NHL front-office confidence rankings, 2024: How fans feel about every team (2025)

Every summer we ask one simple question: How confident are you in your team’s front office? It’s a “wisdom of the crowd” approach meant to show which front offices are doing the best job and which ones aren’t.

It’s not a perfect encapsulation of front-office ability — the “what have you done for me lately” vibe that often stems from recency bias is perfectly reflected in the often erratic year-to-year movement. But it does provide a temperature check on how fans are feeling about the state of their favorite teams and how outsiders view things as well.

Each front office is graded in six categories: roster building, cap management, drafting and development, trading, free agency and vision.

This is the ninth annual version of this project. This year’s edition saw nearly 10,000 responses from fans grading their favorite teams and 250 responses grading every team. The contrast between the two is always fascinating.

According to the collective opinion of our well-informed subscribers, here’s how much confidence each team’s front office currently inspires.

Some comments have been slightly edited for style and clarity.

1. Florida Panthers

Last year: 7th

“I don’t think it’s possible to trust a GM more than I trust Zito. The only thing we haven’t seen yet is if his team can draft as well as they can scout pro players … not that he’s had a ton of high picks to work with.”

“Any move they make pays off. I was highly critical when Maurice was hired and even somewhat skeptical when they traded so much for Tkachuk. Then they immediately made the Final, tweaked the roster, and won it all!”

There is simply no better-managed team in hockey than the Florida Panthers and that’s become clear as day after their meticulous process resulted in hockey’s ultimate prize this summer.

Everything the Panthers seem to touch turns into gold. Whether it’s a trade, a signing or an extension — it feels like they’re operating on an entirely different level from other teams. Even when certain moves don’t make sense at the time, the Panthers prove otherwise. Every player who comes to Florida looks like an amplified version of himself, and they all get signed for a fraction of their real worth. There’s something in the water here and it feels like one Stanley Cup might be just the beginning of this era. Doubt them at your own peril.

There’s a lot of love for Bill Zito among the Panthers faithful, rightfully so given the team he’s built and the deals he’s signed. But a full front-office effort from top to bottom has the Panthers on the right side of so many deals. They are the league’s gold standard.

2. Dallas Stars

Last year: 4th

“Best drafting team in the league, clear vision, follow the overdevelop model with prospects that I think pays huge dividends down the line. With Nill at the helm, you get a feel of calm and composure from the very top.”

“Overall I think Dallas continues to be one of the best-run organizations. Nill deserves his back-to-back GM of the Year award, and both the present and future looks great in Big D.”

There should be no shock which team came first for draft and development. Dallas has been running laps around the entire league on that front for years and earned extremely high marks from the public and its fan base for it. It’s not just Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen and Jake Oettinger either. It’s Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven and maybe even Mavrik Bourque on top of that. It’s a shock the Stars didn’t get a perfect five out of five here.

Drafting and developing carries the most weight in this exercise, but the Stars aren’t a one-trick pony. They have built an elite roster, they’ve signed some fantastic deals, they make great trades and they generally have a strong vision of what it takes to win.

That means they get a slight pass on things that look wonky — mainly what they did in free agency this summer, which looked highly questionable.

Even the best front offices aren’t perfect. But what the Stars do well, they do better than every other team in the league. That deserves very high marks.

3. Tampa Bay Lightning

Last year: 3rd

“The Lightning will get hammered for the Stamkos loss. At the end of the day, my guess is that he wanted too much to justify his staying (he ended up with 4×8 in Nashville, which is insane — although we don’t know what type of discount he would have conceded to stay). It could have been handled with more tact and dignity, and I’d have loved to see Stamkos stay, but I’m willing to bet it was probably the right choice.”

“Moving on from Stamkos is not something I could have done, but that’s why I’m happy JBB is the GM instead of me. Let’s reload and try to win.”

Letting Steven Stamkos walk was not an easy thing for the Lightning to do. Same with Mikhail Sergachev.

But it’s hard to deny the team is in a better place with Jake Guentzel and Ryan McDonagh in the fold instead. That’s a collective swap that shows the Lightning front office still has the goods when it comes to team building. They’re a better team for it.

There was some reason to believe the team’s front-office acumen had slipped last summer, mostly after the Tanner Jeannot debacle. But the Lighting seemed to get out of that with ease and get right back on track this summer. Back-to-back first-round exits will have that effect.

What matters most here is it’s clear the fan base still holds the team’s management in extremely high regard with a 4.6 rating that narrowly edges Florida. They’ve earned full trust back this summer, even after doing the unpopular thing by letting Stamkos go.

The public may have cooled off a bit on the Lightning, but as far as the team’s fan base is concerned, they still have the league’s best front office.

4. Utah Hockey Club

Last year: 16th (Arizona Coyotes)

“The one thing Alex Meruelo did right was hire Bill Armstrong.”

“Tough call now with new ownership. I think GMBA knows what he is doing and has a plan. Does the new ownership share that plan?”

Finding Utah fans for this poll was a bit difficult, considering it’s a new team in a small market. But those who did vote held the team in high regard, close to where the public views them.

