Who are the inner-circle Stanley Cup contenders so far this season?
As we close in on the holiday season, a number of teams have proven they have the tools to be in the running for the Stanley Cup.
Though there is still a lot of time left in the 2025-26 season, numerous teams have shown how capable they are, and that they have what it takes to make a deep run, even though it’s only November.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton gave their updated “inner circles” of championship contenders.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I have Colorado [Avalanche], I have Dallas [Stars], and I have Florida [Panthers]. I know you could probably make a case that Tampa and Florida deserve to be the same, or even Carolina [Hurricanes] and Florida deserve to be the same, because Florida hasn’t looked like Florida so far. For the Panthers, I give them the respect of being the defending Stanley Cup champions. Two-time Stanley Cup champions. Matt Tkachuk should be back at some point in the next four or five weeks. They’ll get healthier as the season goes on. I keep them in there because, in my opinion, you get that spot until you lose it when you win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
The only other two teams I had were Colorado and Dallas, because honestly, they’re the only two teams that I couldn’t really find a flaw with. They both are getting good goaltending. They both have relatively solid blue lines. Up front, they both have a good mix of star power and good depth. The Colorado Avalanche have five or more goals from seven of their forwards already this season.
Carter Hutton: I still think there’s a few teams that are capable of doing that and when I think of that, when we look at the East, I still feel like the West has a lot better teams. Teams that can compete. I think the Central is so heavily loaded. I added in the Tampa Bay Lightning from the East in the sense of I just think with Andrei Vasilevskiy and the lack of production they’ve been getting from their big dogs, there’s still so much room for growth and with the Panthers with their injury bug and where they’re at and the Toronto Maple Leafs, it feels like in the Atlantic, Tampa Bay is the team for me that can get hot and maybe have a run here still at it while they’re still a little bit stacked.
When I switch over back to the West, I think about the Vegas Golden Knights and what they’ve been able to do so far with a few injuries and guys out. I think when they start to find healthy goaltending, is Carter Hart gonna get back to form? I think he could be someone that pushes with Adin Hill. So, those are the two I like.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…