Nearly one year ago today, on July 31st, 2024, I wrote an article titled “an early prediction on the Central Division standings for next season”. Looking back at it today, I realized I was quite wrong about how I thought the Jets would perform in the 2024-25 season. Nobody could have predicted that they would have won the division while setting a new franchise record for wins in a season, but I probably could have had them in the 2nd or 3rd place spot. Taking a look at the transactions, signings and trades from each of the eight Central Division teams, I wanted to take another crack at predicting how the Central Division standings will look at the end of the 2025-26 season.

Recapping the Central Division in the 2024-25 season, here’s how it played out, with my predictions from last year’s article in brackets. The Jets were at the top with 56 wins and 116 points (4), followed somewhat closely by the Dallas Stars with 106 points (1) and the Colorado Avalanche in 3rd with 102 points (3). The Minnesota Wild snuck into a playoff spot with 97 points (7), as did the St. Louis Blues thanks to a late season winning streak to get them to 96 points (5). The Utah Hockey Club finished in 6th with 89 points (6), followed by a big jump down to the 7th place Nashville Predators, who heavily disappointed after “winning” last year’s free agency, only managing to get 68 points (2). The Chicago Blackhawks improved slightly last season but still finished last in the Central Division with 61 points (8).

I hate to not put the Jets here at the number one spot, but maybe that means they can prove me wrong again. The Dallas Stars seem to be the team to beat once again in the Central Division. After another Conference Finals exit, the Stars continue to look for that “next level” to take them to a Stanley Cup Finals. The Stars have had a pretty solid off-season up until this point, re-signing Matt Duchene, Nils Lundkvist and Jamie Benn. With not that much cap space available, the Stars were able to move the contracts of Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken and most recently Matt Dumba to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team should be fully healthy to start the season, and it will interesting to see what the Stars do with Jason Robertson, who’s entering the final year of his current contract. Mikko Rantanen’s first full season with this relatively similar Stars team to last season will look to recapture their 2023-24 title as Central Division Champions.

After their most successful regular season in franchise history, I have the Jets finishing just a few points behind the Dallas Stars for the Central Division title. After falling to the Stars in the 2nd round, the Jets quickly got to work with re-signing their restricted and unrestricted free agents. Alex Iafallo, Neal Pionk, Morgan Barron, Gabriel Vilardi and soon Dylan Samberg will be the notable names returning to the Jets on new contracts. The search for a true 2nd line centre continues, and Nikolaj Ehlers’ departure to Carolina in free agency will be difficult to replace. The Jets “headline” free agent signings are Jonathan Toews and Gustav Nyquist, but apart from them they’ve made a lot of signings to improve their bottom six forward group and overall depth. This team might not look too different on paper next season, but that’s just fine, the Jets will still be a great team and will be expected to hopefully have another 50-win season.

The Avalanche will be an interesting team to watch this season, as it’s difficult to predict where they will go from their 1st round exit to the Stars last season. Much like the Jets, the Avalanche look like they will have a pretty similar roster to last season, minus Mikko Rantanen of course. The Avalanche signed veteran defenceman Brent Burns, and they brought back Josh Manson, while shedding some salary by dealing Charlie Coyle to the Blue Jackets. After adding Brock Nelson at last season’s trade deadline, the Avalanche re-signed him to a large 3-year deal. You also can’t forget about the big “addition” of their captain, Gabriel Landeskog, who is now fully healthy and will be playing in his first regular season games since the 2021-22 season. Still with two of the league’s best players in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, the Avalanche should have a solid 2025-26 season.

Following their first season in Utah, the former team known as “Hockey Club” is now known as the Mammoth. Utah will be looking to make a push to the playoffs in the 2025-26 season. The management has been pretty aggressively trying to improve this roster in the off-season, adding Brandon Tanev and Nate Schmidt to name a just a few. Their big off-season move was trading for J.J Peterka from the Sabres, sending Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan to Buffalo. Prior to free agency, the Mammoth traded Matias Maccelli to the Maple Leafs after a somewhat disappointing 2024-25 season. If the Mammoth can get some good goaltending throughout the season, they will be a fun team to watch, and one that should have enough talent from all sides of their roster to bring the NHL playoffs to Utah.

A late season 12-game winning streak by the Blues was snapped by the Jets in Winnipeg. Up until that point of the season, the Blues were very average, and they were simply part of the “mushy middle” of the NHL. After a hard fought 1st round series with the Jets, the Blues began looking for ways to add to their roster to ensure a return to the playoffs. The Blues added at centre, adding Pius Suter and Nick Bjugstad via free agency. Winger Zack Bolduc was moved to the Canadiens after a very solid season, and the Blues received defenceman Logan Mailloux, who may find himself in a 3rd role on the right side behind Colton Parayko and Justin Faulk. As for any other moves the Blues could make coming up, things could get interesting depending on how the start of the 2025-26 season goes. Regardless of those moves, I think they’ll be able to do well enough to make playoffs once again, assuming only three teams from the Pacific Division qualify.

I had a tough time making a prediction for the Wild, who I could easily see taking a jump into the 4th place spot depending on how things unfold. The Wild kept things close against the Vegas Golden Knights in their 1st round playoff matchup, but now they’re left with some questions on how to adjust their roster for the upcoming season. There’s a few promising prospects and young players that will be looking to step up for the Wild next season, and the big upcoming payday for Kirill Kaprizov will be on their minds from opening night. In terms of free agency and other signings, the Wild have remained pretty quiet other than acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko from the Red Wings for future considerations. It’ll be an unpredictable yet exciting season for Wild fans as their team looks to build towards being a highly competitive team in the near future.

I definitely overrated Nashville last season after seeing their “fantastic” free agent signings. Nothing seemed to click for the Predators in the 2024-25 season, and after a terrible start they were left with too many questions as to what they could do next. The expectations for this season are completely different, as they will be a team who should now be retooling for the future. One notable off-season trade for the Predators was adding Nicolas Hague from the Golden Knights in exchange for Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon. Other than that, the moves the Predators have made this off-season have been pretty tame, as I think they are still in a “wait and see” mode. This team still has some good pieces, but if the start of the season doesn’t go well again, get ready to see several Nashville Predators players on the trade block prior to the NHL trade deadline.

One of these seasons the Blackhawks will be back to being an elite team, but that won’t be for at least a few more years. In terms of a rebuild, the Blackhawks appear to be doing most things right, ensuring they’re adding young talent while signing a few veterans to guide the early parts of their young players’ careers. With the 3rd overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft the Blackhawks selected Anton Frondell, who will only be a few years away from making an impact as a strong two-way centre. Aside from the draft, most of the moves the Blackhawks have made in the off-season have been relatively tame, and that’s just fine given where they are at this time. Connor Bedard is expected to have his best season yet in his 3rd season in the league, and there’s plenty to look forward to for Blackhawks fans as the rebuild continues.

Compared to the other divisions in the NHL, the Central Division is quite difficult to predict in terms of the standings for the 2025-26 season. If I had to place these teams in tiers, I’d have the Stars and Jets in the “A” tier, meaning either of them could win the division. The Avalanche are a “B” tier team, followed by the Wild, Blues and Mammoth who are all “C+” teams, meaning they could finish anywhere from 4th to 6th. The Predators are Blackhawks would be in the “D” tier, as they will very likely be the 7th and 8th place teams in the Central Division. Only time will tell, and we’re now just 74 days away from the Jets home opener against their Central Divisions rival Dallas Stars.