How NHL players, teams deal with the grind of back-to-back games
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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
IT USED TO be that Nick Foligno, after playing a game then flying at least an hour — often to a city in a different time zone — and busing to the team hotel, would stay up until 2 a.m. or later, despite having to play another game less than 18 hours later.
Now, as a 36-year-old father, Foligno proudly shares that he’s usually in bed by 9 or 10 p.m. at the absolute latest.
Foligno is the oldest member of the Chicago Blackhawks, with more than a dozen players who are his junior by a decade or more. Watching his younger teammates this season has further validated his decision to go to bed so early.
“I’m lucky with all the young guys we have. You can see it in them,” Foligno said. “Thirty games in, they’re starting to come up to you like, ‘Man, I’m tired! This is crazy!’ So you do laugh because you’ve become that grizzled vet to it. But I remember being that age like, ‘Holy s—! We’re going to go play tonight?’ But that’s the grind of the game, and it’s what makes it what it is.”
Numerous factors make the NHL’s 82-game regular season such a grind. There’s the sheer number of games and the travel involved, which impacts some teams more than others. There’s the crisscrossing between borders and time zones at bizarre hours. There are the complications that come with such large traveling parties and the decision of when — or if — to sleep. Then there are the dreaded back-to-backs, two games in two nights.
All this while trying to win as many games as possible.
Teams and players have applied numerous philosophies to manage back-to-back games, with the recognition that there’s no perfect answer. Every situation is different.
“I hate back-to-backs more than anything.” Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “I’m a big proponent of the fact that we shouldn’t have them. … You can play every other day and your body is fine. As soon as you start throwing back-to-backs in there and play four games in six days, it leads to injuries. Guys are getting injured on back-to-backs all over the league.”
WHILE BACK-TO-BACKS are inevitable for every team, some teams have more on their schedule than others. This season, the average is 12 back-to-back sets per team, but there are outliers. The New Jersey Devils have the most back-to-backs with 16, while the Seattle Kraken have the fewest with seven. Of the 15 teams that have a dozen or more back-to-backs, all but three play in the Eastern Conference, where the travel is not as daunting as in the Western Conference.
To examine how back-to-back travel works for NHL teams and how their circumstances are different, ESPN looked at the back-to-back schedules for one team in each of the league’s four divisions: the Calgary Flames, New York Rangers, Panthers and Blackhawks.
The Rangers are in a city that’s relatively close to several teams within the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference. Of their 12 back-to-back sets, eight have one home game and one road game while three have both games on the road. All but one of the back-to-back game sequences have at least one game in their home time zone, and their average flight time for the trips is one hour.
For the Panthers, playing in South Florida means they’re the southernmost team in the NHL and have only one team — the Tampa Bay Lightning — that’s less than an hour away by flight. Five of their eight back-to-backs are on the road, and only one has both games at home. Seven of those back-to-back sequences have at least one game in their home time zone, and their average flight time for the trips is 56 minutes.
Although the Blackhawks have a central location, they spend quite a bit of time in the air. Five of their 12 back-to-back sets have both games on the road, and six have at least one game in their home time zone. The Blackhawks’ average flight time for back-to-backs is 84 minutes, which means they’re going to spend nearly 30 more minutes on a plane in those situations than the Panthers and Rangers.
Of the four teams examined, the Flames seem to have the most demanding travel. Even though their eight back-to-backs are not as many as the Blackhawks and Rangers, they’re the second northernmost team in the NHL and are one of only three teams that play in the Mountain time zone. In their eight back-to-backs, three games will be played on Mountain time and their average flight time is 88 minutes.
“Sometimes, especially being in Calgary, the West has harder travel than the East,” said Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin, who played his first three seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes. “All the cities in the East are a little bit closer. For us, it can be more of a grind. The flights are also usually a little bit longer. Another thing is we’re always changing time zones. We’re going from one time zone to another in the West, which makes it a little bit tougher with the sleep schedule.”
Hanifin cited the challenges of living in the Mountain time zone. All 16 teams in the Eastern Conference are on Eastern time. Six of the Western Conference teams are on Central time, with another six are on Pacific time. The Arizona Coyotes are on Mountain time, but with most of Arizona not recognizing daylight saving time, there are two-plus months of the regular season (October, March and April) when teams there are essentially playing on Pacific time.
That leaves the Colorado Avalanche, the Edmonton Oilers and the Flames as the only teams that are based in the Mountain time zone full time. The flight from Calgary to Edmonton is just 24 minutes. Flying from Calgary to Denver takes slightly less than two hours, and Edmonton to Denver is a two-hour flight.
This season, the Flames will play 44 games in their time zone while the Rangers will have 65 games in their time zone.
“It does mess with you,” Hanifin said about being on Mountain time. “It can be a little tough on our sleep schedule, and that does add up over time.”
JONATHAN CHAREST IS the director of athlete sleep services and a behavioral sleep medicine specialist for the Centre for Sleep & Human Performance at the University of Calgary. Charest and four colleagues authored a 2021 study about the impact of distance and travel in back-to-back games in the NBA.
Charest, who also published a study on time zone changes, travel distance and performance in the NHL, said athletes are almost chronically out of order with their circadian rhythm, or internal clock. He said an Eastern Conference team that goes to Vancouver to play the Canucks is at a disadvantage because a player’s circadian clock is usually within the rhythm of his home city. For example, a Canadiens player’s body is used to games starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time. So for a game in Vancouver with a 7 p.m. Pacific time start, his circadian rhythm interprets it as being 10 p.m. Eastern time.
“When it’s the third period, it’s almost midnight for them,” Charest said. “You’ll have the commentators on the broadcast say, ‘Oh, it’s fatigue.’ It’s not necessarily fatigue; it’s that the body is answering to its own mileage. There is a fundamental disadvantage for the East Coast teams in that they have to take it one game at a time.”
Charest said it takes a day per time zone for the body’s circadian rhythm to adjust. So if the Canadiens are going to the Central time zone, it will take one day for players to adjust, while going to the Pacific time zone will require three days for their bodies to be fully adjusted.
In addition to dealing with time zone changes, just being on the road can contribute to fatigue. Charest said that makes it important for teams to manage their personnel to compensate.
“There’s some days when [a team flight] feels like it takes nine hours,” Foligno said.
The Panthers, the reigning Eastern Conference champions, have gone to great lengths to combat travel fatigue and keep players fresh over the course of a road trip. Ekblad said the Panthers’ athletic training and medical staffs bring cold tubs on every trip to offer an additional form of treatment.
When teams have a day off after a game, players are not as frantic when it comes to their postgame routines, which include everything from cooling down and getting dressed to seeing family and friends. After the first game of a back-to-back, they have to pack all those items into a much tighter window.
That’s one reason some players don’t sleep on planes when going from one city to the next on a back-to-back. The tight turnaround along with the adrenaline they have after a game leads many players to choose to stay awake rather than try to sleep because they know their sleep will get interrupted once they land.
“You still have that energy and are still fired up from the game,” San Jose Sharks forward Anthony Duclair said. “Guys tend to sleep a little later after games. You’re trying to force yourself to eat a little more and get the proper amount of rest. In the mornings, you want to sleep in. But the biggest thing is you want to get moving in the mornings and then try to get a good nap in.”
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said coaching the Winnipeg Jets while they played in the all-Canadian North Division during the truncated 2020-21 season allowed him to see value in staying over after games rather than immediately flying to the next city.
“It’s a bit of an ask,” Maurice said. “After a long road trip like Calgary, they’re going to want to get on that plane and they don’t care if they get home at 5 in the morning. But the cost of that is real. So we stay over, and we’re doing that a lot more. … We’ll give up the practice and just fly, get them back to the hotel and not get them off the plane to the hotel at 3 in the morning — that matters.”
Foligno said the Blackhawks and Boston Bruins, the team he played for the previous two seasons, provide players with supplements that include magnesium, which helps with falling asleep after a game.
Although Foligno was grateful for what the Blackhawks and Bruins did, he was impressed with how the Panthers approach being on the road.
