Final 2024-25 Regular-Season Report Cards for Every NHL Team

The 2024-25 NHL regular season concludes on Thursday, with the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning at the weekend.

Now that we know all 16 playoff teams, all of the first-round matchups and what every team has done this season, it's time to hand out report cards and grade everybody's performance.

Grades are based on results vs. preseason expectations, as well as the team's general overall play and the vibe around it. 

A team that was expected to make the playoffs before the season and failed to do so, and had to deal with a lot of chaos and stress is not going to get a good grade. 

A team that had no expectations for the playoffs and ended up playing its way in, or into contention at least, is probably going to get a very good grade.  

So, let's take a look at how every team grades this season. 

Nobody should have expected the playoffs for the Anaheim Ducks this season, but there needed to be some improvement and signs of progress to at least offer hope they are moving in the right direction.

There has been some of that.

The Ducks are going to have their best season since 2017-18, and there is a pretty good core of talent here to build around.

Young players such as forward Leo Carlsson and defenseman Jackson LaCombe have taken big steps forward, while rookie Cutter Gauthier consistently progressed throughout the season.

They still have some big issues, and there remains a big gap between them and the playoff teams, but there were definite steps forward here.

Grade: C

It's not a surprise that the Boston Bruins took a step backwards this season.

It's not even a huge shock that they missed the playoffs given the holes on their roster and the lack of a true No. 1 center.

However, the fact that they finished with one of the worst records in the league has to be seen as a miserable performance across the board.

Injuries on defense to Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm hurt, but management did a terrible job with the offseason and Jeremy Swayman had a brutal year in his first season as the team's unquestioned No. 1 goalie. 

This team had big flaws the past couple of years but was able to mask them, to some degree, due to an elite goaltending duo. The Bruins did not get that level of goaltending this season, and the season quickly got away from them.

Grade: D

This entire situation remains a sad mess.

The playoff drought is now at an NHL-record 14 consecutive seasons, and even worse, the team keeps trending in the wrong direction.

The Buffalo Sabres enter Thursday’s regular-season finale with only 35 wins, which is four fewer than a year ago and seven fewer than two years when they actually got close to a playoff spot.

Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin and Alex Tuch had big seasons, but the defensive play was a mess, the goaltending was bad, and they went into the season with more than $6 million in unused salary-cap space despite being desperate for the playoffs.

This is grim. 

Grade: D-

Given how many veteran players the Calgary Flames traded away over the past year and how little they added in the offseason to help replace them, this seemed like it was going to be a long rebuilding year. 

Even though the Flames missed the playoffs as expected, they still probably overachieved and at least gave their fans a reason to watch hockey games until the end of the regular season. 

Rookie goalie Dustin Wolf had an excellent campaign, while big-money forward Jonathan Huberdeau showed a little more offensively than he had in his first two years with the team.

They are not a contender, but they probably overachieved. 

Grade: B-

The Carolina Hurricanes did what they always do during the regular season: Played a sound, structured defensive game and dominated underlying possession and scoring chance metrics and won a lot of games. 

The question is going to be whether they can finish the job in the playoffs and get over the hump to reach the Stanley Cup Final. 

Carolina tried to take a home run swing before the trade deadline by adding Mikko Rantanen to give it the top-line, superstar scorer it's been lacking. But after being unable to get him signed to a long-term contract extension, the Hurricanes traded him to Dallas after just a couple of weeks. 

This is still a very good team, but the question of whether it has enough finishers to win it all will remain until it actually gets closer to a championship. 

Grade: B

This was never going to be a quick turnaround, but there is no way the Chicago Blackhawks will be happy with the way this season went.

While they have been able to get a glimpse of their future by working in a lot of their recent first-round draft picks, the on-ice results have been awful and show just how far away this team is.

They fired their coach, and ultimately won fewer games in the second season of Connor Bedard's career than they did in the season they tanked to try to get him.

Even worse is the fact that Bedard did not really take a big step forward. He was not bad by any means, but there was not a big jump in his production or overall impact. At least not yet.

Grade: D-

It has been a chaotic season in Colorado. From a record standpoint, they have been excellent—as usual—and are going into the playoffs as a bona fide Cup contender in the Western Conference.

Management was also wildly aggressive in retooling the roster on the fly, changing out both goalies, trading Mikko Rantanen for Martin Necas, and then bringing in Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle before the deadline. Now they seem likely to get captain Gabriel Landeskog back in time for the playoffs after he missed three full seasons of hockey.

As long as they have Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, they are going to have a chance. But the depth additions and goaltending will ultimately dictate how far they go in the playoffs.

