3 Underestimated Teams Who Could Surprise In 2025-26

There have been a lot of changes this offseason, some good and bad for certain teams. But we are going to look at some teams who either upgraded nicely or have the right players to make it so they might surprise many of us next season with some unexpected success.

New York Islanders

Health will play a big part in how the New York Islanders do next season. Injuries held them back in 2024-25 and it arguably made them seem a lot worse than they could be. The team has at least four players who can put up 20 goals with Jonathan Drouin and Anthony Duclair being wildcards to make a larger impact offensively. Simon Holmstrom and Maxim Tsyplakov need to continue getting better while Maxim Shabanov could be a real difference maker in the top-9 in his first year in North America.

Of the defenseman on the roster, there were 74 games played, 66, 64, 60, 35, and 35 last season. That is some very bad luck and it won't be as bad this season. Noah Dobson is now gone, but Tony DeAngelo can match his production from last season with regular top power-play time. With a healthy team and defense core, Ilya Sorokin should be just fine. He is elite and did the best he could last season to hold the team together. The prospects that could jump into the lineup are also exciting and could surprise, such as Matthew Schaefer, Callum Ritchie, and Cole Eiserman by the end of the season.

Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken have been one of, if not the most active team this offseason when it comes to trades and upgrading. With a solid group of talented young players and a taste for the playoffs already as a young franchise, they are looking to get back into the postseason in a hurry. The additions to take note of are Mason Marchment, Frederick Gaudreau, and Ryan Lindgren. All three will make a difference in their roles and are upgrades from the player previously holding those spots.

The expectation is that Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, Kaapo Kakko, Ryker Evans, and Jani Nyman will continue to get better as they all showed promising stuff throughout last season. Joey Daccord is the clear starter and a good one at that, but this is the last chance for Philipp Grubauer in Seattle. He might make it a better one than we've seen. It is a deep team at forward and defense, and as long as Jared McCann isn't traded ahead of the season, we might see a similar team to the one that made the playoffs due to scoring coming from everywhere.

Utah Mammoth

Utah Mammoth are going to be a very exciting team once again. But I would say now even more so than before since JJ Peterka was brought in and the youth are one more year experienced. The top-6 are going to be very good and very fun to watch with Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, Peterka, Logan Cooley, Barrett Hayton, and Nick Schmaltz.

The forward depth will need to step up and that is the biggest concern alongside the health of the defense and goaltending. I don't worry about Karel Vejmelka since he showed just what type of strong starter he is, but support in a backup is required and needed to be trusted to give him a break. John Marino and Sean Durzi should both be able to play at least half of the games next season. Those were big losses and the team will be able to improve a lot with the group they want to have out there.