“I wonder if more teams will adopt that,” Foligno said. “I didn’t know they did that. That’s actually pretty smart in a lot of ways.”
THE ONLY SNAG Foligno said he could see with staying over after the first game of a back-to-back would be if there was an issue that altered a team’s travel plans. He said leaving immediately after the first game provides some leeway in case something happens, such as a team needing a new plane.
Having to contend with unexpected logistics is something the Blackhawks know all too well. Earlier this season, they were flying from Edmonton to Seattle when fog diverted their flight to Portland, Oregon. Because they were flying from Edmonton, it was an international flight, so they had to wait on the tarmac. And when they finally arrived in Seattle, they were delayed by morning rush hour traffic.
“The biggest thing we worry about this time of year is the weather, and we can’t control that,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said. “The last time [the Blackhawks came to Seattle], it wasn’t a back-to-back, but we lost a practice day because we didn’t get in until morning. We lost a day of practice, which is discouraging for a coach because you feel that’s the one time you can work on something.”
That is what makes team services personnel among the most valuable employees throughout the NHL.
From making sure the plane and flight crew are ready to leave on time to lining up charter buses and making sure a hotel can seamlessly accommodate a 55-person traveling party no matter the time of day or night, the team services crew is in charge of everything related to travel.
“With back-to-backs, fortunately, you’re never traveling four hours or losing too much off the clock,” said Sean O’Brien, who is the director of team operations for the Flames, “You want to get into the next city, get settled and, personally for me, you want to be ready if there is any sort of issue with something like weather. At least you’re in the next city. If you wait until the next morning, you don’t know what variables you’re dealing with.”
O’Brien, who has been in his role for 17 seasons, said the work doesn’t stop once a team reaches its hotel. While the players are sleeping, a team’s support staff will get up early to handle other items, such as breakfast and making sure there are ample conference rooms so the team can hold meetings without interruption.
EVEN WITH ALL those considerations, teams playing back-to-back games have won their share.
There have been 3,090 games played as part of a back-to-back over the past five seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information data. (Some games are counted twice, when both teams were on a back-to-back.) The record for the team on a back-to-back in those games on either leg is .531. The winning percentage on the first half of a back-to-back is .555, while the winning percentage in the second half is .507.
Over that time, 25% of teams have won both games of a back-to-back and 30% have lost both. The winning percentage for the home team in either part of a back-to-back is .553, while the winning percentage for the road team is .520. A little more than 700 of those 3,090 games went to overtime.
“It’s not so much the back-to-back. It’s what goes on around the back-to-back,” Maurice said. “A back-to-back is not that difficult. But when you get into four [games] in six [nights] — if you get a four-game week, and we’re going to have one at the end of March and [another] in early April. Then they stack another four-game week up. So you’re not going to be playing eight games at home. You’re going to be traveling, and that’s where they get you.”
The sequence of games Maurice referenced is when the Panthers play five times (with one back-to-back) from March 23 to March 30. Then, from April 1 to April 6, they have another four games, with a back-to-back in the first two.
If players had a say in trying to manage back-to-backs over an 82-game schedule, what would they change?
“Guess you could say get rid of them and just play less games,” Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said with a smile. “Earlier in a trip, I guess, maybe? You never really want it at the end of a trip. Or closer proximity with who you’re playing. That way you’re not huffing it on a flight to Florida to play the next night.”
Duclair said he would have back-to-backs on the front end of a trip. That would allow teams to settle into a regular routine for the rest of the trip.
Foligno said he doesn’t believe back-to-backs are the worst experience. But he does feel as if the travel logistics make it hard to “put the best product on the ice.”
“I know everyone goes through it and has a bad schedule,” Foligno said. “Some teams have way more back-to-backs than others, which I don’t understand how that works. You want the best product on the ice, and you’ve got to give guys a chance to recover and give their best too. That’s the frustrating part. … You want to give yourself the best chance to win. That’s where I get a little frustrated, but it happens to everyone.”
Ekblad suggested there could be alternatives. He said one way to make back-to-backs more manageable would be if the team playing on consecutive days was at home for both games. Or perhaps back-to-backs could be two games against the same opponent in the same city to eliminate travel and boost recovery.
He also had another idea.
“Abolish them. Get rid of them.” Ekblad said. “I mean, football players complain about Sunday to Thursday. That’s three to four days in between. We’re literally less than 24 hours in that time and that’s with travel. It’s nuts. It’s a high-speed game. Some cities don’t have the best ice. I’m not going to name any of them. The risk on the players is way more. I’m the [NHL Players’ Association] rep for the team, so I am just a big believer in player safety and taking care of things.”
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Eli Lederman
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Eli Lederman
ESPN Staff Writer
- Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
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Tom Luginbill
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Tom Luginbill
ESPN Analyst
- Senior National Recruiting Analyst for ESPN.com
- Coached in four professional football leagues
- Graduated from Eastern Kentucky and Marshall
Five-star quarterback Jared Curtis, the No. 5 prospect in the 2026 ESPN 300, announced his commitment to the Georgia Bulldogs over the Oregon Ducks Monday, capping the most consequential recruitment to date in the 2026 cycle.
Curtis, who decommitted from Georgia this past October, is the No. 1 overall quarterback in the 2026 class. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound passer from Nashville took trips to both Georgia and Oregon earlier this spring. Sources told ESPN that Curtis held in-home visits with offensive coordinators Mike Bobo (Georgia) and Will Stein (Oregon) last week and had conversations with both programs on Sunday afternoon prior to making his decision.
Curtis’ return to the Bulldogs’ 2026 class marks a crucial recruiting victory for coach Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs’ staff. Curtis now lands as the highest-ranked of four ESPN 300 pledges in the program’s incoming class, a collection of talent that will surely grow this summer as Georgia contends for a 10th consecutive top-three signing class. If he signs later this year, Curtis will arrive as the program’s third highest-ranked quarterback pledge in the ESPN recruiting era, trailing only Justin Fields (No. 1 overall in 2018) and Matt Stafford (No. 5 in 2006).
With his pledge, Curtis cements his place as the potential quarterback of the future in Athens behind expected starter Gunner Stockton, redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi and 2025 signees Ryan Montgomery and Hezekiah Millender. Oregon, meanwhile, returns to the quarterback market in search of a 2026 passer after missing out on a coveted target in Curtis.
Here’s what you need to know about the most consequential commitment in 2026 cycle this spring as the busy recruiting season of late-May and June enters the horizon:
What makes Curtis so good?
Curtis has supreme arm talent, ideal measurables and a competitive temperament. He has ideal measurables and good speed given his size and is a better athlete than he gets credit for. What we like best is his natural arm power, velocity, and ability to change arm angles. He’s a flexible thrower who can make off-platform throws look easy because he can find alternative ways to get the ball out without losing power or strength. He’s a crafty runner who can extend plays and get out of trouble.
If there is a concern, it would be the level of competition he faces at Nashville Christian, a 2A private school. He has yet to be truly challenged against elite competition throughout his high school career to this point. He is always the best player on the field. That being said, he has a winning mentality, likes to compete, and has abilities that can’t be coached. — Tom Luginbill
Who does he compare to?
When looking at current college players, Curtis, while much bigger, compares most to LSU Tigers QB Garrett Nussmeier. Their skillsets are eerily similar. They are both gunslingers, have live arms and things don’t have to be perfect for them to still make a play. Both players play the game with supreme confidence and make players around them better.
5⭐️ Georgia commit Jared Curtis makes it look easy 😮💨 The future Georgia Bulldog is the No. 1 QB in the class of 2026 😳🐶@Jaredcurtis37 I @NCSFB pic.twitter.com/jc6jGL7BYv
— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) October 2, 2024
In Athens, Curtis can play like Stetson Bennett did in his last two seasons in college. Like Bennett, Curtis can use his legs, acumen, resourcefulness, and accuracy to lead this team. Unlike Bennett, Curtis is bigger and has a stronger arm. — Luginbill
What does the team’s QB roster look like now?
Curtis joins a QB room with highly rated prospects with limited experience on the field. Gunner Stockton was the fifth-rated dual-threat QB in the 2022 class and filled in admirably late last year for an injured Carson Beck.
In all likelihood, Stockton will be the starter in Athens over the next two seasons. However, Ryan Puglisi is uber-talented and will also push for the starting job in 2025 and UGA signed two QBs in the 2025 class. The reality is that this decision, if Curtis signs in December, will likely lead to at least one or more players entering the transfer portal. — Luginbill
What’s next for Oregon and Georgia’s recruiting classes?
Round 2 between the Bulldogs and Ducks comes May 13 when five-star offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell announces his commitment. No. 3 in the 2026 ESPN 300, Cantwell will visit both programs in the closing stages of his recruitment, and he certainly won’t be the last elite prospect the two powerhouses battle over, either.
Curtis’ commitment gives Smart and Co. a cornerstone pledge in the 2026 cycle. With the No. 1 overall passer in hand, Georgia will work to build around him. Top running back prospect Derrek Cooper (No. 7 in the 2026 ESPN) and four-star rusher Savion Hiter (No. 27) are a pair of priority targets at another position of need, as is in-state rusher Jae Lamar (No. 129). Five-star end Kaiden Prothro (No. 19 overall) could be the next piece in Georgia’s stellar tight end pipeline, and five-star offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho (No. 12) will be on campus for an official visit later this month.
On defense, the Bulldogs remain firmly in the mix for top linebacker Tyler Atkinson (No. 13) and No. 1 athlete Brandon Arrington (No. 14), as well as top-50 defensive backs Jireh Edwards (No. 30), Justice Fitzpatrick (No. 42) and Chauncey Kennon (No. 49).
Oregon whiffed on Curtis, but with multiple years of eligibility for third-year passers Dante Moore and Austin Novosad — paired with the arrival of four-star freshman Akili Smith Jr. — the Ducks don’t have to sign a quarterback in the 2026 class.
Oregon has been in contact with five-star Houston quarterback pledge Keisean Henderson (No. 16 overall) this spring. But the Ducks’ top non-Curtis quarterback target is four-star passer Ryder Lyons (No. 50), who intends to take a mission trip following his senior year and would not join Oregon until 2027. Given the program’s lack of an immediate need at the position, Lyons — the nation’s No. 5 quarterback prospect — could be an especially good fit in 2026.
Other top targets for the Ducks this cycle include: Iheanacho, Atkinson, Arrington, defensive end Richard Wesley (No. 18), safety Jett Washington (No. 22) and tight end Mark Bowman (No. 24). — Eli Lederman
How does this affect the QB dominoes?
As noted, Oregon doesn’t have to sign a QB in this cycle, but with Curtis off the board, the Ducks should still be a major player across the seven months between now and the early signing period.
That could hold significant ramifications for Houston if the Ducks up their efforts to flip Henderson. It could also impact USC and BYU if Oregon turns its full attention to Lyons this summer. The Ducks could look toward other quarterbacks across the country, too.
Alongside Oregon, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, LSU, North Carolina, Ohio State, Ole Miss and South Carolina stand among the top programs still active in the quarterback market this spring.
However, as of May 5, only four of the 18 quarterbacks ranked inside the 2026 ESPN 300 remain uncommitted. With Curtis now committed, expect the recruitments of those remaining quarterbacks to pick up steam in the coming months.
Lyons is set for June officials with BYU, USC and Oregon. Ole Miss remains the front-runner for Duckworth, who also holds heavy interest from Auburn, Florida State and South Carolina. Bowe Bentley (No. 264) will get to Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma later this spring, while former Purdue pledge Oscar Rios (No. 193) will take official trips to Virginia Tech, Utah, Arizona and Colorado after an April visit to Oklahoma State. — Lederman
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Michael Rothstein
The Trump administration’s 2026 fiscal budget request to Congress eliminates major federal funding for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and education, potentially undercutting efforts to address head injuries in sports, particularly at the high school and youth levels.
The White House’s proposed budget, released Friday, includes eliminating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention umbrella agency responsible for TBI research, including the $8.25 million marked for brain injury research and public education about the dangers of concussions. The CDC is facing $3.59 billion in budget cuts.
Although the president proposes the federal budget, it is up to Congress to approve a final budget bill, so the TBI program could be restored or moved to a different agency. The White House did not respond to an ESPN request for comment.
The budget proposal comes after the CDC on April 1 placed all five staffers devoted to administering the government’s main traumatic brain injury program on paid administrative leave, CDC employees told ESPN. Paid administrative leave means the workers are still government employees.
The budget cuts would “roll back decades of progress,” said Dr. Owen Perlman, a brain injury specialist and board member of the Brain Injury Association of America.
Among the items targeted is Heads Up, a concussion-prevention program for youth and high school coaches, athletic trainers and other sports officials. The CDC staffers put on leave administered the program. Forty-five states participate in the program to varying degrees, a CDC official said, asking not to be identified.
Staffers interviewed by ESPN declined to speak on the record, citing fears of administration retribution.
“We’re really worried about the hundreds of thousands of coaches who have to take this training,” the CDC official said. “This is really built in, and we’ve lost the whole team” behind the program.
Some Heads Up training is part of coaches’ and other sports officials’ state compliance requirements. The CDC official said hundreds of email queries are arriving every week asking how to comply as the federal program shuts down. The Heads Up website says more than 10 million people have participated in its online training programs.
Congress first approved TBI research funding in 1996. Legislation to keep the program going expired at the end of 2024, and a House bill to renew it has yet to advance out of committee.
In a 2018 CDC survey, 12% of adult respondents reported experiencing a head injury in the previous 12 months, including but not limited to sports-related activities. A follow-up study was being prepared when the staffers were placed on leave. The research data was part of a program to measure TBI prevalence and boost prevention, care and recovery efforts.
The Heads Up website remained active Monday but offered no clues regarding the program’s endangered status.
“In the last month, I don’t think the public has felt an impact,” a laid-off CDC employee said. “But when those websites, trainings and materials get pulled down or when they can’t be updated, I think that’s when the public will feel it.”
In the proposed White House budget, the National Institutes of Health would retain an institute devoted to overall brain research, although the name would slightly change. The institute focuses on medical issues such as stroke and migraines, and it’s unclear whether TBI programs would be absorbed into it.
Hospitals and universities conducting TBI research funded by the CDC are bracing for potential funding cutbacks.
“We might not [get] the next year of renewal or the next wave of funding. And that’s sad and scary and impactful for all kinds of people, including myself in this project,” said Christine Baugh, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine who is studying how parents decide whether to let their children play contact sports and whether brain-injury awareness campaigns influence their decisions.
On April 23, the National Academy of Sciences received orders to cancel work on two TBI workshops, one of which analyzed the risks of repeated head impacts on children. Both workshops had already been held. One of the workshop organizers, Dr. Fred Rivara, a pediatrics professor at the University of Washington, told ESPN that the cancellation affected funding for publishing the information, and he called the potential cuts “tragic.”
“That’s a perfect example of how this change in, or devastation of, funding at the CDC is impacting people,” Rivara said. “They want to know, for sports: What about these repetitive impacts? Are they bad for kids? It’s a perfect example of the impact of this.”
Traumatic brain injuries have lifelong repercussions on a person’s physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral health, Perlman said.
Even though some states fund TBI-treatment programs independently of the federal government, concerns are growing about a domino effect if Congress fails to renew funding.
“For many people with concussions or certainly moderate or severe brain injuries, there’s no endpoint,” Perlman said. “It’s a lifetime problem, and there needs to be lifetime funding for it.”
The first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs is complete. Eight of the teams that made the postseason bracket have moved on, and eight others have been eliminated.
Before the second-round series begin, ESPN’s experts have identified their picks for each matchup. Which four teams will move on to the conference finals?
