Power Tankings: 7 Teams That Will Be In Play for No. 1 Pick at 2025 NHL Draft

Nothing beats the excitement that comes with the start of a new season in the NHL.

Everyone's hopes are high and dreams of winning the Stanley Cup run wild for fans everywhere.

But there are a few teams whose hopes are a bit dimmer than others and the more realistic hope is to come away with the No.

1 pick in the following year's draft.

We're not trying to dull anyone's buzz before a single game is played, we're just taking a realistic look at situations and have decided there are seven teams who might be better off keeping a close eye on James Hagens or Porter Martone .

Are these teams doomed? Of course not, hope springs eternal and there's nothing more you'd like than to throw this in our faces at the end of the year if your team makes the playoffs or doesn't wind up being bottom-of-the-barrel bad.

But when looking at the big picture and how these rosters stack up and the competition they'll be up against, it's foreboding for success.

We know you'll want to thank us for saying it or curse us out for being so blunt, so make sure to hit us up in the comments and tell us what you think.

The Anaheim Ducks have been one of the worst teams in the NHL each of the past two seasons.

They had the worst record in the league two seasons ago and were the third-worst last year.

The upside to that is they've been able to make some outstanding draft picks with Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke and Stian Solberg in the first round of the past two drafts.

However, the Ducks have been amassing young talent for a few years now, as evidenced by Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish and Pavel Mintyukov starring in the lineup and Cutter Gauthier ready to make his presence felt this season.

Anaheim is on the rise and it's going to be good in the coming years and it's going to improve this season...just not quite enough to get itself out of the running for the No.

1 pick.

What might get the Ducks out of the mix is that a couple other teams in the Pacific Division, such as San Jose and Calgary, will also struggle, which would make things a bit of a shemozzle there.

We're high on the Ducks and like what they have cooking, but we just don't think they're in position to take a leap just yet.

And if it results in them landing the No.

1 pick at long last, that will change their timeline very quickly.

As high as we are on the Anaheim Ducks, we're about as low on the Calgary Flames.

They have been losing talent for a few years now, and any of the moves they've made to stem the tide have not worked out.

Jonathan Huberdeau has struggled badly, Nazem Kadri has been steady but came in with high expectations, and too much has been asked of guys such as Blake Coleman, Mikael Backlund and MacKenzie Weegar to keep hope alive.

Watching the Flames trade Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey in the offseason to move on in goal to Dustin Wolf or Daniel Vladar was perhaps a necessary move, but one that added more questions to how things will go.

All isn't lost for Calgary with young rising star Connor Zary along with Yegor Sharangovich who they got from the Devils last season, but it's hard to have much optimism for them at all this season.

It's been a while since Calgary was down in the depths of the NHL standings and it's looking likely to wind up fighting for the top pick this season.

Considering the rough shape their prospect pool is in, landing some lottery luck might be the best outcome for the Flames this year.

Everyone outside of Chicago groaned loudly when the Blackhawks won the lottery two years ago to draft Connor Bedard, and last year those same fans were ready to rage when it came down to Chicago and San Jose for the top pick again.

And while Sharks supporters and a lot of other NHL fans were happy to see the Blackhawks not win the lottery again, all it does is keep them alive for the No.

1 pick again this year.

Even though the 'Hawks have done a lot to make the roster this season a bit more NHL-savvy and they're going to have an even better version of Bedard, it's still not a roster that's meant to threaten for the playoffs.

Chicago will be better than it was last season when it put up 52 points, but the Central Division is a slaughterhouse of competition this season with Nashville going all-in through free agency to join Dallas, Colorado and Winnipeg in the fight at the top and Utah joining the rest of the league in spending to compete with St.

Louis and Minnesota.

Someone (or two) there will take it on the chin, and Chicago seems likely to be on the receiving end again.

It's tough to talk straight about the spot the Columbus Blue Jackets are in hockey-wise given the nightmare they're living through, but they were looking at a difficult season on the ice no matter what.