The NHL’s newest team appears likely to immediately reap the rewards of what the Coyotes have been strategically building toward for years. The difference now is an owner who’s willing to spend, and that was immediately felt with some big-time summer moves meant to greatly shore up the team’s biggest weak spot: its blue line.

The team’s deals for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino led to high marks for trading and look to be exactly what Utah needs to make a playoff push next season.

It’s not just those two though, it’s what’s already here — a result of savvy cap management and some strong drafting during the team’s rebuild. The vision is there; now it’s finally time to execute it and earn some results.

5. Vancouver Canucks

Last year: 30th

“After many years of being casually terrified and furious around free agency and trade deadlines waiting for Benning to do something horrendous, it’s been so bizarre to be able to trust the guys in charge. I hated the Miller extension and the Tocchet hire and have been proved hilariously wrong. They’ve earned my trust with a run of sensible buy-low deals, savvy contract negotiations and roster building.”

“Still not ready to quite go all in on ‘this team has an elite management group.’ I don’t know if that’s trauma or because last season felt a little too charmed. But they’re certainly competent, which is so nice after so long.”

What a glow-up. From 30th to top five, Canucks fans finally have a front office they can get behind.

It’s been a long time coming to get to this moment as Vancouver was a frequent bottom feeder on this list during the Jim Benning era. The Jim Rutherford era started kind of rocky, too.

But over the last year, everything changed as the entire vision came together. The core reached their potential, some veterans bounced back, and some astute depth adds proved to be the missing touch needed to make the Canucks an elite team.

That required some patience from Canucks fans when it felt like the front office was making the wrong move … or not making the right move. Just imagine if every move being clamored for before last season actually came to fruition.

Imagine if the Canucks really traded away J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Conor Garland the year prior. Imagine if they never added Filip Hronek. Imagine if they never hired Rick Tocchet.

Fortunately, it all worked out and helped serve as a lesson that this regime really was different — this one actually knows what they’re doing. Confidence means trust and the current front office has earned it.

6. Montreal Canadiens

Last year: 14th

“Slafkovsky’s development and the Demidov pick has completely changed my outlook on the team. A year ago I was mixed on the Gorton/Hughes regime (hated passing on Michkov for Reinbacher) and was very critical of any move I perceived to be wrong. Now I feel silly complaining about anything, feels like this management is building a powerhouse.”

“Hughes has done efficient work, although he’ll need to be judged at some point on wins and losses. Once the team enters its competitive window, it will be exciting to see whether the team has the components to win a Cup. Next summer or the summer after will be interesting as he should be able to flex his cap space and acquire some free agents.”

I’m not sure there’s a more promising rebuild in this league than the one currently being cooked up by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. The team’s fan base certainly views it in extremely high regard, but it is taking some time for the public to catch up.

It’s true that Montreal has done well at the easy part and we haven’t yet seen how it handles the hard stuff. But so far the Canadiens have done an excellent job in almost every facet to position themselves well for when that time comes. The difference between the deals the new regime has signed and the albatross deals left behind by the old guard is night and day. The new ones are all winners, with the two newest deals for Juraj Slafkovsky and Kaiden Guhle looking like they could be huge steals at the right time.

Montreal took some lumps for its drafting last year after passing on Matvei Michkov, but things are looking up now that the team has rectified that with Ivan Demidov. That one pick did a lot of work in shifting the discourse and has allowed the front office’s overarching vision to really come into focus.

Time will tell if Montreal has the elite pieces necessary to win the Cup, but key players taking major leaps last year certainly add more optimism. With Gorton and Hughes in charge, Canadiens fans have every reason to be optimistic about the future. They’re doing things right and they’re doing it at the right pace, too.

7. New Jersey Devils

Last year: 1st

“Fitzgerald has not been perfect. Botched the Holtz situation, and waited way too long to fire Ruff last season. But he has made many excellent decisions that have finally turned things around. Both the perception of the team from a player and fan perspective and has created a culture that expects to win. He has done what he’s had to to bring in missing pieces.”

“From October 2023 to May 2024, Tom Fitzgerald disappeared. Before and after that window I think he’s been a great GM and made quite a few savvy moves, especially via trade.”

It’s funny to see the juxtaposition of the Devils dropping from first to seventh in these rankings but with a positive change in confidence over the last year. Some of you are lying!

Regardless, it does feel like New Jersey’s front office is back on track after a disastrous 2023-24 season. Everything that could go wrong for the upstart Devils did, leading to a shocking playoff miss. But Tom Fitzgerald made an extensive effort to fix a lot of what ailed the Devils last season. They’re tougher, their bottom six is cleaned up, their defense has a better mix, and at long last, the goaltending problems have been solved.

8. Carolina Hurricanes

Last year: 2nd

“It’s simple. The front office (which includes Coach Rod) has a vision and they stick to it.Every player acquired (via trade, free agency, draft, etc.) fits the vision and knows what to expect. Of course no 100 percent success rate, but the blueprint is there.”

“It’s great to see a front office not panic when faced with a tough scenario around a good team. The Canes have a flexible future because of smart allocation of cap money, and quality drafting and development.”

The Hurricanes had a number of difficult decisions to make this summer, but first-time GM Eric Tulsky managed to make things work without a whole lot of money. Re-signing everyone would’ve been impossible and he did well around the edges considering the circumstances.

Carolina’s front office is still held in extremely high regard according to the public, with especially high marks for cap management and drafting. But the relative ranking for trading and free agency from the fan base does drag the team’s standing down a tad.

That makes some degree of sense given what happened with Jake Guentzel, the team’s highest-profile free agent who they traded a lot for at the deadline. That ends up feeling like a loss on both fronts, especially with a lack of “oomph” being a longstanding issue for this team in particular. Losing almost every other free agent adds to the sting, even if they were rather smartly replaced on the cheap.

The Hurricanes should still be a great team this season, but whether what they uniquely do works to achieve hockey’s ultimate prize is starting to come into question.

9. Colorado Avalanche

Last year: 5th

“Overall I have been impressed with MacFarland as a whole since he took over the GM role. He has been dealt a tough hand the past few years with Landy’s injury and Val’s continued personal issues, but he has worked within the margins about as well as the fans can reasonably expect and hasn’t made any egregiously bad decisions.”

“My confidence was higher before and just after the 2022 Cup. The decisions in the last two years have been a little more mixed.”

Two years after winning the Cup, the unbeatable hype around Colorado’s front office has begun to fade. A ninth-place finish in these rankings is the lowest Colorado has fallen in a long time and that comes from an antsy fan base and a tight cluster of teams ranked between third (4.05) and 10th (3.82) place on this list. There probably isn’t a lot separating that group.

While Colorado remains a team many fear trading with — Casey Mittelstadt for Bowen Byram feeling like the latest coup — the Avalanche don’t rank as high in other categories as usual. They haven’t hit as many home runs in free agency with some shaky work last year, and the team’s roster building has fallen behind some of the league’s best as depth is once again a concern.

Losing Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin for lengthy periods would be difficult for any team to deal with and that shouldn’t be held against management. But there aren’t a lot of internal solutions either. Colorado’s annual problem-solving depth generally stems from a very weak draft and development record, one the fan base has grown increasingly frustrated with. The public hasn’t caught on to that, though, and still views Colorado favorably in that regard.

10. Nashville Predators

Last year: 23rd

“I welcome the boldness in being willing to double down on last season and use Josi and Saros’ prime years to try to win something. If it fails it fails but much prefer this to just making small tweaks.”

“Obviously, when Barry took over it was a warm fuzzy feeling because he has meant so much to this franchise, but he is proving he’s the right man for the job. He has been fantastic.”

Barry Trotz isn’t just a legacy hire. He’s one of the game’s best minds and is proving he’s just as good at managing a team as he is at coaching one.

That starts with one of his best moves: hiring Andrew Brunette, who has turned the Predators into an exciting high-octane team. That’s a smart bet given they have Juuse Saros between the pipes (for a very long time now at a fair price) and doubled down on it this offseason by adding a lot more offensive firepower. Nashville looks like a very exciting team to watch, one that has shown a rare ability to actually retool on the fly with a high degree of effectiveness. The Predators are competitive year in and year out and Trotz has only added to that.

Nashville naturally gets top marks for its free-agency work — the Predators were the big winners this summer — and some love for its roster building, too. But there is concern with the team’s drafting and development, as there’s not a lot of up-and-coming talent to get excited about. Well, aside from Yaroslav Askarov, whose days as a Predator feel numbered.

11. Vegas Golden Knights

Last year: 6th

“VGK does nothing particularly special on the ice — very few highlight-reel goals or saves, despite some big names on the roster. The team’s true strength lies in their front office, Kelly has the balls to do what most other GMs don’t, and the results speak for themselves. One of the few teams in the league with no bad contracts.”

“Losing Marchy is tough, but that move was needed to keep the team competitive for the coming years. The Knights make the tough decisions that fans don’t always love. But winning heals all wounds.”

There’s a lot of trust with Vegas’ front office which is no surprise one year removed from a Stanley Cup. The team’s brand of ruthlessness proved championship worthy and that means any current decisions are viewed through a much rosier lens. Most fan bases would be a lot more upset about losing a fan favorite like Jonathan Marchessault, but those in Vegas seem a lot more understanding — they’ve seen it work far too often in the team’s favor to be opposed.

I’m a little less convinced on that move specifically, especially considering Marchessault ended up getting a little more than Ivan Barbashev who arguably shouldn’t have been signed the year prior. But hey, it’s Vegas … the house usually wins.

The team’s ruthless attitude means high marks for roster building, trading and free agency; but they wouldn’t have to work so hard to make things work in those categories if Vegas was a better drafting team. The team’s only homegrown players on the roster are Pavel Dorofeyev, Brendan Brisson and Nicolas Hague which speaks volumes.

12. Chicago Blackhawks

Last year: 15th

“I like what Kyle Davidson is doing. I think the focus on rebuilding through the draft and acquiring picks has been consistent over the last three years. The patience needed for a rebuild of this type is hard to muster and I’m not sure they have always made the right pick in every instance, but I do think the front office knows what they are doing when it comes to taking their time with prospects and developing them the right way.”

