Younger teams have the potential to be outer-circle Stanley Cup contenders in short order

The 2025-26 NHL season to this point has been marked by several young, up-and-coming teams playing like they may be closer to legitimate contender status than previously thought.

Particularly in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, two teams who were mainstays at the bottom of the standings in recent years, have gotten off to surprisingly strong starts putting them in playoff contention.

But the Anaheim Ducks, led by major steps forward from some of their young stars, are looking like a possible contender. The Ducks are 13-7-1 and lead the Pacific Division over teams like Vegas, Edmonton and Los Angeles.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why teams like Anaheim might break through and make some noise in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Tyler Yaremchuk: A month from now, Hutts, there’s a couple of teams, Ottawa’s one of them. There’s a couple other teams I have on my watchlist who if the next month goes really, really well for a couple of these clubs, they could be moving into that spot. Anaheim’s maybe one of them who could be outer circle by December or January for me.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I agree. There’s a lot of young potential teams… The Hawks, too. These are teams that legitimately, I think it’s buyer beware right now because it’s still early… but at the end of the day, if these teams keep stacking wins… I think the Hawks could be that Montreal team we saw last year, where at some point everyone thought it was going to fizzle out, and next thing you know they’re in the playoffs. That just goes to show how good these young teams are and the potential for a lot of them. Anaheim is definitely someone to be reckoned with.

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