The Jackets were already in search of more offense after they traded Patrik Laine to the Canadiens, and the death of Johnny Gaudreau only added to that need.

They're in need of Elvis Merzlikins to find his game again in goal and they very desperately need to see their many young players to take steps forward.

Potential stars Adam Fantilli, David Jiricek, Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson all have to make a leap this season, while guys such as Dmitri Voronkov, Kirill Marchenko and Yegor Chinakhov must continue to grow.

With a leader like Zach Werenski on the blue line, they're in good hands, but they need so much more to be competitive just with the rest of the Metropolitan Division.

After New Jersey and Washington made big splashes in the offseason while Pittsburgh and Philadelphia try to hold strong to keep up with the Rangers, Hurricanes and Islanders, it's going to be immensely difficult for the Jackets to make a breakthrough there.

If a year befallen by tragedy leads to a season of struggles and ends with the No.

1 pick, it'll be a strong start toward a much brighter future.

This was supposed to be a season of upward strides for the Montreal Canadiens, but the hard climb that lay ahead for them got a lot steeper thanks to the preseason being cruel.

Patrik Laine took a wicked hit to his knee and will miss substantial time .

Their first-round pick from 2023, defenseman David Reinbacher, will miss months with a lower-body injury of his own as well.

It's an ominous start to a season that hasn't even started yet.

Even though all is not lost, it's a harsh blow to the psyche for a young team looking to make headway in the Atlantic Division.

The Habs have been crushed by injuries the past two seasons, and they'll need good health from Cole Caufield and Kaiden Guhle to lift them this year.

Nick Suzuki has been a stellar player, but it would be a lot more fun to see what he can do with a steady and healthy lineup around him.

Juraj Slafkovsky was healthy last season and broke out in a big way and that's example enough of how well things can go when luck is on their side.

That said, if bad luck reigns throughout the rest of the season and leads to the Canadiens landing the No.

1 pick in the draft once again, it may be the exact thing that gets them to leap over a few teams in the division and very much into the playoff race.

The vibes are off with a few teams in the Atlantic Division, and the Ottawa Senators are not immune to it.

The pressure for the Senators to make the playoffs this year is through the roof.

And after not cracking through in the past couple of seasons, it's got a kind of house-of-cards feel to things in that if it starts to go really wrong, they could come crashing through the floor and deep into the draft lottery discussion.

Yes, they added Linus Ullmark to fix up their goaltending and strengthen their chances of the playoffs, but he's also an unrestricted free agent after this year; and if things go poorly, he could ask to be moved to a contender.

Ottawa also saw star players Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Thomas Chabot leave their preseason game against the Canadiens on Tuesday night for precautionary reasons and that's after just getting Joshua Norris back from shoulder surgery at long last.

It's foreboding to say the least, but if things turn south for the Sens, making a run at the No.

1 pick to right the ship and shake things up could be their best move.

The San Jose Sharks will be one of the hot teams in the NHL in the years to come.

And with Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith jumping into the action this season, we'll see why that's the case, but they're not going to fly out of the basement just yet.

Although the Sharks have some solid veterans on the roster now, it's a team that's still going to be very young with a lot of talent, but they're going to be very green.

Being green in the NHL means learning hard lessons and part of that comes from losing a lot of games and they'll definitely do that.

San Jose has been able to land some outstanding talent in the draft the past couple years with Smith and Quentin Musty in the 2023 draft and Celebrini and Sam Dickinson in 2024 among others.

However, if the Sharks lay low in the standings again and are in the running for the No.

1 pick again in 2025, landing it could put them right back into the playoff race instantly next season.

San Jose is in a similar position to Chicago in which the high-end talent it's accumulated will eventually pay off, it just takes a little time and a few other young complementary players to take the team out of the lottery and into the hunt.

Right now, the Sharks' aim should be to win a little more, but not too much and that should be easy enough to accomplish..

This article has been shared from the original article on bleacherreport, here is the link to the original article.