“Davidson has been clear and consistent with his vision. So far, he has followed through well, and I like this year’s moves to improve and give prospects additional time. As we move beyond the teardown, each step becomes more difficult and it remains to be seen just how effective he will be.”

Getting Connor Bedard is one thing. Building around him is another. That’s the challenge now for Kyle Davidson and company as they enter the next phase of the Bedard era: climbing out of the bottom.

That won’t be easy, but the team made some wise bets this offseason to start the process. That earned Chicago decent marks on the free-agency front and should give the Blackhawks a much stronger supporting cast around Bedard.

That’s without sacrificing the overall vision, too. The goal was to stop being a nightly pushover and get Bedard some help, all while maintaining long-term focus toward finding cornerstone pieces at the draft. They’re savvy stop-gap solutions to fill out the roster and between Teuvo Teravainen, Tyler Bertuzzi, TJ Brodie and Laurent Brossoit, the team made solid bets on that front.

The lack of support in Bedard’s rookie year felt like a major misstep by most, but that’s been fixed for his sophomore season. Aside from that, any other error has felt marginal or debatable.

13. San Jose Sharks

Last Year: 29th

“I loved the Mike Grier hire from the jump. I really respected that he told the fan base that things were going to get tougher before they got better. He came in and had a major mess to clean up and he has. He got rid of some brutal contracts and added top-end, exciting talent to our farm system … which we really haven’t had in a long time. For the first time since 2019, it’s an exciting time to be a Sharks fan again.”

“Generally happy with the team’s direction and drafting. Too soon to know on player development — none of Grier’s picks have played an NHL game yet, but all reports say the picks have been strong and most picks from 2022 and 2023 would go higher in a re-draft today.”

Picking first overall tends to be a cure-all for most teams and the same is true for San Jose who moves up 16 spots compared to last year. Sharks fans are a lot more confident that all this short-term pain is going to lead to the next prosperous era of Sharks hockey and that’s headlined by Macklin Celebrini entering the fold. The wretched 2023-24 season was worth it.

That starts with ripping the Band-Aid off the year prior and trading a lot of long-time fan favorites in the process. Some of those deals felt underwhelming at the time, but fans have come to appreciate the returns more in hindsight.

The team’s drafting looks good so far and the Sharks are a team on the rise — even if it might take a while for that to happen given the current state. This is the easy part for Mike Grier, we’ll see how he does when it comes time to actually build things up.

14. Boston Bruins

Last year: 19th

“It’s unfortunate that his front office gets no love. They have built a contender year after year that is highly competitive, they lock up their core free agents for market value or less and players want to play in Boston.”

“Early in Sweeney’s tenure, drafting was poor. That seems to have shifted in recent years and he should be recognized for that. The Bruins are drafting and developing pros who are helping them win right now.”

Folks, it’s time to put the 2015 draft to bed. Yes, the memes were legendary and the haul ended up being as underwhelming as it looked on Day 1 relative to what else was out there. But that was nine years ago and they still nabbed two impact players (Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo). By overall value, they did fine!

That draft is also sandwiched between two incredible drafts where Boston got David Pastrnak at No. 25 in 2014 and Charlie McAvoy at No. 14 in 2016. Add Jeremy Swayman at No. 111 in 2017 and that’s three franchise players over four years without a top-10 pick. That’s a haul almost no other team can boast and it’s what has kept the Bruins so competitive for so long. Boston is not a bad drafting team, far from it, and it’s time the Bruins get some credit for that.

The team does well otherwise and it’s nice to see the team’s own fan base finally recognize that. Boston’s own fans are often much harsher on the Bruins compared to the public, but things end up a lot closer this year.

The Bruins are a team you can trust, and that’s saying a lot considering they arguably gave out two of the worst contracts in free agency this season. That they’re the ones who did so deserves some benefit of the doubt.

15. Washington Capitals

Last year: 26th

“The Capitals’ front office has done an admirable job at a nearly impossible task; maintaining some semblance of competitiveness, while not entirely mortgaging their future, and supporting Ovechkin’s chase of Gretzky’s record.”

“I had started to lose faith in GMBM but after seeing the retool they pulled off this summer, him giving up GM duties to Chris Patrick and them buying CapFriendly I have more faith now.”

Capitals fans feel like their management team is underrated and it’s hard not to disagree given the disparity shown here between the public and the fans. The fan base has a much higher degree of confidence, especially after this past summer when the Capitals pulled off a pretty impressive retool on the fly, one that should maintain the team’s level of competitiveness during the twilight of the Ovechkin era.

Matt Roy was a savvy add, the Jakob Chychrun trade was a coup, and even the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal felt like an interesting buy-low gamble on a center who once had 1C upside. Those are the types of big risks that can go either way, but for a team in this position where the worst case is a rebuild anyway — why not?

Washington is a smarter team than often given credit for. We’ll see how things work out for the Capitals after a very busy offseason.

16. Anaheim Ducks

17. New York Rangers

Last year: 25th

“Cutting Goodrow and trying to trade Trouba was the kind of ruthless cap management that the Rangers have often struggled with. It definitely made me more confident in Drury.”

