Top storylines heading into 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

There are new contenders in a Stanley Cup Playoffs field that is wide open and devoid of a defending champion.

There's a feeling of old being new again in Pittsburgh.

There's Buffalo in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

There's Canada with three hopefuls of ending the long drought, one being the Edmonton Oilers, who have come close the past two years.

There's an Avalanche of optimism in Denver.

There's Mammoth expectations in Utah.

The journey to June hockey starts Saturday. Here are 10 of the biggest storylines to follow.

New champion

The Stanley Cup is leaving South Florida, but will it leave the state of Florida altogether?

The Florida Panthers did not qualify for the playoffs and therefore will not be able to go for the three-peat after repeating as Stanley Cup champions last season.

With the defending champions out of the picture, a familiar team is among the prime contenders. The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Cup in 2020 and 2021, and it would not surprise anyone in the hockey world if the Stanley Cup remained in the Sunshine State with the Lightning winning it again this season.

The Lightning play the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Four teams in the playoffs have never won the Stanley Cup; the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, Minnesota Wild and Utah Mammoth. Another four haven't won it in this century; Philadelphia Flyers (1975), Edmonton (1990), Montreal (1993) and Dallas Stars (1999).

The Golden Knights won their lone championship in 2023. The Colorado Avalanche won their third in 2022. The Lightning were repeat champions, in addition to their 2004 title. The Pittsburgh Penguins were also repeat champs, winning in 2016 and 2017. They also won 2009.

The Carolina Hurricanes' lone Stanley Cup championship came in 2006. In 2007, it was the Anaheim Ducks getting it done. The Cup went to the Boston Bruins in 2011 followed by the Los Angeles Kings in 2012. The Kings won it again in 2014.

Fresh six pack

Six teams that missed the playoffs last season are in with the Sabres, Penguins, Flyers and Bruins getting in from the Eastern Conference, and Anaheim and Utah making it from the Western Conference.

The six-team turnover is the second highest year-over-year turnover in playoffs history behind seven, which happened four times (2014-15, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2020-21).

The Penguins, Sabres, Bruins and Flyers all made it after finishing in the bottom four in the Eastern Conference last season. It's the first time since 1993-94 that the last four teams in a conference all reached the playoffs the following season.

The Sabres are in for the first time since 2011, ending the League's longest postseason drought. The Penguins made it after missing the past three seasons. The Flyers are in for the first time since 2020, and will play a home game in the playoffs for the first time since 2018.

The Mammoth are in for the first time in team history, and the Ducks are a playoff team for the first time since 2018. The Bruins missed last season after making it in eight consecutive seasons.

New coaches making impact

Seven teams with new coaches are in the playoffs, the most since there were eight in 2002-03, excluding 2020, when there were 24 teams that qualified for the postseason.

The most intriguing new coach is John Tortorella, who replaced Bruce Cassidy as the Golden Knights coach on March 29 with eight regular season games remaining. The Golden Knights went 7-0-1 under Tortorella and finished first in the Pacific Division.

Glen Gulutzan guided the Stars to a second-place finish in the Central Division after taking over for Pete DeBoer following last season's run to the Western Conference Final.

Dan Muse got the Penguins into the playoffs for the first time since 2022 in his first season as an NHL head coach. They finished second in the Metropolitan Division.

Marco Sturm brought Boston back to the playoffs in his first season as an NHL head coach. The Bruins missed the playoffs last season.

Rick Tocchet got the Flyers in as the third-place finisher in the Metropolitan Division thanks to an 18-7-1 post-Olympic break run.

Joel Quenneville (Anaheim) and D.J. Smith (Los Angeles) each helped bring playoff hockey back to Southern California.

Canada's drought

It's a storyline going into the playoffs every year; will a Canada-based team end the longest and arguably most unlikely Stanley Cup drought, which is currently at 32 years, including 31 seasons?

No Canadian team has won the Cup since the Canadiens in 1993, which means it has gone to a team in the United States 31 consecutive times (there was no Cup winner in 2005 because of the lockout).

The odds are fully against that happening, especially now with seven NHL teams in Canada since the Winnipeg Jets came back into the League in 2011-12. That was before the NHL added the Golden Knights in 2017-18 and Seattle Kraken in 2021-22 to make it a 32-team league.

The three Canada hopefuls this season are the Canadiens, Senators and Oilers, who have come close the past two seasons but couldn't finish the job.

The Vancouver Canucks (1994, 2011), Calgary Flames (2004), Oilers (2006, 2024, 2025), Senators (2007) and Canadiens (2021) have reached the Stanley Cup Final in the years since the Canadiens' 1993 championship.

Welcome back, Buffalo

A Stanley Cup Playoff game will be played in Buffalo for the first time since April 24, 2011, when the Flyers defeated the Sabres 5-4 in overtime in Game 6 of the first round.

Three players from that game are still playing in the NHL; James van Riemsdyk (Detroit Red Wings), Claude Giroux (Ottawa Senators) and Tyler Myers (Dallas Stars). Two players from that game are now NHL general managers in Danny Briere (Flyers) and Mike Grier (San Jose Sharks).

The Sabres return as the Atlantic Division regular-season winner, their first division title since 2009-10, when they had 100 points and finished first in the old Northeast Division.

They finished with 109 points this season, the most they've had in a single season since 2006-07, when they won the Presidents' Trophy with 113 and went on to lose to the Senators in the Eastern Conference Final.

Buffalo is back despite being last in the East with 26 points (11-14-4) following a 7-4 loss to the Flames on Dec. 8, when forward Tage Thompson commented, "Everyone in here is tired of saying we played a good game and didn't get a win."

The Sabres won their next 10 games, starting a run that saw them go 39-9-5 in their last 53 games of the season to finish first in the division and second in the conference behind the Hurricanes (113 points).

Crosby, Malkin, Letang

The Penguins are back in the playoffs, which means it's another chance for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to compete for the Stanley Cup.

They have won it three times together (2009, 2016 and 2017), and reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2008, their first postseason appearance as teammates.

This is the 16th time since 2008 that the Penguins are in the playoffs with Crosby, Malkin and Letang on the roster, and the 13th in which they are all expected to play.

Crosby and Malkin did not play in the 2011 playoffs because of injuries. Letang didn't play in 2015 or 2017 because of his injury and illness issues.

It is their 20th season together as teammates, the longest tenured trio in North American professional sports.

The Penguins will play the Flyers in the first round for the fourth time in the Crosby-Malkin-Letang era. Pittsburgh won against Philadelphia in 2008 and 2009 on its way to reaching the Stanley Cup Final, and again in 2018. The Flyers eliminated the Penguins in 2012.

Crosby has 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 23 postseason games against Philadelphia. Malkin has 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) and Letang 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) each in 22 playoff games against the Flyers.

Tortorella returns to playoffs

Tortorella is in the playoffs for the first time since 2020, when he was still coaching the Columbus Blue Jackets. That's two teams ago for Tortorella, who didn't reach the postseason in his two-plus seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2022-25.

He is 20th all-time in playoff games coached with 120 and could pass both Claude Julien (124) and Glen Sather (126) in the first round.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for Tortorella or the Golden Knights this season, but a struggle under Cassidy, including an 8-15-4 funk from Jan. 19-March 28, including 5-10-2 after the Olympic break and 1-4-2 in their last seven games, led to the coaching change on March 29.

Tortorella moved out of his comfy studio chair at ESPN and back behind the bench. The Golden Knights got back to the basics under him, went 7-0-1 in their last eight games and locked up first place in the Pacific Division.

Now Tortorella gets to be behind the bench again in the playoffs, where his teams are 56-64, including a Stanley Cup championship with the Lightning 22 years ago.

3rd time's a charm?

Connor McDavid and the Oilers are hoping this time they can finish the job.

The Oilers made it to the Stanley Cup Final the past two seasons only to lose to the Panthers.

Good news for them, Florida is not in the playoffs this season.

But McDavid and the Oilers have a long way to go before another chance at the Cup comes even close to reality, as it did the past two seasons.

They open the playoffs against the Anaheim Ducks after finishing second in the Pacific Division with 93 points, which would not have been enough to even make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

They're not alone, though. Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota are the only teams in the Western Conference that would have made the playoffs in the East based on points.

McDavid is hopeful to have Leon Draisaitl with him in Game 1. The center has been out since sustaining a lower-body injury in a 3-1 win against the Nashville Predators on March 15. Draisaitl is skating with the team but his status for Game 1 is still to be determined.

Mammoth mania

Imagine what it'll be like when there's playoff hockey at Delta Center.

You heard that the day the NHL arrived in Utah two years ago. You saw what that crowd could be like when 12,500 packed inside Delta Center on April 24, 2024, to welcome the new team to town, a week after they finished their last season as the Arizona Coyotes.

We won't have to imagine any longer.

The Utah Mammoth will play the first Stanley Cup Playoff game in the state of Utah on Friday, April 24, when they host Game 3 of the first round against Vegas.

Utah has been a remarkable success story in just two seasons, and now there's real playoff-level excitement for the Mammoth, who made it as the first wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference.

They are the third straight new NHL franchise to make the playoffs within its first two seasons, joining Vegas, which went to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season (2017-18) and the Seattle Kraken, who had 100 points and won a round in their second season (2022-23).

Running the table

The Avalanche begin their quest for a fourth Stanley Cup championship against the Los Angeles Kings. The Presidents' Trophy winners open at home, Game 1 at Ball Arena on Sunday.

Colorado was in first place in the overall League standings for the final 143 gamedays in the regular season, tied with the 1983-84 Oilers for the third longest streak of consecutive gamedays in first place in NHL history behind the 1976-77 Canadiens (158) and 1984-85 Oilers (153).

They're in good company to stay on a path to a Stanley Cup championship. The Canadiens won the Cup in 1977. The Oilers won it in 1984 and 1985. The Detroit Red Wings, who were first in the League for 140 consecutive gamedays in 2001-02, won the Cup that year.

The Avalanche moved into sole possession of first in the League on Nov. 1, when they picked up a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks. There were 29 gamedays in November, 28 in December, 31 in January, nine in February, 31 in March and 15 in April.

Colorado was first in the League for the final 167 total days, which includes non-gamedays like U.S. Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the 19-day Olympic break and April 10, when there were no NHL games.