Grade: B

This was an easy team to root for this year.

Before the season began, they went through the tragedy of Johnny Gaudreau's death.

The only reasonable expectation here was for the team to struggle, but they did anything but that.

Even though it did not result in a playoff berth, the Blue Jackets hung around in the race until the final week of the season and saw some serious improvement from their young players, including second-year center Adam Fantilli who looks to be a rising star. He scored 30 goals in only his second year in the league.

Their young talent, their prospect pool and their salary-cap space should make them an intriguing team going into next season.

Grade: A

When healthy, the Dallas Stars have one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the NHL.

After back-to-back Western Conference Finals appearances, they should be going into the playoffs as a huge favorite, but the uncertainty around the availability of top defenseman Miro Heiskanen is a concern.

They are also going into the postseason on a seven-game losing streak, while also getting a tough first-round draw in the Colorado Avalanche. 

They could win it all, and they could just as easily lose in the first round given the Heiskanen injury and the matchup. 

Their regular season was strong, but this team will be defined by what it does in the playoffs.

Grade: B

When is it OK to start questioning the Yzerplan?

The Red Wings missed the playoffs for the ninth year in a row, and sixth consecutive season under general manager Steve Yzerman. They again did not really get close. 

Outside of a brief surge following the midseason coaching change to fire Derek Lalonde and bring in Todd McLellan—a surge that was driven almost entirely by a hot streak by their power play—this team still struggled in all of the same areas it has in recent years. Specifically, its inability to defend or control the pace of play during 5-on-5 play.

There are some good young players here and good prospects on the way, but this team is still clearly not where it needs or wants to be.

If you had told Red Wings fans they would still be looking for their first playoff appearance under Yzerman six years into his tenure, we're not sure many would have signed up for that.

Grade: D

After going all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final a year ago, the Oilers entered this season with sky-high expectations. But they still had some big questions and flaws on their roster.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are great, but the depth is still not where it needs to be at forward or defense, and the goaltending is still a gigantic issue. 

Teams that are this top-heavy do not tend to win championships, and that lack of depth has taken an even bigger hit going into the playoffs where they will be without one of their top defenders, Mattias Ekholm. 

A third-place finish in the division and not even getting home-ice advantage in the opening round is probably not what the Oilers wanted. 

Grade: C

After making consecutive trips to the Cup Final, and winning it all a year ago, the Panthers added Brad Marchand and Seth Jones to their lineup at the trade deadline.

As long as they are healthy, this is as good of a lineup as there is in the NHL.

The biggest obstacle for them might simply be the fact that they have played so much hockey over the past two years, and that it is really hard to keep going on deep playoff runs.

Grade: B

This is an excellent team and plays a winning style of hockey.

The Los Angeles Kings are an exceptional defensive team despite losing Matt Roy to free agency and playing most of the season without Drew Doughty. They also fixed one of their biggest weaknesses from a year ago by getting a huge upgrade in goal with Darcy Kuemper coming over in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade.

They are back in the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, but they still have a lot to prove. Specifically: Can they beat Edmonton in the playoffs after losing to the Oilers three years in a row. 

If they can get through that glass ceiling, this could be a Stanley Cup-caliber team.

Grade: B

You have to give the Minnesota Wild a lot of credit for making the playoffs here.

Not only was this the last year of the major buyout years for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, significantly hurting their salary-cap situation, but they were also crushed by injuries at times this season. The biggest of those was losing MVP candidate Kirill Kaprizov for half the season. 

It would have been easy for all of that to add up and send this team into the tank.

Instead, they are in the playoffs, getting healthy and have a strong goaltending duo. 

Grade: B

Playoff hockey is coming back to the Bell Centre, and the vibes around the Canadiens right now are off the charts.

Their promising young core has received two major additions this season with defenseman Lane Hutson emerging as a Calder Trophy front-runner and 2024 No. 5 overall pick Ivan Demidov making his surprise debut late in the season and having an immediate impact.

Nick Suzuki has blossomed into a No. 1 center, Cole Caufield is a top-line finisher and Patrik Laine can still change a game at any moment with his shot.

They are not a Stanley Cup contender at the moment, but they are a team on the rise and one that could bring a ton of energy to the postseason.

Grade: A

After making the playoffs a year ago, and then going on an offseason spending spree in free agency that saw them add Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, there were serious Stanley Cup expectations for the 2024-25 season. 

They not only failed to match them or even get back into the playoffs, but they also ended up finishing with one of the worst records in the NHL and now have some big questions to ask themselves going into the offseason.