“It would be nice if the Rangers were able to hang on to their draft picks. Constantly trading away futures to patch holes in the roster is going to come back to haunt them.”

Hey, Rangers fans — relax a little bit, yeah? The team is elite, has gone to the conference finals in two of three years, has a fairly clean cap sheet and a strong core, and hasn’t made a whole lot of mistakes lately. What more do you want here?

It’s always funny when the public has a much higher relative perception of a team’s management and it usually means the fan base is a little harsh. High expectations aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but some perspective is in order for a team that’s been doing more good than bad over the last few years.

The cap management grade feels extra perplexing given the team’s current spending. Sure, the Jacob Trouba deal isn’t great, but other teams have it far worse. If that’s truly the only bad deal on a cap sheet that includes incredible deals for Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider, maybe it’s time to start focusing more on all the good rather than the few weak spots.

No team gets it right 100 percent of the time. Cut the Rangers front office some slack.

18. Calgary Flames

Last Year: 31st

“There is reason for cautious optimism — the team is finally committed to a rebuild, and has accumulated a lot of future assets with a lot of decent trades, one great one (Lindholm) and one very underwhelming one (Tanev). The best reason for optimism, though, is player development — Conroy was a major part of Calgary’s vastly improved drafting and development system under Treliving, and by most accounts had a great 2024 draft.”

“After decades of mediocrity, I am fine with the team being very bad for a while because I have confidence (maybe just hope?) that there is finally a solid plan to do the things necessary to make the Flames a contender.”

There may not be a larger disconnect in the league than between how Flames fans feel about their current management and how the rest of the league feels.

From the inside, this year’s aggressive teardown is viewed as a big win for fans who finally believe the Flames are doing things the right way. While the consistency of the returns felt uneven at times, it’s hard to deny the Flamesgot a massive haul of futures. Couple that with a draft that many fans were thrilled with and the team’s rebuild feels like it’s starting on the right foot.

The trade returns are definitely a point of contention though, with many feeling underwhelming from the outside. That said, the Flames did a decent job targeting underrated NHL assets in those deals. Between Yegor Sharangovich, Andrei Kuzmenko and Daniil Miromanov, Calgary did well on players who felt like throw-ins.

The teardown is the easy part and while fans may be a little overzealous on that front, it does feel like the public is grading the Flames on the sins of the former regime. The new group led by Craig Conroy has felt like an improvement — for this step at least.

19. Winnipeg Jets

Last year: 28th

“Chevy has the hardest job in the NHL. What he has been able to do given the restraints of the Winnipeg market is commendable; however, he swung and completely missed out during the 2024 free agency. We needed a top-four D and a 2C and we got exactly none of those.”

“Drafting and developing are two very different stories for Chevy and Co. They are not getting the most of the talent that they do bring in through the draft.”

The big thing to understand when it comes to the Jets’ front office is the degree of difficulty that comes with being based in Winnipeg. It’s unfortunately not a desirable location for players to sign and often at the top of no-trade lists. They find a way to make it work on the trade front and they’ve pulled off some doozies over the last year, but free agency is always a sore spot.

That makes internal development a crucial part of the team’s philosophy, something that tends to draw the ire of some fans. When Cole Perfetti doesn’t get much playing time and ends up a healthy scratch in the playoffs, that’s going to turn heads.

That speaks to the team’s 25th-place ranking in “draft and develop” where some fans suggest the second side of the coin is a big problem for Winnipeg.

It equates to a questionable vision overall relative to the rest of the league where it seems the Jets are happy being first-round fodder year after year. The fans expect more — with more aggression toward being better now, or long-term.

20. Philadelphia Flyers

Last year: 24th

“I’m worried they are conflating building a competitive culture with the team being good, and sacrificing a lot of long-term value by being too good during their rebuilding years. But a huge improvement on talent evaluation/creativity over last few regimes.”

“Briere’s tenure hasn’t been perfect, but all in all it has been drastically better than the days of Chuck Fletcher.”

A few years ago the Flyers were at the very bottom of this list, forcing a new era of orange to take over. Things are starting to get better both in fan and public sentiment, but there’s still a lot of work to be done — work that was made more difficult by Philadelphia’s shocking run to 11th in the East last season.

That run put the Flyers in a tough spot: An obviously rebuilding team at the deadline that was on track to make the playoffs. How the Flyers handled that spoke volumes about their ability to manage both short- and long-term goals simultaneously. They maintained a lot of their winning culture while still keeping an eye on the future with a minor selloff.

Some don’t think the Flyers went far enough in that pursuit and feel vindicated by the late-season plunge that unsurprisingly pushed the Flyers out of the playoffs. In a more pessimistic sense, the Flyers tried to have it both ways and got stuck in no man’s land.

It’s a difficult balance to strike given the position the Flyers were in, and it means the Travis Konecny extension could be seen as the right move for the wrong team.

Aside from that, there were also mixed reactions to the 2024 draft — especially in the face of the euphoria surrounding Matvei Michkov. After hitting that home run, there was some disappointment with the team trading down from Zeev Buium to select Jett Luchanko. That helps explain a draft ranking that’s far lower than how the public views things.

