NHL Power Rankings: Capitals hold No. 1 spot, plus January trends for all 32 teams
Friday marks the final night of games for the month of January in the 2024-25 NHL season. In addition to our latest updated Power Rankings, let’s check in on how all 32 teams performed this month.
How we rank: A panel of ESPN hockey commentators, analysts, reporters and editors sends in a 1-32 poll based on the games through Wednesday, which generates our master list.
Note: Previous ranking for each team refers to the previous edition, published Jan. 24. Points percentages, paces and January stats are through Thursday’s games.
Previous ranking: 1
Points percentage: 72.55%
Alex Ovechkin or no Alex Ovechkin, this team just keeps winning, and January was no different; the Caps racked up 22 points in 14 games, extending their lead atop the Metropolitan Division.
Next eight days: vs. WPG (Feb. 1), vs. FLA (Feb. 4), @ PHI (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 2
Points percentage: 70.75%
No, this isn’t the dominant team that was setting records in the season’s first weeks. But they’ll take an 9-3-2 record any month, given the sizable lead they built in October and November.
Next eight days: @ WSH (Feb. 1), vs. CAR (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 4
Points percentage: 66.67%
Some teams that lose in the Stanley Cup Final swoon in the following season. That hasn’t been the case for Edmonton, and a 10-3-1 January has them atop the Pacific Division.
Next eight days: vs. TOR (Feb. 1), @ STL (Feb. 4), @ CHI (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 5
Points percentage: 65.38%
Carolina’s point percentage was the fifth highest in the league in January — and most of those games were played without Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall. Are those two additions enough to finally get the Canes back to the Stanley Cup Final?
Next eight days: vs. LA (Feb. 1), @ WPG (Feb. 4), @ MIN (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 3
Points percentage: 65.38%
Just as some other teams quietly crept up the standings in the month of January, the Knights stumbled a bit (at least in a relative sense); a 6-6-3 record isn’t in line with what we’ve come to expect out of one of the NHL’s elite contenders.
Next eight days: @ NYR (Feb. 2), @ NYI (Feb. 4), @ NJ (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 8
Points percentage: 65.00%
An injury this week to Miro Heiskanen puts his participation in the 4 Nations Face-Off in jeopardy. What’s not in jeopardy is the Stars’ playoff positioning, particularly as they have gone 10-4-0 in January.
Next eight days: vs. VAN (Jan. 31), vs. CBJ (Feb. 2), @ ANA (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 9
Points percentage: 60.58%
The Panthers started strong this season, which was good because January wasn’t their best month ever: the Cats had a 7-6-1 record, despite a plus-6 goal differential.
Next eight days: vs. CHI (Feb. 1), vs. NYI (Feb. 2), @ WSH (Feb. 4), @ STL (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 6
Points percentage: 60.78%
If the Maple Leafs are playing the long game, dropping to second in the Atlantic might make sense — they’ll likely avoid the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. In that regard, a 7-6-0 January gets a thumbs-up?
Next eight days: @ EDM (Feb. 1), @ CGY (Feb. 4), @ SEA (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 7
Points percentage: 63.46%
Given their negative goal differential in January, the Wild are lucky to escape with a record north of .500. And thanks to their early success, there remains a gap between Minnesota and the teams behind it.
Next eight days: @ OTT (Feb. 1), @ BOS (Feb. 4), vs. CAR (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 11
Points percentage: 60.38%
Some nights, the Devils look as strong as any team in the league; other nights, not so much. (Just look at the two different results against the Flyers this week.) Accordingly, they’ll finish January with a 5-5-3 record.
Next eight days: @ BUF (Feb. 2), @ PIT (Feb. 4), vs. VGK (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 10
Points percentage: 59.18%
The Kings are looking up at the Oilers and Golden Knights in the Pacific Division, as those two clubs appear to be on another tier at this point. A 5-7-1 January didn’t help the cause, and they are teetering close to being caught from behind (though they have games in hand on all the teams chasing them).
Next eight days: @ CAR (Feb. 1), vs. MTL (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 12
Points percentage: 57.69%
The Avalanche remain in the driver’s seat for a wild-card spot (if not a higher position in the Central Division), although their January results leave a bit to be desired, with a 6-6-2 record.
