Who has the better chance of maintaining their hot start: Chicago or Seattle?

We’re now nearly a month into the 2025-26 NHL season, which means it’s time to start taking some of the results we’re seeing more seriously.

Every year, a team or two makes a surprising leap up the standings and pushes into or close to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after finishing near the bottom of the league the year prior. This season, it looks like two top contenders to pull off that feat are the Chicago Blackhawks and the Seattle Kraken.

Powered by a burst of offensive production from Connor Bedard and a breakout effort between the pipes from Spencer Knight, Chicago is off to a 5-3-2 start and is tied with Edmonton for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, Seattle is 5-2-3 and is just two points behind Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division. The Kraken are getting things done by committee, as none of their players have reached the 10-point mark just yet. Joey Daccord is 5-1-2 in his starts, but even he has room for improvement at a .905 save percentage so far. The Kraken are winning games without anything unsustainable happening

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed which of these two Western surprises has the better chance to keep their momentum going for the rest of the year.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Quickly between Chicago and Seattle, I don’t know if I truly believe in either one of them. I want to believe in the Chicago Blackhawks more than I want to believe in the Seattle Kraken. I would much rather see a young, exciting Chicago Blackhawks team try to find a way to parlay this early start into an actual quality regular season.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I agree. It’s the star power for me. This is a league built on superstars and when you look at the Seattle Kraken, they just don’t have what the Chicago Blackhawks have. Connor Bedard… Frank Nazar… these guys are budding superstars. I think it’s a little early. It’s a little worrisome to start thinking they’re in the clear just yet, but with the way Spencer Knight is playing, how consistent he’s been, I like Chicago better.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…