21. Detroit Red Wings

Last year: 12th

“Still think that there is a vision as to what Yzerman and Co. are trying to do and build but there definitely has been some questionable signings and trades that leave you scratching your head.”

“Yzerman’s admittedly been handcuffed by absolutely nothing falling their way in terms of lottery luck despite over a half dozen kicks at the can, but his free agency track record has completely hindered the current version of this team. However, he has left a lot of flexibility in the future which is what truly matters so overall he’s been a net positive.”

It seems as if some of the shine from the Yzerplan has started to wear off within the fan base, with a 45 percentage point drop in confidence since last year. The fans still score the front office above average at a 3.7 rating, but that’s a step back from last year (4.2, seventh) and still well off from public perception.

Yzerman and company are doing the best they can with a bad hand: a rough starting point and a lot of poor lottery luck. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been self-inflicted wounds along the way. Detroit’s track record in free agency has been abysmal with a lot of money spent at the wrong time on ineffective players that move the needle enough to get the Red Wings away from a higher pick, but not so much that they become a playoff team. Even if the players are stopgaps to let the prospects develop, it comes at a long-term cost.

Within the fan base, there’s also some concern that the team is playing safe at the draft table rather than shooting for upside. For a team that isn’t ready yet and lacks franchise-caliber talent, that feels like another red flag.

22. Ottawa Senators

Last year: 17th

“As a Sens fan, there’s not much to say at this point since all their major moves have happened this offseason. It seems clear Staios and Co. have a vision for what they want to do and how they want to build the team. We’ll see whether they’re successful. It feels less chaotic with a calmer owner, so that’s something.”

“The Ullmark trade was great (still a little nervous on an extension), however, the Chychrun trade was not great. While I understand this is a more balanced roster because of it, they did not get great value back.”

Hot Dorion Summer may be over, but the collective conscience doesn’t view the new Senators’ brain trust very differently. That comes after a busy summer in which the Senators did get much better as a result of the Linus Ullmark trade but gave back a lot of value on everything else they did. The Jakob Chychrun trade was particularly baffling.

Senators fans see things through a far rosier perspective with 86 percent feeling more confident than they did a year ago. Getting out from Joonas Korpisalo’s onerous deal and getting Ullmark in the process certainly feels like a miracle, so I get the optimism based on that alone. Steve Staios doesn’t seem shy about taking swings and he hit a home run there.

But even with that miracle, the short body of work has been mixed, which maintains Ottawa’s currently poor reputation in the eyes of the public.

23. St. Louis Blues

Last year: 21st

“Doug Armstrong appears to be clinging to a vision that no longer works. He appears to believe in depth with no need for star players, which discounts the importance of Pietrangelo and O’Reilly to the Cup team.”

“Hard to see their vision for the future.”

For the second straight season, the Blues have missed the playoffs and it’s hard to see a path forward for the group. St. Louis seems to be stuck in the NHL’s no man’s land, a product of its own doing. Its current ability to build a roster is uninspiring, as is its ability to manage the cap — two problems that are mostly intertwined.

While the Blues haven’t done a lot of bad lately, the sins of their past — mainly every $6.5 million contract on the books — continue to haunt them. This has kept the team competitive enough to create hope, but not enough to do anything worthwhile in the short term — all at the expense of where this team could be long-term with the right vision.

To Doug Armstrong’s credit, the Robert Thomas extension has a lot of potential to end up as a major positive and one of the league’s best deals. A lot of fans seem to like the clear-cut succession plan for Alex Steen as the team’s next GM, too. But overall, there just isn’t enough good to give the Blues anything more than an average rating, a 3.1 that leaves them in the league’s bottom third.

24. Minnesota Wild

Last year: 11th

“Guerin and team have a great eye for drafting and taking swings on ‘controversial picks.’ However free agency continues to leave me confused. Decisions around cap flexibility and player contract negotiations have left me concerned about losing our top-tier talent in favor of lower-end talent. Also for an organization that has decently high-end prospects to have a pipeline clogged with weighty contracts stuffed with NMC/NTCs makes me even less confident.”

“Foligno, Hartman, Fleury, Middleton, Gaudreau … GMBG has really committed to overspending/giving no-trade-clauses on depth players; even if the players themselves are easy to cheer for. Teams that win are teams with high-end talent, which is impossible to acquire/keep if all of your money is tied up on good-not-great players.”

It’s worth noting that a lot of votes came in before the Wild extended Brock Faber for eight more years at an extremely sensible $8.5 million. After what he showed in his rookie season, that seems to be a steal during his prime. Add that to Matt Boldy’s and Joel Eriksson Ek’s deals and the Wild will have three excellent contracts on the books that should put the team in a strong position going forward.

Unfortunately, the team has also spent a lot of unwise money on bottom-of-the-lineup talent which mitigates much of that advantage. It leaves them with a middling team that’s cap-strapped, which colors how fans feel about the team’s roster building and cap management as well as their little faith in the team’s free-agency strategy.