Next eight days: vs. STL (Jan. 31), vs. PHI (Feb. 2), @ VAN (Feb. 4), @ CGY (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 15
Points percentage: 56.86%
Is this the season the Senators make it back to the playoffs? An 8-5-2 January — despite a minus-10 goal differential — has kept them right in the mix.
Next eight days: vs. MIN (Feb. 1), @ NSH (Feb. 3), @ TB (Feb. 4), @ TB (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 13
Points percentage: 57.00%
The good news for the Lightning: Racking up a bunch of points earlier this season meant they had some wiggle room. The bad news: a month of 46.90 points percentage hockey has reduced that space to the smallest of wiggles.
Next eight days: vs. NYI (Feb. 1), vs. OTT (Feb. 4), vs. OTT (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 14
Points percentage: 57.00%
The Flames have more or less held serve in January, with a 7-6-0 record. Thanks in large part to rookie goaltender Dustin Wolf, they remain on the wild-card bubble.
Next eight days: vs. DET (Feb. 1), @ SEA (Feb. 2), vs. TOR (Feb. 4), vs. COL (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 17
Points percentage: 57.00%
It’s unquestionable that the Blue Jackets are the best “story” of the 2024-25 season, and their quest for a playoff return was greatly aided in January: a record of 9-3-1 generated the sixth-best points percentage for the month.
Next eight days: @ UTA (Jan. 31), @ DAL (Feb. 2), @ BUF (Feb. 4), vs. UTA (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 20
Points percentage: 56.00%
The well-reported locker room strife between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller was confirmed by general manager Jim Rutherford this week, lending more credence to the idea that one of the two stars will be traded. Hopefully that will spur the team to earn more wins, as a month of .500 hockey isn’t a great sign looking ahead.
Next eight days: @ DAL (Jan. 31), vs. DET (Feb. 2), vs. COL (Feb. 4), @ SJ (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 18
Points percentage: 52.83%
The Bruins have gone 5-7-2 this month and appear more in need of the 4 Nations Face-Off break than many other teams. Is there a trade in the works to shake things up?
Next eight days: vs. NYR (Feb. 1), vs. MIN (Feb. 4), @ NYR (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 19
Points percentage: 52.00%
As the Rangers collapsed earlier this season, there was no shortage of fan frustration along with takes on how to properly fix them. Quietly, they’ve charged back up the standings, due in part to an 8-3-3 January.
Next eight days: @ BOS (Feb. 1), vs. VGK (Feb. 2), vs. BOS (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 24
Points percentage: 53.92%
Detroit’s 2024-25 season has been a bit of a roller coaster, including the dismissal of coach Derek Lalonde and hiring of Todd McLellan. This month has been a high point, with a 10-3-1 record that has the Red Wings back on the wild-card bubble.
Next eight days: @ CGY (Feb. 1), @ VAN (Feb. 2), @ SEA (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 16
Points percentage: 51.96%
The fact that the Canadiens remain on the fringes of the playoff race into February is remarkable, and their 7-5-2 record in January is a big part of that. Does the front office add to the roster before the trade deadline, or keep the slow build process going?
Next eight days: @ ANA (Feb. 2), @ SJ (Feb. 4), @ LA (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 26
Points percentage: 53.00%
Are we all sleeping on the Islanders? Patrick Roy has his team pointed back in the right direction after a rough start, going 9-3-0 in January.
Next eight days: @ TB (Feb. 1), @ FLA (Feb. 2), vs. VGK (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 22
Points percentage: 49.06%
The Flyers’ build back into a contender continues apace, though their minus-8 goal differential for the month would surely be helped if they had better goaltending on a consistent basis.
Next eight days: @ COL (Feb. 2), @ UTA (Feb. 4), vs. WSH (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 23
Points percentage: 50.00%
The Hockey Club remains mathematically alive for a playoff berth but will have to reverse trends from a month in which it had fewer standings points (12) than games played (13).
Next eight days: vs. CBJ (Jan. 31), vs. STL (Feb. 2), vs. PHI (Feb. 4), @ CBJ (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 21
Points percentage: 49.02%
Does this week’s Brandon Saad contract termination mean that an addition is on the way? Something must be done if the Blues are going to make a move back into the playoff mix during a 5-7-0 January.
Next eight days: @ COL (Jan. 31), @ UTA (Feb. 2), vs. EDM (Feb. 4), vs. FLA (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 25
Points percentage: 47.17%
How much of the Penguins’ current roster will be on the team after March 7? The club’s 4-7-3 record in January was better than only the “fun bad” Sharks; Pittsburgh’s results seem way less fun, and simply bad.
