Over the past month, I’ve ranked every team in the NHL at each position, centre, winger, defence, and goaltending. We’ll now combine those four rankings into one final ranking to determine how every roster in the league stacks up from top to bottom. If you’ve missed the detailed positional rankings, you can catch up through the following links:
2023-24 NHL goaltending rankings
NHL consolidated ranking chart
The chart below has my given rankings inputted for all four positions. I then took an average of the four and gave an overall ranking based on those consolidated rankings. The chart has been organized to show the highest ranking first, going all the way down to the lowest ranking.
| Team | Centre Ranking | Winger Ranking | Defence Ranking | Goalie Ranking | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolina Hurricanes | 7 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 5.25 |
| New Jersey Devils | 2 | 1 | 8 | 15 | 6.5 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 18 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 8.25 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 12 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 9.75 |
| Boston Bruins | 27 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 9.75 |
| Dallas Stars | 16 | 4 | 17 | 5 | 10.5 |
| New York Rangers | 13 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 10.5 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 3 | 12 | 16 | 13 | 11 |
| Calgary Flames | 9 | 20 | 4 | 12 | 11.25 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 1 | 14 | 12 | 19 | 11.5 |
| Florida Panthers | 8 | 3 | 18 | 18 | 11.75 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 5 | 10 | 9 | 23 | 11.75 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 6 | 24 | 5 | 14 | 12.25 |
| Ottawa Senators | 14 | 6 | 14 | 17 | 12.75 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 4 | 19 | 7 | 22 | 13 |
| New York Islanders | 15 | 27 | 13 | 2 | 14.25 |
| Minnesota Wild | 19 | 13 | 15 | 10 | 14.25 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 23 | 11 | 24 | 3 | 15.25 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 10 | 16 | 10 | 25 | 15.25 |
| Washington Capitals | 21 | 22 | 25 | 16 | 15.25 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 11 | 25 | 23 | 9 | 17 |
| Seattle Kraken | 22 | 7 | 20 | 24 | 18.25 |
| Nashville Predators | 28 | 30 | 19 | 4 | 20.25 |
| St. Louis Blues | 17 | 18 | 26 | 26 | 21.75 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 20 | 23 | 21 | 28 | 23 |
| Arizona Coyotes | 32 | 15 | 27 | 20 | 23.5 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 30 | 21 | 22 | 30 | 25.75 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 25 | 29 | 30 | 21 | 26.25 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 26 | 26 | 28 | 27 | 26.75 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 28.75 |
| San Jose Sharks | 24 | 31 | 32 | 31 | 29.5 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 31 | 32 | 31 | 32 | 31.5 |
The Flames come in at ninth overall
The Flames finished a lot higher than I expected in our overall rankings, and that’s primarily due to their centre depth and depth on the backend. With the trio of Elias Lindholm, Nazem Kadri, and Mikael Backlund down the middle the Flames possess a centre ice trio that many teams can’t match. In particular having Backlund, a Selke contender and 50-point centre on your third line is a big luxury that a lot of teams don’t have. Even if the Flames don’t have a truly elite centre on their team, their depth is very strong.
Secondly, on defence, the Flames are even more stacked. For me, their group on defence is one of the five best in the NHL—even without Oliver Kylington in the mix. With Kylington I’d likely rank them ever higher. Having two top-10 position groups really makes up for a weak group on the wings and gives the Flames a top-10 roster in our rankings.
The Hurricanes finish at the top
The Hurricanes are a force to be reckoned with and after a strong offseason that saw them get even better, they finished as our highest-ranked team here. They really don’t have any major weaknesses to speak of. Their group on defence is the strongest in the entire league with the addition of Dmitry Orlov and Tony DeAngelo.
As well on the wing, I have them ranked second league-wide. By adding Michael Bunting the Hurricanes have made a group that already contained the likes of Andrei Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis, Martin Necas and Teuvo Teravainen even deeper. Only the Devils graded higher on the wing
They also have a top-10 centre group with Sebastian Aho, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jordan Staal and up and comer Jack Drury. Lastly, having the veteran duo of Freddie Andersen and Anti Raanta in net ensures they rank near the top of the league between the pipes as well. This is a true juggernaut roster that is loaded from top to bottom.
The Blackhawks and Sharks battle at the bottom
Unsurprisingly the Blackhawks and Sharks go into the year with the worst overall rosters in the NHL. Even after adding generational talent Connor Bedard at the draft, the Blackhawks have a long way to go before they ice a respectable lineup. It came down to the wire between San Jose and Chicago but in the end, the Sharks solid veteran duo of Tomas Hertl and Logan Couture down the middle gave them the slight overall edge.
The Sharks were able to eke out of the basement when looking at centre depth across the league, while Bedard wasn’t enough to float a centre group in Chicago that is devoid of talent after #98. The Blackhawks were the only team to finish bottom two in every position.
Other notable mentions
- The Hurricanes, Devils, Avalanche, and Bruins were the only teams to finish top 10 in three different positions.
- No team finished top 10 in all four positions. The Hurricanes were the closest as they finished 11th for goaltending.
- The Hurricanes, Bruins, and Devils were the only teams to finish top five in multiple positions.
- At the other end the Blackhawks, Sharks, Canadiens and Ducks were the only teams to finish bottom 10 in all four positions.
- The Blackhawks and Canadiens were the only teams to finish bottom five in all four positions.
- No team finished first in multiple positions, but the Blackhawks did finish last in two positions (winger and goaltending)
Predicting the playoff picture
The consolidated rankings give the following playoffs:
Pacific: Flames, Oilers, Kings, Golden Knights (WC1)
Central: Avalanche, Stars, Wild, Jets (WC2)
Metro: Hurricanes, Devils, Rangers
Atlantic: Lightning, Bruins, Maple Leafs, Panthers (WC1), Senators (WC2)
We’ll see how close this turns out come season’s end!
Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire
