tkachuk for just 10 games because of a torn adductor muscle that needed surgery and kept him out until Jan. 19. Defenseman Seth Jones has been out since Jan. 2 with an upper-body injury that kept him out of the Olympics, and forward Brad Marchand missed 11 games, though his 25 goals and 50 points in 46 games are more than the Panthers could have expected.
But their biggest problems have been in goal, where Cup hero Sergei Bobrovsky has a 3.13 goals-against average and a save percentage of .871; his numbers are worse than backup Daniil Tarasov (2.83/.899). Florida’s 191 goals allowed are eighth-worst in the NHL, and their minus-17 goal differential is ninth-worst.
Jones and forward Jonah Gadjovich are projected to return coming out of the break, leaving Barkov, center Tomas Nosek and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov still out – though Kulikov is expected to return at some point in March.
“Just get some rest,” said coach Paul Maurice after the Panthers were walloped 6-1 at Tampa Bay in their pre-break finale. “All this team needs is some rest.”
They likely also need a miracle run to make the playoffs after reaching the Stanley Cup Final three straight years and winning the Cup the past two. They’re really paying the price now for those extended runs.
3. New York Rangers (22-22-9; 8th in Metropolitan Division)
Rest assured this was not what Mike Sullivan signed on for when he left the Pittsburgh Penguins to take over as coach of the Rangers after last season’s flameout under Peter Laviolette turned them from Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2023-24 to playoff non-participants last season.
Scoring has been a problem since opening night, when the Penguins blanked them 3-0 in Sullivan’s debut behind the Rangers bench. It was the first of nine shutout losses for the Blueshirts, including seven at The Garden.
Panarin (18 goals, 57 points in 52 games before being traded) and Mika Zibanejad (23 goals, 52 points in 57 games) generated a disproportionate share of the scoring. Seven players, including Zibanejad, are minus-13 or worse. No. 1 defenseman Adam Fox’s two stints on long-term IR haven’t helped; nor has missing starting goalie Igor Shesterkin for the last month before the break.
Shesterkin made up for numerous defensive issues on a team that all too often struggles to get the puck out of its zone without Fox. Depth scoring is minimal, with only Zibanejad among the current roster players scoring more than 14 goals.
Sullivan faces the difficult task of getting maximum effort from a group of players who know they’re all but certain to miss the playoffs again.
“My message to the group tonight was I will acknowledge that we’re in a little bit of a difficult circumstance and none of us really want to be in this position or have any sort of enjoyment or fulfillment in this position that we are,” he said after a listless 2-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday at MSG “But the reality is we are where we are.”
The reason that the Rangers don’t top this list is that last season already was a massive disappointment. This one is bad and more was expected, no doubt, but is it that much of a shock after the 2024-25 crash-and-burn?
2. New Jersey Devils (28-27-2; 7th in Metropolitan Division)
The Devils started the season like a team that would challenge the Hurricanes for first place in the Metropolitan Division. They won their first seven home games and were 16-7-1 after 24 games.
Then the roof fell in. New Jersey lost nine of 13 games before the Christmas break, then were 8-11-1 in its final 20 games before the Olympic break. That includes a 1-4-0 mark in its past five games, capped by a 3-2 loss to the Islanders in a game they dominated for most of the night.
Injuries to star center Jack Hughes (12 goals, 36 points in 36 games) took a toll. He missed five weeks with a hand injury and sat out New Jersey’s final three games before the break with a lower-body injury. The Devils aren’t the same team without him, and they’re hoping he comes home unscathed after playing for Team USA at the Winter Games.
Starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom is 15-13-1 but has a 3.20 GAA and .882 save percentage. Backup Jake Allen won his first five decisions but is 1-5-0 in his past six.
“The break is there to flush everything,” said captain Nico Hischier, who will play for Switzerland at the Olympics. “Hopefully we come back and everybody has a fresh mindset and re-attack.”
1. Winnipeg Jets (22-26-8; 7th in Central Division)
The Jets are on track to follow last season’s Rangers by going from Presidents’ Trophy winners to missing the playoffs after reaching the Olympic break 11 points behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wild card in the Western Conference. If so, they’d be only the fifth team all-time to do so. Brutal.
After a 116-point season in 2024-25, they’re on track to finish with 76 – and that’s after getting 18 (9-3-0) in their first 12 games.
Connor Hellebuyck, who won the Hart Trophy as League MVP last season to go along with his third Vezina Trophy, is headed for a major drop-off from last season. He had a 2.00 GAA and .925 save percentage in 2024-25; this season’s numbers are 2.79 and .900 (which would be a career-worst). He’ll play for Team USA at the Olympics, and the Jets hope that he’ll come back playing the kind of hockey he did last season.
The Jets’ big guns — Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi — still produce big numbers. But they’re not getting much help: No other forward has more than nine goals or 20 points. Winnipeg was third in the League last season with 277 goals and tops with a plus-86 goal differential; they are 25th this season with 160 goals and have a minus-15 differential.
Coach Scott Arniel’s team is an easy winner for the biggest NHL disappointment thus far. It’s hard to see how the Jets won’t finish the season that way.
