Hurricanes are defending champs, Panthers look loaded up for a run as the biggest NHL season begins

Cruising through the regular season and the playoffs with the most dominant run in the NHL since the late 1980s, the Carolina Hurricanes go into this season as the defending Stanley Cup champion everyone else is looking to knock off.

“It kind of gives you something to chase after,” Montreal's 51-goal scorer Cole Caufield said.

There is no shortage of challengers near and far chasing Carolina.

Florida is not far removed from back-to-back titles, gets captain Aleksander Barkov back from injury and loaded up by acquiring Brady Tkachuk to play with brother Matthew. Tampa Bay remains formidable in the East with several young teams on the rise, while Colorado, Dallas, Vegas and Edmonton are still the best in the West.

Those contenders and the rest of the league's 32 teams will each get two extra games before the playoffs begin in April in the first expansion of the regular season in more than three decades. They will combine to play 1,344 games — the most in history — before 16 get the chance pursue hockey's hallowed Cup.

"You’re just trying to build momentum," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “You’re trying to make your team better every single day. And then at the end of the day, you’ll see where you stack up and if you can play your best hockey at the most important time of the year.”

The Hurricanes finally got over the hump in their eighth consecutive postseason appearance, which followed a series of agonizing exits. Their 16-3 postseason record trails only Wayne Gretzky’s 16-2 Oilers in 1988 since four rounds of best-of-seven series became the standard in 1987.

Except for goaltender Frederik Andersen, Carolina brings back virtually the same roster and appear to be the class of the Metropolitan Division after running away with it last year. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin does not think being everyone's target is a big adjustment for him and his teammates, who have amassed the most total wins in the league since the start of the 2018-19 season when coach Rod Brind'Amour took over.

“I feel like multiple years in a row, teams know that going to Carolina or when Carolina comes in, it’s going to be a hard night,” Slavin said. “Teams always have been giving us their best for years now, and winning the Cup just adds to that.”

Before torn ligaments in Barkov's right knee and a series of other high-profile injuries derailed the Panthers last season and caused them to miss the playoffs, they hoisted the Stanley Cup back to back in 2024 and '25 as part of a streak of three trips to the final.

They got extra time off after so much time on the ice took a toll and had the chance to reset. The core of Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad remains in place, augmented by Brady Tkachuk, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand and a pair of new goalies, Jacob Markstrom and Akira Schmid.

Florida is the favorite to run it back for a third championship in four years.

“Of course that’s our dream, that’s our goal, but for us it’s always been a day at a time,” Barkov said. “We don’t think too much ahead. We only live in the moment, try to live in a moment. And that's what it is. Of course we added unreal players, we added real leaders to our team and we’re really excited about that."

The best player in the world , Connor McDavid, has now played 11 NHL seasons without winning the Cup, including a gut-wrenching Game 7 loss in the 2024 final against Florida and a six-game Final loss to the Panthers the following year.

This may be one of the last chances for the Oilers to show him they can do it; McDavid signed a two-year extension through 2028 without a raise to give management salary cap space — and a deadline — to figure it out.

Edmonton is turning to Mike Babcock to lead the way, much to the surprise of franchise icon and five-time champion Mark Messier, who questioned the old-school taskmaster coach getting the endorsement of McDavid and other leaders.

“I am absolutely shocked they hired him,” Messier, now an ESPN analyst, said on a conference call Wednesday. “I’m absolutely shocked from the stories that I heard from very good, reputable, character people about the way they were treated. It’s been no secret. ... I am just horrified about the whole thing, to be honest.”

To bring the Cup back to Canada for the first time since 1993, the Oilers almost certainly have to go through the defending Western Conference champion Golden Knights and a Central Division power like the Avalanche, Stars or Wild.

Dallas is hoping to bounce back from a first-round exit against Minnesota. Colorado, which won it all in 2022, has one more season before standout defenseman Cale Makar begins the richest contract in league history , while he, Nathan MacKinnon and others are still firmly in their prime.

“Pressure is a privilege, and it has to be embraced," Landeskog said. “It’s not to say that you go every single day of the regular season and wake up thinking, ‘Oh, it’s Cup or bust.' But I think you’re aware of it. You know where your team’s at. Everybody knows it.”

Nobody knows which team will be the last one standing in June. The puck will drop more times than ever before figuring out hockey's next champion.

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