There is one glimmer of light here though, and that’s Judd Brackett, the team’s scouting wizard who garners a lot of hype for his draft-day ability. The Wild earn top marks for their drafting and development, which makes it all the more perplexing as to why they would block so many roster spots for so long in favor of middling over-the-hill players.

25. Edmonton Oilers

Last year: 20th

“At first, with the offseason that Jeff Jackson had I was much more confident in this team’s management. Then they hired Stan Bowman — a controversial hire with a less than sparkling track record at the end of his tenure with the Blackhawks — and that killed all the good vibes.”

“After a great summer of moves, the hiring of Stan Bowman has undone all my faith in the Oilers front office. Some issues are bigger than hockey, and it’s clear to me that this team no longer shares my values. I’m done with watching and cheering for the Oilers.”

Jeff Jackson was having a top-notch summer, one that had the Oilers looking like no-doubt Stanley Cup favorites for next season. After coming so close in 2024, the Oilers looked like the team to beat in 2025.

All of that goodwill seemed to evaporate with the franchise’s controversial hiring of Stan Bowman, which was panned by many fans. On top of being banished from the league for three years for what the NHL deemed an “inadequate response” to sexual assault allegations brought forth by former Blackhawks player Kyle Beach, there’s also a lengthy track record of questionable decision-making in Chicago.

It all just seemed like a misstep for a team that was already well-positioned to win it all next season. Why anger an entire fan base with that kind of hire?

26. Buffalo Sabres

Last year: 8th

“If we don’t make another big move and use the remaining cap space for Skinner’s cap space, the Sabres will be one of only two teams in the league that have had at least 7 percent or more of their salary cap unused in each of the last four years. They also have refused to weaponize the cap space to add assets. That’s not a team doing anything they can to win the Cup.”

“Adams and Co. have done a fantastic job drafting and developing players, but the roster has been ready to make a big step forward and contend for a playoff spot, and for the second offseason in a row they have failed to make a significant addition (top-six forward or top-four defenseman).”

After looking like one of the most exciting teams in the league during the 2022-23 season, there was a lot of hope that the Sabres were on the precipice of being the league’s next big thing — or just making the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. That would be good, too.

Instead, the Sabres lit all that goodwill on fire over the last year and are seemingly back at square one with an increasingly impatient fan base.

Buffalo fans deserve better and that starts with a front office that actually spends what it takes to win. That the Sabres bought out Jeff Skinner for immediate cap gain only to not use that money feels like a massive misstep for a team that could use one or two impact players to put them over the top. Buffalo’s unwillingness to loosen up the purse strings has had a profound negative effect on how confident the team’s fans currently feel, putting the Sabres’ vision rightfully in question. In that vein, Buffalo getting a D-grade in both roster building and free agency feels apt.

The Sabres have a strong group of prospects ready to deliver and are rewarded for their pipeline and development as a result — it’s just not enough to overcome the problems everywhere else.

27. Seattle Kraken

Last year: 9th

“The front office is moving too slowly for such a new team. I’m excited for the new coaching staff, but without some sort of elite scoring or keystone player (Chandler Stephenson ain’t it), we’re going to repeat last season.”

“Ron Francis has had his chance to build an organization from the ground up and while we weren’t expecting a repeat of Vegas, we’re nowhere close. His long-term contracts have mainly been misses and now we’re running out of cap room.”

All of the optimism the Kraken garnered after a shocking 2023 playoff run has faded since. While fans love Seattle’s work at the draft, the team’s work in free agency has become a serious sore spot. In each year of their existence, the Kraken have found a way to put an immediate problem on the books, with this year’s Chandler Stephenson deal the biggest one yet.

Moves like that have not only put a damper on the team’s fleeting cap space but also on the overall vision for the organization. What exactly is Seattle’s plan to become an annual contender?

28. Columbus Blue Jackets

Last year: 22nd

“With Waddell coming in, we still can’t fully excuse the roster he inherited, but it feels refreshing for a new set of (experienced) eyes to come in and shake things up as needed.”

“New GM/POHOP gives a fresh breath to this dysfunctional organization. Jarmo was very good at drafting, but did not seem to do well putting a cohesive roster together. Maybe Waddell can. Maybe.”

The Blue Jackets dropped six spots from last year, but there’s clearly been a shift in perception from the fan base thanks to new management. For the first time in a long time, there’s optimism in Columbus. Cautious optimism.

Don Waddell hasn’t been on the job for long, but anything feels like an improvement over Jarmo Kekäläinen, whose decision-making seemed to severely wane over the last few years. That probably colors a lot of the negative public sentiment, but the fan base is at least a lot more confident in the team’s current vision.

Time will tell if Waddell can right this ship and turn the Blue Jackets into a perennial contender, but he comes with a strong track record in Carolina. That should be enough to give him the benefit of the doubt to start.

29. Pittsburgh Penguins

Last year: 10th

“Kyle Dubas is navigating the daunting roadmap of keeping the team playoff caliber during Sidney Crosby’s last contract while also rebuilding a roster left depleted and top-heavy by Ron Hextall.”

“I was excited about Dubas when he arrived, but now I am far less enthused after seeing how things stand now and where everything seems to be headed.”

