The Metropolitan Division might not be the NHL’s cleanest race next season, but it could be one of its messiest.
At the top, the picture looks fairly settled. Carolina and Washington are the teams everyone keeps circling, and the Capitals catching the Hurricanes may end up being the least surprising outcome in the division.
FanDuel Sportsbook has Carolina at -900 to make the playoffs, the best odds in the league, while Washington sits second in the Metro at -310. Even with Carolina running into its usual postseason wall, the Hurricanes have still been a playoff machine.
The Capitals, meanwhile, are being viewed through the lens of a major offseason overhaul and what looks a lot like a “Last Dance” for future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin.
But after those two, things get crowded fast.
The New Jersey Devils are essentially the front of a muddled second tier, sitting at -132 to make the playoffs. The rest of the division is in plus-money territory, which tells you plenty about how the betting markets see the gap.
Philadelphia is coming off a playoff series win and still checks in at +118. Pittsburgh made the playoffs, yet the Penguins are right there with the Islanders as the only teams in the division at +200 or worse.
Bettors clearly aren’t sold on either Pennsylvania club repeating last season’s success, and that skepticism is tied in part to whether Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin can keep delivering late-career production at the same level.
Still, none of these teams is tearing it all down.
There’s plenty of difference in how they’re building, but no one in this division is operating in full retreat. The Rangers and Blue Jackets have made it obvious they don’t want to spend 2026-27 on the outside looking in.
The Devils, who could be the favorite for the third automatic playoff spot, may not need to push all their chips in under new GM Sunny Mehta, but a team with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier is not in any kind of rebuild. Philadelphia took a big swing this offseason that didn’t work out, yet there’s no sign the Flyers plan to step backward.
Pittsburgh and the Islanders probably have the shortest leashes, and either front office could pivot if the season goes sideways, but neither roster looks built to tank.
The most interesting twist in this division might be in goal.
Every team has a goalie situation worth watching, and several of them are loaded with uncertainty. Logan Thompson in Washington, Ilya Sorokin with the Islanders and Igor Shesterkin for the Rangers all graded out among the top goalies in hockey last season by goals saved above expected, yet all three missed the playoffs.
Carolina, Pittsburgh and New Jersey are headed toward committee-style setups. The Devils are expected to use a three-goalie tandem, while the Hurricanes are likely to lean heavily on Brandon Bussi and Pyotr Kochetkov to start the season.
There’s pressure on Columbus and Philadelphia too, and it starts in net. Jet Greaves signed a three-year extension in Columbus this offseason, while Dan Vladar got a five-year extension. For both teams, the margin for error is thin, and a drop-off in goaltending could be costly in 2026-27.
The Islanders and Devils will be first out of the gate in division preseason play on Sunday, Sept. 20.
In Other News...
Luke Hughes Just Became A Huge Devils Question Mark
The Devils long-term outlook already comes with a fair amount of uncertainty, and Luke Hughes is part of that conversation now after a difficult season and a new contract. Around the league, some analysts are tempering expectations for New Jerseys core as the team is not viewed as a serious 2026-27 contender, which makes the development of young pillars like Hughes even more important to the franchises bigger picture.
Hughes is also the kind of player whose value can look very different depending on the model, the role and the team context around him. Predictive tools can be useful for framing risk, but they do not settle the question of what comes next for a defenseman still trying to stabilize his game and live up to the money and responsibility now attached to him. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Give Prized Young Center A Real Chance In Crowded Camp
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Commands path is complicated by the fact that his stay in camp is expected to be temporary, but the Devils are still using this stretch to see where his game can go. The organization has long liked the idea that a player can start in one lane and grow into more, and with a new coaching staff in place, there is at least some room for a young center to make an impression before the next step of his development sends him elsewhere. [Read more 🡒]
Martin Brodeurs Devils Legacy Looks More Untouchable Than Ever
Martin Brodeurs name still sits at the top of the NHLs goaltending mountain in more ways than one, and the longer the league trends toward tandem usage and lighter workloads, the more those marks start to look like monuments. His career wins, shutouts, games played and minutes played all remain part of the record book, a reminder of just how durable and dominant he was across a changing era for goalies.
Even with accomplished active netminders like Sergei Bobrovsky, Semyon Varlamov and Connor Hellebuyck in the mix, the gap between todays usage patterns and Brodeurs workload is hard to ignore. The modern game simply does not ask goalies to shoulder the same kind of burden, which is why the Devils legends legacy feels less like a target and more like something the next generation may spend a long time chasing without catching. [Read more 🡒]