Next eight days: vs. NSH (Feb. 1), vs. NJ (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 28
Points percentage: 43.88%
The Predators are no strangers to wild turnarounds within the same season — they pulled one off last season. It’s not entirely out of the realm of mathematical possibility that they make the playoffs, and a 7-4-0 mark since the calendar turned to 2025 is a strong start.
Next eight days: @ BUF (Jan. 31), @ PIT (Feb. 1), vs. OTT (Feb. 3)
Previous ranking: 30
Points percentage: 47.06%
Although it hasn’t made a huge dent in the overall standings, the Ducks have been a middle-of-the-flock team in January — with a 6-7-2 record despite a minus-8 goal differential. In which direction will they fly from here?
Next eight days: vs. MTL (Feb. 2), vs. DAL (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 27
Points percentage: 46.23%
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer — one of the Kraken’s early, big free agent signings — was put on waivers recently, and it wouldn’t be shocking if the club made additional moves ahead of the trade deadline. A 6-8-1 January record has kept them well below expectations.
Next eight days: vs. CGY (Feb. 2), vs. DET (Feb. 4), vs. TOR (Feb. 6)
Previous ranking: 29
Points percentage: 43.00%
A 45.83 points percentage in January has actually raised the Sabres’ seasonlong mark, but it’s still not good enough to get them out of the Atlantic Division basement.
Next eight days: vs. NSH (Jan. 31), vs. NJ (Feb. 2), vs. CBJ (Feb. 4)
Previous ranking: 31
Points percentage: 36.27%
This hasn’t been the best season in Blackhawks history. But at least for the month of January, they haven’t been dead last. (Chicago’s points percentage is 29th for the month.)
Next eight days: @ FLA (Feb. 1), vs. EDM (Feb. 5)
Previous ranking: 32
Points percentage: 33.33%
The Sharks began the month among the NHL’s basement dwellers in the standings, and that trend will continue into February.
Next eight days: vs. MTL (Feb. 4), vs. VAN (Feb. 6)
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Dan Wetzel
During college football’s Bowl Championship Series era, the sport’s opposition to an expanded, let alone expansive, playoff could be summarized in one colorful quote by then-Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee.
“They will wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands,” Gee said in 2007.
We are happy to report that while college football does, indeed, have a playoff, Gee is still very much alive. The 81-year-old retired just this week after a second stint leading West Virginia University.
What is dead and buried, though, is college football’s staunch resistance to extending its postseason field. After decades of ignoring complaints and the promise of additional revenue to claim that just two teams was more than enough, plans to move from 12 participants to 16 were underway before last season’s inaugural 12-teamer even took place.
A once-static sport now moves at light speed, future implications be damned.
Fire. Ready. Aim.
So maybe the best bit of current news is that college football’s two ruling parties — the SEC and Big Ten — can’t agree on how the new 16-team field would be selected. It has led to a pause on playoff expansion.
Maybe, just maybe, it means no expansion will occur by 2026, as first planned, and college football can let the 12-team model cook a little to accurately assess what changes — if any — are even needed.
“We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said this week. “That could stay if we can’t agree.”
Good. After all, what’s the rush?
The 2025 season will play out with a 12-team format featuring automatic bids for five conference champions and seven at-large spots. Gone is last year’s clunky requirement that the top four seeds could go only to conference champs — elevating Boise State and Arizona State and unbalancing the field.
That alone was progress built on real-world experience. It should be instructive.
The SEC wants a 16-team model but with, as is currently the case, automatic bids going to the champions in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and the best of the so-called Group of 6. The rest of the field would be at-large selections.
The Big Ten says it will not back such a proposal until the SEC agrees to play nine conference games (up from its current eight). Instead, it wants a 16-team system that gives four automatic bids apiece to the Big Ten and SEC, two each to the ACC and Big 12, one to the Group of 6 and then three at-large spots.
It’s been dubbed the “4-4-2-2-1-3” because college athletic leaders love ridiculous parlances almost as much as they love money.
While the ACC, Big 12 and others have offered opinions — mostly siding with the SEC — legislatively, the decision rests with the sport’s two big-dog conferences.
Right now, neither side is budging. A compromise might still be made, of course. The supposed deadline to set the 2026 system is Nov. 30. And Sankey actually says he prefers the nine-game SEC schedule, even if his coaches oppose it.
