Stanley Cup Windows 2025-26: Central Division
Where is every franchise in its current championship contention timeline? Welcome back to Stanley Cup Windows, an annual series in which I plot each team’s progress. Who’s trending up, who’s trending down, and who’s holding on tight hoping for one last Stanley Cup push?
We opened the series with the Atlantic Division teams. We continue with the Central Division teams.
WINDOW WIDE OPEN
Dallas Stars
Having lost three consecutive Western Conference Finals, the Stars obviously feel some degree of urgency, hence the canning of coach Pete DeBoer following his early pull of goaltender Jake Oettinger in the Stars’ Game 5 elimination this past spring. Their core group got a bit older with Mikko Rantanen coming in and Logan Stankoven going out in the trade with the Carolina Hurricanes. But the Stars’ top players are still young enough to have many more kicks at the can. Oettinger is 26. Rantanen is 28. First-line center Roope Hintz is 28. Top blueliner Miro Heiskanen is 25, breakout defenseman Thomas Harley is 23, and 2022 first-rounder Lian Bischel is now a full-time NHLer at 21. Whatever happens with Jason Robertson, the team’s top left winger is still just 25 and under team control even when he becomes an RFA a summer from now. Goal-scoring center Wyatt Johnston? 22. The right side of Dallas’ blueline is a clear problem, and GM Jim Nill needs to push for someone like the Calgary Flames’ Rasmus Andersson, but this team remains set up to dominate for many more years.
WIN-NOW WINDOW
Minnesota Wild
If the wild get superstar Kirill Kaprizov signed long-term, they move to a different Cup Windows category. But until he puts pen to paper on his extension, this season sets up as one in which Minnesota must make progress as a contender and prove to Kaprizov he’s in the right place. If he walks, it sets the franchise’s trajectory back. If he stays, the Wild will trend upward. They still have goal-scorer Matt Boldy and scorer/agitator hybrid Joel Eriksson Ek in their mid 20s. On defense, they already broke in a probable future captain in the well-rounded Brock Faber, 22, over the past couple seasons, and Zeev Buium, one of the best two or three blueline prospects in the sport, is just 19 and ready to challenge for the Calder Trophy this season. Blue-chip goaltender Jesper Wallstedt is 22 and gets the chance to establish himself as an NHLer with Marc-Andre Fleury gone. So the Wild are positioned to be competitive for a while if Kaprizov stays. As long as he’s without a contract for 2026-27 and beyond, it creates and urgency for this coming season. I do expect him to stay, however.
Winnipeg Jets
The Presidents’ Trophy winners are the oldest team in the NHL by average age and only have so many more chances before their operation collapses. Their top offensive player, left winger Kyle Connor, is a pending UFA for 2026. So is Winnipeg’s captain, No. 3 center Adam Lowry. They already lost one of their best forwards to free agency in Nikolaj Ehlers this summer. Top center Mark Scheifele and all-world goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who signed matching eight-year extensions at $8.5 million AAVs two years ago, are 32. Top defenseman Josh Morrissey is 30. Winnipeg does have dynamic young forward Cole Perfetti and prospects like Brayden Yager to build around, but they don’t appear to be franchise players, so this team needs to win in the present. That’s one reason it made sense signing local boy Jonathan Toews to a one-year deal for his comeback at 37. A three-time Stanley Cup champ, he can offer the dressing room leadership and wisdom as the Jets try to escape Round 2 of the playoffs for the first time since 2017-18.
WINDOW OPENING
Utah Mammoth
The Mammoth have made eight first-round picks in their past four drafts. They’ve built up the critical mass of prospects needed for a strong base – to the point they were able to sacrifice one in Conor Geekie to pull in a No. 1 defenseman in Mikhail Sergachev last year. They’re watching core prospects Logan Cooley, 21, and Dylan Guenther, 22, blossom into high-impact NHLers. They just traded for another dynamic scorer in JJ Peterka, 23. They still have exciting forwards such as Caleb Desnoyers and Tij Iginla on the way. The Mammoth, who improved from 77 to 89 points in their first season after relocating from Arizona, are just beginning what should be a long period of competitiveness. In signing veterans Brandon Tanev and Nate Schmidt this summer, GM Bill Armstrong clearly knows it’s time to push.
WINDOW CLOSING
Colorado Avalanche
The Avs still have two generationally great superstars in center Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar. But as the years pass, this team becomes more and more top heavy. The Avs have been chasin’ it since their 2021-22 Stanley Cup win. They’ve won a single playoff series since then. They’ve scrambled to find a No. 2 center ever since Nazem Kadri left, and getting one this year in Brock Nelson required sacrificing top prospect Cal Ritchie in the trade. They would probably like a do-over on the Rantanen debacle; Martin Necas is a nifty scorer in his prime at 26, but he’s not a Hall of Fame level talent like ‘Moose.’ The Avs haven’t made any meaningful roster additions this offseason, their prospect pool may be the NHL’s worst now, their win and point totals have declined three straight years since winning the Cup, and there’s little reason to believe they will reverse the trend. They’re still a competitive team, but they’re more gatekeeper than top dog in the Central now.
FOGGY WINDOW
St. Louis Blues
The Blues are a tough team to figure out. On one hand, the offer sheets to Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg last summer really kickstarted a team retool. Both players were impactful contributors in their first years as Blues. St. Louis also graduated top prospect Jimmy Snuggerud to the pros late last season, and we can look forward to skilled forward Dalibor Dvorsky getting a chance to stick in NHL this coming season. Top forwards Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas remain in their primes at 27 and 26, too. On the other hand, the Blues relied on an unsustainably lucky hot streak just to make the playoffs this past season. They made a questionable trade in cashing out promising two-way forward Zach Bolduc for prospect blueliner Logan Mailloux. They have a lot of money tied up in veterans in their 30s, from Brayden Scheen and Pavel Buchnevich up front to Colton Parayko, Justin Faulk and Cam Fowler on defense. So they sort of feel like a team on the rise, yet they’re also full of aging players whose contracts will take on water in coming years, most notably Parayko, who is 32 and earning $6.5 million annually through 2029-30. They’re a paradoxical team, a tough one to forecast over the next few seasons.
WINDOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Chicago Blackhawks
No. 3 overall pick Anton Frondell is yet another exciting piece joining a 21-and-younger talent crop including forwards Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar and defensemen Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel. But GM Kyle Davidson played things conservatively this offseason after perhaps jumping the gun when he signed Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen a year ago. Based on how quiet Chicago’s movement has been this time around, it’s clear Davidson believes this team remains in its scorched-earth rebuild phase. Ideally, they make progress this season and are ready to appeal to some big-ticket UFAs in next summer’s loaded class. The time to push could arrive in a year.
WINDOW SMASHED
Nashville Predators
The Preds were crowned the unofficial offseason winner by plenty of prognosticators last year after loading up in free agency with Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei. They absolutely faceplanted, opening their season with five consecutive losses and never really recovering. Their .415 points percentage was the second worst in the franchise’s 26-season history. So we have a bad team but also a relatively old team, with multiple veterans north of 30 signed to long-term deals, with top defenseman Roman Josi, 35, dealing with a serious health scare in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. The Predators have made plenty of first-round picks in the past few seasons, but none of them has a superstar ceiling, with all due respect to the likes of Brady Martin, Matthew Wood, Yegor Surin and Joakim Kemell. It feels like Nashville is facing the consequences of refusing to bottom out a couple years back, and it may take years to dig themselves out of this hole. They have so much money tied up in veteran multi-year pacts that it will be hard to move those players. You can’t really tank.
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