Stanley Cup Windows 2024-25: Pacific Division

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
Elias Pettersson and Evan Bouchard
Credit: May 20, 2024; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson (40) battles with Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard (2) during the first period in game seven of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

During the NHL offseason, as teams scramble to improve their rosters via trades and free agency, they recalibrate their fans’ expectations. In the fog of war, it isn’t always easy to assess what your favorite team has become. Is it now a Stanley Cup contender after signing that big-ticket UFA, or did it just delay the inevitable for a group heading in the wrong direction? Should you be nervous if your team did nothing, or does the inactivity reflect confidence from a management group that knows it has a juggernaut?

I’m here to help by mapping out where I believe each NHL team is in its contention window. The term ‘window’ matters a lot in the salary-cap era, when each team has a limited juncture in which its top young players mature into their primes while still carrying reasonable AAVs. Where does your team sit in its Stanley Cup timeline?

We conclude the four-part annual series with the Pacific Division.

WIN-NOW WINDOW

Edmonton Oilers

So close. One win away from ending Canada’s Stanley Cup drought at 31 years. The Oilers understand that they’re at the precipice. That’s why they’ve brought back Corey Perry, Adam Henrique and Mattias Janmark and why they signed Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson. This is now the oldest team in the NHL by average age at 30.86. If Leon Draisaitl (eligible now) and Connor McDavid (eligible July 1, 2025) sign their extensions, we could argue that the Cup window cranks wide open again. But this team is quite obviously engineered with the intention of finishing the job in 2024-25.

Los Angeles Kings

I’m not confident in Rob Blake’s management of this team, which has yet to win a playoff series since his hiring as GM seven years ago. He slipped out from under Pierre-Luc Dubois’ contract but also didn’t replace his scoring, downgraded from Matt Roy to Joel Edmundson on defense and made a lateral move at best from Cam Talbot to Darcy Kuemper in goal. That said, the Kings are built to remain competitive. The veteran brigade including Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar is still playing good hockey. The prime-year group, led by forwards Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala and defenseman Mikey Anderson, is solid. Rising star forward Quinton Byfield leads the next wave and could be joined full-time by promising blueliner Brandt Clarke this season. The Kings aren’t a top-end Stanley Cup contender, and I believe they got worse this summer, but they’re still probably good enough to be a low-end playoff seed.

Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks have blossomed under Jack Adams winning coach Rick Tocchet and reached their potential. They have star power at every position and are legit Stanley Cup contenders built around a core of Quinn Hughes, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko. Hughes is the youngest of that group at 24, Miller the oldest at 31. The Canucks have graduated their generation of top-end prospects and have added veteran support pieces in recent seasons ranging from Filip Hronek and Carson Soucy on defense to Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen up front. So it’s clear this group has matured into its win-now years, though it doesn’t feel like 2024-25 is the be all, end all. They probably have more than one swing.

Vegas Golden Knights

No franchise embodies the win-now concept like the ruthless Golden Knights, who continued their tradition of punting picks and prospects last season and now have center Tomas Hertl and defenseman Noah Hanifin locked into their long-term core. They did say goodbye to an Original Misfit and their 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy winner in Jonathan Marchessault, not to mention goaltender Logan Thompson. But anyone who thinks the current version of Vegas’ roster will be the same one we see for Game 1 of the 2025 playoffs has not been paying attention. Who knows which big-name star they’ll acquire next? They’ve held a total of 10 first-round picks in their history and have kept just two, trading six away as prospects and two more before making the pick, so they obviously don’t have a strong future pipeline. But it’s pedal to the metal until it stops working, and another championship sits within the range of Vegas’ 2024-25 outcomes.

WINDOW OPENING

Anaheim Ducks

Virtually every season, a bottom-dwelling NHL team suddenly matures into competitiveness once it reaches a critical mass of talented youngsters and mixes in some veterans. Are the Ducks ready to be that team? I can see it. They have quite the group of young forwards to build around in Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier, with Beckett Sennecke eventually joining the fray. They have some exciting defensemen graduated to the NHL in Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger. They still have a veteran brigade including Troy Terry, Alex Killorn, Cam Fowler and Radko Gudas to help out. They may turn Trevor Zegras into another useful asset if they trade him. Even if the Ducks don’t charge into the playoffs, they look ready to put some teams on their heels and start improving. This could be an 85-point club as early as this season, and the arrow should keep pointing upward after that.

FOGGY WINDOW

Seattle Kraken

Hm. The Kraken predictably miss the playoffs in Year 1 of their existence, shockingly make it in Year 2, then regress badly and miss again in Year 3, costing coach Dave Hakstol his job. Who are the Kraken? They behaved as a team wanting to win now over the summer, grossly overpaying Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour on seven-year deals. But this is a team yet to discover any real star power. The best offensive player in their short history is Jared McCann. Matty Beniers had a brutal sophomore season after winning the Calder Trophy in 2022-23 but is not a high-ceiling player even at his best. Shane Wright hasn’t permanently stuck at the NHL level. Jagger Firkus hasn’t arrived yet. The Kraken would’ve been better off accepting mediocrity for a couple more seasons and building out their prospect pool. Instead, they’ve made a couple major UFA adds that will improve them but not get them anywhere near Stanley Cup contention.

WINDOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Calgary Flames

There’s ripping off a Band-Aid and there’s…removing a full-body cast in one maneuver? That’s what Craig Conroy has done over the past 13 months, shipping out veterans Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Andrew Mangiapane and Jacob Markstrom. So we can brush aside any silly talk of retooling now. The Flames are rebuilding and doing so at breakneck speed. This season they’ll hope to see strides from prospects Connor Zary, Matt Coronato and Dustin Wolf, among others. Conroy will eventually have to make decisions on his other veterans, some of whom have easy contracts to move and some of whom do not. Are the likes of Rasmus Andersson, Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman part of the next generation, or will they eventually be moved for even more future assets?

San Jose Sharks

Congratulations, Sharks fans. Your team finally reached the bottom of the abyss. The worst part is over, and the fun part has begun. The Sharks have their foundational stars to build around in Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, selected No. 1 and No. 4 overall in the past two drafts. They landed a stud young blueliner in Sam Dickinson at the 2024 Draft after the Celebrini pick, too. They have added former first-rounders to their prospect pool via trades in David Edstrom and Shakir Mukhamadullin. They’ve put some “improve the culture” veteran leaders in place with Barclay Goodrow and Tyler Toffoli. The Sharks are still many years away from contention, but at least they’ve completed the most painful phase of the rebuild. Most of the dead weight has been stripped away and they can start gradually constructing a winner now.

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