Welcome back, and we at Last Word On Hockey are here to get you started for the 2025-26 NHL season. You may recall we brought you all the team season preview’s in our annual Puck Drop Preview series. However, now we will collate those predictions into four concise, divisional iterations, using our picks as the template of each compilation. Make sure you check out each of the other divisional standings predictions with the Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific. So, let’s get into it, and find out how we think the NHL’s Atlantic Division standings will sort themselves out for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
First Up, the Wild Card Teams
We start with the biggest group. One reason the Wild Card contenders is the biggest, is the lack of depth in the other Eastern Conference division, the Metropolitan. Therefore, it allows more teams from the Atlantic to battle for positioning, within the top eight. We have the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning all in this category. Now, of those teams, there are a couple clear distinctions. Detroit would be the one to least likely make it. That is followed up by the Lightning as the most likely. Now, we know what you are thinking, the Florida Panthers.
Yes, Florida is the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs. In addition, like we said in our season previews, we do think they will be back in the playoff picture. However, since that time, the injury to their undisputed leader, Aleksander Barkov, took place. He could be gone for the entire campaign. Plus, Matthew Tkachuk was already known to be out to around January, if not longer. Guys like Sergei Bobrovsky and Brad Marchand are a year older. It’s not like as a collective group we think they drop much, but it is more to do with all their divisional rivals stepping up. So, we have them favoured to lock down the second Wild Card spot, or the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff position. But we just can’t put them any higher at this time.
Enough about the Cup champs, what about those other three teams? Like we said, Detroit is in tough. Yes, they’ve made some improvements, such as John Gibson in net, but overall, we don’t think they get in. Again, similar to the Panthers with the idea of being in tough, we just think the competition is too strong to allow Detroit to even get in the playoffs. Now, we have them listed as a Wild Card team, because they could sneak in. Moritz Seider is a very skilled defender. Also, Dylan Larkin leading the offence, is a very strong all-around player. If they stay healthy, and players play to their potential, then why not? The problem is, the general level of competition from their opposition. We just don’t see it happening for Detroit in 2025-26.
Shifting gears to the favourite, and we like Tampa to make it, and forgot Wild Card, they are definitely in the conversation for the top three. A team lead by perennial most valuable player candidate Nikita Kucherov is always a threat. If they can stay healthy, they have enough high-end talent to challenge for the division title, even if it is four years removed from the 2022 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Colorado Avalanche. Their top end is just so deep, Brandon Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli, and Brayden Point can easily power your team to victory, night-in, night-out.
Furthermore, noteworthy for Tampa, has been the emergence of relative unknowns on the backend. Names like Emil Martinsen Lilleberg and Darren Raddysh have established themselves as regulars in their lineup. Thus, creating excellent depth throughout their roster. We are saying Wild Card for Tampa, but with Andrei Vasilevskiy between the pipes, plus the other high-end stars Tampa possesses, we are guaranteeing a Lightning 2026 Stanley Cup playoff visit.
The One Darkhorse Playoff Team
Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it, 14-year playoff drought, oh, did we just jinx it? Sadly no, that’s not real life. There are no jinxes. But if you do believe in fairytales, yes, somehow Buffalo sneaks into the playoffs in 2026. If Tage Thompson has a big season, one he is more than capable of having, that would be a great starting point. Joshua Norris has been hot so far. We know it is only preseason, but dude has proven to be a sniper. Let’s recall his career-high 35 goals, in just 66 games back in 2021-22. Plus, he scored 21 in just 56 game last year. That’s a great basis in those two players alone, for a top power play unit.
The biggest intangible for the Sabres, is the analogy, defence wins championships. If their backend plays, even an average season for them, that could alone put the Sabres in contention. Nobody wants Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, Bowen Byram, and oh yeah, don’t forget the JJ Peterka swap, for Michael Kesselring. In any case, we think Buffalo puts a strong push, as our darkhorse, but we did ultimately have them on the outside looking in on the postseason.
The Division’s Top-Three Playoff-Spot Getters
A changing of the guard is somewhat in order. The top three Atlantic Division positions are pretty straight-forward, as we have been attempting to set up. We know about the two Florida teams. They will, barring anything ridiculous, like an anti-Buffalo jinx, get into the postseason. However, each of the three Canadian teams made the playoffs last year, and we see no reason they don’t do it again, and better, too. The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Atlantic Division in 2024-25, and we are saying they do it again. With names like Matthew Knies, John Tavares, William Nylander, and captain Auston Matthews, goals will not be hard to come by. Furthermore, their depth defensively serves as proof, that they can duplicate last season’s regular season.
Next up, and similar to Buffalo as a darkhorse, but the Ottawa Senators will finish second in the division. With superstars Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, and Linus Ullmark, they have all the boxes ticked right off the hop. Guys like Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, and Drake Batherson, provide plenty as a supporting cast to power them through the rigors of a long NHL season.
The guys that have been there like Thomas Chabot and captain Brady Tkachuk will provide the leadership this team needs to follow up a strong showing last year, where they pushed the Leafs to a hard-fought six-game, first-round series.
The last shoe-in, the Montreal Canadiens, you know the team with the most Stanley Cup victories (24), we say they make the playoffs. Heck, they thought they were still in their rebuild mode last year, and made it. Now, their young players are a year older, they’ve added some pieces, there’s no reason to expect any less from an organization with a commitment to excellence. Remember, they’re still only five years removed from their Cinderella 2021 Cup final run.
The big difference makers for the Habs squad will be Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, and Ivan Demidov. With big seasons from that trio in particular, there’s little stopping le bleu, blanc, et rouge.
The Re-Builders…the Bad…the Bruins
It’s not good, if you’re last, right? Well, in sports, no, ah kind of. You could still win, the draft lottery. So, even though the Boston Bruins are our pick to finish last in the Atlantic, that gives them a shot at the lottery. Okay, so you are saying, big deal. It is, Gavin McKenna, is already putting on a show for the Penn State Nittany Lions. He’s not even drafted.
Gavin McKenna was as advertised in his first NCAA games and there were 57!! NHL scouts in the building to see it
(via @THNRyanKennedy) pic.twitter.com/GJTJtmshn1
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 6, 2025
Boston still possesses star power. David Pastrnak could win the Maurice Richard Trophy for most goals. Charlie McAvoy, 28, should still make the Team USA Olympic roster, but the competition is tight, no doubt. Same goes for goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman, who was one of four tendies to attend the summer orientation camp. It really just goes to show how much parody there is league wide. With guys like Casey Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, and Morgan Geekie upfront, they still have an outside shot at surprising the naysayers, you know, pretty well everyone. But hey, someone has to be last, and we are saying it is the (Not So) Big Bad Bruins of ’26.
Predicted 2025-26 Atlantic Division Final Standings
8th – Boston Bruins
7th – Detroit Red Wings
6th – Buffalo Sabres
5th – Florida Panthers
4th – Tampa Bay Lightning
3rd – Montreal Canadiens
2nd – Ottawa Senators
1st – Toronto Maple Leafs
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
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