Was it all a fluke?

Did they make bad investments?

Can they rebound next season?

Whatever the answers to those questions are, the result here this season is the same: failure.

Grade: F

It wasn't too much of a leap to think the New Jersey Devils could bounce back this season. What they needed was some better injury luck and an upgrade with their goalies. They took care of the latter part by adding Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames. 

When it came to the injuries, they were getting better luck there until the second half of the campaign.

Jack Hughes is out for the season after suffering another major injury, and without him in the lineup, there appears to be almost zero expectation for them in the playoffs. 

Solid season. Could have been better.

Grade: C

So what happens next?

The Islanders are an older team, do not have a great farm system, lack star power, have a general manager (Lou Lamoriello) who has seemingly lost his touch as a team-builder and a head coach (Patrick Roy) who is kind of wild. 

Anthony Duclair, their big free-agency addition, left the team after being publicly humiliated by Roy after a game, Brock Nelson was traded and Noah Dobson is a restricted free agent after this season. 

There is a ton of work to be done here, and the growing flaws were enough to prevent them from getting back to the playoffs.

Grade: D

Regression should have always been expected here. They were not as good as their Presidents’ Trophy record would have had you believe a season ago, and there was every reason to believe they would take a step backwards this season (but still be a playoff team). 

Not even the biggest Rangers hater, critic or skeptic could have foreseen the season they actually had. 

The power play went from being one of the best in the league to one of the worst, the goaltending went from elite to above average, and they still have some of the worst 5-on-5 metrics of any team (a continuing problem over the past five seasons). 

What really took the season from bad to full embarrassment was the fact that the entire organization seemed to be a mess.

Multiple players spoke openly about their frustrations with the coaching staff and their role, players did not seem to trust management after so many veterans were put on the trade block. 

This team needs to take a long look in the mirror at itself this offseason and what it is doing. 

Grade: F

The Senators have had a good core in place for a couple of years now, but they needed something to bring it all together.

That something was starting goalie Linus Ullmark.

Getting him from the Boston Bruins not only strengthened their own roster, but it also significantly weakened a division rival's roster. And now the Senators are replacing them in the playoff field. Those are some big wins.

This is the Senators' first playoff appearance since their shocking 2016-17 Eastern Conference Final run, and Ullmark is going to give them a chance to actually do something now that they are here. 

Grade: A

The Philadelphia Flyers took a step backwards in the standings and fired head coach John Tortorella with two weeks to play in the regular season. That is a lot of dysfunction and would make the season look like a total failure.

But it wasn't.

Their defensive structure was outstanding and on par with what playoff teams did in terms of limiting chances against, while they also had a huge rookie showing from forward Matvei Michkov. 

The problem is their goaltending was the worst in the NHL and completely sunk any chances they might have had. 

Good process. Bad results.

Grade: C

The Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season, but they have spent the year stockpiling more prospects and future draft picks to help prepare themselves for when Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang retire. 

They have some legitimate prospects starting to make the NHL and have more draft picks (30) over the next three years than any other team in hockey. That includes three first-round picks over the next two years.

While this might not be a full-scale rebuild and complete teardown, the Penguins are clearing looking to at least retool their organization. 

Crosby is still great and one of the best players in hockey, but the question is going to be whether they can get back to the playoffs before he retires.

Their defensive structure and goaltending are going to have to be significantly better for that to happen.

Grade: D

This is almost the same scenario as the Blackhawks.

A team that went into a full-scale, tear-it-all-down rebuild, got some draft lottery luck to get a franchise player at the top of the draft (Macklin Celebrini) and is now facing the long road back to respectability. 

There is some serious young talent here led by Celebrini, and those are important pieces to get. The most important pieces, actually.  But this team is years away from contention, and this year's roster was not even in the same zip code as contention.

They were at least somewhat competitive at times this season and not the total embarrassment they were a year ago. 

Grade: D

The Seattle Kraken just have not been able to figure it out yet, and they are playing like you would expect an expansion team to play early in its existence. This is not a Vegas situation, and it never has been.

Seattle lacks impact players, but Shane Wright and Matty Beniers still have potential. They just need to realize it at the NHL level. 

They also made some really bad investments over the offseason, led by Chandler Stephenson's long-term deal when it was pretty clear he had already played his best hockey for somebody else.

Goalie Joey Daccord also took a step backwards after signing a long-term contract that may have been a little premature.

Grade: D

Aggressiveness was the name of the game for the St. Louis Blues this season.