More: Full schedule
Betting intel
Atlantic Division
John Buccigross: Panthers in seven
Ryan Callahan: Panthers in six
Cassie Campbell-Pascall: Panthers in six
Sachin Chandan: Panthers in six
Meghan Chayka: Panthers in six
Ryan S. Clark: Panthers in seven
Linda Cohn: Panthers in six
Rachel Doerrie: Panthers in six
Ray Ferraro: Panthers in six
Emily Kaplan: Panthers in seven
Tim Kavanagh: Maple Leafs in six
Peter Lawrence-Riddell: Panthers in six
Steve Levy: Panthers in six
Vince Masi: Panthers in six
Victoria Matiash: Panthers in six
Sean McDonough: Panthers in six
Mark Messier: Panthers in six
AJ Mleczko: Panthers in six
Arda Öcal: Maple Leafs in six
Kristen Shilton: Maple Leafs in seven
John Thoering: Panthers in six
Bob Wischusen: Panthers in six
Greg Wyshynski: Panthers in six
Consensus prediction: Panthers (20 of 23 picks)
Metropolitan Division
John Buccigross: Capitals in seven
Ryan Callahan: Capitals in seven
Cassie Campbell-Pascall: Capitals in six
Sachin Chandan: Capitals in six
Meghan Chayka: Hurricanes in six
Ryan S. Clark: Capitals in seven
Linda Cohn: Capitals in six
Rachel Doerrie: Capitals in six
Ray Ferraro: Capitals in seven
Emily Kaplan: Capitals in seven
Tim Kavanagh: Capitals in six
Peter Lawrence-Riddell: Hurricanes in seven
Steve Levy: Capitals in five
Vince Masi: Hurricanes in six
Victoria Matiash: Hurricanes in six
Sean McDonough: Capitals in seven
Mark Messier: Hurricanes in six
AJ Mleczko: Hurricanes in five
Mike Monaco: Hurricanes in six
Arda Öcal: Capitals in six
Kristen Shilton: Hurricanes in six
John Thoering: Capitals in seven
Bob Wischusen: Capitals in seven
Greg Wyshynski: Capitals in seven
Consensus prediction: Capitals (16 of 24 picks)
Central Division
John Buccigross: Stars in seven
Ryan Callahan: Stars in five
Sachin Chandan: Stars in six
Ryan S. Clark: Stars in seven
Linda Cohn: Jets in seven
Rachel Doerrie: Stars in six
Ray Ferraro: Stars in six
Emily Kaplan: Stars in six
Tim Kavanagh: Stars in seven
Peter Lawrence-Riddell: Stars in six
Steve Levy: Stars in seven
Vince Masi: Jets in seven
Victoria Matiash: Jets in seven
Sean McDonough: Stars in six
Mark Messier: Stars in six
Mike Monaco: Stars in six
Arda Öcal: Stars in six
Kristen Shilton: Stars in six
John Thoering: Stars in seven
Bob Wischusen: Jets in seven
Greg Wyshynski: Stars in six
Consensus prediction: Stars (17 of 21 picks)
Pacific Division
John Buccigross: Oilers in seven
Ryan Callahan: Golden Knights in six
Cassie Campbell-Pascall: Oilers in seven
Sachin Chandan: Oilers in seven
Meghan Chayka: Golden Knights in seven
Ryan S. Clark: Golden Knights in seven
Linda Cohn: Oilers in seven
Rachel Doerrie: Golden Knights in seven
Ray Ferraro: Golden Knights in seven
Emily Kaplan: Golden Knights in seven
Tim Kavanagh: Golden Knights in six
Peter Lawrence-Riddell: Golden Knights in six
Steve Levy: Golden Knights in seven
Vince Masi: Oilers in six
Victoria Matiash: Golden Knights in six
Sean McDonough: Golden Knights in seven
Mark Messier: Oilers in seven
AJ Mleczko: Golden Knights in six
Mike Monaco: Oilers in six
Arda Öcal: Oilers in six
Kristen Shilton: Oilers in seven
John Thoering: Golden Knights in seven
Bob Wischusen: Golden Knights in seven
Greg Wyshynski: Oilers in seven
Consensus prediction: Golden Knights (14 of 24 picks)
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