NHL power ratings: Avalanche attempt to hold off Hurricanes as they enter Week 25 of the 2025-26 season

SportsLine NHL analyst Scott Erskine breaks down his top 10 teams ahead of Week 25 of the 2025-26 season

Scott Erskine

Apr 7, 2026

7:02 pm ET

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11 min read

The Carolina Hurricanes are making a late charge for the Presidents' Trophy, as they've gone 7-3-0 over their last 10 games and are six points behind the Colorado Avalanche with less than two weeks remaining in the 2025-26 NHL season. However, it likely is too late for that objective to be reached.

Colorado leads the league with 110 points and has six games left on its regular-season schedule, while Carolina has just five contests remaining. The Avalanche actually can extinguish the Hurricanes' slim hopes Tuesday with a regulation victory over the St. Louis Blues and a regulation loss to the Boston Bruins by Carolina.

While still unlikely, the chance of the Hurricanes overtaking Colorado in the overall standings could have been eliminated had the Avalanche fared better at home in Week 24. The club began the week with an 8-6 setback against the league-worst Vancouver Canucks in which it rallied from a four-goal deficit before ultimately succumbing and ended it with a 3-2 loss to the Blues, who are five points back in the race for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

In between those defeats, Colorado extended its road winning streak to five games with a 2-0 triumph over the Dallas Stars, who are eight points behind the Avalanche in the Central Division. Colorado can clinch the division title - and the No. 1 seed in the West - with a win at St. Louis on Tuesday.

Only three teams were perfect in Week 24, as the Minnesota Wild won all three of their games while the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth went 2-0-0. Vegas and Utah both occupy a postseason berth as they enter Week 25, with the former sitting in third place in the Pacific Division and the latter holding the first wild-card spot in the West.

The Los Angeles Kings, who lead the Nashville Predators by one point for the second wild card, also had a good week as they earned seven of a possible eight points (3-0-1). But the Anaheim Ducks allowed the Edmonton Oilers to catch them for first place in the Pacific by losing all three of their contests while the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets damaged their postseason hopes by also going 0-3-0.

However, no team had a worse week than the Seattle Kraken, who suffered four regulation losses to fall to 3-11-2 over their last 16 games. The downward spiral has put Seattle eight points behind Los Angeles for the second wild-card spot in the West with six games remaining.

Each week during the season, I'll rank the league's top 10 teams based on both the previous week's performances and overall body of work in 2025-26. I'll also give brief synopsis for each club that explains why they're ranked where they are.

Let's dive into the power ratings entering Week 25 of the 2025-26 NHL season and highlight a few of the teams' notable accomplishments.

NHL Week 25 power ratings

1. Colorado Avalanche (1-2-0 in Week 24; 50-16-10 overall)

The Avalanche's subpar week can partly be attributed to the absence of Cale Makar, who missed all three games with an upper-body injury and is likely to be sidelined for at least a few more contests. Valeri Nichushkin (upper body) also was absent for last Sunday's loss to St. Louis but is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday. Scott Wedgewood was one of the few bright spots for Colorado in Week 24 as he made 17 saves against the Stars en route to his third shutout of the season. The 33-year-old netminder leads the NHL in both goals-against average (2.13) and save percentage (.918). Brent Burns also had a big week, recording a goal and an assist in both of the Avs' losses while playing in his 1,000th consecutive game last Saturday in Dallas. The 41-year-old defenseman joined Phil Kessel (1,064) as the only players in NHL history to accomplish that feat. Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals to increase his league-leading total to 51, which matched the career high he set in 2023-24, and trails Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Edmonton captain Connor McDavid (126 points apiece) by four points in the race for the Art Ross Trophy.

2. Carolina Hurricanes (3-1-0; 49-22-6)

Carolina swept a home-and-home series with Columbus and edged the Islanders before ending Week 24 on a down note with a 6-3 loss to the Senators in Ottawa. But the Hurricanes have a chance to celebrate on Tuesday as they will clinch the Metropolitan Division title by earning at least one point when they face the Bruins in their final regular-season home game. Logan Stankoven scored four goals and set up another last week while Andrei Svechnikov also collected five points (three goals, two assists) as he extended his streak to a season high-tying five games. Five other players racked up four points - inclu