They were aggressive to dip into the restricted free agent market to get forward Dylan Holloway and defenseman Philip Broberg from the Edmonton Oilers. They have been tremendous additions.

They were aggressive to fire head coach Drew Bannister and replace him with Jim Montgomery after just 12 games. Montgomery has helped turn the Blues back into one of the best defensive teams in hockey.

They were aggressive to go on the trade market and get Cam Fowler from the Anaheim Ducks, and he ended up being one of the best in-season additions any team made this season.

The result of all of that: Returning to the playoffs and looking like the team "nobody wants to play." They are going to be a tough out. 

Grade: A-

In the first part of the season, it looked like the Tampa Bay Lightning's days as a serious Cup contender were winding down. Not anymore. This team can still win it all, and win it all this season. 

Nikita Kucherov is playing like an MVP, and they have three more 80-point players in Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel.

Starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is also playing like the dominant goalie he has been at his peak, while they made a huge trade at the deadline to get Oliver Bjorkstrand and bring back Yanni Gourde to improve their depth. 

The stage is set for a battle of Florida in the opening round. It will be one heck of a series. 

Grade: B

It's hard to fully grasp the pressure this Toronto Maple Leafs team is facing this postseason.

They won their division, they had great individual numbers from their core players and the entire NHL playoff landscape looks wide open this season. Anybody could win it all. 

Toronto is not only facing pressure because of that, it is also facing pressure because Toronto is desperate for a champion (the Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since the Original Six era) and two of their core players (Mitch Marner and John Tavares) are unrestricted free agents after this season.

The core cannot be kept together if they lose another first-round series. The contract status of Marner and Tavares makes it likely somebody could go this summer.

Very good team. Very good regular season. But nobody in Toronto cares about any of that without playoff success to back it up and validate it all.

Grade: A

The first year for the franchise in Utah was a pretty solid success. They played before packed, raucous crowds, while the team took a nice little step forward and got a little closer to the playoffs. 

There is a good young core of forward talent here led by Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther and Logan Cooley, and they also made a huge investment in the defense prior to this season by trading for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino.

They could use a goalie upgrade and some more scoring depth, but there is a definite plan in place and some real hope for the future. 

They should go after a star this offseason either by trade or free agency. 

Grade: B

Other than defenseman Quinn Hughes, almost every player here took a step backwards this season, and none bigger than star forward Elias Pettersson. 

The season became such a mess with losing, as well as a rift between Pettersson and J.T. Miller, that the Canucks had to eventually ship away the latter and reportedly at least considered dealing the former. 

Brock Boeser seems destined to leave in free agency, and the Canucks ended up missing the playoffs by multiple games. 

Just a mess of a season, and a completely forgettable one. Everybody and everything here simply failed on the ice. Sometimes off of it as well.

Grade: F

It seems crazy to suggest this, but the Vegas Golden Knights might be sneaking under the radar going into the playoffs.

They have the third-best record in the league and a bona fide superstar in Jack Eichel, but they do not seem to be getting as much attention as teams like Toronto, Florida, Winnipeg, Dallas or Colorado. 

When fully healthy, this is still a loaded roster at the top and does everything well. They are in the top six in goals scored and goals against, while also possessing solid goaltending. 

They can win it all.

Grade: A

Everything with the Capitals this season took a back seat to Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time NHL goals scored record.

That alone made the season a success for Capitals fans.

But they also got to watch one of the league's best teams that made a surprising climb to the top of the standings.

The Capitals snuck into the playoffs a year ago with one of the worst goal differentials we have seen from a playoff team, and management clearly knew that same recipe would not be sustainable.

So they made huge changes to the roster this offseason, added Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, Jakob Chychrun, Andrew Mangiapane and Logan Thompson, while several young players continued to progress. 

They have slowed down a bit down the stretch, and whether they do anything in the playoffs or not, this season has been a huge success. Also a pretty big surprise. 

Grade: A

Going into the 2024-25 season, the Winnipeg Jets organization had never won anything of significance in its first 25 seasons.

Only one division title when the team was still in Atlanta.

No conference titles. No Stanley Cups. No Presidents' Trophy.

They changed that latter one this season when they clinched the best record in the league, giving the franchise a big moment to celebrate. It still has a chance to add another moment if it can win the Cup. 

The most important player is going to be starting goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He has played at a Vezina Trophy level (again) and should probably be in serious MVP discussion.

He has helped carry the team to the top of the standings, and he is one of the best goalies in the NHL when he is on his game.

The question for Winnipeg is going to be whether Hellebuyck can be on his game in the playoffs. That is something that hasn't always happened for him in recent seasons.

Grade: A