Kyle Dubas was given a very tough hand when he took over Pittsburgh and fans don’t believe he’s given enough slack for that. The discrepancy between how the public views Pittsburgh and how the fan base does speaks to that. The Erik Karlsson trade — in which Dubas dumped a bunch of junk for a guy who won the Norris — was a master stroke and his best work.

Having said that, a lot of the other stuff Dubas did was enough to bring confidence way down. The bottom six was still a disaster last year, an issue that goes back to his Toronto days. The deals for both Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry have already aged terribly. And last year, when the team’s biggest problem — an awful power play — was obvious to everyone in the world, there was a lot of inaction on Dubas’ end to fix it.

All that contributed to the Penguins missing the playoffs and ushering in a new era that might make the final years of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang much tougher to watch. We all knew that day was coming, but expectations were a lot higher for Dubas to delay that as much as he could.

One year later, here lie the Penguins.

30. Toronto Maple Leafs

Last year: 27th

“Treliving deserves credit for trying a taskmaster coach and rolling the dice on an efficient Stolarz/Woll combo. But when you look at last year’s puzzling trade deadline acquisitions on a win-now team and some of the last two years of free agency decisions, it’s hard to think the roster that can get 100-plus points blindfolded is being given its best chance for success.”

“Overall, while the Shanahan/Treliving duo has been far from disastrous, it has proven underwhelming. A few diamonds in the rough, a few misses for sure, but more or less the same strategy of the previous regime.”

A lot of the league’s top contenders are where they are thanks in large part to savvy management. They maximize and optimize their team’s chances, giving their club the best shot to win that they can.

At the start of the Shanaplan, it certainly felt like the Leafs were one of those teams. It’s getting harder and harder to feel like Toronto is on the cutting edge given the lackluster playoff results over the last decade and some of the decisions made to get there. A lot of what the Leafs do feels safe, boring and bland. It’s as if the decisions are made via a focus group to minimize risk — hit a few singles instead of swinging for the fences.

That’s felt true regardless of who has been beneath Brendan Shanahan as GM and it’s led to a lot of lost confidence across the fan base over the last two years.

To Brad Treliving’s credit, his work this summer felt like an improvement over last summer, but his overall tenure has still felt mixed at best. Winning a round or two would do a lot to raise confidence, but the Leafs have clearly worn out a lot of patience.

31. Los Angeles Kings

Last year: 13th

“Blake has made mistakes that have hampered the team’s ability to build out a proper roster. The large deal handed to Petersen blew up in the team’s face and the PLD signing was a disaster. They managed to unload that contract, but it stung.”

“Strategy was always to build around what was left from the championship teams. It hasn’t worked and now we are stuck in the mediocre middle.”

The luster surrounding the Rob Blake era has officially worn out. Three straight first-round exits at the hands of the same team will certainly have that effect — a showcase of exactly how far away the Kings are from contending. Being stuck in the middle was the biggest concern around meshing two eras and that seems to have come to a head over the last year. The public views the Kings front office as borderline bottom five and the internal feeling from the team’s own fan base has sunk precipitously. No team saw a bigger drop in confidence than the Kings, with 92 percent of their fans less confident than they were a year ago.

That hinges almost entirely on the trade and subsequent signing of Pierre-Luc Dubois, a move that seemed fine at the time but ended up as one of the most disastrous decisions in recent memory.

The rest of the work here is a mixed bag, with Quinton Byfield’s new extension an obvious highlight and the Joel Edmundson deal a lowlight. But the Dubois deal casts a massive shadow over everything and anything else this front office has done over the last year.

32. New York Islanders

Last year: 32nd

“Lou doesn’t have as much magic anymore but his era has been the most successful of my fandom so I can’t vilify him.”

“The Isles are locked into core pieces of their current roster, despite seeming to be far off from actual Cup contention. This team feels destined to finish 16th in the league and has a ceiling of winning a single playoff round. The lack of direction is unnerving.”

It’s impossible to deny the impact Lou Lamoriello has had on the Islanders organization, especially from a cultural standpoint. But it does appear there is a want within the fan base for a successor to take the Islanders to the next level.

Some people will see the Islanders here in 32nd and take that as a sign of gross incompetence, but it has more to do with other teams raising the bar. Someone had to finish last and it makes sense for that team to be one that seems to be falling behind; one in need of a fresh voice. The key here is not the ranking or the D-minus grade — it’s the 2.4 score which is the highest ever given to a team finishing last in these rankings.

Excluding last year’s Islanders, who earned a 2.3, the average over the previous five seasons for the worst team featured a lot more contempt with a rating of 1.76. The NHL’s front offices as a whole are getting a lot better across the board.

That doesn’t mean the current brain trust on Long Island inspires much confidence, not after twin seven-year deals for depth players last summer. It’s just context for how much confidence is given here despite ranking last. The Islanders front office isn’t great and has a good argument to be the league’s current worst outfit as long as Lamoriello remains behind the wheel. But it’s not all bad and is a massive step up from some of the disastrous regimes that used to run teams into the ground.

(Photo of Panthers GM Bill Zito celebrating with the Stanley Cup: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)