However, the possibility of the status quo standing for a bit longer remains.
What the Big Ten has proposed is a dramatic shift for a sport that has been bombarded with dramatic shifts — conference realignment, the transfer portal, NIL, revenue sharing, etc.
The league wants to stage multiple “play-in” games on conference championship weekend. The top two teams in the league would meet for the league title (as is currently the case), but the third- and fourth-place teams would play the fifth- and sixth-place teams to determine the other automatic bids.
Extend this out among all the conferences and you have up to a 26-team College Football Playoff (with 22 teams in a play-in situation). This would dramatically change the way the sport works — devaluing the stakes for nonconference games, for example. And some mediocre teams would essentially get a playoff bid — in the Big Ten’s case, the sixth seed last year was an Iowa team that finished 8-5.
Each conference would have more high-value inventory to sell to broadcast partners, but it’s not some enormous windfall. Likewise, four more first-round playoff games would need to find television slots and relevance.
Is anyone sure this is necessary? Do we need 16 at all, let alone with multibids?
In the 12-team format, the first round wasn’t particularly competitive — with a 19.3-point average margin of victory. It’s much like the first round of the NFL playoffs, designed mostly to make sure no true contender is left out.
Perhaps last year was an outlier. And maybe future games will be close. Or maybe they’ll be even more lopsided. Wouldn’t it be prudent to find out?
While there were complaints about the selection committee picking SMU and/or Indiana over Alabama, it wasn’t some egregious slight. Arguments will happen no matter how big the field. Besides, the Crimson Tide lost to two 6-6 teams last year. Expansion means a team with a similar résumé can cruise in.
Is that a good thing?
Whatever the decision, it is being made with little to no real-world data — pro or con. Letting a few 12-team fields play out, providing context and potentially unexpected consequences, sure wouldn’t hurt.
You don’t have to be Gordon Gee circa 2007 to favor letting this simmer and be studied before leaping toward another round of expansion.
CHICAGO — NASCAR is pressing pause on its Chicago Street Race, answering at least one major question about its schedule for next season.
NASCAR raced on a street course in downtown Chicago on the first weekend in July each of the last three years. But it had a three-year contract with the city, leaving the future of the event in question.
Writing to Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday, race president Julie Giese said the plan is to explore the potential of a new event weekend with his office and other community leaders while also working on a more efficient course build and breakdown.
“Our goal is for the Chicago Street Race to return in 2027 with an event that further enhances the experience for residents and visitors alike, as we work together towards a new potential date, shorter build schedule, and additional tourism draws,” Giese wrote in her letter to Johnson.
Giese said NASCAR is keeping its Chicago Street Race office and plans to continue its community partnerships.
“We deeply value our relationship with the City of Chicago and remain steadfast in our commitment to being a good neighbor and partner,” she said in the letter.
NASCAR is replacing its Chicago stop with a street race in San Diego.
A message was left Friday seeking comment from Johnson’s office.
NASCAR’s Chicago weekend featured Xfinity and Cup Series races on a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course against the backdrop of Lake Michigan and Grant Park – to go along with a festival-like atmosphere with music and entertainment options.
The goal was an event that appealed to both a new audience in one of NASCAR’s most important regions and the most ardent racing fans. NASCAR used to race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, a 45-mile drive from downtown, but it pulled out after the 2019 season.
Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, was in charge when the three-year contract for the downtown weekend was finalized.
It wasn’t exactly a popular move in Chicago. Local businesses and residents were frustrated by the street closures in a heavily trafficked area for tourists in the summer. But organizers shrunk the construction schedule from 43 days in 2023 to 25 this year, winning over some of the race’s critics.
Drivers and their teams had some concerns about the course ahead of the first weekend. But the setup was widely praised by the time the third year rolled around – both the course and the ability to walk to the circuit from their downtown hotel.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson called Chicago “probably my favorite event in NASCAR each year.”
The racing in downtown Chicago has been dominated by Shane van Gisbergen, who won the Xfinity and Cup races this year from the pole. He also won in Chicago in his Cup debut in 2023 and last year’s Xfinity Series race.
“I love the track,” he said after this year’s Cup win. “It’s a cool place to come to. You feel a nice vibe. You feel a good vibe in the mornings walking to the track with the fans. It’s pretty unique like that.”
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